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What do you do when disappointed?

I guess over the years many of you have heard me talk of shows and dealers. Recently I had the opportunity to have a great discussion with one of our sponsors and a man that has been one of my personal dealer for many years. Let me ramble a little if you don't mind.

Most folks come to knife collecting as either a pattern collector or a brand collector. I came as a brand collector, Case. Hooked on the original Case Classics and wharncliff blades from day one. At that time there were a handful of dealers that were on the internet and carried those pieces. Out of that handful, there were four that were willing to answer the phone or emails from a young lady just learning about knives and Case in particular. One I will never forget. His name was Dwight and he was in TX. It would be easy to say we purchased around 200 knives from him over the span of about 5 years. I would see something on his site, send him an email asking about it and he never failed to respond with a bit of history about the knife.

When I switched to GEC as a focus of my collection, I found a dealer that even stepped that up a notch. He would call me or send an email with something he had bought that fit into my collection. A proto or a less than 10 production numbered knife. Something he certainly did not have to do to sell the knife at a premium and quickly, at that time there were only 3 or 4 GEC dealers and they were rarely found on ebay.

As my collecting taste changed, he remained steady. Calling or emailing me anytime a knife he thought I might be interested in come through his door. To this day, before I search ebay for a knife to give away here, I have a good look at the offerings from our sponsors. It is my way remaining loyal to those dealers that have served me so well.

Just so that you do not believe all my knives were hand picked and perfect, I have returned many. Another reason to believe in the dealers I went to and those here as sponsors is how they handle that! THAT is what I wanted to talk about this morning.

We as collectors are notoriously picky, and we have a right to be. I once told a manufacture that a user will buy 2 knives a year from you where a collector will average 2 knives a month, if you offer the right blend of style and quality. Most of us will remain loyal to a manufacture for years if not decades. That means we are the bread and butter of most brands. It also means that we are the most disappointed if the knife is not the perfect gem we waited by the mailbox for. We all know that pain.

For the purpose of this discussion, we are going to say there is a bit of blade wobble. Not bad and it locks up tight but you can feel it and you know it is there. I know what I do first, but what do YOU do?

Tags: What, disappointed?, do, when, you

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FeaturedPermalink Reply by Jeremy B. Buchanan on April 5, 2016 at 20:02

One of my latest knife purchases was, a Condor Bushlore. It is made in EL Salvador. It was recommended by several bushcraft friends of mine. I wanted a knife that would do well in the woods, but didn't cost me a lot, where I would be afraid to use it. I was able to find it on sale, so I ended up getting it for $30. When I first go the knife, it looked pretty decent overall. After using and handling it for while, I decided the wood scales did not match the blade tang very well and the brasspins were sticking out, making it not very comfortable in my hand. Last weekend, I decided to do a little work on the scales, instead of sending it back, where I bought it from. Just as I was doing the final sanding, I noticed one of the scales starting to separate from the tang. At this point, I decided to contact the company I bought it from. Because I had sanded on it, they were unwilling to help me out. Now, I have to try to repair the scales myself. I used some epoxy and glued it down, as best I could. We'll see if it holds up to the test of time. Overall, I am still not too upset with the knife, for the price. I will report back, if I have anymore problems.

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Permalink Reply by Derek Wells on April 7, 2016 at 20:00

The first modern traditional out of the USA to Australia - a Queen Knife - was a real disappointment This was one of those classic cases of posting a photo of a pristine knife on the web for sale and sending a totally different knife and the dealers reaction just floored me. He wasn't interested and just fobbed it off on Queen.

"The quality issues are probably best directed to the manufacturer."

Then he went on to try and tell me the defects in the knife where common place for both Queen & GEC.

"99% of my customers purchase the Queen line for a working knife. They buy them for the overall quality of the knife and blade steel. The chipping you noted around the pins can be found on the GEC line as well"

I will let you make your own conclusion - do you think this is everyday quality from Queen and GEC?

And the other side ...

My take on it was this dealer had decided "here's a small time novice on the other side of the world I'll just fob him off with BS and maybe he'll go away"

Fortunately Queen took a different view and sent me a make-good knife (I cannot fault Queen's handling of this situation)

This is a dealer highly praised elsewhere here - but my experience with him was the total opposite.

The up shot is I will never deal with him again and tell anyone who cares to listen not to go near him.

For a while I was very reluctant to buy out of the States but fortunately I found a dealer who is genuine about customer service in Bob at oldhundred