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Posted: 3/23/2026 2:46:06 PM EDT
| Bark river just announced they are done. Got caught using Chinese steel blanks in certain models apparently. |
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Originally Posted By Parke1: Good riddance. Stewart continues to do Stewart things. He's a snake. |
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Previous BRK fanatic here. Is this the second time Mike's done this (mislabeled steels), or am I misremembering it? Either way, sucks. Really appreciated the BRKs I do own. Luckily none of the Chineseums here either, but still makes me doubt basically all the ones I own. |
| I've been following the whole thing closely. I've been there, met everyone that works there and the owner. Participated in one of their "grind in" events. Worked with Jim on shaping handle material. This was back in 2024, and I knew then they were in deep trouble. There were a lot of signs for anyone who was paying attention. |
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Originally Posted By Flathead9: I've been following the whole thing closely. I've been there, met everyone that works there and the owner. Participated in one of their "grind in" events. Worked with Jim on shaping handle material. This was back in 2024, and I knew then they were in deep trouble. There were a lot of signs for anyone who was paying attention. Asking out of curiosity and not as a challenge: what kind of trouble were they in? And what were the signs you saw? |
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Originally Posted By bigfatOTMs: Asking out of curiosity and not as a challenge: what kind of trouble were they in? And what were the signs you saw? Lots of jacked up steel. A significant percentage of the blades they provided to people to makes knives with were screwed up in some way. Mine had a 2 inch crack in the blade that they somehow didn't notice before they gave it to me. How in the world did something like that make it through QC?? I obviously didn't use that blank, and had to pick from other fucked up blanks. It really didn't seem like they had much quality, ready to go steel on hand. Based on what we're learning now, I think I was right about that. Granted, the grind in brings chaos, but the shop wasn't clean, organized, or efficient. Everything had that "by the seat of your pants" feeling to it. I did some industrial engineering work very early in my career, with that experience it made me feel like everything was just "off". They overcharged me for the knife I made, in what I found to be a dishonest way, but I didn't argue because it was a "American family business" and I was trying to support them. Nobody that worked there could put down their cigarette long enough to focus on a task for 15 minutes. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of good people there. But none of it resembled what I would have called a well-managed manufacturing outfit. I don't mean to disparage them, I don't even hate them for lying to everyone, even though I probably should. I know this isn't an objective thing, but I just had a gut feeling the ship was sinking. There are probably a lot of other small things that lead to that perception that I can't remember right now. I was a bit of a fanboy too. I probably have $2,500 in their knives. My wife said when I got home it was like the saying "never meet your heroes" because I was just bummed for a day or two. |
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Originally Posted By ag04blast: Just another example in a long list of how to do everything you can to destroy your brand and your business. I don't think it started out that way. Yes, Mike Stewart has had a sordid history. I've only talked with him a couple of times and found him to be okay with no issues. I haven't purchased a Bark River's knife for a very long time and I even have one of Mike's limited production Evolution 1 (BRKT's version of the of the Blackjack Mamba). I have a few of their special run knives as well...all extremely good quality and great fit and finish. As a company whose been successful, it's easy to get lazy, apathetic, even sloppy, and start cutting corners. That shit catches up with you eventually and those that don't take drastic measures to self-correct simply go out of business. ROCK6 |
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" - Thomas Jefferson
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VA, USA
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Originally Posted By bigfatOTMs: Previous BRK fanatic here. Is this the second time Mike's done this (mislabeled steels), or am I misremembering it? Either way, sucks. Really appreciated the BRKs I do own. Luckily none of the Chineseums here either, but still makes me doubt basically all the ones I own. I have the same question. I was still collecting when it blew up on Blade Forums. A member there got suspicious and had the metallurgy tested. Big, big stink then and that was 6-7 years ago maybe? |
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives."-Abba Eban
"I like it both ways, but still mainly mouth it" -gonzo_beyondo
"I like it both ways, but still mainly mouth it" -gonzo_beyondo
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Originally Posted By JerzeyTransplant: I keep seeing this on FB posts but I don't know any of that backstory. I hear mention of blackjack knives and Marbles but again, don't know about it. I have only recently purchase a couple BRK knives and thankfully neither of them are on the list of Chinesium154 models. But like the rest of life, get caught in one lie and the seeds of doubt are sown in everything else you have touched. "...but you fuck one goat..." |
I love a good double entendre.
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I had a model 14, tracker and one more I forget the name of years ago and sold them for one reason or another . I ordered a custom kitsune through DLT trading right after my daughter was born….. she will be 5 soon and I still haven’t received that. I wanted to love the company because I liked the retro styles they had but the made it more and more impossible. The biggest issue I saw with Mike was no matter what happened to a knife it was the owners fault and no way it was a defect. |
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Originally Posted By Flathead9: I've been following the whole thing closely. I've been there, met everyone that works there and the owner. Participated in one of their "grind in" events. Worked with Jim on shaping handle material. This was back in 2024, and I knew then they were in deep trouble. There were a lot of signs for anyone who was paying attention. I had some Blackjacks made by Mike and the crew from the 1990's. The grinds weren't very evenon the AWAC, but the full convex on the Model 125 I had was fantastic. Mike and I are friends on FB, but I admittedly don't know him very well. I would never expect him to do this so I was a bit surprised. He did own up to it for what that's worth. Who were you on JerzeeDevil? I was "w6", same as here. I never went to a grind in though, but a few if my friends have. It's a shame LaBella died and the JD is down. |
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