Stinkers / Unattractive Ordered Knives?

Is there any help for when you think the knife that you received from RMK is ugly? Any recourse? Can you get a do-over? Send it back for a refund?

I've been ordering one knife a year on my birthday for the past few years. In 2013 I ordered a #2-4 with a natural-shape stag handle, NS double forward-curved hilt, and duralumin butt cap. This is the knife I just received.



Honestly my heart sank when I received it. I think the handle is out of scale and *way* too thick/fat for the size of the blade, and that most of the character of the natural material (the bark) has been sanded away where it necks down. IMHO the handle should be roughly the same width as where the blade necks down at the ricasso, flare out slightly to the natural material, then back down to roughly the same width. In this case the width at the ricasso is ~0.6" vs. ~0.9" width of the handle behind the hilt. All of the images of #2-4 knives on their website show that the width of the ricasso and grip are roughly equal - with this knife the handle is 50% larger.

I thought that the fatter stag was the harder material to find - if anything a narrow section should be easier, right? They did use a more slender section on the #26 w/#25 grip I received last year.



I'm also less than happy with the lack of character of what little natural stag remains - I know that popcorn is hard to get, but a bit more bark would be nice.

So is there anything I can do with this knife, other than sell it at a loss? Can I send it back?

And how can I avoid this issue in the future? Of the four more knives that are in the pipeline, three have stag handles. (A #12-9 with #25 handle, a copper companion, and a #6-9 set) I was going to be placing this years' order in a couple of months, but now I'm not so sure I want to do so.

I don't mind the wait. If anything the wait adds to the enjoyment - I get five years of looking forward to getting the knife, and appreciate the knife more because I've been waiting for it for so long. What I don't like, though, is disappointment after five years.

So how can I avoid the disappointment? Can I ask for more bark and less sanding down to size on the orders that have already been placed, or am I just SOL?

I see 1 option for the future - to negotiate with one of the dealers, pick up a piece of horn in advance, which is most suitable, and make an order.

While I do not agree with the idea of posting your complaint on here without contacting the shop first, I DO agree that your knife IS a real disappointment.

Not to stick my neck out too far here, Tat is right, this is not the place for a complaint upon the shop...that said....it looks to me that you got exactly what you ordered. The problem here appears that maybe you should have chosen a longer blade. The set up you ordered is not proportionate to the blade length, which is not the shops fault. When working with a smaller blade, you have to be careful of the options that you choose, or things happen. Here are 2 of mine...they come close to what has happened to you, however the selected options blend a little bit better....it's hard to work with such a small blade length.
If you do not like it, sell it....if you take a loss, chalk it up to the learning curve....
Also, if you had ordered the knife through a dealer, there may have been the possibility of a return. Many dealers will help their customers like that.
:-)Rocky

I posted the question here because I have no experience with the shop, and don’t even know if there is anything that they would do. Is there? Do they ever refund a knife, or make it over?

Rocky, I don’t know how you think I got what I ordered. Yes, the component parts are correct, but the proportions are off. I certainly didn’t ask for a fat handle. Every photo of a #2-4 on their website shows the grip behind the guard to be of similar thickness to the ricasso. In this instance it’s roughly 50% larger, which makes it disproportionate.

They clearly work with thinner pieces of stag, as shown by the #26 I received.

I’ll contact the shop if there is anything that they might be able to do, but don’t want to waste my or their time if there is nothing to be done.

Another option is to take it to the Blade Show.Pretty sure you
could sell it there if other options don't work out for you.

The "problem" with this order, in my opinion, was ordering a huge nickel silver double hilt...and forward curved to boot. The tiny 4" blade is too thin, small, lightweight, etc. to support such a large hilt. I will give you all of your original order money back if you would like to trade it on something I have in stock (or coming) a little less "butch"!
I would also offer the same swap if you wanted to custom order a Randall with material chosen from my "Stash".
Best, Capt. Chris

Excellent offer Cap. Well played.

Problem solved !!

AR-Trvir,
Sorry, I didn't mean my statement to be argumentative. It simply appears to me, that from the photos, you did get what you ordered. You are right about the size/proportion of the stag, however it goes, as stated to the remainder of the options specked...anyway, glad to have you on board(neighbor), and it looks like the Capt has you taken care of, as usual.
That would be a beautiful set up, if you had 2"-4" more blade.
you should join the club, and come to the 8am meeting on Saturday of BLADE you will find it quite interesting
:-)Rocky

That’s an awesome offer Cap. I am, however, going to contact the shop and see if they can offer any options before I make any decisions.

AR- You have a couple of very good options and starting with the shop is a good choice. The Randall's have been working with their customers for 80+ years. Some of them may have been customers 40-50 years. That says a lot in my book and I would predict many if not all here would agree. Good Luck. Choice 2 is very fair also!

Did it REALLY need to be titled Stinkers and Unattractive knives.... that's at least semi offensive. ...

James....it's an ugly knife....reminds me of that Seinfeld show, about the baby...it is kind of hard to look at....

:-)Rocky

Oh baby
Send it to Behring
Capt has a more than fair deal
Sharpi

Let’s start a stinker thread

Hmmmm... No call....

Now that's customer service! Sitting by the phone, waiting for his call.

No call necessary. I emailed, they responded via email to send it back with a letter identifying my concerns. They’ll either remake it or refund my money. I’ll send it out this weekend once I return from my current work-related travel.

What does that Dirty water guy know anyway?

I find it hard to believe that it even left the shop.

And what would you have us do everytime there's a piece of stag that doesn't exactly (w/o the customer sending his own CW in) tickle your fancy? Whether it doesn't "feel right to my hand", OR is "too knobby", OR "too smooth", OR "too large", OR "too smooth"?

Puuhhhlleeaassee

With an India Sambar stag embargo nigh on 20 YEARS, we cannot afford to be as choosey as we would like to be. If it hadn't been for GTR's business sense in 2008 when they temporarily lifted the embargo (and haven't since) and Gary over-ordering, RMK wouldn't even be able to supply stag anymore! We were actually in talks to develope a stag look a like substitute!

And as far as this particular knife; yes, the stag was a bit over-sized, that is why we shaped it to the commando shape stag to relieve a bit of the bulkiness, which by the way is not even an option anymore! And to top it off, we've already been contacted about purchasing this knife if we choose to re-make another, so it seems that beauty actually is in the eye of the beholder afterall!

We live in a "cry until you get what you want society " now... this apparently also includes hand made knives. Just kinda where we are.

It is in fact good to know that the shop proactively took steps to "help" the look of the knife out, for those who want to point fingers at the shop for putting such a knife out there. They filled a customers order, and then some.

It's been a known fact that ordering stag is a gamble, unless you provide your own. This is nothing new with Randall. It adds to the character and the process. Because. ..you know...they are hand made knives!Each having its own uniqueness. Which is proven by the fact that people already want the knife anyways.

I would have no trouble selling the knife in question..."BUT"...(It's been a week or so since I've used one)...this thread (and, therefore this discussion) would not even had taken place if the customer had simply contacted the shop, prior to bitching about it here!
Nuff' said, Capt. Chris

This ain't the only place it got bitched about at !!

Believe it or not, there is some guy out there that would want that knife just the way it is. Maybe not here on the forum but someone wants that knife because it is different.

Um, not me. I am not "that guy".

Um, me either, Tom.

Kudos to the shop - I returned the 'fat' #2, and they made me another one. I'm much happier with these proportions.

Great service!