A late weekly update is better then not at all, right?  Hope so!

Other then cleaning up from the show last weekend, not a whole lot occurred beyond GEC’s announcement of the upcoming Beagle / Coyote releases coming later this spring.  The pre-booking page is set up to let you place an early order and the activity has been good considering we’re a long way out on these two.  Apparently GEC wants to get a good feel for what the handle preferences are going to be to balance their production.

We should see the 47 Harvester’s coming in next week followed by the 47 Vipers later in the month.  I don’t have a lot of the Hawkbill’s coming in as last time around that blade wasn’t a real hot commodity for me.  The Vipers however are a different story.

The biggest issue of the week is the need for me to issue a mea culpa.  I tend not to read the discussion boards for various reasons, but it was (thankfully) brought to my attention that quality issues were brought up regarding the Queen 69 Blue Bone with MOP shields.

Understand right now, I thank Doug for sending me the link to his post with the pix of his knife and already knew a return was coming back.  We talked on the phone and there’s no hard feelings, displeasure etc.,  I believe on either of our parts.  That’s the way it should be.  I encouraged Doug to contact Queen to share his displeasure which I believe he has done.  Sincerely appreciate his approach to the issue and willingness to let me resolve it with him.

After reading the comments to his post, it became apparent to me that I have more culpability regarding sending those knives out then Queen.  Let me explain.

Going back a number of years I’ve had the good fortune to develop what I feel is a great working relationship with ‘upper management’ at Queen.  A good part of that relationship was built on my upfront, sometimes in your face bluntness about everything from billing methods, quality and a lot of stuff that’s none of my business.  In return, while my delivery was rarely in a sugar coated tone, my honesty was appreciated.  Rather then jumping on a forum and simply complaining about issues I may have had, I went to the source in the hope of affecting change.  While I don’t have any real influence, it’s nice to be heard out.

As a result of this relationship, from time to time I’ve been afforded the opportunity to occasionally get my hands on some unique items.  They have little doubt my feedback is going to be honest and straightforward. The recent release of CPM154 knives (including the Blue Barlow’s) are one such item.  As with a number of similar projects, these weren’t knives that went into production (a couple of the blade configurations only consisted of 2 or three knives) and might best be classified as true prototypes.

In other words, …‘let’s put it together and see what it looks like’.  Perfectly matching panels, poor etching and so on are are secondary to what the overall project looks like.  I’ve actually ended up with a few really cool collectibles such as different tang stamps from blade to blade, incorrect shields and the like.  These were never meant to go into production and I give Queen credit for not being afraid to try something different and let a few people look at it or try it out.

The error I made was not clarifying exactly what these recent Barlow’s were.  They were as I said above, basically prototype knives that weren’t marked or described by me as such.  Now in my defense, the cracked MOP shield on the returned knife was something I didn’t see when I got the knife back until I looked at it under a magnifying glass.  There was indeed a hairline crack across the shield and I can easily see how that would be missed under normal scrutiny.

My knife sales have been outstanding at the recent shows and these are the types of knives that have really drawn the interest of people anxious to try out something different.  I understand the bulk of my online collector sales are to individuals in search of perfection, the folks I’m encountering at the shows are more interested in the knife itself.  Case in point was a knife maker (making his own damascus) selling most of his knives in the $1000+ category who purchased one of the Trestle Pine Buddy’s from me.  I had set it aside as the blade wasn’t perfectly aligned between the liners (not touching).  When I pointed this out to him and explained it wasn’t perfect he grinned and asked me if that was seriously an issue to most people.

The point is, I think if you can physically show someone a knife and have the opportunity to discuss the knife and it’s properties, the cosmetic aspects become less important to the actual function.   You also get the chance to talk about the knife and its development.   I’ve said many times before there’s nothing more difficult then buying a knife online and I think you all agree.  It does make it a lot easier if the ‘description’ of what you’re buying is complete.

Queen didn’t let an inferior product go out the door.  Neither of us are selling seconds nor am I trying to pull anything over on anyone.  The error was 100% on my part for not clearly stating exactly what these knives were.  As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions but I’m gonna keep trying!!!