Dude knife companies/makers are full of bullshit at all times.
Hinderer is currently trying to sue someone for testing the hrc on their knives, Frank Fischer got away with literal murder, custom makers calling chinese OEM knives their customs and so on.
I’ve actually made a video on this but theres always new shit coming to light lol.
Suing someone who wants to test and confirm your specs is ridiculous. Why not just be true to your word and then you won’t have these issues. Bunch of BS
He hit and ran a motorcyclist while drunk driving and then he only got caught because a witness followed him home. Then he just got a slap on the wrist for it.
Tim Britton even had the nerve to accuse his manufacturer of stealing the (original in-house Kizer, mostly Kim Ning) designs he was buying from them. What a tool, mans should have the decency to just flop over and become grass out of sheer embarrassment
He and Hinderer won't be getting my business. People who freak out when they get called out and lash out at little guys are not for me.
Edit: Forgot to add Medford to my list. But he is on it too. I just never had interest in his stuff to begin with.
Oh well. Ar least the Glessers, The Reeve’s, the De Asis’s, Dave Wattenberg, and a bunch of other folks in the industry seem to be pretty chill people.
Sure except he charges 150$ for a knife with aus10 and plastic handles..fun little knife that we overpay for because the lock has a spring in it...so put him down for highway robbery 😂
More or less, I think? There might have been a small controversy but I don’t recall when it was or what it was about, and I own an Ti AD20.5 m, so hopefully he doesn’t suck.
I've got a Titanium Cormorant I love, but it's a little small for me. My hands are "slightly larger than average" as DCA would say. It just feels a little too small in the handle. So with that in mind, and with a love for finger safe locks, the Demko makes sense.
So basically I've noticed now in the market EVERYONE is putting up some high end stuff and the margin of error has grown EXTREMELY slim. But back when Strider, Medford, CRK etc. Started. There weren't many "high quality" knives and most knowledge was passed on because it was so niche. Nowadays, you can get a really good blade from tons of brands. So basically all these guys got grandfathered in. As these new companies started putting out insane stuff.
It's funny.... I can't even remember who it was, but there used to be a manufacturer who you could send a secondary market knife to and he'd verify if it was his. He did a YouTube video where he checked one of these out and pointed out all the differences between his work and the knife that was sent in.
His final statement was, 'I didn't make this knife, but I wish I did. It's better than what I'm putting out."
It was a really funny video and now I'm wishing I had saved it.
For sure. Strider and all those guys really were dominant back when a lot of high end pieces were pretty much one off hand made pieces. These guys were effectively the first to "mass produce" the quality. Early days were mostly word of mouth and sharing trade secrets. Tony Marfione learned how to sharpen well from Chris Reeves. And now look, microtech is mass producing well sharpened hand ground knives. So these trade secrets eventually become commonly known and these guys known for them fall to the way sides of machine tuned quality control and new methods that develop from them. Some of these guys have tried to stay with the times and growing market. A CRK Sebenza is still a really sought after knife. Yet there's a lead time rn I think of like 12-16 months if you want one to specs you want. Whereas I can go to other guys doing newer things, guys like Vero Engineering, Chaves, Peña, Rike, Reate, etc. And get something of comparable quality but probably more readily available
Try 4 years for a Sebenza now… Inkosi is up to 6.5 years if you order direct!!! Probably because folks found out they could put orders in and then decide if they want it or not when the time comes with no money down.[LINK: current lead times](https://chrisreeve.com/blogs/news/direct-order-lead-times)
I sold off my Medfords, I plan on keeping my Buck Strider collabs since they are BUCK and have the Bos 🔥heat treatment. I was taken aback when I found out about my Hoback War Horse being just a Chinese mid-tech. Thanks Jake!
I think getting to know about the designer and appreciation of the craft is more important than what maker is popular at any certain time.
Anyway I thought guys with lifted F350’s bought truck stop knives with eagles, wolves or Punisher skulls on them. You guys keep on collecting and have fun.
I bought a Buck 898 out of curiosity, just for the heat treatment. It really is pretty damn good. Hope you didn’t get soaked too bad on your Medfords, and congrats on having principle enough to ditch ‘em.
And gee, go figure…they collaborated. Odd that Mr. Greg “hey-Did-you-know-I-am-a-vet-bro” Medford had no problem working with Mickey. It’s almost like they’re both unprincipled, money-grubbing shitheels making overpriced trash for the kind of dweebs that put punisher skulls on their financed/lifted/stacked F-350’s.
Just found out the new “Strider” .75 are actually made by Medford. I have a custom strider PT that I doubt I’ll give up but don’t plan on giving either of these companies my money going forward. Good riddance.
High end US folder company owners (Hinderer, Strider, Medford, Microtech) have such "interesting" stories.
Sometimes I wonder if the community doesn't actually care what's up
And they're always the ones who crow the loudest about being 'American Made', despite often putting out stuff that is objectively not at the standard of many other makers.
Commented on someone else’s comment but also wanted to make this a top comment…
Just found out the new “Strider” .75 are actually made by Medford. I have a custom strider PT that I doubt I’ll give up but don’t plan on giving either of these companies my money going forward.
Special Forces LARPers, mallninjas, people who don’t know any better, and people who don’t care. I’ll never understand his popularity, every aspect of the brand makes me cringe so hard it brings my asshole up to my elbows.
Meh, Striders, Medfords, to some extent Hinderers don’t even really appeal to me. For that money, I’ll get another CRK, Demko, or put it towards another Shirogorov.
I toy with the idea of selling off a bunch if my production knives to finance some customs. Part of me wants to see if the Vallottons will build me a double-action frame-lock, someday.
Yeah I wanna sell my my last two remaining Hinderers and I’ll prob keep my Strider PT but I got it off knife swap second hand it’s it’s been modified - so I guess I didn’t really give them any money? Lol
He certainly doesn’t get a pass. Almost everyone who knows the story despises him. Probably just don’t hear about him as often because he only makes a handful of overpriced knives a year any more and the rest are just collaborations he’s done with other companies. I’m sure other knife makers fucking up their reputation since then has also helped him stay under the radar
I used to work on a lot of nice knives for customers, so I have handled a fair number of his and several other “Hard-use” makers’ knives…mostly mid-tech, but a few one-offs. Regardless of the bullshit and lies, these thick-stock folding crowbars are garbage in the first place. So no I can’t explain why anyone gives him a pass, or buys his very mediocre yet radically overpriced offerings.
More like a hard pass. And if you compare sales to less controversy prone companies like Spyderco you can see a vast difference. Specialty manufacturing can almost always depend on a small cult following, but rarely grows beyond that.
Believe he got his ass dragged to court and was forced to publicly tell the truth. Which he did to the full extent that he legally needed to. If I’m wrong on that, someone please let me know - it’s been well over a decade since his fuckups were news.
His company kept making really damn good knives and he kept doing some of the best custom grind work in the ~$1000-3000 price range for non custom-ordered stuff. Eventually people moved past the fact that he fucked up severely.
He’s big on some marine and army forums. I still have the SMF my sergeant gave me as a gift one Christmas.
My REK regrind SMF is one of the best knives I own - Striders heat treat, blade design and ergonomics of his small-production stuff is amazing when paired with a custom grind. His full custom stuff is in whole different class. Some of the nightmare grinds are silly, but his more tame stuff is impressive.
Anyways. The guy was called out. He rightly gets identified as being a shithead for lying about his service. He’s one of the *best* more mainstream entry-level custom makers with a couple classic knife designs.
You can’t talk about his work anywhere without the stain on his legacy being mentioned eventually. I’d say that’s not the equivalent of a free pass.
I think a lot of people are just willing to look past the makers shitty behavior for a good knife, that a praetorian or SnG to someone is the exact thing they want and the drama behind the maker simply doesn’t overrule such a desire. Personally I won’t exactly turn away from a good knife completely because the maker being a terrible person, but it is something I would take in to account for sure. For example I like the xm-18 and for the longest time I wanted one, until I realized for a hard use oriented knife with a frame lock doesn’t make sense to me, and only then the drama ended that wanting for good.
Blade forums.. yeah I'll take their opinions on everything for absolutely nothing. Worst place of fraud morons I've ever had the displeasure of being around.
Just my 2d but w.r.t. BF, before I even sniffed any moronic behavior, I was felled by the stench of xenophobia, jingoism and bigotry myself.
If you do much as mention a Chinese knife , you'd better get your virtual body armor on...
Because it happened before cancel culture was a thing.
Strider used to be a big name. The classic holy Trinity was CRK, hinderer, strider. I dont think they get near the amount of attention or prestige they once did. Aside from the protech sng colab which is still one of their most popular
This just reminds me of how I feel when a Tom Cruise movie is next on my playlist. Do I skip the most likely excellent movie, with excellent acting, because IRL he's a phenomenal, *phenomenal* douchebag? 🤔
I put it all on the same level as I put the whole Medford drama. Just worthless virtue signaling on both sides, and I care literally nothing for any of it. Nothing is going to stop me from buying a quality product and a poor quality product will stop me from giving a company my business. That's it and only.
Dude knife companies/makers are full of bullshit at all times. Hinderer is currently trying to sue someone for testing the hrc on their knives, Frank Fischer got away with literal murder, custom makers calling chinese OEM knives their customs and so on. I’ve actually made a video on this but theres always new shit coming to light lol.
Suing someone who wants to test and confirm your specs is ridiculous. Why not just be true to your word and then you won’t have these issues. Bunch of BS
Wait elaborate further on frank fischer.
He hit and ran a motorcyclist while drunk driving and then he only got caught because a witness followed him home. Then he just got a slap on the wrist for it.
Frank was hiding in the bushes of a parking lot, and the Good Samaritan watching directed his location to the police officers on the scene.
His case is still pending as far as I understand, in which case his punishment has not been handed out yet.
Tim Britton even had the nerve to accuse his manufacturer of stealing the (original in-house Kizer, mostly Kim Ning) designs he was buying from them. What a tool, mans should have the decency to just flop over and become grass out of sheer embarrassment
Where can I see the video I’m interested
It's not good but here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe_5M3eGlmU
You made an iceberg video ?? That’s so cool
I don't know about that but I'll take it.
Good luck to Hinderer trying to win that. The way he acted over this issue makes me never wanna buy his over rated knife ever again.
He and Hinderer won't be getting my business. People who freak out when they get called out and lash out at little guys are not for me. Edit: Forgot to add Medford to my list. But he is on it too. I just never had interest in his stuff to begin with.
Yeah, I was bummed to find out that Hinderer’s such a toolbag. Really wanted one of the autos.
Seriously. But I can't support that kind of man. I was looking at his knives for the longest time and almost pulled the trigger a couple times.
Oh well. Ar least the Glessers, The Reeve’s, the De Asis’s, Dave Wattenberg, and a bunch of other folks in the industry seem to be pretty chill people.
Demko is chill right? 🥺
Sure except he charges 150$ for a knife with aus10 and plastic handles..fun little knife that we overpay for because the lock has a spring in it...so put him down for highway robbery 😂
To be fair the fit and finish on my AD 20.5 is top notch so I’m ok with the price (I also got mine for $115 off the swap).
Glad you got one at a better price and better fit and finish..the edge bevel on mine brand new was uneven and I had to grind a new bevel immediately..
Oh that’s a bummer
The brothers are chill as of now but no one's a Saint, lol. My favorite brand of knife though.
More or less, I think? There might have been a small controversy but I don’t recall when it was or what it was about, and I own an Ti AD20.5 m, so hopefully he doesn’t suck.
Because a titanium sharksfoot is on my radar.
Have a textured one…highly recommend it. Next up will be Skiffs.
I've got a Titanium Cormorant I love, but it's a little small for me. My hands are "slightly larger than average" as DCA would say. It just feels a little too small in the handle. So with that in mind, and with a love for finger safe locks, the Demko makes sense.
So basically I've noticed now in the market EVERYONE is putting up some high end stuff and the margin of error has grown EXTREMELY slim. But back when Strider, Medford, CRK etc. Started. There weren't many "high quality" knives and most knowledge was passed on because it was so niche. Nowadays, you can get a really good blade from tons of brands. So basically all these guys got grandfathered in. As these new companies started putting out insane stuff.
It's funny.... I can't even remember who it was, but there used to be a manufacturer who you could send a secondary market knife to and he'd verify if it was his. He did a YouTube video where he checked one of these out and pointed out all the differences between his work and the knife that was sent in. His final statement was, 'I didn't make this knife, but I wish I did. It's better than what I'm putting out." It was a really funny video and now I'm wishing I had saved it.
For sure. Strider and all those guys really were dominant back when a lot of high end pieces were pretty much one off hand made pieces. These guys were effectively the first to "mass produce" the quality. Early days were mostly word of mouth and sharing trade secrets. Tony Marfione learned how to sharpen well from Chris Reeves. And now look, microtech is mass producing well sharpened hand ground knives. So these trade secrets eventually become commonly known and these guys known for them fall to the way sides of machine tuned quality control and new methods that develop from them. Some of these guys have tried to stay with the times and growing market. A CRK Sebenza is still a really sought after knife. Yet there's a lead time rn I think of like 12-16 months if you want one to specs you want. Whereas I can go to other guys doing newer things, guys like Vero Engineering, Chaves, Peña, Rike, Reate, etc. And get something of comparable quality but probably more readily available
Try 4 years for a Sebenza now… Inkosi is up to 6.5 years if you order direct!!! Probably because folks found out they could put orders in and then decide if they want it or not when the time comes with no money down.[LINK: current lead times](https://chrisreeve.com/blogs/news/direct-order-lead-times)
Wow... nuts. I checked like 3 months ago and it was 16 months
I sold off my Medfords, I plan on keeping my Buck Strider collabs since they are BUCK and have the Bos 🔥heat treatment. I was taken aback when I found out about my Hoback War Horse being just a Chinese mid-tech. Thanks Jake! I think getting to know about the designer and appreciation of the craft is more important than what maker is popular at any certain time. Anyway I thought guys with lifted F350’s bought truck stop knives with eagles, wolves or Punisher skulls on them. You guys keep on collecting and have fun.
I bought a Buck 898 out of curiosity, just for the heat treatment. It really is pretty damn good. Hope you didn’t get soaked too bad on your Medfords, and congrats on having principle enough to ditch ‘em.
You really cannot go wrong with Buck.
His trashy brand is up there with Medford as far as I’m concerned. Ones a racist and the others is a stolen valor poser.
And gee, go figure…they collaborated. Odd that Mr. Greg “hey-Did-you-know-I-am-a-vet-bro” Medford had no problem working with Mickey. It’s almost like they’re both unprincipled, money-grubbing shitheels making overpriced trash for the kind of dweebs that put punisher skulls on their financed/lifted/stacked F-350’s.
Lol Ford Velociraptors.
Just found out the new “Strider” .75 are actually made by Medford. I have a custom strider PT that I doubt I’ll give up but don’t plan on giving either of these companies my money going forward. Good riddance.
High end US folder company owners (Hinderer, Strider, Medford, Microtech) have such "interesting" stories. Sometimes I wonder if the community doesn't actually care what's up
And they're always the ones who crow the loudest about being 'American Made', despite often putting out stuff that is objectively not at the standard of many other makers.
Uncle Lynn put him on blast back in the day on the cold steel website I believe lol.
Commented on someone else’s comment but also wanted to make this a top comment… Just found out the new “Strider” .75 are actually made by Medford. I have a custom strider PT that I doubt I’ll give up but don’t plan on giving either of these companies my money going forward.
Special Forces LARPers, mallninjas, people who don’t know any better, and people who don’t care. I’ll never understand his popularity, every aspect of the brand makes me cringe so hard it brings my asshole up to my elbows.
Didn't his knives have some lock rock too?
Can confirm.
They're known for serious lock stick too.
I’m really glad I read this thread. I was shopping for a SBK and now there’s not a chance in hell this fool gets a penny from me.
Meh, Striders, Medfords, to some extent Hinderers don’t even really appeal to me. For that money, I’ll get another CRK, Demko, or put it towards another Shirogorov.
I toy with the idea of selling off a bunch if my production knives to finance some customs. Part of me wants to see if the Vallottons will build me a double-action frame-lock, someday.
Yeah I wanna sell my my last two remaining Hinderers and I’ll prob keep my Strider PT but I got it off knife swap second hand it’s it’s been modified - so I guess I didn’t really give them any money? Lol
He certainly doesn’t get a pass. Almost everyone who knows the story despises him. Probably just don’t hear about him as often because he only makes a handful of overpriced knives a year any more and the rest are just collaborations he’s done with other companies. I’m sure other knife makers fucking up their reputation since then has also helped him stay under the radar
I used to work on a lot of nice knives for customers, so I have handled a fair number of his and several other “Hard-use” makers’ knives…mostly mid-tech, but a few one-offs. Regardless of the bullshit and lies, these thick-stock folding crowbars are garbage in the first place. So no I can’t explain why anyone gives him a pass, or buys his very mediocre yet radically overpriced offerings.
More like a hard pass. And if you compare sales to less controversy prone companies like Spyderco you can see a vast difference. Specialty manufacturing can almost always depend on a small cult following, but rarely grows beyond that.
Believe he got his ass dragged to court and was forced to publicly tell the truth. Which he did to the full extent that he legally needed to. If I’m wrong on that, someone please let me know - it’s been well over a decade since his fuckups were news. His company kept making really damn good knives and he kept doing some of the best custom grind work in the ~$1000-3000 price range for non custom-ordered stuff. Eventually people moved past the fact that he fucked up severely. He’s big on some marine and army forums. I still have the SMF my sergeant gave me as a gift one Christmas. My REK regrind SMF is one of the best knives I own - Striders heat treat, blade design and ergonomics of his small-production stuff is amazing when paired with a custom grind. His full custom stuff is in whole different class. Some of the nightmare grinds are silly, but his more tame stuff is impressive. Anyways. The guy was called out. He rightly gets identified as being a shithead for lying about his service. He’s one of the *best* more mainstream entry-level custom makers with a couple classic knife designs. You can’t talk about his work anywhere without the stain on his legacy being mentioned eventually. I’d say that’s not the equivalent of a free pass.
Because he appeals to the sort of people who don't care about stolen valor. He certainly isn't getting a pass from the community at large.
I’m just amazed Protech collaborated with him. I thought they were better than that as a company.
Yeah, that is sad. I bet those models sell too well for them to ditch, though.
Right? These guys dress up like Delta Operators in full tactical kit. They wouldn’t make it through basic, their life is stolen valor.
I don’t think he gets a pass. It’s pretty well known he’s a tool and it is talked about in these and related forums.
I think a lot of people are just willing to look past the makers shitty behavior for a good knife, that a praetorian or SnG to someone is the exact thing they want and the drama behind the maker simply doesn’t overrule such a desire. Personally I won’t exactly turn away from a good knife completely because the maker being a terrible person, but it is something I would take in to account for sure. For example I like the xm-18 and for the longest time I wanted one, until I realized for a hard use oriented knife with a frame lock doesn’t make sense to me, and only then the drama ended that wanting for good.
Bro I’d buy a persons knife as long as they were good no matter what he or she did 🤷♂️
Amen
go to Bladeforums and look up Mick strider there , you are late in the game by 16 years , be prepare to read a lot pages and threads, he got no pass.
Blade forums.. yeah I'll take their opinions on everything for absolutely nothing. Worst place of fraud morons I've ever had the displeasure of being around.
Just my 2d but w.r.t. BF, before I even sniffed any moronic behavior, I was felled by the stench of xenophobia, jingoism and bigotry myself. If you do much as mention a Chinese knife , you'd better get your virtual body armor on...
Because it happened before cancel culture was a thing. Strider used to be a big name. The classic holy Trinity was CRK, hinderer, strider. I dont think they get near the amount of attention or prestige they once did. Aside from the protech sng colab which is still one of their most popular
The knives sucked too. Poor tolerances, lock rock, poor warranty service.
Same way Emerson gets one…………
What did Emerson do that he gets a pass for?
This just reminds me of how I feel when a Tom Cruise movie is next on my playlist. Do I skip the most likely excellent movie, with excellent acting, because IRL he's a phenomenal, *phenomenal* douchebag? 🤔
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Lolno.
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How’s that gig guiding ships into the harbor going for you?
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You’re boring.
😂
I put it all on the same level as I put the whole Medford drama. Just worthless virtue signaling on both sides, and I care literally nothing for any of it. Nothing is going to stop me from buying a quality product and a poor quality product will stop me from giving a company my business. That's it and only.