I myself never bought any Bark River knives. I handled about half a dozen in the earlier days of the forum. I found them rather heavy and and the handles a bit boxy for my liking. They looked great, but I didn't find they felt as good as they looked.
There was brief talk of Mike Steward (BRKT) doing the BCUK forum knife before Spyderco came along, but there was concern that he would just take all design input and we would not get the knife we wanted back. Lots of stories over the years of burned edges, mixed up steel, questions in heat treat, a guilty plea for bank fraud, and I heard there was an $80k law suit by a supplier, presumably over unpaid bills...the list could go on. Someone with good contacts in the US knife industry told us back in 2008 that Mike had been swindling people for decades. He proved incredibly resilient!
They had quite a niche market. Between the volume they made, the materials (usually used...A2, wood, micarta) and the style. There were other makers doing similar work, but not in the quantity that you could buy them over here. They also figured out early how to work forums.
I had the chance to talk to Mike on the phone when Bark River were about to release the NorthStar knife, billed as THE super duper bushcraft knife and their first aimed at that market. I had handled a prototype that had been sent to British Blades and described its shortcomings for bushcraft. Mike did a bit of chest thumping about having hunted on X number of continents. Not very ready to listen that hunting and bushcraft were not exactly the same. The knife kind of flopped after release....which I have to admit was rather satisfying.
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