Woodlore knife on ebay.

[Stew]

Someone's going to have a real surprise when it get's wet!

Not too big of one. I've sent an e-mail to inform him/her of the possible problems with this knife. I've also directed them to this and one of the other threads.

One of the previous bidders has shown her face on her after I e-mailed her, so at least some good has come from it!

 

[dave watson]

Hi all
Slightly embarrassed of Cheam here. I bid on this knife with mild irritation to see a 'borrowed' image from a web site, and didn't really consider why there was no sheath. Normally I deal in antique knives and am much more careful.
Thanks to Stewart for his email. You live and learn - always listen to that nagging thought!

 

[Martyn]

Sorry, I should have phrased the question better.

Do you think £77 is a good price for just the blade of the knife?

I'm pretty certain it's one of the first batch.

OK, I'll play devils advocate. To end up with a nice knife, you'd either have to be skilled enough to replace it yourself, or get a pro (or at least a skilled amature) to do it. If you wanted a nice stabalised wood, or a piece of micarta, that would not come cheap by itself. Then there is labour costs, removal of the original handle without damaging the knife, stabalising the new wood, carving and shaping it and re-attaching it. The loveless bolts used to attach it are not easy to find and would probably need to be imported. If the objective was to get a knife with a quality, serviceable handle, and you outsourced it to someone experienced and skilled doing such, the job would probably cost you £50 all in. Add £50 to £77, then add £40 for a new sheath and the total would be £167 - for a knife you cant sell with ease.

Lastly, where would you get it done in the UK - BritishBlades would be the obvious place to look for someone, but I can promise you, requests for such a job would be deleted instantly and the requester would get banned.

Good deal? Only if you are an experienced knifemaker yourself, if you have the materials and equipment in your workshop to do it yourself and the skill to make a quality job of it, then it just boils down to your time, you may save £20 or £30 - if you have to out-source the work, assuming you can find someone willing to do it, then no, break even at best.

 

[Adi007]

You mean just to rescale it? Dunno, since an extra £15 would have got a whole knife with micarta handles and a sheath. I'd say no, but that's just me.

Sorry, I should have phrased the question better.

Do you think £77 is a good price for just the blade of the knife?

I'm pretty certain it's one of the first batch.

 

[Adi007]

Absolutely Martyn ... That one is going to be hard to sell after being rescaled!

I have to say that in this case I think it's the seller who's come out on top ... unless they really did sell the sheath and then the knife at a loss because they are like that ... :shock:

Dunno ... but I wouldn't touch it ...

 

[Stew]

So that's a no then Martyn.


I think the worst part is that it's morally wrong, but just curious what people thought of the worth of it.

 

[bothyman]

Lastly, where would you get it done in the UK - BritishBlades would be the obvious place to look for someone, but I can promise you, requests for such a job would be deleted instantly and the requester would get banned.

Sorry about this and I presume I will get flamed for this.
But why would the person who has bought this knife be banned from BritishBlades?? he or she has bought the knife fair and square in an Auction at what he or she considers a fair price, but you are now saying this person will be alienated if they ask for any advice .
Why is this ?? what is the truth behind this knife does anyone know ??
maybe the sale was all above board and the seller is free to sell it, if he/she is not, surely the Company will be asking for payment of the knife.
So what is the problem ??

 

[Martyn]

Sorry about this and I presume I will get flamed for this.
But why would the person who has bought this knife be banned from BritishBlades?? he or she has bought the knife fair and square in an Auction at what he or she considers a fair price, but you are now saying this person will be alienated if they ask for any advice .
Why is this ?? what is the truth behind this knife does anyone know ??
maybe the sale was all above board and the seller is free to sell it, if he/she is not, surely the Company will be asking for payment of the knife.
So what is the problem ??

It's a fair question.

Firstly, it IS one of the recalled blades, it has to be as the knife went on sale before any of the pukka replacements had been issued. Therefore it should have been returned, because the original buyer will have had a replacement sent to them free of charge.

If the ebay buyer bought the knife in good faith, not knowing it was one of the recalled blades, then why would they be asking for a re-handling service?

If they bought it knowing, or suspecting it was one of the recalled blades and want a new handle for it, then they are party to abusing the trust WS have placed in their customers - even defrauding them, they are just as guilty as the seller. ALL the first batch have been recalled, and ALL of them have or will be replaced free of charge. NONE of them should be in circulation legitimately.

As the owner of BB, I feel I have a responsibility not to facilitate the re-circulation of fraudulently obtained & faulty knives. If someone does feel they have a legitimate case, ie, they are the original owner, have decided to keep the original and returned the replacement (though why anyone would do that is beyond me), then the thing to do would be to contact me or one of the BB staff first, to avoid getting deleted/banned. If we know about it, and it is legitimate, then fine. Otherwise..... sionara!

 

[familne]

Unfortunately, I also bid on this knife but retracted when it dawned on me that this was probably one of the first batch. I asked the seller if this was the case and he said 'not to my knowledge' - the reason he was selling was that he already had one of the woodlore knives. Alarm bells !!! He would surely know if it was a first batch knife as they have all been recalled! I got the same answer about the sheath - he sold it to a friend. This is obviously the problem with e-bay, you can ask all the questions but you don't necessarily get all the answers. The quality of the photo's he sent were also very poor.

That'll teach me not to be so impetuous!

 

[bothyman]

Thanks for the reply , Martyn.

It does sound rather strange, there is nothing worse than abusing someone's trust.

Hopefully the buyer knows what he has bought and the full story behind it, and hopefully he will not find out the knife has a problem the hard way.

And the Seller was free to sell it, but as you say it does seem rather an odd thing to do,

Sorry but your first post did sound rather hard on the poor maybe unsuspecting buyer,

 

[Martyn]

Sorry but your first post did sound rather hard on the poor maybe unsuspecting buyer,

If the buyer is genuinely innocent and they get landed with a handle that isn't sealed properly, probably the first thing I'd do is contact Wilkinson Sword - they may be able to help. But if all else fails and the buyer honestly purchased it in good faith and feel they've been lumbered, then by contacting me or one of the BB staff, we could probably put them in touch with someone who could re-handle the blade. But the end cost is likely to be similar to purchasing a new knife. We're certainly not going to come down on an innocent buyer who has been duped by a less-than scrupulous ebay seller. But caveat emptor, if one of these is going cheap, without a sheath, ask a LOT of questions, you could be buying a headache.

I'm not sure how many of the first batch were sold, maybe only a few dozen, maybe less than that. The issue may be a small one. Similarly, I'm not sure what WS policy is, on knives that dont get returned. The individual may well get invoiced.

I think it's likely to be a small issue and in a few months will probably be a none-issue.

 

[Rob]

If they do invoice the seller (if they are uncrupulous) , I would love to know how much for.

Hopefully just enough to make them a loss after their fees

 

[Martyn]

If it were me, and they didn't return the original, I'd bill em the total cost of a new knife. That's probably why I'm not in business tho. :-D

 

[Rob]

yup - I would bill them the full monty too :-D

Customers would soon kick up if I took the Michael, so I would rear up if they did.

 

[Adi007]

Problem though is that if WS have accepted that they can be returned uninsured (ie, they've supplied a postage paid jiffy that's not insured) then I think it would be hard for them to bill the sender as they've determined the method they want used ...

However, if they supplied a pre-paid RMSD jiffy, it's a different matter!

If it were me, and they didn't return the original, I'd bill em the total cost of a new knife. That's probably why I'm not in business tho. :-D