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I was really into Bark River for a few years. Seeing how unorganized everything is becomes a little discouraging. If you want a specific knife (unusual handle material, something special with the grind) then you need to make that known. The problem is, who the fuck do you tell? I've been told on different occasions to tell different people; Mike Stewart on the forums, some other Bark River employee on the forum, a certain dealer, etc. I asked Mike for a specific handle material once and when the model run was released, I asked the dealer if they had gotten it, and they said they hadn't seen it. This was seriously 3-4 years ago. One month ago, I got an email from the dealer letting me know that my pre-ordered knife was in. I deleted the email because I'm over that shit. A couple days later, I went to look at it on their website out of curiosity and it was gone. Someone bought the knife from the "pre-order" section of the website where it specifically says not to buy knives that weren't ordered by you.
On top of the terrible supply chain management, Mike and the hardcore fanboys on knifeforums are all kind of dicks. Mike seems to be a "my way of the highway" kind of guy. He's arrogant, and if you say anything negative or raise a question on the forums, he or some other admin will delete the post. He's always right and you're always wrong.
I like many of their designs. All of the knives I've had felt great in the hand. There are so many handle options. It's pretty cool. I also really like ESEE knives. I'm not here to be an ESEE shill, but it's hard for me to use and abuse a $200 Bark River that I'm afraid won't get warrantied if I fuck it up while I have a $50 ESEE that I also like that I know will get warrantied if I fucking shoot it with a gun.
