Is there any help for when you think the knife that you received from RMK is ugly? Any recourse? Can you get a do-over? Send it back for a refund?

I've been ordering one knife a year on my birthday for the past few years. In 2013 I ordered a #2-4 with a natural-shape stag handle, NS double forward-curved hilt, and duralumin butt cap. This is the knife I just received.



Honestly my heart sank when I received it. I think the handle is out of scale and *way* too thick/fat for the size of the blade, and that most of the character of the natural material (the bark) has been sanded away where it necks down. IMHO the handle should be roughly the same width as where the blade necks down at the ricasso, flare out slightly to the natural material, then back down to roughly the same width. In this case the width at the ricasso is ~0.6" vs. ~0.9" width of the handle behind the hilt. All of the images of #2-4 knives on their website show that the width of the ricasso and grip are roughly equal - with this knife the handle is 50% larger.

I thought that the fatter stag was the harder material to find - if anything a narrow section should be easier, right? They did use a more slender section on the #26 w/#25 grip I received last year.



I'm also less than happy with the lack of character of what little natural stag remains - I know that popcorn is hard to get, but a bit more bark would be nice.

So is there anything I can do with this knife, other than sell it at a loss? Can I send it back?

And how can I avoid this issue in the future? Of the four more knives that are in the pipeline, three have stag handles. (A #12-9 with #25 handle, a copper companion, and a #6-9 set) I was going to be placing this years' order in a couple of months, but now I'm not so sure I want to do so.

I don't mind the wait. If anything the wait adds to the enjoyment - I get five years of looking forward to getting the knife, and appreciate the knife more because I've been waiting for it for so long. What I don't like, though, is disappointment after five years.

So how can I avoid the disappointment? Can I ask for more bark and less sanding down to size on the orders that have already been placed, or am I just SOL?