But some of the viciousness thrown my way was uncalled for,...and yet I can deal with it.
Maybe Scott is acting out of some "defensive" posture,.....that somehow my Randall wasn't up to some mythical standard expected of a Randall. Perhaps he felt insulted,....and that was not my intent.
If you can "deal with it" then please do so & stick to your topic.
Using terms like "defensive posture" & "mythical standard" followed by
Perhaps he felt insulted,....and that was not my intent.
I could argue that either way.
Most of this.......tirade, is about what you think Randall knives lack in business practices in customization, your opinion how they should make the sportsman models a 1/32 thinner so they would be more useful, a thicker blade by 1/32 or 1/16 makes slicing cucumbers & carrots harder?
your original topic - Any In The Closet Randall Knife Customizers Here?
You are asking for the shop to do the customizing by telling them what you think would make their product better. It's Randall made not Randall custom made to order.
By all means customize away to make your knife look & function as you see fit. Feel free to post them & show us. But lets leave it at that please.
I see your point, and at least it's fair minded and reasonable.
However, the shop DOES have options available, and choices in SS or 01 carbon on some models, differing grinds on a few, "old style" blade shape or new style on some, or with added thumb grooves or initials on most models I think. There is even an "Examples Customizations" page,......so obviously there are a lot of hands on option changes available already. Offering these options and having many others available can be considered "Randall custom made to order" to a limited extant.
This does make it in some ways a custom shop, otherwise NO options would be offered for any model. I just can't understand the rational with not being able to accommodate a customer by leaving the thumb grooves off or leaving off a false top edge,.....things like that.
RMK is not "my" business for sure, but I do think I have a valid point in bringing some of this up. They have such a huge and loyal customer base, but the hairs went up on my arms reading some of the comments made recently.
There were way too many years running my own jewelry repair service at a local mall, where I was a one man shop acting as an independent contractor on site. (50-50 split)
I'm not ashamed to say I did fine jewelry repair and diamond setting. If on the rare occasion "I" wasn't happy with the way a job came out,...I did it over,...on me. My standard for that judgement was "if" I was doing the job
for myself,....would I be satisfied with it?
As you probably know by know, I AM a bit fussy and know what I want. The customer "got" as good as I would get for myself. They were important to my future. They talked to their friends and relatives,...I got more work. A "win-win" on a small scale.
The customer was always satisfied or I made changes occasionally to make it so. Sometime I think it's part of my DNA by now. I did this work for over 35 years after starting as an apprentice at age 15 in High School working part time, which is why I truly don't understand the thinking there. At least you have a better understanding why I have trouble with all this.
I always had 80 to 150 jobs in front of me at the mall location, which was great because if I didn't have work in front of me, I wasn't getting paid. Strictly a 50/50 split on work produced, after deducting part costs. The mall was open 7 days a week most of the year, and I regularly worked 70 hour 7 day weeks. Two weeks before Christmas there were 100+ hours put in during those weeks, and I crashed and slept through Christmas most years. The ONLY days I took off all year were the 3 days a year the Mall closed. (Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving).
I only mention all of this because I took my customer's interests and expectations to heart. My customer's mattered,..... what they wanted mattered. If I had to say "no" on any part of a job, I had a valid reason for saying it and offered it. "The head to set your shape of diamond is not available in that style, but I can get it for you in
this style". That's understandable and logical, and I'd have no problem with those types of reasons yo say no. But I literally cringe when I hear such lack of appreciation for so many loyal customers willing to wait in that 5 year backlog. We can't
leave off usually added in finger grooves or false spine edges on this model,.......but hey,......wait 5 years anyway and get something that's not totally what you wanted? That concept (to leave out one or more of the usually added in model features) is so foreign to the way I thought of my own customers I can't even begin to express how it makes me feel,....but it starts at feeling bad for other fans of these knives I don't even know personally.
I'm probably getting too old now to have any of this affect me directly. I doubt I could wait 5 years or more for a new factory ordered knife,.....I'd be over 64 when it arrived. Thru a dealer might be possible with an earlier spot, but maybe just talking about such things openly will help some of you younger fans of Randall Made Knives.
What harm is there to actually say "yes" to these kinds of requests that require LESS time and work to make a happier customer? The workman already have a list of "options" for that particular knife order. Is it really going to double the time to make the knife if they leave off a few steps normally done? (remember the 5 year expanding to 10 year wait that was presented if they didn't say "NO" to requests like this) Just not going to happen,.....because if it did there are much more serious issues causing it than saying no to leaving off usual steps.
It used to be said that "the customer is always right", and I sort of always worked and felt that way. (God that sounds pretty old fashioned,....now that I'm writing it) BUT there were
plenty of times the customer was just dead wrong too! Time to bite your tongue and look at the bigger picture.
It didn't matter in the long term, because I NEEDED my customers to keep coming back! They paid my bills,...they mattered to my own well being and future income. But when you have a huge backup maybe it doesn't count anymore.
Several times a day I got up from my workbench to wait on a customer during busy times. I wasn't paid for this, as the repair work produced was my only compensation. Sometimes I even made a pricy sale for the store,.....and nothing came my way money wise. That was OK though, I made plenty with the hours I put in.
I realized the "customer" wouldn't know WHY I wasn't helping them if I continued to work at the bench, if all the other clerks were tied up. I felt they would be frustrated that someone "working" at the store was ignoring them,.....as they didn't know our arrangement. So I waited on them it, and it did affect my own pay to a small extent. Time away from my bench was time I wasn't earning. But the customer mattered, and we (I) needed them back again and again.
Anyway,....I'm going to let this go,.....as "someone" has already sent me a PM warning of sorts. So much for open dialogue.
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