I know, also, there are two sides to every story, and don't doubt there is bad blood with some past customers. Sometimes things escalate, both people get highly irritated, and a resolution is hard to come by after things escalate. I don't know what to suggest in such cases, if the bad blood is painted all over.
My experience with Larry Chew happened to be an excellent collaborative, and I'll relate it here.
I ordered two of Larry's folders through Les Robertson. I've bought knives through Les for many years... he's a solid, trustworthy dealer who's been in business for a long time... for good reason.
Once we had the basic order stuff in place, and because I'd worked with Les in the past, I transitioned to working the details with Larry directly.
I chose to supply the ironwood and the damascus for the bolsters (for the folders pictured below), not because of business ethics, just because I prefer to work it this way, especially with wood so that I know what I'm getting. (For a maker, this takes much of the working capital out of the equation for a custom knife, and my "deposit" is a fraction of the knife's end price.)
Larry is a great guy to talk with, and a great guy to work with, very interesting in working the boundaries of the envelope for one of his regular designs. He will also make "one off" knife designs if you are prepared to pay up for the extra time and work that entails vs. a standard model (which is understandable, and per our discussions, seemed reasonable if you just have to have a customized handle shape.
Frame locks are all the rage these days, and they have their place, but for a dressed up knife like these, it makes for a very lopsided, asymmetrical design. Larry was quick to offer making them as liner locks, the Cujo with a beefy (0.100" if I remember) liner, which really was the right answer for ironwood and damascus... "cool" stuff on both sides. Slam dunk for me.
While he was making these folders, he had some difficulties with the lease property where his shop was located, difficulties that were not in his control, difficulties related to some "undesireable" activities going on in an adjacent portion of the lease hold by other tennants (and no, it wasn't because he wasn't paying the rent), and as a result of the hassles, Larry has now built a shop on his own property to make knives. During the weird and I'm certain very frustrating events with the lease, Larry stayed in contact with me routinely, as he did during the design phase, with in-progress photos when my materials were received, and with photos at several points along the way as he laid out the scales on the wood, at the half-way point on construction, etc. In the long run, he's better off with a shop in his back yard... it was just an unexpected work load to get the new shop built. Larry indicated that these two folders were the last to be finished in his old shop.
I took delivery of these about a month ago, and couldn't be happier. There is something about selecting the materials for "your" knife that makes them very unlikely to be sold or traded... they have a "keeper" quality that makes me want to do customized knives much more often. (I've gotten pretty tired of all the black G10 and basic carbon fiber, and am REALLY sick of quick/dirty bead blast finishes)
Fit and finish on the knives Larry delivered are excellent, the flipping action is WAY smooth, among the very top in industry given his innovative use of roller bearings, the housing of which is machined into the bolsters, and overall these are really excellent knives with a couple custom details that really make them shine.
The Cujo XL is in Ironwood, 4.25" S90V, and Chad Nichols "Kalipso" damascus bolsters (sourced from TX Knifemaker's Supply)
The Flipster is in Ironwood, 3.5" S30V, Thomas ladder damascus bolsters.
Both have Larry's cool laser cut clips with his family name in Chinese, and the clip standoff is Ironwood, as are the back spacers.
If Larry didn't use bearings in the pivot, I'm not sure we could've gotten away with using ironwood for the backspacer, as it will shrink and swell a bit with humidity/temperature even though it's very stable compared with other woods, which would foul up a regular flipper that did not use bearings.
I'm very pleased, and intend to order a D/A flipper in similar materials in the new year.
Note the ironwood standoffs for the cool pocket clips, and the ironwood backspacers:
Note the cool laser cutout logo in the clips: