Bark River Screw Pommel Disappointment?

L

lzhryan

Joined
Aug 15, 2022
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I was a proud owner of a Bark River Quartermaster.
It was an almost perfect all rounder (sexy looking) knife up until I read that many people have been disappointed by the screw pommel construction which loosened with use.

I understand the whole wrong tool for the wrong job thing about batoning with knives
but it bummed me out to find 2 separate Youtube videos where they both have the same issue with the pommel loosening
plus it seemed that the screws gave way much earlier in the knife's 'usage lifetime'

BR Quartermaster EDC pommel issue:

BR Quartermaster ORIGINAL pommel issue

Was planning to use the QM as my survival knife, like a thinner Fallkniven S1, but at this point Im afraid it might fail on me.

Anyone experienced the same with BR screw pommels? i.e: with the Boone series, Teddys, etc...?

Should I even be concerned about the screw pommels?
(oh boy dont want to hear about the potential stress riser breakages from 90deg tangs either)
 
At Bark River prices, I wouldn't expect the pommel screw to come loose.
I don't know what Bark River would say about batoning with this knife, but I wouldn't personally.
Still, if you did baton with it, I wouldn't expect the screw to come loose.
I'd expect the bigger issue to be cracking or breaking the tang.

"Bark River Knives" are not "Bark River Price" quality.
 
Mike Stewart is a decades-long scammer. Bark River has a known and proven history of mis-representing the steel used in their blades, as well as poor-to-non-existent warranty, and absurdly high failure rates and quality issues with their knives.

There is nothing to be proud of with regards to owning a BRK. You are supporting a douchebag criminal.
 
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The US military learned to pin or peen down their pommels early in WWII. The French relearned it in the 90's. Now Bark River will learn it and probably dismiss it knowing Stewart. Most screwed down pommels will show looseness after a while, especially if no thread locker is used. The funny thing is that his pommel design started out better than most, and he still messed it up -

.
 
tltt said:
The US military learned to pin or peen down their pommels early in WWII. The French relearned it in the 90's. Now Bark River will learn it and probably dismiss it knowing Stewart. Most screwed down pommels will show looseness after a while, especially if no thread locker is used. The funny thing is that his pommel design started out better than most, and he still messed it up -

.
Click to expand...
At least this seems like an easy fix. Pull a few of the rings off, put cap back on with threadlocker. Or am I missing something?
 
I have a couple Marbles knives (Campcraft and Fieldcraft) with stacked leather handles and aluminum pommels with screws, made when Mike Stewart was there and have had no problems with the screws loosening. I doubt his Bark River knives with similar construction woud be any different.
 
Alberta Ed said:
I have a couple Marbles knives (Campcraft and Fieldcraft) with stacked leather handles and aluminum pommels with screws, made when Mike Stewart was there and have had no problems with the screws loosening. I doubt his Bark River knives with similar construction woud be any different.
Click to expand...
I'm no bark river fan, but it seems that there were just too many rings stacked on when being assembled.
 
Alberta Ed said:
I have a couple Marbles knives (Campcraft and Fieldcraft) with stacked leather handles and aluminum pommels with screws, made when Mike Stewart was there and have had no problems with the screws loosening. I doubt his Bark River knives with similar construction woud be any different.
Click to expand...


That's because they're not.


I don't really have the energy today to play the whole Bark River "hate" game, but will share this...

The clown in the second video above couldn't stand the rough/unfinished look of the pommel design on the Barky Q. So, he went looking for a problem and found it. If I remember correctly, there was a vid that pre-dated the one above where he was mentioning his dislike of the aesthetics of the pommel. (*or something to that effect) I have no doubt that he started screwing-around with it, in the hopes of cleaning it up a bit, and created the above problem.

I have several Barky Q's, with two in particular that I have beaten-on pretty hard...with ZERO issues. They are, without a doubt, one of the most robust hidden-tang designs that I have ever used...



 
unwisefool said:
At least this seems like an easy fix. Pull a few of the rings off, put cap back on with threadlocker. Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

It should be, shorten everything up a bit, epoxy, and thread lock it down, and everything should be good, but I bet it doesn't get fixed easily. He's odd about these types of things. This will probably end up like the old Blackjack A/F handle problems, where a simple fix could make everything right, but he won't do it.

For those that don't know, back when Blackjack made the Applegate / Fairbairn, they had a problem with the handles not fitting right, they had a huge gap at the front. Instead of fixing it, Stewart just added a rubber o ring as a spacer and called it good. Then there was the problem always cracking at the lanyard hole, etc....
 
unwisefool said:
At least this seems like an easy fix. Pull a few of the rings off, put cap back on with threadlocker. Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing(!) that the leather stack should be compressed in a jig during final assembly of the pommel - that way the groove in the pommel can still mate with the flat end of the tang, and shrinkage won't be a problem for a long time. IIRC Kabar did this when pinning the pommel (there's a decades old factory film on YT where they show this).
 
TC said:
I'm guessing(!) that the leather stack should be compressed in a jig during final assembly of the pommel - that way the groove in the pommel can still mate with the flat end of the tang, and shrinkage won't be a problem for a long time. IIRC Kabar did this when pinning the pommel (there's a decades old factory film on YT where they show this).
Click to expand...
I hate shrinkage
 
TC said:
I'm guessing(!) that the leather stack should be compressed in a jig during final assembly of the pommel - that way the groove in the pommel can still mate with the flat end of the tang, and shrinkage won't be a problem for a long time. IIRC Kabar did this when pinning the pommel (there's a decades old factory film on YT where they show this).
Click to expand...


As I understand it, you'd be absolutely correct...whether leather, Micarta, or wood. (*I believe the Buck 100 Series is done in the same fashion, before being pinned)

The whole assembly is compressed and the nut applied (*pneumatically or mechanically) with a certain amount of torque. From what I can tell, because of either the speed or torque of the bit (*or both), the nut is even "boogered" a bit in the process. The natural tendency of the materials to want to expand back into shape locks the nut into place.



*As I posted above, I reckon that guy went looking for a problem and found one.
 
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Alone said:
As I understand it, you'd be absolutely correct...whether leather, Micarta, or wood. (*I believe the Buck 100 Series is done in the same fashion, before being pinned)

The whole assembly is compressed and the nut applied (*pneumatically or mechanically) with a certain amount of torque. From what I can tell, because of either the speed or torque of the bit (*or both), the nut is even "boogered" a bit in the process. The natural tendency of the materials to want to expand back into shape locks the nut into place.



*As I posted above, I reckon that guy went looking for a problem and found one.
Click to expand...

Hey, now that you mention it, it could well have been a Buck factory film where they showed the technique. The handle assembly is compressed by the tiniest amount to allow the pin to pass through, and then everything is right and tight.

Bingo! Found it (process starts at 0:38). And it wasn't even "decades old"...😭

 
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