Nick, first I want to thank you for doing what you do, specifically in this video. There are correct ways to do things and there are incorrect ways to do things. There are those that say they agree with you, but their actions are quite the opposite of your recommendations. I want to start off by saying that even though you don't address any specific parties, and may have not had any in mind - I will. As some of you might know, a group within the community has taken it upon themselves to try and test manufacturer hardness claims for steels like M390. I think these guys are genuinely good folks with good intentions. There is LTK (luv them knives) channel, Kurt who works for a government contractor and has access to an hrc machine at work, and several others that document, etc. They've also amassed a following of excited fans. Folks that have a few hours of extra time can watch the series of LTK "rant" videos for reference to my response. I would also like to preface with the fact that NONE of these guys involved in testing, data entry, or shooting videos, ever contacted CollectorKnives or to my knowledge lionSteel prior to publishing their video. Any responses they reference are private conversations with a couple of my customers that were delivered to the team without my knowledge.
First off, until their 6/10/19 post which put focus on a series of lionSteel knives that I have produced in collaboration with the factory. They had many knives in the video, but really lambasted the two barlows of mine (Shuffler and Dom). The Shuffler owned by ltk, Kurt has tested a 1/2" spot to range from 48-58hrc (about 6 tests). The Dom looked a little less busy and tested twice right at 51hrc in the documentation. A customer notified me of the video being published and sent us into a frenzy. The factory, as part of quality control, tests @1.5% of all production blades and we had sent several variations to the premier heat treat company in the U.S. - Peter's Heat in PA. Matter of fact, we sent a full brother to the Shuffler in the video (first release clip blade with the old natural micarta slabs). Ours tested within factory specifications. So we went into full discovery mode having the factory take an assortment of blades to their regional ISO9001 lab for verification. Every barlow blade that myself and the factory EVER had tested - came back within factory specifications; which were set from the steel manufacturer's data sheet recommendation. So what it boiled down to is that we needed the exact knives that Kurt had tested to be independently verified and eventually sent back to the factory to figure out what happened.
So it took a couple of weeks, during which CollectorKnives suffered significant losses due to cancelled reservations and lost sales. Not to mention the reputation damage due to trolls and false information being disseminated on social media outlets. But on 6/29/19 Kurt set up the third party verification with the lead of the blade division at Peter's Heat and drove the 40 miles to verify his readings. He took the exact Dom (sheepfoot) from the datasheet that LTK has made very public at 51hrc. Peter's Heat tested the knife four times with Kurt present and each time got a 59.1hrc reading.
Now my thought is that since these guys were so adamant for the makers to just own up to the facts and admit shortcomings; they would produce an awkward, but genuine response to this invalidation of their data on at least one of the poster boy knives. Nothing yet. But, to this point, there have been two responses that I find interesting. Kurt seems to have deleted his instagram account. Which I completely understand. There were a lot of posts by him that might be hard to hunt down and delete one at a time. One that I wrote down regarding hrc testing was "Unless you are a full blown moron that eats paint chips, it is not a difficult (test) to perform". And my main concern is that he works for a government contractor and now any readings that combine him and that hrc machine, might cause his employer "headaches". So, he is probably making some decisions at this point, and I hope this does not cause any problems or social media retaliation. But for the LTK channel, their response was a 30 minute "GAW" video as a re-direct on "hrc is not everything", "burning the honed edge may make tang readings invalid" (even though those are the readings they based their video on), scratch tests, cut tests, etc. And a sales pitch for funding a garage hrc tester for Kurt. The frustrating thing is that he re-emphasized the Dom and Shuffler readings, continuing the narrative even with strong proof that their results can't be trusted. Kurt even took an untested Shuffler to Peter's, and it tested within factory specifications. But there is no mention of this anywhere in the video. LTK had said earlier he would "stand" on Kurt's results; but I'm hoping Kurt confirming they were wrong would alter the stance a bit. Not one mention of the testing result by a 36 year blade heat treat veteran working for the premier heat treat company in the U.S., that invalidates their result on one of the respective knives; and no test outside factory specifications on a Shuffler, Roundhead, or Dom.
My hope is that LTK is hard at work on a video discussing the shortcomings of the tests, validity of their results, and opening a dialogue of trusted approaches going forward; but I'm not holding my breath. And yesterday's video sure seemed like he was doubling down on flawed measures, rather than issuing apologies that he owes the businesses who this invalid data has harmed.