Hey guys i wanted to do a review on my experience with Northernknives.com. They are a shop out of Alaska. I have no ties or affiliations with them and just wanted to give an honest review of my experience with them. when i was first looking into redoing my ZT561 i was looking up a lot of different knife shops. Everywhere i looked seemed to be very expensive for the work being done. I stumbled upon their site and ended up talking to a worker there named Ryan. Most places are very short with you and have no interest in dealing with you even if you are a paying customer. I was considering these guys along with a few others but since the company here lived and breathed knives they were more than happy to talk to me for 20+ minutes on the phone over knives in general, different kinds of regrinds, steels etc. Since they obviously loved what they do there and the prices were very reasonable i figured id give them a shot. Even though they are out of Alaska, the shipping was only $5.95 with tracking since my knife fits in the smallest USPS Flat Rate box and Alaska is included in the flat rate (i thought for sure that it was only flat rate for the lower 48 states). I shipped my knife out and in 3 days Ryan called me to tell me that he received it. I had a guy do the wave mod previously on the forums and the amount of steel taken off the spine was miserable. I completely lost the "zt" logo on it. Ryan asked me if he wanted me to have them either send in for a new blade which he highly recommended or have him ration what he could. Since i am interested currently in the Bowie regrind variations i told him to go ahead and ditch the old blade so we could just start fresh. He then called me to tell to say they shipped it to ZT for a new blade and in about 2 weeks he called again to say he received the new blade back from ZT (that is excellent customer service right there). He took the time when he got it back to use a marker to show me some different kinds of regrinds we could do. once i had the one i wanted i told him to go for it and grind away. i wanted a double edged bowie regrind but only the first half inch or so double edged (the part of the blade that is far enough in the handle) so i won't cut myself or my pants with it folded up. He did that and also did his version of the "wave mod" which was much cleaner than the last guy i used (about half the price the other guy charged as well with the "firefighter/military discount"). He then asked if i wanted the blade tumbled which i did want just to take the polished look off. i wanted a duller matte finish without it getting dark and thats exactly what i got. The next day they shipped it out USPS and called me to give me the tracking info. 3 days later i received my personalized ZT 561. It was custom built to my specs and much sharper then when i even bought the knife new! They also do acid etching along with a bunch of other services. I originally wanted acid etching as well but we opted out of it last minute thinking the knife would be a little too "busy" between the regrind, tumbling and wave mod. Overall i would rate my experience with them a 10 out of 10 and would recommend them to everyone. Its nice to see some businesses still treat their customers like you were spending thousands of dollars and take so much time out of their day to educate you and get you exactly what you're looking for. If anyone is on the fence about modding their knives, give these guys a call.
You can reach these guys on their website of northernknives.com or by phone 907-569-1800
I'm having a hard time posting the pics on here. if any member can message me and maybe i can email them the pics or even picture message them with my phone id appreciate it.
You can reach these guys on their website of northernknives.com or by phone 907-569-1800
I'm having a hard time posting the pics on here. if any member can message me and maybe i can email them the pics or even picture message them with my phone id appreciate it.
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