I think that there might be a middle ground here somewhere. As for washers and screws, does each knife have all its own sized stuff, or are there at least some standard sizes? Even if a washer kit had different thicknesses and came in "small knife" "big knife" versions, anyone interested should have enough to make things work, provided there is not 100 different sizes. There would be some compromise of course, but the buyer would know that its not the ideal situation. For screws, same thing. Instead of dealing with one screw for one part, maybe just getting a kit could work. If it was "bag-o-bits" 50$ then I'd buy one. Even if I didn't have need for all the parts, I bet I could find someone who did. Crowd source the spare parts? Heck, maybe just bag up the shop sweepings? For scales and the like, could you sell cosmetic blems, or the like? Factory second parts? Most people who are trying to fix a knife just want it to work, so a pristine new scale might not be needed. I get that some stuff is just not fixable, and things like blades I can understand not happening. I mean yes benchmade does it, and they have not turned over nearly the same number of models as spyderco as far as I can tell. With CQI parts, would it be possible to have the equivalent of an 80% part? One that would work with all of the versions, but would need to be modified to fit? I'm not sure how big some of the CQI changes are, I'm guessing the FRN ones are the largest and least common, where as CNC knives would be easier to update.
Would it be possible to set up "authorized" repair centers in places like europe, canada and australia? That could also reduce the need for long shipping, and no risk of legal knives having to cross unfriendly borders. It would not be a perfect solution, but maybe the importers can help with that.