• The rules for The Exchange can be found here. Please read and follow them. Stop using Paypal Friends & Family and follow our best practices to prevent getting ripped off or having a bad deal.

Bad Steven Ketchen <spketch> MIA: Overbooked? Off the grid? Lost his phone? What's up?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Pete check with the Sheriff before you send the knife... a lot of law enforcement agencies frown on or outright disallow anyone from accepting gifts. I know how you feel and it is a heartfelt gesture but law enforcement is very sensitive to public perception. a heartfelt act of gratitude on your part
If somehow was discovered by the public could be misconstrued. All law enforcement agencies are very wary of any public scrutiny that may be twisted out of perspective and twist the facts. So ask the Sheriff if it's ok. Other than that I think it is an excellent idea.. good on ya!-
 
IMG_0915.JPG IMG_0886.JPG IMG_1039.JPG IMG_1089.JPG IMG_2412.JPG IMG_2281.JPG Holding out hope for you E Ernest Wohleb
Ron getting his stuff back is an excellent sign for you and the others still waiting.
The quality of his work is outstanding.......one of the things that really got to me during this thread.
He was also an outstanding guy........another thing that got to me.
I recommended him more times than I could count......that one hurts the most.
Here are a couple pics of some of the work he did for me. Thought you might like to see it.
Joe
 
palonej said:
View attachment 781139 View attachment 781140 View attachment 781141 View attachment 781142 View attachment 781143 View attachment 781144 Holding out hope for you E Ernest Wohleb
Ron getting his stuff back is an excellent sign for you and the others still waiting.
The quality of his work is outstanding.......one of the things that really got to me during this thread.
He was also an outstanding guy........another thing that got to me.
I recommended him more times than I could count......that one hurts the most.
Here are a couple pics of some of the work he did for me. Thought you might like to see it.
Joe
Click to expand...
Brother your killing me...Steve has a god given talent... those are really some outstanding looking blades.
I still really hope he gets it back together.......hey Steve smarten up and I'll send some bussiness your way, no prepaid orders though.

Still hoping I get my baby back all dressed up... we'll see.
 
PeteyTwoPointOne said:
Kelama...at this point, I'm thinking about paying forward the Chaparral that @Hackenslash gifted me by sending it along to the Det. I'm thinking about enclosing a card saying thanks from BladeForums members...if that's not kosher @RevDevil or @bhyde , et. al. let me know please, thank you.

I've already emailed the Detective and his Chief expressing my personal thanks. I TOLD :rolleyes: the Chief to bump the Det's pay grade, give him a promotion, and be sure to leave extra donuts for him in the squad room. All my forwardness probably succeeding in doing was likely getting him tanked lower than whale poop on the Chief's s*#t list. :p
Click to expand...

I agree that this is a noble gesture, but in every department I know of--heck in every law enforcement agency I've encountered--there is at least an implied (and usually a written) policy that an officer is not to personally benefit from the use of his office. No free or discount meals, tickets, gifts, etc. And there are very good reasons underlying those policies. Now I am not saying that this type of thing never happens because it most certainly does, but the last thing you would want is for the officer to get in trouble for accepting your gift.

If you really want to do it, call the chief and ask him if it is ok before you do it. He may tell you that you cannot. Of course, you could always make a donation to the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of the Police and that would be ok. Just my .02. Me, personally, if I was the detective, there is absolutely no way I could accept it. If Ketchen found out, he could claim impropriety on the part of the officer and that the officer was motivated to harass him in exchange for the knife, even though we all know that is not the case. Believe me, there are lots of ways it could go sideways.
 
palonej said:
View attachment 781139 View attachment 781140 View attachment 781141 View attachment 781142 View attachment 781143 View attachment 781144 Holding out hope for you E Ernest Wohleb
Ron getting his stuff back is an excellent sign for you and the others still waiting.
The quality of his work is outstanding.......one of the things that really got to me during this thread.
He was also an outstanding guy........another thing that got to me.
I recommended him more times than I could count......that one hurts the most.
Here are a couple pics of some of the work he did for me. Thought you might like to see it.
Joe
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, those are knives he's done for you in the past, not ones that he has recently returned to you, correct?
 
on_the_edge said:
I agree that this is a noble gesture, but in every department I know of--heck in every law enforcement agency I've encountered--there is at least an implied (and usually a written) policy that an officer is not to personally benefit from the use of his office. No free or discount meals, tickets, gifts, etc. And there are very good reasons underlying those policies. Now I am not saying that this type of thing never happens because it most certainly does, but the last thing you would want is for the officer to get in trouble for accepting your gift.

If you really want to do it, call the chief and ask him if it is ok before you do it. He may tell you that you cannot. Of course, you could always make a donation to the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of the Police and that would be ok. Just my .02. Me, personally, if I was the detective, there is absolutely no way I could accept it. If Ketchen found out, he could claim impropriety on the part of the officer and that the officer was motivated to harass him in exchange for the knife, even though we all know that is not the case. Believe me, there are lots of ways it could go sideways.
Click to expand...

Yup...that's one of the things I love about BF...I feel like I can think out loud and get lots of good advice from everyone without any judgment or agenda. I don't do anything <almost anything, at least> without trying to think it thru from all sides and then pool my family/friends' wisdom especially when venturing into uncharted territory like this has been for me.

Right now, based largely on @bhyde 's , Chris's, et. al. advice, I'm thinking of a GAW within the BF member base itself...I'll take ideas on how to make it fun and as inclusive as possible.

I've restricted my thanks to a couple emails to the Detective & his Chief as mentioned earlier-- and I believe that's where I'll leave it. Thanks for the advice! :)

Now that I've settled on the GAW for now...let's keep the thread OPEN & ROLLING until EVERYONE who has outstanding jobs with sketchenscales gets satisfaction <like me>.

So, no more focus on me please, thank you. My account's settled.

I'd say the fact that my trio was returned in a <somewhat> unfinished state is a good sign that maybe he's burning the midnight oil trying to get everyone caught up...at least that's the vibe I'm sending up north.

BTW, yesterday <it's after midnight in TN now> I paid Ketchen via PayPal G&S the $410 we originally contracted for the custom handles last year. Payment was made, for the second time, on Oct. 14, 2017 @ 8:26 CST.
 
Last edited:
braillediver said:
Wow- Ever wonder how and why these problems continue.............

It took the cops 2 visits for 1 person to be made whole.
Click to expand...

I understand your position.

But it is a fact we still don't know why Ketchen went AWOL. It could have been a legit reason. I kinda doubt it, but there's a possibility.

We believe that he had never ran afoul of the law before this incident-- not even a traffic citation.

His reputation and body of work was abosolute gold before these incidents.

He's also got a young family.

This is the profile of someone who deserves a shot at redemption.

His actions pissed off everyone with skin in the game-- not the least of which being me & Ernest.

He has begun making amends, albeit with the Sword of Damocles hanging above him-- but it's a start.

Spark, the mods, and us members can't ban him from life, and I'm not a mindreader but I'd say he's gonna keep pimpin knives somewhere-- So why not here if he's gonna get back on the straight & narrow?

IF <that's a big if, I know ;):p> he can deliver on jobs outside the BF brotherhood, and maybe if a BF member or two throws him a small bone-- a Delica here, a Pingo there, etc. ... what's wrong with integrating him back into the BF community?

Now, since it's hard to emote behind a computer screen and keyboard I want everyone to note-- I'm not being dogmatic with this post, I'm not even wanting to be preachy, and I'm not Ketchen's lawyer or agent, so please don't take it that way-- but rather, I'm thinking out loud and broaching the discussion of the pros/cons of integrating Steve Ketchen back into the BF community. That's the crux of my post here. Thanks :)
 
Last edited:
Ok how to answer this shot across my brow... Pete did a very good job I do believe.

My perspective. The general consensus was that Steve was probably selling our knives.. well this has proven wrong as Pete got his knives returned with the work he commissioned completed.

What we do know is that after several years of outstanding work and an impeccable reputation Steve went off the rails.
He abruptly stopped communicating with anyone and did lie to people. Why?

We do not know if he purposely decided to engage in criminal activity or if life just rose up and gob smacked him. His refusal to communicate directly with those Involed or to come on this forum and enlighten us let the little demons in our heads run into dark corners of our minds and think the worst.

The Detective was himself perplexed as Steve has no criminal record and as Pete stated not even a parking ticket. For someone with the years of positive interactions with people to suddenly do a 180 is mystifying. To me it seems like some life event whether financial, mental, family emergency or just burn out may have blindsided him. We don't know.. we probably will never know.

With the caveat of my knife being returned with the scales that I paid for I stated that I would hold out a hand and give him a chance to start the road to recovery. I would rather hold out a helping hand to someone in distress rather than kick him when he is down , but only if he has made the effort to make those wronged whole again. I am not encouraging others to do so, Steve has rightfully gained the mistrust of all of us.
 
E Ernest Wohleb very well said my friend. Really hoping you make a post showing us your knife with a set of custom scales! Soon!
I'm almost positive there are many of us that would also extend that helping hand.
I know I would, but we would need to hear from him first. Don't need to know what exactly happened, doesn't matter what it was.
I know I was crushed when I realized he was going out of his way to get me to send him my knives and money, when he had no intention of doing the work.
That stings a bit.
We need to hear from him.
Joe
 
It's amazing to me that this guy gets so much more slack than the Shepard thread. They are both shady it seems, but Sheoppard was more or less extremely. This guy was on a whole other level of theft..and somehow everyone is ready to give this guy more work and is rooting for him. In the Sheppard thread, ppl are crusifying a guy that said he may give Sheppard a chance, and the general tone in that thread is much different, even from a mod standpoint..as if like "F this sheppard guy". Head scratcher for sure. Just an observation from someone not really effected by either, lol. Maybe the people effected by Sketchen are just extremely nice and patient people, idk.
 
The sudden appearance of (one batch of) completed knives has me hoping that he's in that class of people who, when they hit a rough patch, are too proud to admit it, then after some time, too ashamed/guilt-ridden to 'come back'. It's counterproductive and ugly, but it's one reason for this kind of behavior from somebody who has been solid in the past. But as in all things, the difference between "Hitting a rough patch" and "Fraud" is Communication.
 
jalcon said:
It's amazing to me that this guy gets so much more slack than the Shepard thread. They are both shady it seems, but Sheoppard was more or less extremely. This guy was on a whole other level of theft..and somehow everyone is ready to give this guy more work and is rooting for him. In the Sheppard thread, ppl are crusifying a guy that said he may give Sheppard a chance, and the general tone in that thread is much different, even from a mod standpoint..as if like "F this sheppard guy". Head scratcher for sure. Just an observation from someone not really effected by either, lol. Maybe the people effected by Sketchen are just extremely nice and patient people, idk.
Click to expand...
I read through a bit of the sheppard debacle and it appears that Sheppard was involved,in outright fraud from the gitgo... Ketchen was good to go for several years.. go read the reviews on sketchenscales.. he just dropped off the end of earth around June of this year... totally out of character... I think puzzled would better describe the mess with Steve Ketchen and yes a bit pissed off also.
 
jalcon said:
It's amazing to me that this guy gets so much more slack than the Shepard thread. They are both shady it seems, but Sheoppard was more or less extremely. This guy was on a whole other level of theft..and somehow everyone is ready to give this guy more work and is rooting for him. In the Sheppard thread, ppl are crusifying a guy that said he may give Sheppard a chance, and the general tone in that thread is much different, even from a mod standpoint..as if like "F this sheppard guy". Head scratcher for sure. Just an observation from someone not really effected by either, lol. Maybe the people effected by Sketchen are just extremely nice and patient people, idk.
Click to expand...

The difference is easy to identify. In my year and a half here I was easily able to identify Ketchen as a forum favorite of epic magnitude whose recent downturn was completely out of character. Shepard on the other hand has been lying to people and dragging out deliveries with excuse after excuse ever since he first appeared. So one had a reputation for legendary service and the other was a pain pretty much all the time.
 
Fair enough. That all makes sense. Wasn't real familiar with either of their reputations.
 
If everyone is mode whole, and if Ketchen delivers sincere apology and rational explanation and changes his business policy to no deposit (and no acceptance of F&F), I could probably buy his service.

In contrast, Sheppard has not done any of the above, and I will never do business with him.
 
miso2 said:
If everyone is mode whole, and if Ketchen delivers sincere apology and rational explanation and changes his business policy to no deposit (and no acceptance of F&F), I could probably buy his service.

In contrast, Sheppard has not done any of the above, and I will never do business with him.
Click to expand...

Good summary, I believe.

Ketchen always asked to be paid G&S by me, and always AFTER he'd finished up the job.

Something changed nearly a year ago and he asked for his fees UP FRONT for the first time ever from me. Even at that he requested they be paid via G&S.

FWIW, with this latest development, Ketchen didn't request anything...I've still had ZERO contact with the guy. I went ahead and transferred funds later the same day he delivered the goods.

To me, there's similarities but there's glaring differences also between Sketchen & Shep.

The ONE & ONLY time I tried to get Shep to work on some scales for me, he demanded money UP FRONT and F&F. Nope...that's a non-starter for me. That's the extent of my history with that guy. But to make those demands from the get go-- well, that's all I needed to know about that dude's character.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top