CBH Australia
AH legend
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2019
- Messages
- 4,138
- Reaction score
- 8,911
- Location
- NSW Australia
- Media
- 20
- Member of
- Sporting Shooters Association Australia, Africa Hunting website!!!
- Hunted
- Australia and now South Africa
Yes, the freight is high.I will definitely agree that you can by a great knife in the US for the same amount of money. The $90 in shipping from NZ is a killer and makes it not really worth it IMO. You can spend the same amount of money here and only 10-20 bucks of that will be tied up in shipping (the difference obviously being made up in the quality of work). So definitely more bang for your buck buying American. Side note, there are some Eastern European makers that do acceptable/good/great for the same amount of money and ship for very reasonable prices.
AH drama aside, I like Garry just fine as a person. That said I agree he does acceptable/good work but not great work. But I don’t think his goal was ever to do it for a living and finish them to a higher degree. I think his actual pricing reflects that, the shipping costs (which are out of his control) being the problem. As far as I know all his knives, except probably kitchen knives, include a basic sheath so I find your sheath comment odd.
Now… I SERIOUSLY doubt Garry was the problem in your experience with him. Going off of your posts since you have been on AH I would imagine you were the problematic one. If there was a problem to begin with.
My only regret is that I did not preorder another before I went to visit him.
Lovely people and Garry showed me around his workshop and walked me through some of the steps it takes to make a knife. Then we gratefully accepted his offer to have lunch with them. I doubt he makes big money from this and everyone has to put a value on their time. If he wasn’t retired I think he would put more value on his time.
The kitchen knife set he made himself while Lyne was in hospital is absolutely top class work but has also taken a lot of time.