# Anyone heard from Cris Anderson?



## Neville Lin (Jul 12, 2020)

I have a knife on order from Cris, but I haven’t heard from him in 5 months aside from a short message 2 months ago and his email is undeliverable. Has anyone spoken to him recently, or know what’s going on?


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## Neville Lin (Jul 12, 2020)

@KJDedge I think you mentioned being in a similar position a while back, have you had any news?


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## Barashka (Jul 12, 2020)

He's notoriously difficult to get a hold of. There was a thread about it earlier too.
I spoke to him a few months back. He said the lockdown is keeping him busy caring for family, kids out of school, and is messing with his supplies of belts and etc. he's making slow progress (my order is ways out still).
I have no more recent news though ..


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## labor of love (Jul 13, 2020)

Did you guys already pay deposits?


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## Neville Lin (Jul 14, 2020)

labor of love said:


> Did you guys already pay deposits?



I paid in full already, actually.


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## Corradobrit1 (Jul 14, 2020)

Neville Lin said:


> I paid in full already, actually.


Thats not cool. Was that Cris' call?


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## Neville Lin (Jul 14, 2020)

Yes, it was. I’d heard nothing but good things from everyone here about Cris, and he was super enthusiastic at the time. It’s been far to long though, and the complete lack of any communication is worrying. I know that times are hard for everyone right now, but I’m sure he could’ve found 5 min to just send me a message sometime in the last 2 months.

I’m kind of at a loss as for what to do now...


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## GoodMagic (Jul 14, 2020)

That sucks. One thing I have learned from this forum is never, ever pay upfront for promise of a custom down the road. Too many examples of makers who start off be engaging forum members and then suddenly vanish. I have been lucky in my dealings with makers when ordering custom work, but none have ever asked for payment upfront either. I’m sorry you are having difficulty contacting Chris. Hopefully he will come through for you.


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## labor of love (Jul 14, 2020)

Neville Lin said:


> Yes, it was. I’d heard nothing but good things from everyone here about Cris, and he was super enthusiastic at the time. It’s been far to long though, and the complete lack of any communication is worrying. I know that times are hard for everyone right now, but I’m sure he could’ve found 5 min to just send me a message sometime in the last 2 months.
> 
> I’m kind of at a loss as for what to do now...


Let me guess, did you send him the funds through PayPal friends and family?


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## Neville Lin (Jul 14, 2020)

labor of love said:


> Let me guess, did you send him the funds through PayPal friends and family?



Close enough, it was through Zelle. I’m still holding out hope, but it’s growing smaller day by day.


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## labor of love (Jul 14, 2020)

Oh well. Good luck. He will likely make your knife...eventually. Give you a bunch of excuses along the way.


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## Corradobrit1 (Jul 14, 2020)

*@thebradleycrew *seems to know how to contact Cris. Maybe he can intervene and get an overdue update. No excuse holding someone's cash and not delivering within a reasonable timeframe. Did he give you an idea when you should expect delivery?


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## Neville Lin (Jul 14, 2020)

Corradobrit1 said:


> *@thebradleycrew *seems to know how to contact Cris. Maybe he can intervene and get an overdue update. No excuse holding someone's cash and not delivering within a reasonable timeframe. Did he give you an idea when you should expect delivery?



No firm date, but we were talking in terms of weeks. That was back in February.


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## daddy yo yo (Jul 15, 2020)

Neville Lin said:


> No firm date, but we were talking in terms of weeks. That was back in February.


Well, try Marko T and you’ll stop complaining about a few weeks... Been on his custom list since January 2013 and don’t care about it anymore. That dude has become a no-go for me, even 2nd hand...


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## Corradobrit1 (Jul 15, 2020)

daddy yo yo said:


> Well, try Marko T and you’ll stop complaining about a few weeks... Been on his custom list since January 2013 and don’t care about it anymore. That dude has become a no-go for me, even 2nd hand...


Did you pay upfront too?


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## daddy yo yo (Jul 15, 2020)

Corradobrit1 said:


> Did you pay upfront too?


Luckily not.


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## Matus (Jul 15, 2020)

We have been down this road before more than once. Let's just focus for now on trying to help OP to contact Chris before we start to pile up stinky stuff. I am not aware of Chris having this kind of issues in the past and he has been around for a while now. Chris' last post on IG is from 28th of February - some serious stuff must have happened if he even did not put up some info post on IG or his homepage.

Disclaimer - I am not excusing anyone, just trying to be constructive.


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## madelinez (Jul 15, 2020)

Matus said:


> We have been down this road before more than once. Let's just focus for now on trying to help OP to contact Chris before we start to pile up stinky stuff. I am not aware of Chris having this kind of issues in the past and he has been around for a while now. Chris' last post on IG is from 28th of February - some serious stuff must have happened if he even did not put up some info post on IG or his homepage.
> 
> Disclaimer - I am not excusing anyone, just trying to be constructive.



I do agree with this but if someone asks for upfront payment they need to at least respond once (privately or publicly) explaining that they have personal matters to deal with and offer an estimated time frame for future communications. Anything less is completely unprofessional.


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## Matus (Jul 15, 2020)

Agreed, at the moment we just don't know what is behind it.


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## Corradobrit1 (Jul 15, 2020)

Problem is its not an isolated case. Did anyone actually receive a communication which thebradleycrew said was forthcoming?




__





Any one know if something up with Chris Anderson


have a pending knife order...with Chris at cjaedgeart 2 emails got bounced back with delivery failure.... Thanks for any info




www.kitchenknifeforums.com


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## Chefget (Jul 15, 2020)

The hardest knife for a knifemaker to make is one already paid for...


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## AFKitchenknivesguy (Jul 15, 2020)

We are in unprecedented times, I hope he is ok. Hopefully the OP gets his knife too.


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## WildBoar (Jul 15, 2020)

Just tried emailing and also got a message that his email addy is no longer valid. His web site is up and running though. You might want to see if the contact form works.

He has indicated before that he lives in a rural area with poor phone and internet service. I was under the impression he had to leave his house and drive somewhere where he could get Internet access and phone service.


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## dmonterisi (Jul 15, 2020)

i know its old fashioned and will take time, but given that he apparently lives remotely, try dropping a letter in the mail. his mailing address is on his site. 

PO Box 249
Ewing VA, 24248


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## KJDedge (Jul 26, 2020)

I have paid upfront and have heard ZERO on getting an update....
I have tried to direct message thru Instagram, as well as email...
he is MIA......disappointing to say the least....if anyone hears from him, please let us know....


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## Corradobrit1 (Jul 26, 2020)

Hopefully you paid with a credit card. If you did open a charge dispute case now. 6 months and no knife or communication is not acceptable. At the very least it will kickstart a reaction.


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## HSC /// Knives (Jul 26, 2020)

Chefget said:


> The hardest knife for a knifemaker to make is one already paid for...


Taking money upfront is super super stressful for a Knifemaker and nothing but a liability.


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## mc2442 (Jul 26, 2020)

Unfortunately I have to add to this as it has been close to 3 years, I have not mentioned it before not wanting to disparage him and respecting that people can fall on hard times. He sold a semi custom knife and paring knife for me that he had made (I got a custom from him a bit earlier), paid me the deposit the customer had forwarded but I have not seen the final payment. He said he ran into financial difficulty and had to use the money when he moved. He owes me either the money or a knife (I suggested this as an alternative and was willing to pay any difference). As it did not relate to a purchase my only recourse would be legal I guess. Still holding out hope that I see something from him. If I remember correctly I liked a 150mm or so gyuto someone else sold that should have been around that price.


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## toddnmd (Jul 27, 2020)

HSC /// Knives said:


> Taking money upfront is super super stressful for a Knifemaker and nothing but a liability.



Harbeer, thanks for your perspective as a knifemaker (and a very good one, at that!)

Paying money upfront and then not getting a knife, delays, and lack of communication are super stressful for a knife buyer.

I've dealt with Cris before, and I think he'll come through, eventually, but it's hard to say win. He's a very talented knifemaker and I believe he cares a great deal about his customers, but he also has some complications in his life that sometimes get in the way. Though the post by mc2442 above was news to me, and I'm a bit surprised he'd leave something hanging for that long. 

I know it's been said before, but:
*Paying for a knife in advance is generally a very bad idea.
It's an even worse idea to pay without some kind of buyer protection.*

There are just too many examples of things going wrong that it makes for a risk of total loss. 

In the spring, I broke the rules above by paying for a custom knife up front. I had a few months where I had a lot of questions, but right now, it looks like there is a very good chance of it working out. I still have time to seek a refund if it doesn't, but that's going to be my last resort. I won't make such an arrangement again.


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## KJDedge (Aug 14, 2020)

After debating, I am going to file a credit card dispute with Cris...
will keep you all posted on the progress and outcome.....
i have zero contact or background with Cris but find it hard to believe he cares about his customers....I do believe he cares about his customers money..


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## KJDedge (Aug 14, 2020)

Filed the dispute with the credit card company (even though the 
cc payment was facilitated through PayPal).... it’s over their normal
120 day dispute timeline so it gets escalated to a different team...
they stated that they will work with PayPal to get info on the merchant...expect to receive written correspondence within 30 days 
to gather additional information...have to provide answers to their questions by a certain date....
will keep all posted......sucks to have to do this ....and I wouldn’t have if he would have made a modicum effort at communication..


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 14, 2020)

So sorry to see it finally come to this, but you’ve certainly waited more than long enough.


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## gregfisk (Aug 14, 2020)

I commissioned a pair of custom speakers a few years ago from a very talented builder. He had been on the forum I belonged to for several years and had built a lot speakers for other people. Everyone was extremely happy with his work because he was a perfectionist. I trusted him and paid the entire cost up front. I kept in constant contact with him because it was a lot of money. More than a few times I was worried I would never see those speakers and the more time that went by the more worried I got. People started complaining a little because he was taking a long time to get their projects done and there was some talk about him having some money problems. This started to really worry me because people ahead of me in line weren’t getting there speakers. He did finally pull through and the speakers were a thing of beauty for sure but until those speakers were in my hands I wasn’t sure I’d ever see them. He had a big back log because so many people were happy with his work and still owed a lot of people speakers. He delivered one more set of very nice speakers to another well known forum member and then disappeared. Several people had paid for speakers up front and he just vanished into thin air. A few months later there was a rumor that he had gotten divorced or was in the process and had a girlfriend he was seen with. No one ever heard from him again and all of his contact info went bad. A lot of people lost a lot of money because of him. This was a well known member who owned a well known business. He was very likable and was on the forum regularly. You just never know what can happen no matter how safe it seems. I wish you luck on getting some sort of resolution to this.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 14, 2020)

Similar things happened in one of my previous hobby also, it was flashlights. One of the most respected custom flashlight maker fell on hard times, started taking full payments up front, not just deposits. His excellent track record & respect built up over 15 plus years on the CPF pulled through a lot of payments, but he couldn’t keep up with the build. Deeply under water, he made the worst decision ever, started OEM certain Alibaba Flashlight as “custom“, & got busted. After that, all hell broke loose, & lot of people never got get their money back.


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## larrybard (Aug 14, 2020)

In my past dealings with Cris I have consistently found him to be an honest, ethical guy. I have no explanation to offer as to why there have been the sorts of communication problems that have been experienced by several people, but one avenue I would suggest is to try reaching him via Facebook, where he seems to maintain a fairly active presence.


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## ptolemy (Aug 14, 2020)

ma_sha1 said:


> Similar things happened in one of my previous hobby also, it was flashlights. One of the most respected custom flashlight maker fell on hard times, started taking full payments up front, not just deposits. His excellent track record & respect built up over 15 plus years on the CPF pulled through a lot of payments, but he couldn’t keep up with the build. Deeply under water, he made the worst decision ever, started OEM certain Alibaba Flashlight as “custom“, & got busted. After that, all hell broke loose, & lot of people never got get their money back.



I remember that fiasco. Back then, he could probably get away with it, as it was good 6-8 years ago. Now, pretty much impossible.

I never bought their stuff, and didn't have any plans to, but it's def a good reminder. I think it was like $495 price for a $70 flashlight


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## Corradobrit1 (Aug 14, 2020)

ptolemy said:


> I remember that fiasco. Back then, he could probably get away with it, as it was good 6-8 years ago. Now, pretty much impossible.
> 
> I never bought their stuff, and didn't have any plans to, but it's def a good reminder. I think it was like $495 price for a $70 flashlight


$495 for a flashlight?  I will never question custom knifemakers asking prices again...CM excepted


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 14, 2020)

Corradobrit1 said:


> $495 for a flashlight?  Now I will never question custom knifemakers asking prices...CM excepted



Pretty much any hobby when you get deep into it, it becomes unthinkable to outsiders. The last flashlight I built in that hobby costed ~$2k. It was no longer a “flashlight”, rather, a modified Navy searchlight running 330W UHP shot arc lamp, Good times. 

By the same token, I am pretty sure the flashlight guys will consider $500 kitchen knife unthinkable, let alone knives floating on KKF here costing thousands.


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## Corradobrit1 (Aug 14, 2020)

Another fairly recent example is Chris Essery who used his platform as YT's Horology House and moderator for the Aussie FB watch sales, to dupe unwitting buyers out of $10,000's by passing off super clone fake Rolex watches incl Daytona's, as genuine watches. By building an apparently trustworthy presence, Chris was able to con buyers for a couple of years until the (Horology) House of Cards came crashing down. He was refunding some disgruntled buyers who discovered they had been duped feigning ignorance and making an honest mistake, using cash from subsequent buyers, eventually events caught up and he was outed on TRF.


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## captaincaed (Aug 14, 2020)

I've heard Geoff Feder talk about how the smartest thing he ever did was partner with a business guy to handle that aspect of the knives. Artists arent often truly businessmen at heart. I think things can run more smoothly if you have someone with those skills who buys in with you.


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## Corradobrit1 (Aug 14, 2020)

ma_sha1 said:


> The last flashlight I built in that hobby costed ~$2k. It was no longer a “flashlight”, rather, a modified Navy searchlight running 330W UHP shot arc lamp, Good times.


Did you make that for Batman?


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## Runner_up (Aug 14, 2020)

Corradobrit1 said:


> Another fairly recent example is Chris Essery who used his platform as YT's Horology House and moderator for the Aussie FB watch sales, to dupe unwitting buyers out of $10,000's by passing off super clone fake Rolex watches incl Daytona's, as genuine watches. By building an apparently trustworthy presence, Chris was able to con buyers for a couple of years until the (Horology) House of Cards came crashing down. He has refunding some disgruntled buyers who discovered they had been duped feigning ignorance and making an honest mistake, using cash from subsequent buyers, eventually events caught up and he was outed on TRF.




I'm not a member on TRF, but do spend some time there. Reading some of this stuff was mind blowing to me


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## Midsummer (Aug 14, 2020)

According to our local newspaper; one of the guys here in town wanted a large acrylic fish tank with sharks and rays. Apparently he wanted one large enough he could have people dance on. 

He contacted the guys from "Tanked" (apparently a TV show). They quoted around 300k. He gave them half as operating capitol. They delayed and eventually came back saying it would be 900k in the end. 

He asked for his money back and got nothing. No tank, no 150k. Central Florida businessman sues, says 'Tanked' aquarium-maker soaked him


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## applepieforbreakfast (Aug 14, 2020)

I feel like this story plays out pretty often with people who transition into custom manufacturing as their profession.

They're good at gunsmithing or knifemaking, so they've got work, but they're not necessarily good at everything else that's actually required to run a business. Communication falls off, deadlines get passed, product is never delivered.

I have no involvement with Cris, but I'm still waiting on some gunsmithing work from like 2013. So, I kinda know how it goes.

Payment upfront is never the way to go.


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## captaincaed (Aug 14, 2020)

2013? Jesus.


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## ptolemy (Aug 15, 2020)

Corradobrit1 said:


> Did you make that for Batman?



no, for backyard shots 

building custom flashlights is likely more complicated than knives, since knife involves many many elements done by the actual smith.. where as flashlights can be modded by end user to no end. .

heck, you can build any kind of bazooka yourself if yuu have 3 things: a way to cool it off, a way to power it, and good knowledge of what to do and what not to do  <--- easy, right?


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 15, 2020)

ptolemy said:


> no, for backyard shots
> 
> building custom flashlights is likely more complicated than knives, since knife involves many many elements done by the actual smith.. where as flashlights can be modded by end user to no end. .
> 
> heck, you can build any kind of bazooka yourself if yuu have 3 things: a way to cool it off, a way to power it, and good knowledge of what to do and what not to do  <--- easy, right?



Building flashlights is also a lot more fun, I knew I had to leave after spending $2K on the Swan Blaster, & still failed to dethrone RA, it was getting out of hands . 

Here is BLF Ranking of : World’s brightest flashlights:

I have three lights in the top 10 still, the #2, #3, #7. I kept the #7, Megablsster, & fire it up into the sky from the backyard on July 4th some times


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## juice (Aug 15, 2020)

ma_sha1 said:


> Building flashlight was a lot more fun, but I knew I had to leave CPF after spending $2K on the Swan Blaster, & still failed to dethrone RA.


Did you then turn it into an oven, or something?


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 15, 2020)

juice said:


> Did you then turn it into an oven, or something?



Lol, no, I tore down the Swan blaster & sold off the parts.


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## ptolemy (Aug 15, 2020)

ma_sha1 said:


> Building flashlights is also a lot more fun, I knew I had to leave after spending $2K on the Swan Blaster, & still failed to dethrone RA, it was getting out of hands .
> 
> Here is BLF Ranking of : World’s brightest flashlights:
> 
> I have three lights in the top 10 still, the #2, #3, #7. I kept the #7, Megablsster, & fire it up into the sky from the backyard on July 4th some times



It's also instant gratification. I am maybe generalizing a bit but most people don't really know or care what steel the knife is made of. Now, they may know the steel kind or style but in the end, many more things make a knife than steel. You also rea.ly have no idea about heat treatment, so unless you're buying specific knife size/shape as a workhorse knife, you are basically buying knife makers, not knives, for if a knife maker has good rep (as someone knows what they are doing in heat treatment and the rest of the stages in knife making), then likely knife will keep value, or even gain value. A while back I sold a knife with another knife that I don't think I had a good chance to sell on its own. I added a well known knife that gained quite a bit in value, so that even if the 2nd knife would never be used, the buyer would likely still got a good enough price to justify it. 

With a flashlight, most are turn it on and you know instantly what it can do. You most likely don't care about anything else... Now obviously, some may collect them and only every titanium model from a well known maker from hawaii, or other things, but in general, one could argue that knives and flashlights are almost polar opposite in that regard.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 15, 2020)

ptolemy said:


> It's also instant gratification. I am maybe generalizing a bit but most people don't really know or care what steel the knife is made of. Now, they may know the steel kind or style but in the end, many more things make a knife than steel. You also rea.ly have no idea about heat treatment, so unless you're buying specific knife size/shape as a workhorse knife, you are basically buying knife makers, not knives, for if a knife maker has good rep (as someone knows what they are doing in heat treatment and the rest of the stages in knife making), then likely knife will keep value, or even gain value. A while back I sold a knife with another knife that I don't think I had a good chance to sell on its own. I added a well known knife that gained quite a bit in value, so that even if the 2nd knife would never be used, the buyer would likely still got a good enough price to justify it.
> 
> With a flashlight, most are turn it on and you know instantly what it can do. You most likely don't care about anything else... Now obviously, some may collect them and only every titanium model from a well known maker from hawaii, or other things, but in general, one could argue that knives and flashlights are almost polar opposite in that regard.



Well said. I remember there were two famous custom makers from Hawaii, Mr. Bulk & McGizmo, did you get to try their lights? I tried one of each, Mr. bulk’s brass dragon heart with the dragon scales, a thing of beauty that I regret selling. The McGizmo light I had was weak, I didn’t understand how he became so successful, something more than just the Ti shell? McGizmo was the Shig. of flashlights with even more fierce following, if I had cut up one of his lights, I could’ve been kicked off CPF


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## Corradobrit1 (Aug 15, 2020)

ma_sha1 said:


> Well said. I remember there were two famous custom makers from Hawaii, Mr. Bulk & McGizmo, did you get to try their lights? I tried one of each, Mr. bulk’s brass dragon heart with the dragon scales, a thing of beauty that I regret selling. The McGizmo light I had was weak, I didn’t understand how he became so successful, something more than just the Ti shell? McGizmo was the Shig. of flashlights with even more fierce following, if I had cut up one of his lights, I could’ve been kicked off CPF


The equivalent of converting an Ashi Honyaki gyuto into a nakiri?


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 15, 2020)

Corradobrit1 said:


> The equivalent of converting an Ashi Honyaki gyuto into a nakiri?



Pretty much, but Ashi Hoyakiri is extremely rare thou, the mother of all Unicorns


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## tchan001 (Aug 15, 2020)

More like turning a Mt. Fuji honyaki into a nakiri with half a Mt. Fuji left.


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## Corradobrit1 (Aug 15, 2020)

tchan001 said:


> More like turning a Mt. Fuji honyaki into a nakiri with half a Mt. Fuji left.


Tantamount to a crime against humanity.


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## M1k3 (Aug 15, 2020)

tchan001 said:


> More like turning a Mt. Fuji honyaki into a nakiri with half a Mt. Fuji left.


Sounds like a hack job


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## ptolemy (Aug 16, 2020)

ma_sha1 said:


> Well said. I remember there were two famous custom makers from Hawaii, Mr. Bulk & McGizmo, did you get to try their lights? I tried one of each, Mr. bulk’s brass dragon heart with the dragon scales, a thing of beauty that I regret selling. The McGizmo light I had was weak, I didn’t understand how he became so successful, something more than just the Ti shell? McGizmo was the Shig. of flashlights with even more fierce following, if I had cut up one of his lights, I could’ve been kicked off CPF



Ya, McGizmo... I never understood the same... very underpowered, never used 18650 or 26650 (i stopped following like 4-5 years ago). I guess, people look at it was toys vs tools. Obv ti is more expensive, but not 10-20x more expensive for what he charges his flashlights with like 1/5th power. I should check things out, maybe they changed, although I doubt it...

I never tried the Mr Bulk. I actually only ever tried few customs due to their overwhelming cost and it always felt like I was paying for exotic materials vs performance. I wouldn't mind paying that for knives if I was in the market because I'd use knife multiple times a day, vs flashlight, maybe few times a year...

These days with flashlights it's more interesting. Many manufacturers offer uber performance for little cash and custom markers can hardly keep up with actual performance, so they only sell on collectivability, which is fine, just not for me.

I still have a nice keychain light with trits. I should probably use it


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 16, 2020)

ptolemy said:


> These days with flashlights it's more interesting. Many manufacturers offer uber performance for little cash and custom markers can hardly keep up...



So true., the factory light performance, mostly from China, had grown unbelievably in the last 10 years.

I remember a moderator used to put people in time-out if anyone mentions made-in-China flashlights on CPF, repeat offenders get banned. As a noob, I asked a question about a light from dealextreme, was put in time-out, can’t post for several days .

He had banned so many people because of that, they started a separate forum, the Budget light forum, lol. The funny part is, he himself was stripped from moderator status, & banned when he kept attacking a Chinese manufacture who became sponsor of CPF 

I believe the same will happen to kitchen knife. Chinese kitchen knife will become main stream on forums, no longer automatically cheap junk. The handles are already there, rival custom makers f&f at fraction of the cost, some even has mammoth tooth spacer , the blade not yet, but it will.


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## lemeneid (Aug 16, 2020)

ma_sha1 said:


> So true., the factory light performance, mostly from China, had grown unbelievably in the last 10 years.
> 
> I remember a moderator used to put people in time-out if anyone mentions made-in-China flashlights on CPF, repeat offenders get banned. As a noob, I asked a question about a light from dealextreme, was put in time-out, can’t post for several days .
> 
> ...


I had the opportunity to try a carbon steel knife from AliExpress that cost $30. Not sure what steel it was but it was hair shaving sharp ootb. F&F was decent for mass produced knives, at least Shun-level.

Not sure how it will be at sharpening, but if it's carbon steel, it should be easy. 

Lots of people here trash Chinese knives, but after trying this, if you asked me to pick between, this, Shun, Tojiro, or other cheap brands, I would give this a chance.


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## ma_sha1 (Aug 16, 2020)

lemeneid said:


> I had the opportunity to try a carbon steel knife from AliExpress that cost $30. Not sure what steel it was but it was hair shaving sharp ootb. F&F was decent for mass produced knives, at least Shun-level.
> 
> Not sure how it will be at sharpening, but if it's carbon steel, it should be easy.
> 
> Lots of people here trash Chinese knives, but after trying this, if you asked me to pick between, this, Shun, Tojiro, or other cheap brands, I would give this a chance.



Wow, can you share which one? I’ve been trying once in a while, but not yet a carbon. I have an Aus10 in the mail still, looks promising but I anticipate re-grind being necessary.


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## lemeneid (Aug 16, 2020)

ma_sha1 said:


> Wow, can you share which one? I’ve been trying once in a while, but not yet a carbon. I have an Aus10 in the mail still, looks promising but I anticipate re-grind being necessary.


Wasn't my knife, it was my brother-in-law's.
Re-grinding is definitely necessary in future, but at least with iron-clad carbon, the job is easy, the knife definitely feels a little heavy in hand. Then again, maybe this is their "workhorse" knife. If they did mid-weights or lasers, I can definitely see a crowd snapping them up.


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## Jville (Aug 16, 2020)

@ptolemy and @ma_sha1 will you two just get a room already.


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## McMan (Aug 16, 2020)

Jville said:


> @ptolemy and @ma_sha1 will you two just get a room already.


I'll rent em the room  All this talk about flashlights has me curious what $50-100 will do.
I'm going to start a thread...


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## M1k3 (Aug 16, 2020)

McMan said:


> I'll rent em the room  All this talk about flashlights has me curious what $50-100 will do.
> I'm going to start a thread...


I had to reread your post. I thought you wrote flEshlight


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## WildBoar (Aug 16, 2020)

M1k3 said:


> I had to reread your post. I thought you wrote flEshlight


Not for use with honyakis due to the differential hardening...


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## Neville Lin (Aug 17, 2020)

@KJDedge A helpful person gave me his number and I was able to contact him via text, he says he’s been back in the shop for a couple days and is still working on knives. He also said he sent out a bulk email about it (which I didn’t receive).


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## Matus (Aug 17, 2020)

That would be a great news.


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## daddy yo yo (Aug 18, 2020)

captaincaed said:


> 2013? Jesus.


Same here with Marko T minus payment upfront.


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## KJDedge (Aug 18, 2020)

Heads up for anyone who has an open project knife waiting from Cris...
Some headway being made with him...
Looks like knives might roll out..
If anyone needs his number to discuss their project , PM me...


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## rick_english (Sep 10, 2020)

Anyone heard from Cris Anderson lately? I ordered (and paid $1,432 for) a knife 6 months ago, and haven't heard anything since. He doesn't answer email or IG messages, and it looks like his last IG post was in February. PayPal has a 180-day limit on claims, so it's too late for getting a refund that way. Any help in contacting him would be appreciated.


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## HSC /// Knives (Sep 10, 2020)

Wow....
I would file the paypal dispute claim anyway... let them tell you that they can or can't help you.
If the money came from your bank account or CC (thru PP ) you could try filing a dispute with your bank.


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## Neville Lin (Sep 10, 2020)

@rick_english I’ve dm’d you his phone number.

If anyone else needs to reach him about an ongoing order, send me a dm and I can pass the number to you.


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## rick_english (Oct 3, 2020)

Neville Lin said:


> @rick_english I’ve dm’d you his phone number.
> 
> If anyone else needs to reach him about an ongoing order, send me a dm and I can pass the number to you.


Thanks. I've called, texted, emailed, messaged--zero response. I've learned an expensive lesson: NEVER pay full price upfront for a knife, no matter how well-known and trusted the knifemaker is.


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## Corradobrit1 (Oct 3, 2020)

That really sucks. Last posts on social media were end of Feb. Gotta assume something really bad has happened. But even so Cris should at least be refunding prepayments.


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## juice (Oct 3, 2020)

This is why I've never taken pre-payments for anything. Yeah, it's cost me financially when people don't pay or whatever, but I'd rather be out money than owe something to someone and be unable/whatever to deliver it. I'd feel so awful, not worth it. I hope he's OK, despite this situation.


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## gregfisk (Oct 3, 2020)

juice said:


> This is why I've never taken pre-payments for anything. Yeah, it's cost me financially when people don't pay or whatever, but I'd rather be out money than owe something to someone and be unable/whatever to deliver it. I'd feel so awful, not worth it. I hope he's OK, despite this situation.


These are the words of a good man, not everyone has the conscious that you have. If something bad happened to the maker as was suggested, that’s no excuse for not reaching out with an explanation. Even if you don’t have the money to refund the prepayment. Is it difficult to do? Yes. But it’s the right thing to do no matter how hard. And in the long run you’ll be a lot better off.


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## HSC /// Knives (Oct 3, 2020)

As a maker one of the nicest things about this profession is that for the most part you always get paid. Frequently I send out knives to customers before I get the money. The knife community always pays. I Never ever have to worry about collecting $.

There’s just no reason as a maker to take money upfront. Of course an exception might be a very high-end custom order with special materials that can’t easily be sold. And even then 10% is appropriate, up to 30% max.

The only reason I can think of that someone would require payment upfront is because they need the money, Which means that they likely aren’t managing their business very well

@rick_english have you tried Facebook? because there appears to be some activity there... but unfortunately it seems like no response is the response you’re going to get


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## rick_english (Oct 3, 2020)

HSC /// Knives said:


> As a maker one of the nicest things about this profession is that for the most part you always get paid. Frequently I send out knives to customers before I get the money. The knife community always pays. I Never ever have to worry about collecting $.
> 
> There’s just no reason as a maker to take money upfront. Of course an exception might be a very high-end custom order with special materials that can’t easily be sold. And even then 10% is appropriate, up to 30% max.
> 
> ...


Found him on facebook, thanks.


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## HSC /// Knives (Oct 3, 2020)

rick_english said:


> Can't find him on facebook. Do you have a link?


https://www.facebook.com/crisanderson27


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## chiffonodd (Oct 3, 2020)

rick_english said:


> Found him on facebook, thanks.





HSC /// Knives said:


> https://www.facebook.com/crisanderson27



Hate to say it, but the guy is straight up stealing all ya'll's money. He posted 16 times on Facebook on October 1st, alone. He's posted multiple times today, as well. He's also posting a lot of weird stuff supporting white supremacist militia. I would just go to law enforcement at this point, this dude is a dead end.






Log in or sign up to view


See posts, photos and more on Facebook.




www.facebook.com





Here's a post from just one hour ago, has time to post about onion rings so why can't he answer your inquiries about the thousands of dollars he's taken?

[rest of the post removed by a mod]


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## WildBoar (Oct 3, 2020)

Hmmmm, to me the 'LOL' can be taken various ways, including having a laugh at the baseball hat. I get posting that someone who is avoiding emails, text messages, etc. is not, in fact, in some circumstances where they cannot communicate, but frankly I don't know why you would post any of his Facebook postings here that are not related to knives. Really not sure what his postings, or your conjecture, have to do with the situation where he has peoples' money and is avoiding any contact with them.


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## M1k3 (Oct 3, 2020)

While the posts have nothing directly related to knives. They do show he has time to access the internet and can make enough effort to make posts, while still retaining the ability to read, comprehend and write.


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## Matus (Oct 3, 2020)

Just a friendly reminder, keep the politics out of KKF. It would be very much appreciated. Thank you


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## WildBoar (Oct 3, 2020)

Thanks for the thread clean-up!


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## chiffonodd (Oct 3, 2020)

WildBoar said:


> Hmmmm, to me the 'LOL' can be taken various ways, including having a laugh at the baseball hat. I get posting that someone who is avoiding emails, text messages, etc. is not, in fact, in some circumstances where they cannot communicate, but frankly I don't know why you would post any of his Facebook postings here that are not related to knives. Really not sure what his postings, or your conjecture, have to do with the situation where he has peoples' money and is avoiding any contact with them.



@WildBoar the relevance to the topic is clear. The issue is no one can get a hold of him, no one can get their money back. He is not responding to any communications. Meanwhile, people are speculating that something horrible has befallen him and are giving him the benefit of the doubt. They may very well change their minds when their learn that he is on facebook day in, day out, posting sometimes upwards of 15 times per day. And has indeed posted multiple times *today* as well. Not sure how you could think that has no bearing on the issue.


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## WildBoar (Oct 3, 2020)

Indicating he is actively posting on Facebook is one thing, but you went beyond that in my opinion. You made a judgement about the content he was posting. That is what I flagged, as my post indicated "I get posting that someone who is avoiding emails, text messages, etc. is not, in fact, in some circumstances where they cannot communicate ..." I just wasn't sure why/ how your opinion on it came into play with the matter at hand.


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## chiffonodd (Oct 3, 2020)

WildBoar said:


> Indicating he is actively posting on Facebook is one thing, but you went beyond that in my opinion. You made a judgement about the content he was posting. That is what I flagged, as my post indicated "I get posting that someone who is avoiding emails, text messages, etc. is not, in fact, in some circumstances where they cannot communicate ..." I just wasn't sure why/ how your opinion on it came into play with the matter at hand.



I guess the fundamental question is: are the overarching values and beliefs that a person openly professes to hold ever relevant to an evaluation of their conduct? I submit that the answer is "yes" and that we all, as people, routinely take that sort of information into account when making interpersonal choices -- including business transactions. As for it being a "judgment" on my part -- in all honesty, who cares? Read the post in context of all the others, it's pretty obvious where his head's at. 

And I dont really understand the moderators' treatment of this issues as "political." I would've thought that rejecting white supremacy is an apolitical issue -- but apparently I'm wrong about that


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## JBroida (Oct 3, 2020)

HSC /// Knives said:


> As a maker one of the nicest things about this profession is that for the most part you always get paid. Frequently I send out knives to customers before I get the money. The knife community always pays. I Never ever have to worry about collecting $.
> 
> There’s just no reason as a maker to take money upfront. Of course an exception might be a very high-end custom order with special materials that can’t easily be sold. And even then 10% is appropriate, up to 30% max.
> 
> ...


I don't know... i sometimes take deposits as high as 50%, but I'm not a maker. I've just found that it can be a motivating factor for people to follow through with the order. Early on, we had some custom orders where the person who ordered the knife or knives just decided he/she didn't want it anymore. Or, there were other times when the order was placed, but the customer wanted to cancel after the project had already begun being made. In response to that, we began taking deposits. That being said, we're not spending that money, so if its needed for a refund, its right there at any time. I think the biggest things here are probably a function of communication and acting in good faith.

*edit 10/3/20 8:05pm I thought i should also add that i am not condoning the behavior being addressed in this thread. I just saw the comment about deposits, and while i really understood where HSC was coming from, i just had a slightly different view on the subject.


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## Matus (Oct 3, 2020)

Jon, you make good points. But what for you taking a deposit is most likely a small fraction of your total volume, makers that do that with considerable part of their orders, can easily run into trouble if they for one reason or another cannot work.


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## Horsemover (Oct 3, 2020)

I’ve seen and heard enough...no thanks


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## tgfencer (Oct 3, 2020)

Well this thread and outside media have certainly been enlightening. Glad I have never owned any of his knives and don't intend on giving him any of my money, directly or otherwise, in the future.

Sorry for your sorrows, OP. Best of luck.


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## juice (Oct 3, 2020)

chiffonodd said:


> Meanwhile, people are speculating that something horrible has befallen him and are giving him the benefit of the doubt. They may very well change their minds when their learn that he is on facebook day in, day out, posting sometimes upwards of 15 times per day.


More than anything, I was meaning regarding *mental *health - I really REALLY understand why people can get mentally overwhelmed and just pretend the outside world doesn't exist any more, living in their own little bubble. (See earlier comment about not taking money upfront as a hedge against this kind of event - i.e. I'm great at planning and so on but terrible at actually finishing things.) And indeed, it does sound like a mental health thing is what has happened to him, unfortunately, based on the evidence provided.

Having said that, I agree it's clearly time to get law enforcement involved based on the evidence presented. If you're breaking the law, you're breaking the law. But if the cops/prosecutors in his area are sympathetic to him, you may well find that because it's "the internet" that it's all just too hard, but at least you took the process as far as you could.


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## VICTOR J CREAZZI (Oct 3, 2020)

I had several phone conversations with Chris about five years ago. One of the main topics of the conversations was him giving me...

wait for it...


business advice!


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## Midsummer (Oct 3, 2020)

Matus said:


> That topic is very much political (especially) in US and is not going to be a point of a discussion on KKF. Period.



....Is all supremacy talk going to be out of bounds?.....

DB Edit: Yes. This is first and foremost a knife forum. There are other outlets for any other discussions you wish to engage in.


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## ptolemy (Oct 3, 2020)

I don't care what he believes in, but just looking at his latest post, I have no doubt that if he choses to make such inflammatory statements on the internet, then anyone who decides to do business with him is taking quite a bit of a risk...


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## chiffonodd (Oct 3, 2020)

ptolemy said:


> I don't care what he believes in, but just looking at his latest post, I have no doubt that if he choses to make such inflammatory statements on the internet, then anyone who decides to do business with him is taking quite a bit of a risk...



He's posted eight times today alone, many of which are along the lines of what you're noticing. So the dude is still quite active online, he's straight up ignoring all of the people trying get a hold of him, and y'all are getting scammed.


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## Neville Lin (Oct 3, 2020)

chiffonodd said:


> He's posted eight times today alone, many of which are along the lines of what you're noticing. So the dude is still quite active online, he's straight up ignoring all of the people trying get a hold of him, and y'all are getting scammed.



Last I texted him, he claims he turned off all his business social media. He responded reasonably quickly about two weeks ago, and I just texted him again today. I’ll keep everyone updated if I hear from him again. @rick_english If he responds, I’ll make sure to ask him about your order.


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## rick_english (Oct 3, 2020)

He finally responded to me on facebook. He said he will refund my money after he sells another knife. I'm not holding my breath.


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## Neville Lin (Oct 3, 2020)

rick_english said:


> He finally responded to me on facebook. He said he will refund my money after he sells another knife. I'm not holding my breath.


Yeah, he seemed pretty popular around here, but that’s pretty much shot now.


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## juice (Oct 3, 2020)

rick_english said:


> after he sells another knife. I'm not holding my breath.


Along with all the other stuff, he's not shy with his pricing, is he?


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## Horsemover (Oct 3, 2020)

rick_english said:


> He finally responded to me on facebook. He said he will refund my money after he sells another knife. I'm not holding my breath.



Super classy of him.  Hoping this works out for you and you can put this all in the past.


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## VICTOR J CREAZZI (Oct 3, 2020)

rick_english said:


> He finally responded to me on facebook. He said he will refund my money after he sells another knife. I'm not holding my breath.


Wouldn't it be the same amount of work to make *your *knife. That one is already sold.


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## WildBoar (Oct 3, 2020)

juice said:


> Along with all the other stuff, he's not shy with his pricing, is he?


Actually he went through a whole thing about pricing years ago. Like a regular business, he calculated all of his direct and indirect costs, production times, etc. and arrived at logical prices for his knives. The main problem though is that many makers did not charge that much, especially the ones who were not full-time makers. He priced his knives properly to cover all of his costs and make a living, but I don't think there was enough demand at those prices to sustain it for the long term. Many people who bought or borrowed one of his knives thought they were great performers, but he was up against a lot of lower priced great performers.


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## juice (Oct 3, 2020)

WildBoar said:


> He priced his knives properly to cover all of his costs and make a living, but I don't think there was enough demand at those prices to sustain it for the long term.


Yeah, sometimes the answer you get from a business review is: "I can't make a living doing this thing."


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## gregfisk (Oct 3, 2020)

rick_english said:


> He finally responded to me on facebook. He said he will refund my money after he sells another knife. I'm not holding my breath.



So, he finally talks to you and he puts you off by telling you he’s going to refund your money once he sells a knife? Sorry to say this but what he’s saying is I don’t have your money but once I do I’ll give it to you. What will most likely happen is by the time he sells that knife he’ll need that money for something else and he won’t be giving it to you.


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## rick_english (Oct 3, 2020)

gregfisk said:


> So, he finally talks to you and he puts you off by telling you he’s going to refund your money once he sells a knife? Sorry to say this but what he’s saying is I don’t have your money but once I do I’ll give it to you. What will most likely happen is by the time he sells that knife he’ll need that money for something else and he won’t be giving it to you.


Of course...


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## juice (Oct 3, 2020)

gregfisk said:


> What will most likely happen is by the time he sells that knife he’ll need that money for something else and he won’t be giving it to you.


Indeed - given his FB page is basically a series of ridiculously and incredibly obviously dishonest memes, I doubt anyone is expecting a good outcome from this.


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## ptolemy (Oct 3, 2020)

rick_english said:


> He finally responded to me on facebook. He said he will refund my money after he sells another knife. I'm not holding my breath.


'never gonna happen... if he lives sale to sale to be able to refund your $, then chances are when he does make a sale, then he will need it for food, rent, or to print his manifesto


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## gregfisk (Oct 3, 2020)

I guess all you can do at this point is hope for the best. If that doesn’t work make damn well sure as many people as possible know what he’s done.


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## inferno (Oct 3, 2020)

rick i have a feeling you wont be seeing your money or your knife anytime soon unfortunately.


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## Eloh (Oct 4, 2020)

tgfencer said:


> Well this thread and outside media have certainly been enlightening. Glad I have never owned any of his knives and don't intend on giving him any of my money, directly or otherwise, in the future.
> 
> Sorry for your sorrows, OP. Best of luck.



Agreed, perhaps the customers he rips off don't have the right background so he doesn't feel obligated to deliver. Who knows, maybe his political views might indeed be relevant to his business behavior and this topic


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## alterwisser (Oct 4, 2020)

toddnmd said:


> Paying for a knife in advance is generally a very bad idea.



THIS!

Should be a public service announcement/pinned message all over this forum.
The most one should do is pay a deposit. I totally understand asking for one (materials etc) and the risk that the maker makes a custom knife that is hard to sell.... in case the buyer walks away, which also happens)...


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## WildBoar (Oct 4, 2020)

Sadly life sometimes kicks some of the makers in the ass, and they don't all respond in the same manner. Over the years on knife forums we've seen the downfall of several notable members/ makers. Eammon Burke turned his back on everyone in the middle of the project where he had Catchside make him the pile of blanks (and Danny jumped in to save that, with a bunch of makers jumping in and offering to finish and handle the knives). Pierre Rodrigue turned his back as well, and had money from a lot of people; it was reportedly due to an injury at first, but he had been struggling financially for a couple years before that. As with Cris, in all these cases the person was a solid forum member for an extended period of time, and had many happy customers.

We all have adversity thrown into our paths multiple times in our lifetime. It's all about how you respond that makes a difference. There are several makers/ vendors who are still very active in the community that hit bad patches in their lives that resulted in them having a bunch of pissed off customers, sometimes for a couple of years. Thankfully for the the person as well as their customers and the community, they have all pretty much bounced back. And in some instances they changed their business models (i.e., they stopped doing most custom work and instead produce first and then sell).


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## ModRQC (Oct 4, 2020)

This is terrible for all those concerned. I think I’ll stick with national vendors like I always do. What a pathetic and irating way to behave with paying customers.


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## KJDedge (Oct 6, 2020)

Neville Lin said:


> I have a knife on order from Cris, but I haven’t heard from him in 5 months aside from a short message 2 months ago and his email is undeliverable. Has anyone spoken to him recently, or know what’s going on?


I have been getting a few texts answered... I believe he is making progress on the project knives people prepaid for..i also believe it will take a while still but I believe he intends to make good on them..


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## Barashka (Oct 6, 2020)

KJDedge said:


> I have been getting a few texts answered... I believe he is making progress on the project knives people prepaid for..i also believe it will take a while still but I believe he intends to make good on them..


I get a text every month / few months. No real ETAs on anything but the intention seems to be there.


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## M1k3 (Oct 6, 2020)

Meanwhile everyone else is left in the dark? Messages ignored.


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## Corradobrit1 (Oct 6, 2020)

I've noticed a trend for some knifemakers to be selectively deaf.


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## alterwisser (Oct 6, 2020)

Corradobrit1 said:


> I've notice a trend for some knifemakers to be selectively deaf.


 Some are also blind


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## Colin (Oct 16, 2020)

I am typically in favor of keeping business and politics separate. But if he wants to post his opinions on politics on a page he uses for business, who am I to say that's right or wrong?

I will just purchase from other vendors, considering everything that has happened. Sad to hear people have had trouble getting refunds/their purchases. Sorry if this post was too political.


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## Matus (Oct 17, 2020)

Deleted a load of political and off topic posts and may delete more if I feel like it.

Since it was made clear that Chris did not disappear from the surface of the earth and there are ways to contact him, I am closing the thread before it spirals out of control.

EDIT: More off-topic threads were removed, I did not want anyone to feel marginalised ...

EDIT 2: Should the situation with Chris change, or if new information pertinent to the case should come up, then please just contact us and we may consider re-opening the thread.


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