Great expectations?

Many have great expectations when ordering a custom sword. The fellow in question seems confused from the start in looking for a forged sword.

Just finished reading the complete thread. The only comment I am going to make is this: the customer should NOT have accused Mr. Pearce, on the forum, of re-working a Hanwei blade and selling it to him as a custom. Any doubt he had should have been expressed through private correspondence. I for one don't believe for one second that Mr. Pearce would do such a thing. I am not going to comment on the other aspects of the transaction.

Man, that's why I love e-mail, and doing business by e-mail. If I was going to order a custom sword, no matter what conversations I had with the maker, I'd follow everything up by e-mail.

Something like this:

Dear Tink:

I'm interested in ordering an arming sword of Oakeshott Type XIV with a blade length of 26-28", ideally 27", guard type ___ and pommel type ____. My understanding is that this should have a grip length (excluding pommel) of approximately 4", an overall weight of approximately xxx ounces, with a center of percussion of yyy, and point of balance of zzz. With my fat hands, I'd like you to make the grip a little meatier than usual. If you could use a slightly heavier cord for the wrap, I'd love that, and please dye the leather in "Grateful Dead Paisley." My preference is for a less polished finish than you usually furnish on your custom swords. As we have discussed, no scabbard/sheath will be provided as I am contracting with some other dude for that.

"I understand that upon completion of the sword, you'll forward me a photo (or photos) to get my approval, and that upon approval of your work I'll pay you $_______ in a single tranche via wire transfer/paypal/credit card/my left arm.

"You've estimated that the work should take approximately _____ weeks.

"If I've screwed up any of the things set out above, please let me know, so we can understand more completely and exactly what we're agreeing on. Once more, it's a pleasure to commission this work from you, and I have the pleasure to remain, etc., etc."

E-mail is forever. While it might sound like what I'm doing is ass-covering, it is, but it's more than that. It's making sure that we understand what we want from each other. I understand that you can't just forge out a sword that's 37.25" of blade with a 19.68" fuller, and I understand that, well, life happens. Plus, this gives everyone a chance to look it over, in black and white print, before spitting on our hands and coming to agreement.

And if there is a dispute, well, it's all there in black and white.

Man, this sounds like a bad deal all around. (Activates sarcasm mode.) But what do two hacks like Pearce and Trim know about swords, anyway? (Sarcasm off.)

I had that same thought. They're both Tinker swords, so of course there's going to be similarities when you ask for a sword based on his production model.

@14th: In the words of the great Jonah Jameson: Slander is spoken, in print it's libel.

Very bizarre situation.

He commissioned a replica of a production sword?

/facepalm

Wowza.

Read the whole thing... and was compelled to post my thoughts in the thread, even tho I post on MyArmoury very rarely.

What a mess.

Overall it's not really a good situation.

Two thoughts come to mind:
--If he wanted a GSoW, why not just buy one off Kult of Athena and have it re-ground and re-hilted to his specifications? Granted, he wanted one a little longer than the standard... but then he said okay when Tinker said he had a shorter blade that would work. It can't be that hard to shorten the GSoW hilt either, just lop off the thread, bore a hole through the pommel, and peen it on down. That would have given him practically the same thing, though granted handling is probably quite different between a production sword and a sword made by Tinker's own hand.
--The whole affair with not wanting to back up his own side of the story smells quite fishy to me. Joe Fults pointed out that it's quite likely that this guy might end up with nobody wanting to do business with him; certainly can't blame them for it, and it's no more than he deserves if he's going to air this whole issue out in public. If I were Tinker, I would give him the choice between accepting the sword with a peened pommel and a dulled finish or just taking his money back, although I'm not sure Tinker could afford that given that he has apparently had a lot of financial issues pop up lately (electrical problems at his house and having to pay the mortgage). A lot of craftsmen work with very tight margin of profit; $1400 might sound like a lot for a sword, but Tinker probably has only come up even after everything he's put into that sword and all the bills he's had to pay.

My intent in bringing this to the attention of this forum was as information only.

A very strong allegation was made against a well respected member of this forum, MyArmoury, and the sword community in general.

My opinion mirrors ChrisA above, and it is worth exactly what you pad for it-

The OP could not afford the sword when the bill came due.
He voiced a baseless, yet very severe, allegation in the hopes that Tinker would pay up to make it go away.

Call it what you will, but it's not quite cricket.

Now, now, none of all this taking only one side *takes a rolling dive off the Tinker/Pierce bandwagon...stands up spotless*. As a professional, the Tinker fellow should have handled things differently, both parties were at fault here and I think we can all agree manufacturers are held to a higher standard than customers, thats how the system works. I personally HAVE ordered a custom job of a production sword ( see FableBlades Aphrodite's Regret) and have come out very pleased without any question to whether Brenno used UC components. I think if the customer thinks his man did a shoddy job, and if it resembles something close to production then he is allowed to speculate. I think that if someone takes pride in their work, like Brenno, there will never be any question as to shadiness. I think you could ask Brenno to make an exact replica of any production sword and that piece done by him would clearly outshine the original just because he takes so much pride and care in his work. Now perhaps airing that laundry for those two on that forum wasn't the best, but a good craftsmen I felt wouldn't have let it get that far in all fairness. I don't believe it ever should have gotten to that point, either Tinker or the customer should have had a red flag go up.

On another note, that is another highly respectable custom worker with an immovable tarnish on his record.