Post by gwynbleid on Apr 8, 2021 6:14:46 GMT
I commissioned James Curry to make a custom hilt for my h/t longsword last fall and the whole experience has put a bad taste in my mouth. I don't usually write reviews, but given Jimbos bad business ethics, I felt like I needed to share my experience as a warning for future potential customers.
I reached out to James last November and mulled over some ideas about a custom hilt with him. He gave me a price list basically, and told me he usually just does whole swords. I asked if he could just make me a hilt for a hanwei/tinker longsword and he somewhat reluctantly said yes. So off the bat he seemed a little salty that I was only buying a hilt (he mentioned this way later, as a crazy rationalization for dragging his feet) and not going in for an entire sword, even though he would just be the middle man for the actual blade since he isn't a swordsmith.
Anyway he said it would be $250 and that I needed to pay PRIOR to him actually doing any work. I should have seen this as the first massive red flag that it was, but he has many people on this very site swooning over his work.
Anyway I paid him on December 3rd and he told me it would take about 4-6 weeks. So I figured if I was lucky, I might get the hilt before Xmas, but I wasn't expecting that, or even hoping as such. I was still under the impression that he was a professional. So about 6 weeks go by and I ask him how it's progressing/if it's finished or whatever and he says he hadn't started yet because he went on vacation or there was a death in the family or something along those lines. Which seemed like a weak excuse for taking someone's money to start to do a job and then not actually doing it, but that's just my opinion. So I wait another 2 weeks to see what's up. I ask him what's up, and now he hasn't started because he says he doesn't have a h/t blade to use to reference the hilt on, while making it, and that the sword he was gonna use has been lost in the mail for weeks. I give him every single measurement of my blade so he can maybe start. I'm starting to get frustrated, but I'm still polite and just kinda nag him to start/get on with doing the job I paid him to do. Anyway, another two or so weeks go by and I don't hear from him so I message him, and his Facebook is deactivated. At this point I'm freaking out and I'm pretty pissed because it seems like this guy ripped me off.
Well, if you've read my prior post about his Fb getting deactivated, you know what happened with that incident, if not, go read the post, it's a whole other story.
So another two weeks go by, and he still has abolutely nothing to show. So this bs keeps repeating and every two weeks, he tells me it'll be two more weeks. So I'm thinking wtf. This is getting really old. He finally starts showing me pictures of a guard and the pommel he had set aside for me. And eventually even the grip. But he also keeps giving me false finish times and I go off on him because I'm sick of this bs. I try not to be too much of a jerk about it, and I keep pointing to the facts and he basically tells me that "time is not a real issue" and he keeps trying to shift the blame. Somehow it's my responsibility to be unconditionally patient, even though it seems like he's giving me the run around. because he's posting pictures of newly finished swords that he put up for sale, yet he can't find the time to finish the job he demanded payment in advance for.
In summation, I paid on Dec 3rd after we talked about what I wanted and what it would cost.
He said it would be 4-6 weeks.
He made an excuse every time he dragged the project out, which happened almost every 2 weeks.
In total, it took Jimbo over 17 weeks to finish and he was unprofessional about it when I confronted him and wanted him to get the job done.
He lied to me and said he used the measurements I gave him of my tang and that he used the same model sword as a reference, but there is absolutely no way that is true, unless he is just incompetent.
He either made the grip too short, or the pommel was too small and none of the pieces of the hilt actually fit. The pommel is too small and is off by over half an inch so there isn't much I can do about it. The grip rattles on the tang and shifts around a lot, and the guard doesn't rest even remotely evenly on the blade/tang's shoulders.
If it were anyone else, I would ask them to fix it and hopefully send it back, but I don't want to wait another 5 or so months for him to just potentially mess it up again. I had heard he was good at making hilts, but after doing some digging, I found that I wasn't the first person to have a terrible experience doing business with him. I recommend to steer clear of him.
I reached out to James last November and mulled over some ideas about a custom hilt with him. He gave me a price list basically, and told me he usually just does whole swords. I asked if he could just make me a hilt for a hanwei/tinker longsword and he somewhat reluctantly said yes. So off the bat he seemed a little salty that I was only buying a hilt (he mentioned this way later, as a crazy rationalization for dragging his feet) and not going in for an entire sword, even though he would just be the middle man for the actual blade since he isn't a swordsmith.
Anyway he said it would be $250 and that I needed to pay PRIOR to him actually doing any work. I should have seen this as the first massive red flag that it was, but he has many people on this very site swooning over his work.
Anyway I paid him on December 3rd and he told me it would take about 4-6 weeks. So I figured if I was lucky, I might get the hilt before Xmas, but I wasn't expecting that, or even hoping as such. I was still under the impression that he was a professional. So about 6 weeks go by and I ask him how it's progressing/if it's finished or whatever and he says he hadn't started yet because he went on vacation or there was a death in the family or something along those lines. Which seemed like a weak excuse for taking someone's money to start to do a job and then not actually doing it, but that's just my opinion. So I wait another 2 weeks to see what's up. I ask him what's up, and now he hasn't started because he says he doesn't have a h/t blade to use to reference the hilt on, while making it, and that the sword he was gonna use has been lost in the mail for weeks. I give him every single measurement of my blade so he can maybe start. I'm starting to get frustrated, but I'm still polite and just kinda nag him to start/get on with doing the job I paid him to do. Anyway, another two or so weeks go by and I don't hear from him so I message him, and his Facebook is deactivated. At this point I'm freaking out and I'm pretty pissed because it seems like this guy ripped me off.
Well, if you've read my prior post about his Fb getting deactivated, you know what happened with that incident, if not, go read the post, it's a whole other story.
So another two weeks go by, and he still has abolutely nothing to show. So this bs keeps repeating and every two weeks, he tells me it'll be two more weeks. So I'm thinking wtf. This is getting really old. He finally starts showing me pictures of a guard and the pommel he had set aside for me. And eventually even the grip. But he also keeps giving me false finish times and I go off on him because I'm sick of this bs. I try not to be too much of a jerk about it, and I keep pointing to the facts and he basically tells me that "time is not a real issue" and he keeps trying to shift the blame. Somehow it's my responsibility to be unconditionally patient, even though it seems like he's giving me the run around. because he's posting pictures of newly finished swords that he put up for sale, yet he can't find the time to finish the job he demanded payment in advance for.
In summation, I paid on Dec 3rd after we talked about what I wanted and what it would cost.
He said it would be 4-6 weeks.
He made an excuse every time he dragged the project out, which happened almost every 2 weeks.
In total, it took Jimbo over 17 weeks to finish and he was unprofessional about it when I confronted him and wanted him to get the job done.
He lied to me and said he used the measurements I gave him of my tang and that he used the same model sword as a reference, but there is absolutely no way that is true, unless he is just incompetent.
He either made the grip too short, or the pommel was too small and none of the pieces of the hilt actually fit. The pommel is too small and is off by over half an inch so there isn't much I can do about it. The grip rattles on the tang and shifts around a lot, and the guard doesn't rest even remotely evenly on the blade/tang's shoulders.
If it were anyone else, I would ask them to fix it and hopefully send it back, but I don't want to wait another 5 or so months for him to just potentially mess it up again. I had heard he was good at making hilts, but after doing some digging, I found that I wasn't the first person to have a terrible experience doing business with him. I recommend to steer clear of him.