Bark River Knives, a USA knifemaker, shut down a few days ago.
In a shocking reveal, it has come to light that – as I understand it – Bark River Knives bought imported knife blanks, refinished them, added handles, and advertising the knives as as being made in USA from specific USA-made steels.
DLT Trading, one of their dealers, says that Bark River Knives has “deceptively labeled” some of their products:
Three Bark River Knives models have been identified as Chinese-manufactured blanks that were labeled and sold as “Made in the USA.” Employees at the Bark River Knives facility have confirmed that foreign-origin markings were removed from these blanks and that the knives were finished and presented as if they were fully manufactured at the BRK facility in Michigan. The affected models and their stated steels are as follows:
Fox River Trailing Point — stated as 154CM
Mini Manitou — stated as CPM-154
Camp Bolo — stated as CPM-154
For emphasis:
Chinese-manufactured blanks that were labeled and sold as “Made in the USA.”
Employees at the Bark River Knives facility have confirmed that foreign-origin markings were removed and the knives were finished and presented as if they were fully manufactured at the BRK facility in Michigan.
Here’s a statement from the company, posted by Mike Stewart to the Bark River Knives Facebook page (with line breaks for improved readability):
LET’S MAKE THIS OFFICIAL .This is a Long Read but Important.
BARK RIVER KNIVES IS NOW CLOSED.
All business was concluded on Friday Afternoon March 20th 2026.
This Closing was long overdue – I should have done this over 2 years ago.
I need to say that all of this is 100% totally my responsibility.As you have seen from the tons of posts I have been taking the heat since Friday.
There are many factors that lead to this but ultimately I’ll take the Blame.
Please do not Blame Lesley Stewart or Jim Stewart for any of this.
In addition to my Mismanagement the Choice to use an Alternate Chinese Steel was my choice – not anyone else’s Blunder.Over the last 25 years we have made well over a million knives.
This blunder of mine only effected a few models
Here is the List of them.Camp Bolo.
Fox River Skinner.
Highwayman 4.
Mini-Manitou.
Gladstone Hunter.
Bitterroot Caper
The Last two Club Knives as well.We tested the steel it had almost the same edge retention of CPM 154.
It had the same toughness as CPM 154
It had even more Stain Resistance than CPM 154.
All of these were reground with our Convex Geometry.
All were reshaped them to a Bark River Shape
All were processed in our Shop by our Crew.
All of the handle materials were materials we currently use
All of them were etched just like all our models
All were inspected and boxed like all of our models.By doing over 5 operations on each knife – they meet the criteria of Made in U.S.A.
Yes the steel was mis-marked.Let me be clear that None of our Dealers knew about any of this and are 100% Blameless for this situation.
It is 100% my Fault.Let me also clearly state that all other Bark River Knives have been made with the Steel that is marked on the blade – This use of import steel was only for a very short period of Time to keep our Employees working.
IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS.
Jim Stewart will be opening his own Knife Company
100% Independent of Bark River Knives.
Jim has agreed to take over all of the Warranties that would normally go to Bark River.
When he is ready I’m sure he will make the Official Announcement.
I will not have a hand in his new Company.All I can do at this point is Offer a Very Sincere Apology and with much regret fade out of the knife industry that I have spent the last 50 years in.
I want to thank all of the Folks that have Reached out to me privately to offer their support. It has meant a lot to me.
I wanted to wait to post this until our Dealers had a chance to react and post their positions.
I also wanted to make sure that all of our Employees were paid for working last week. I did that this morning.
My recent Health Problems and Lesley’s Health Problems did play a part in all of this but I am not using that as any kind of excuse.
DLT Trading says that they learned of the closure at the same time as the public, with no advanced notice, and that they still hold a large inventory of Bark River Knives.
Other dealers, such as Knives Ship Free, also seem to have a large inventory or BRK products.
There are rumors on social media that Bark River Knives was cut off from USA steel suppliers for not paying their bills, and that this is why they started buying knife blanks that were made in China.
Bark River Knives (BRK) was a fixed blade knife brand that charged premium prices.
According to online chatter, it seems that Bark River Knives admitted to their fraudulent activities only because they had already been caught.
As someone who purchased and recommended several Bark River Knives over the years, I feel scammed. How far did their misrepresentation really go?
