The results of their testing are not surprising at all. I agree with them that had I not known the steel was different, I would have chalked it up to bad QC/Heat Treatment as well. Given my normal knife use, I am not sure if I would have discovered that level of blade chipping/breakage, at least not for quite some time. The fit and finish issues with the blade to handle would have been noticed immediately though.

On a totally separate note, I was digging the (I'm guessing) AI generated Bark River song in the first several minutes.

I have several Bark River knives and I have been to the factory in Esky. When BRKT first opened the knives were much more reasonably priced than the knives produced just prior to shutdown. This helped pushed Stewarts downfall, IMHO. And Stewart has a checkered history with other knife companies (Blackjack, Marbles) with similar situations.

I picked up 3 of the Forest Scandi's back in December. They all have the maple burl handles , beautiful knives. They are for our annual trip up to the North Maine Woods this summer. Hope fully these are made of the good steel.

Baran, what is the type of steel on those knives? Is it 3V? Regardless, I'm pretty sure the Forest Scandi was not on the list of known Chinese steel knives. You are probably okay.

Enjoy your trip to Maine this summer!