Micarta Banter: a Flaw and a Phoenix
I was crushed. The message from WE came around 11 p.m. on April 1, 2021. As a maker of products, it was the worst kind of news. Everything was ready. The release date was set. I’d already sent the products to friends. The rocket was on the launchpad. Except for the knives— the protagonist, the star, the leading lady— was lost. The WE Banter in Micarta had a fatal flaw. The micarta handles were warping. My We Chat blew up as I frantically sent messages back and forth to the team in China early into the morning. We were mere weeks away from launch. I’d already posted to Instagram. The knives had already shipped to dealers. Were they all bad? Just a few? It didn’t matter. Some were bad, others could go bad, we all knew it, and that was too much. We pulled the plug. It would be 16 months before we recovered from the ashes.
A Fatal Flaw
Here’s how it happened: When I designed the WE Banter, I wanted it to be lightweight. Instead of a steel liner on the front scale of the knife, I designed it to rely on the rigidity of G10— a fiberglass and resin composite with excellent strength and the ability to function as a structural component of a pocket knife. This eliminated the weight of the steel, while keeping the strength of the knife.
In home reno terms, the G10 was a load-bearing wall. This works great with G10 because it’s stable. This does not, however, work well with micarta, bone, or other natural materials. You see, instead of fiberglass as the base material, micarta is fabric. Canvas, denim, burlap, or other fibrous fabrics are layered with resin, compressed, and turned into a slab of micarta. It’s a wonderful material that wears beautifully, and it’s ridiculously grippy in your hand. It’s a near-perfect material for pocket knives. But its fatal flaw is the flex. Is it humid today? Micarta swells. Desert hot? Micarta shrinks. And why wouldn’t it? It’s made from natural, fibrous materials. This isn’t an issue when the micarta is next to a structural piece of steel liner in a pocket knife. Like a home, the internal framing supports the engineering and weight of the structure while the exterior of a house— say stucco— is a façade built for flair. The stucco can flex with the cold or heat, but it isn’t the structural frame of the home. But imagine if your stucco was load-bearing. That’s what the micarta was doing for the Banter. And it flopped.
WE was doing final checks on the knife before shipping, and they realized that the micarta was warping. Some knives weren’t locking up. Others had unfixable blade centering. We considered the options. QC them all again? Release it to the public? Deal with the ones that come back? They weren’t all bad, right? Recall it? Pause? Hold? Here’s what I wrote on my Instagram:
Let me ask you a question: would you rather find out a new bridge was unstable BEFORE cars start driving on it? Or AFTER they start driving on it? The answer is simple to me. Before is always better. You don't open a bad bridge. And you close a bridge with problems. I'm lucky to work with WE Knives. They close a bridge if it's bad.
We collectively closed the bridge, recalled the knives from dealers, and asked the influencers that already had one to hold the presses. Sometimes doing the right thing hurts. Real bad. This knife wasn’t just another product for me.
At the time, I saw the Micarta Banter as the knife that financially would allow me to quit my job in corporate America and move back into the knife industry full-time on my own terms. It was a golden goose soaring on an updraft that would open the door to my self-employment dream. But the goose went straight through a jetliner engine, exploding unceremoniously in a cloud of feathers punctuated by charred micarta dreams. I could only stand idly by and watch as its ashes fluttered miserably back to earth. We did the right thing. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt. This picture from Raven the Pirate illustrated the public’s response really well, but it was also how I felt about my immediate career plans— untenable, slipped, just out of reach:
Licking Our Wounds
If I told you there were more than 2,000 ruined micarta Banters, would you believe me? There are two people out there that believe every word, every handle scale, every bearing, every barrel spacer, every. single. screw. WE and I figured that the best way to salvage the knives was to replace the handle scales. The knife blades, locks, and hardware were just fine. It was only the scales with issues. So, we hatched a plan: we’d make new scales from shredded carbon fiber, hire knife assemblers in the States to swap the scales (it’s difficult to ship knives back to China for things like this), and release a new version of the Banter. The Carbon Fiber Banter is the result of Amy Bell and Kyle Burgess spending nights, weekends, and spare moments retooling the micarta Banter. They removed and swapped every single scale.
The Micarta Banter transformed into the Carbon Fiber Banter.
I can’t thank them enough. It was a horrible job. They both hate the Banter now— sorry about that, my friends. I can’t blame them. That’s a LOT of knives. With the 2K units repaired, the Carbon Fiber Banter went to market. That said, we hadn’t given up on the Micarta Banter idea yet. Licking wounds via a salvage job is one thing. Returning to the next match after a KO is another. WE wanted it. I wanted it. We retooled.
Phoenix Rising
A lot happened in my life in the 16 months between April 2021 and July 2022: I changed jobs. We bought a new house and moved. Our kids started in a new school. Athena and I blew up the details of our lives to better position ourselves for a future where we could be self-employed. In May of 2022, I quit my new job in corporate America and we made our side hustle Knafs a main hustle. In hindsight, the extra time gave us opportunity to ponder, think, strategize, and rely less on emotional excitement. We ran the numbers better. We retooled in smart ways. The delay was a blessing in disguise.
In the meantime, WE and I worked on the Micarta Banter. The solution was easy: just add a steel liner on the front scale. Ha! If only. If you’re doing surgery, why not remove the appendix too? Tummy tuck while we’ve got you open? Why not. We slimmed the front handle slightly to allow easier lock access. We added a lefty pocket clip on the front scale. Beyond the structural front steel liner, we used the opportunity to improve the Banter in subtle ways.
Left: The updated internals of the Micarta Banter with a steel liner. Right: The original, faulty internals with structural micarta (no bueno).
WE sent me prototypes to test. I wanted to know. I wanted to double and triple check. I sent one to my buddy Rafael in Florida to test in the humidity. Another went to Scotty from Hawaii to test its Aloha mettle.
And the other stayed with me in Utah to try out in the desert. The testing came back all positive and all smiles. This was going to work. The difference is the steel liner in the front scale. It’s holding the knife together, while the micarta is simply part of the decoration. The structure is very different from the G10, and we’re thrilled about its performance. I’ve had a few people ask if they’re still prone to flexing in hot or humid environments. The answer is a resounding: no. Testing from hot, humid areas showed we’re good to go. Clear for liftoff. Sign up for the wishlist here: WE Micarta Banter
As an interesting side note to this conversation: I sent original Micarta Banters to Georgia (state), Canada, Germany, and Portugal. The one in Germany had mild issues with micarta flex. The other three had zero issues. If only one car falls off the bridge, is it OK to open it? Nope. Even though not all the knives had issues, I’m glad we closed the bridge. It was the right thing to do.
Timing is an interesting thing, particularly when it comes to products. You can’t release the 2024 Honda Accord before the 2023 goes to market. So it is with knives. There’s order and flow to release dates and timing. The Carbon Fiber Banter needed to release and run the course before we released the Micarta Banter. The wait has been excruciating. But while we’re doing Micarta, what about a Baby Banter in Micarta too? Don’t mind if we did:
Another little fun fact about the Baby Banter in Micarta: the original prototype of the Baby was this exact configuration. The original release was supposed to be in micarta. I’m glad we avoided that pothole with the Baby Banter. And I’m even more glad we’re bringing it to market now. Sign up for the wishlist here: Civivi Baby Banter Micarta
I’m beyond ecstatic to announce the Banter Micarta - Phoenix Edition (that’s what I’m calling it at least) to the world. It’s a beautiful knife that embodies WE’s mantra of “Made Better.” This knife cost WE significantly. I don’t have the numbers, but it wasn’t cheap. The extra shipping costs, labor costs, material costs, opportunity costs, and lost momentum were likely in the 6 figures— that’s a big ouch to any business. But they did it because it was the right thing to do. They did it because they know that some mistakes don’t fix by plowing forward, rather, a meticulous backtrack and retool is required. Go backward to go forward. I’m grateful to work with WE/Civivi. They do this stuff right. They swept up the ashes of the golden goose and carefully restructured it into a fresh, fantastic phoenix. I’m thrilled we did it right. Enjoy the WE Micarta Banter, amigos.