Jay Fisher - Fine Custom Knives

The most important page on this site!

This is the most important page on this site, because all of my new contacts and most of my existing client's, business, and news contacts are by email. This page details that communication. Some important points to note are:

• Due to the extremely high volume of traffic and email that my site gets, I can only answer email if you are an interested knife client, or seeking Professional and Expert Knife Consultation. Please, serious inquiries only.
• I've got a hefty email spam blocker, so if you don't hear from me within 48  hours (business days), please try again!
• Please don't email me with knife making questions. Please check the "What I do and do not do" page before inquiring.
• If you are inquiring about the general cost of one of my knives, I have a guide here.
• If you are inquiring about a Professional Knife Consultation, please look over the page linked for details.
• Questions? The chances are very good that the answer you seek about email is below.

Why this page?

You're on this page because you've clicked one of the email links on this website. Before you email me, I ask your indulgence that you take a quick moment to read this page, as the content is perhaps the most important on the web site. Why? Because ultimately, if you decide to contact me, email is the medium we will use.

The reason I've directed you to this page is because I handle a lot of email. Email contacts through this web site are how my business is accomplished, and email through this site has been the mainstay of my business since about the year 2000. How important is that? To compare, in your job, it would be like losing your voice completely, and also losing your ability to write. How will you make a living without communicating? You can't, and I can't either.

Email is a great medium; it establishes a string of conversation, no details are missed, and whether you are purchasing a current knife for sale, want to custom order a knife or project, or seek a professional knife consultation, email is the best way to do this.

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Why I want you to look over the "What I do and don't do" page first

I get over 100,000 hits a day, that's over 3 million hits a month. Many of these are people looking for answers and services. I get inquiries about everything related to knives: people want sheaths, people want information, people are doing research, factories are looking for contract services, contractors are looking for work, people want to know what their old knife is worth, people want sources of materials, information, and want me to train them to make knives. They want me to post their information, opinions, products, and links to their site. They want to know how to get into the career field, they want to know how to stabilize a caribou horn. They want everything from gun grips to a list of every known gemstone!

I get so many inquiries that I created a single page with a simple, clear, plain list of what I do and don't do. And if a person inquiring doesn't read the page, they might think that I'll make a sheath for their factory knife, or write their term paper for them, or tell them how to make a plunge in a hollow grind or what a distal taper is. If they ignore the page and still send their question, I won't reply at all.  I'm sorry I have to be so blunt; I'm not a mean guy, but my time is very limited. Any time I take away from my paying clients is not fair to them.

This is far different from Professional Knife Consultation, and I describe in on the dedicated page here.

There are plenty of places to answer those questions, and plenty of people who will make sheaths, stands, boxes, blades, or movie knives for you. I just make excellent knives, swords, daggers with their accessories. That's all I do. Luckily there are some links to answer those questions and queries on the page, and I'll add more as time permits. Want to know what I do and don't do? Please click here for the "What I Do and Don't Do" page.

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What if you don't hear from me?

If you've sent a query about my knives or a knife project or professional consultation, and you haven't heard from me in 48 hours, please try again. These are business days; don't panic if I don't answer over the weekend.

Did you look over the "What I do and don't do?" page first? Are you emailing me about something on that list? If you are, I can't answer.

Do you have strict email restrictions, spam blockers, or controlled access? Nowadays, many programs that function to prevent spam block any incoming email that may have a link (hyperlink) in the body of the email. Since I regularly and frequently include links in my emails (to the site, to pictures, or to bookmarked locations on this website), your blocker may not allow my emails to come to you. Perhaps I did answer you, but you have blocked me. Check your junk mail folder, be sure to add my address to your "allowed" list if your email program supports that function.

Are you a new knifemaker? While I appreciate that you may have found something useful on this site, this is not a how-to site, so I don't answer questions about knife making. With thousands of hits a day (sometimes hundreds of thousands), it's simply not possible for me to start answering questions about knife making. It's taken decades of dedication, study, and practice to get to this point, so it stands to reason that it would take decades of instruction to a new maker to answer all the questions that continually arise in the knife making arts. To dedicate this time and effort is something I simply can not do. Thanks for understanding, and feel free to learn from the ideas and concepts I put forward here on the site and in my efforts, tradecraft, and art. More on the What I do and don't do page.

Email confirmation for approved senders? If you write to me and are using an email confirmation service or program that requires me to submit information before you'll accept my reply, I won't fill out the info and submit it to be approved for your mailing list. I don't know if the person is fishing for information or what, but this kind of hindrance only causes more trouble than it's worth. Heck, you wrote me first. I take the time to write a response and the approval system blocks me and requires more information and my time. It's not a good idea to write to someone and then block their response. When I get these frustrating automated emails, I simply delete the email and the correspondence.

Professional Consult? If you are interested in a professional consultation, please look over my Knife Consultant Page, and email me with your inquiry.

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What if your email is blocked by my spam blocker?

This may happen if your email IP (Internet Protocol) address has been flagged by one of the numerous programs that list and maintain IP addresses that have been used to send spam. Even if your exact IP address has not sent any spam, an address very similar to yours, perhaps even on your server, has been identified as sending mass mailings. So the spam blocking program may list a range of IP addresses to block, and yours may fall in that list. You'll know this is happening by having your email to me (and maybe others) returned identifying it as being blocked for spam. It may even identify the list that your IP address appears on.

You'll probably want to get your name off the list, because once it's on there, you'll have trouble with everybody's spam blocker. Contact your email administrator to have this done; hopefully, they will cooperate.

What to do immediately to contact me: it's a good idea to have an alternate email source for just such knife-related (and other) email emergencies. You can get a simple one on msn.com (a hotmail account) or other similar free sites, and you can email me from there. This is good to have if you have a problem with your regular account, and it can allow you to access email on any computer that has internet access for free. This can help while travelling, or if you don't have your laptop with you. To read your email on any computer that has internet access for free, you can use sites like mail2web.com and you'll need to know your email account password.

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Phone calls?

"Why not just call Jay," you might ask, "and hammer out the details of my inquiry over the phone?"

Due to the intense volume of interest and inquiries (many of them not knife related), I must insist on initial email contact, and I've had to remove my telephone numbers from the public part of the web site. Also, there are some disadvantages to the telephone conversation. You can not reach me (most of the time) because I work in a shop with loud machinery, and cannot hear the phone, and am also concentrating on every specific detail, sometimes with my fingers and eyes very close to a high speed, rotating, metal-cutting machine, and can not afford to be startled by loud phone ringers. When I'm working, I do not carry my cell phone for the same reason. It's not that I don't want to talk to potential clients, it's often just not safe for me.

If you choose to call at a late or early hour, you won't get my full attention. That is because I work at least 11 hours a day, and my attention is not at its best when I'm tired. This leads to perhaps the most important reason for email, accountability (next).

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Accountability and record

I handle many clients at once, and more each year. This is not a complaint; I'm very grateful to be doing so well. But without a record, without a framework to detail every component of your knife, sword, project, consult, or inquiry, it's too easy to miss the details. Email establishes a running conversation, where every component can be referenced, every answer verified, each cost detailed. I want you to get the knife you want, and as a custom maker, must be meticulous about detail. I need your help in that, and that is all accomplished through email. A telephone call may seem like a faster and more comfortable contact, but what if I need to reference a specific detail of your project or request? At any given time, I'm dealing with at least twenty running conversations through email alone. Trying to do all that from the memory of a telephone call is beyond reason.

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Is email reliable?

Unfortunately, email is NOT as reliable as you might think. Having dealt with business email for the last twenty years, I can assure you that some of your email will be lost. It happens because email usually goes through several servers across the country (or world) before it arrives at its destination. And if one of these servers goes down, even for a microsecond, the mail may be simply deleted. Add to that firewalls, anti-spam programs, junk mail filters, and virus protection on every computer and server, and it's a wonder it works at all! It's sometimes hard to imagine that it isn't stored somewhere, that it isn't verified on delivery, that it isn't like an electronic envelope containing a slip of electronic paper, and thus has to go somewhere. Whether you include a read receipt or not (many email programs to not support this function), the only way to be sure your email has reached its destination is a response from the person you're sending it to.

There is a lot of email I get that I cannot respond to, because the sender gave me his wrong email address. There is email that I send that is never received. There are certain internet service providers and software that simply is unreliable for email delivery. AOL (America Online) is very bad about this. I've had more problems emailing clients who use an AOL address than any other service! If you have AOL, you need to be aware of this!

Also, I've got a hefty spam blocker on my server, and if the address you're emailing from has ever sent large amounts of spam, it will probably block you. See the topic about spam blocking above for details.

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What about alternate or included email addresses?

Most of the time, if you just click the email button on this page, your correct email address is automatically indicated on the email you send. But for those of you who request a different response email address, have alternate addresses on your email signature, are emailing from an office computer, network computer, or friend's computer and include your email address, please double check your included email address. Without the absolute, correct email address, I cannot email you back.

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How long will it take for a response?

Another, more important point is that I answer ALL the email I receive that pertains to ordering knives, usually within 48 hours (business days). This is my professional business and I'm meticulous about email. Please note that my server has a pretty hefty email blocker, and if the email address you're sending from has ever sent mass mailings or spam, it will block your email from getting to me. So if you haven't received a response from me, somewhere along the line, the system has broken down or the address has been blocked. I'm not ignoring you, and my computer does not hate you. Email me again.

If you still don't hear from me, ask yourself if you're asking about something I don't do. Read the What I Do and Don't Do page for the services I do offer.

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What about pictures included in my email and your email?

If you choose to include pictures in your email, please be sure they are in a standard format, either a .jpg file or a .gif file. That's because most modern email programs block certain attachments that are not in these standard formats because they could contain viruses or malicious code. They simply cannot be opened. But if you edit and save the picture as a .gif or .jpg type file, I can open them. Incidentally, that is how I send photos, too.

Another thing to watch for is the size of the photos you send. They should be about 100 Kilobytes in size maximum, or about the same size as your computer screen when edited at 100% size, or they will take forever to download, and offer no additional information. That is how I send pictures, too. There is no reason to send a huge, data-heavy picture 6 to 10 megabyte picture. One huge picture is not so bad, but please remember, I get lots of email.

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Will I use your email, address, or information?

I will not use your name, email address, or personal information in any public way.

But I may use your email content in my letters and emails page, and in the testimonials, and in my new book. I might use it for illustration, education, humor, or blatant and necessary self-promotion (hey, if I don't do it, who will?). I won't use your name (unless you've given specific permission) and I absolutely will not list your email address. Since my work is about you, it's only fair that I involve your input and comments.

By the way, all the comments and letters are the real thing; I never make up email, because the real thing is so precious! The testimonials are all over the site, but the funny stuff is here.

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