Reading through your original post again Archie, it does sound like the knife might have been damaged in the mail. Did you take any pics of the knife when it arrived? I guess, if someone stood on it, or ran over the envelope with a cart, it could have been damaged.
@Slim278 emailed me photos of the one knife he received, and it looks like it has been run-over by a vehicle, the liner is bent, and the blade has been pushed into the liner opposite. As the liner has been bent inwards the horn has separated from the liner. I think it'd take quite a bit of force to cause the damage, and in this case the knife was wrapped in several layers of bubble-wrap, sealed in a Jiffy bag, and then that was sealed inside another Jiffy bag. That's how I usually ship knives, and how I shipped all the Guardians knives last year. Maybe I will have to look at some other packaging for this year's, but that would be more expensive. Of course, in the case of Slim's knife, it may not have been in the envelope when it was damaged, because the ripped-open packaging was delivered empty, with the Post Master subsequently finding the knife in the bottom of the mail-cart. Guardians Lambsfoot aside, I don't think I will be picking up any knives from the factory for a while, it's too much of a headache
Edit - Here's the 'before' pic of the damaged/ruined knife, such a shame
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