If you’re a knife aficionado like me you want to take some time to find some of the best blades available. About five years ago, through an online search, I discovered Americankami.com, which is also known as American Kami Custom Blades (AK) and is solely owned and operated by a Mr. DJ Urbanovsky (DJ). According to the AK website, DJ’s manufacturing shop is located in Omaha, Nebraska. He offers two basic categories of products to order through his website: Full Custom and Professional Grade, also called “Midtech.”
The products he offers includes fixed and folding knives, axes and hatchets, swords, impact weapons and miscellaneous items, such as “Apocalyspork” (combo fork/spoon) and a field shooting bag he calls a “shiitbag.”
Sometime in 2016, I read through the AK website sales pitch, “about” section, product line, testimonies, etc., and decided that a purchase of one of Mr. Urbanovsky’s Midtech products was warranted. I ordered one of his “MicrAxe” axes (closer to a hatchet in appearance) that came with a sheath. Within several weeks of ordering, I received the axe with sheath, I thought the product was as described and seemed to be of good quality and an all-around good value (even though I found a tiny machining flaw on the tip of the axe back spike)
Since then, production processes at AK have been very slow, and according to DJ, he has had a huge backlog of orders and problems with machine shops, etc. Check out his reasons for the huge backlog of orders and manufacturing process delays on his website: http://www.americankami.com/bench.html .
I figured I could be patient enough to wait for the production delays and a year later in May of 2017, I decided to order a solid, well-made, fixed blade knife from AK based on my previous choice of the MicrAxe. I chose the “M3” knife, which was also included in the Midtech lineup. About this time, I ordered the knife via email and Mr. Urbanovsky responded in around 2 weeks. Long story short, he mentioned that my knife order would be completed in 90 to 180 days from date of order. I made a payment for the knife via PayPal for $479 in full! After nine (9) emails I sent for progress checks of the knife over the course of more than 2 years all I received form Mr. Urbanovsky was excuse after excuse for the delays! The following is one of several email responses I received from him (this one on January 24, 2019—mind you this is more than 1-1/2 years after my initial order and payment):
“Sorry for the delayed response, buddy! Recovering from the external contract machinist debacles, getting the new CNC machine running actual parts (which it is FINALLY doing), working on folders, full customs, sporky stuff, dealing with holidays, and then recovering from flu. Getting un-buried from the emails now. Pics attached! The big steel plate with all of the threaded holes in it is the mainplate. I had to design that, get it machined, get it here, indicated, and then installed to the actual table of the machine (and then re-indicated/verified), and now it lives there forever. That task is complete, and she’s accurate to within +/- 0.0002...”
This is what I consider a bunch of shop-talk blather just to pacify a customer. At that point I had been far more than patient and I didn’t want to get any more excuses from him. I also attempted to have the charge on my PayPal account reversed and cancelled on my credit card, but that didn’t work. I discovered in order for that to work I should have done that inside of a year from point of payment. On April 26, 2019, in frustration I wrote another email to him as follows:
“Ok, once more... What is the status of my knife order?! I want delivery of the completed knife by next May--a full 2 YEARS after I paid for the d**n thing! If you are unable to do this, I want a full refund in the amount of $479.00!” Almost 2 months later, on June 20, 2019, this is the short response I received for Mr. Urbanovsky:
“She’s in process, [XXX]. Fixtures required revisions. Thanks for your support, and stay safe.”
This is the last time I received a response from him. I decided to follow up with another email in February 2020 to no avail! NOW, 4 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS HAVE PASSED AFTER MY ORDER AND PAYMENT WAS SUBMITTED FOR THE KNIFE AND I HAVE BEEN SOAKED FOR $479.00! DJ will not answer the phone number provided and he likely won’t answer his emails for weeks at a time. Frustrating!
As an added frustration, I have tried to search for any other contact phone numbers and a permanent mailing address and/or an address for the AK shop. I have searched for an address for AK using a paid online site for background checks and also using WHOIS directory. These sources don’t reveal anything about where the AK shop is located or who owns the AK website (the Registrant and Tech Contact info for the website had been “REDACTED FOR PRIVACY”). The phone number DJ provides on his website is apparently registered to someone entirely different! The AK operation seems shady and AK has gone downhill rapidly. I think DJ hasn’t even updated the AK website since 2018!
I am not the only customer of AK who has had issues with this company. Check out the similar complaint on BladeForums.com: https://bladeforums.com/threads/im-getting-fed-up-with-d-j-urbanovsky-american-kami.1623660 .
Do yourself a favor and avoid buying anything from this guy; he is way too busy to be in business for himself. If DJ is actually attempting to play catchup on the orders backlog, he needs to hire helpers if only to email waiting customers for status checks!! Otherwise, he’ll take your money for nothing in return! DJ Urbanovsky is a CROOK!
Americankami.com Reviews
If you’re a knife aficionado like me you want to take some time to find some of the best blades available. About five years ago, through an online search, I discovered Americankami.com, which is also known as American Kami Custom Blades (AK) and is solely owned and operated by a Mr. DJ Urbanovsky (DJ). According to the AK website, DJ’s manufacturing shop is located in Omaha, Nebraska. He offers two basic categories of products to order through his website: Full Custom and Professional Grade, also called “Midtech.”
The products he offers includes fixed and folding knives, axes and hatchets, swords, impact weapons and miscellaneous items, such as “Apocalyspork” (combo fork/spoon) and a field shooting bag he calls a “shiitbag.”
Sometime in 2016, I read through the AK website sales pitch, “about” section, product line, testimonies, etc., and decided that a purchase of one of Mr. Urbanovsky’s Midtech products was warranted. I ordered one of his “MicrAxe” axes (closer to a hatchet in appearance) that came with a sheath. Within several weeks of ordering, I received the axe with sheath, I thought the product was as described and seemed to be of good quality and an all-around good value (even though I found a tiny machining flaw on the tip of the axe back spike)
Since then, production processes at AK have been very slow, and according to DJ, he has had a huge backlog of orders and problems with machine shops, etc. Check out his reasons for the huge backlog of orders and manufacturing process delays on his website: http://www.americankami.com/bench.html .
I figured I could be patient enough to wait for the production delays and a year later in May of 2017, I decided to order a solid, well-made, fixed blade knife from AK based on my previous choice of the MicrAxe. I chose the “M3” knife, which was also included in the Midtech lineup. About this time, I ordered the knife via email and Mr. Urbanovsky responded in around 2 weeks. Long story short, he mentioned that my knife order would be completed in 90 to 180 days from date of order. I made a payment for the knife via PayPal for $479 in full! After nine (9) emails I sent for progress checks of the knife over the course of more than 2 years all I received form Mr. Urbanovsky was excuse after excuse for the delays! The following is one of several email responses I received from him (this one on January 24, 2019—mind you this is more than 1-1/2 years after my initial order and payment):
“Sorry for the delayed response, buddy! Recovering from the external contract machinist debacles, getting the new CNC machine running actual parts (which it is FINALLY doing), working on folders, full customs, sporky stuff, dealing with holidays, and then recovering from flu. Getting un-buried from the emails now. Pics attached! The big steel plate with all of the threaded holes in it is the mainplate. I had to design that, get it machined, get it here, indicated, and then installed to the actual table of the machine (and then re-indicated/verified), and now it lives there forever. That task is complete, and she’s accurate to within +/- 0.0002...”
This is what I consider a bunch of shop-talk blather just to pacify a customer. At that point I had been far more than patient and I didn’t want to get any more excuses from him. I also attempted to have the charge on my PayPal account reversed and cancelled on my credit card, but that didn’t work. I discovered in order for that to work I should have done that inside of a year from point of payment. On April 26, 2019, in frustration I wrote another email to him as follows:
“Ok, once more... What is the status of my knife order?! I want delivery of the completed knife by next May--a full 2 YEARS after I paid for the d**n thing! If you are unable to do this, I want a full refund in the amount of $479.00!” Almost 2 months later, on June 20, 2019, this is the short response I received for Mr. Urbanovsky:
“She’s in process, [XXX]. Fixtures required revisions. Thanks for your support, and stay safe.”
This is the last time I received a response from him. I decided to follow up with another email in February 2020 to no avail! NOW, 4 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS HAVE PASSED AFTER MY ORDER AND PAYMENT WAS SUBMITTED FOR THE KNIFE AND I HAVE BEEN SOAKED FOR $479.00! DJ will not answer the phone number provided and he likely won’t answer his emails for weeks at a time. Frustrating!
As an added frustration, I have tried to search for any other contact phone numbers and a permanent mailing address and/or an address for the AK shop. I have searched for an address for AK using a paid online site for background checks and also using WHOIS directory. These sources don’t reveal anything about where the AK shop is located or who owns the AK website (the Registrant and Tech Contact info for the website had been “REDACTED FOR PRIVACY”). The phone number DJ provides on his website is apparently registered to someone entirely different! The AK operation seems shady and AK has gone downhill rapidly. I think DJ hasn’t even updated the AK website since 2018!
I am not the only customer of AK who has had issues with this company. Check out the similar complaint on BladeForums.com: https://bladeforums.com/threads/im-getting-fed-up-with-d-j-urbanovsky-american-kami.1623660 .
Do yourself a favor and avoid buying anything from this guy; he is way too busy to be in business for himself. If DJ is actually attempting to play catchup on the orders backlog, he needs to hire helpers if only to email waiting customers for status checks!! Otherwise, he’ll take your money for nothing in return! DJ Urbanovsky is a CROOK!