I'm saddened to hear that Ken61 died, and apparently suffered major health issues beforehand. Rest in peace Ken.
I remember the conflicts and complaints concerning Ken's barrel refinishing around the time he left this forum. It was very surprising because the complaints seemed so out of character. He always struck me as intelligent, responsible, and someone with a great work ethic. When he got into rust bluing barrels, he literally attacked the subject to learn all he could, and made every attempt to improve and do great work. He specifically leaned into Doug Woodin PA24 for advice, and said he would use Doug's results as his inspiration to do better. Anyone familiar with Doug's work knows this meant strict attention to details and perfection during the prep. So I wasn't surprised to hear Ted say that Ken wanted to take his Nitro Special barrels to a much higher level of polish than factory original.
Lots of people noticed, and it became apparent that a lot of folks were happily sending their barrels to Ken, and then endorsing him and giving him repeat business. I recall some pics he posted of probably a couple dozen barrel sets in progress, and it looked like he had almost an assembly line type operation. So CZ's comment about him scaling up his operation is a fact. However, it seems like things snowballed and got entirely out of hand, with business increasing about the same time as his health began to crash.
I'm sure it's no comfort to those who either lost barrels or had theirs damaged, but there is no part of me that believes Ken ever acted with bad intentions. I've seen a couple people that were terminally or severely ill suddenly take on large projects that I knew there was no possible way they could handle. It may be something like a tree that suddenly produces a huge crop of nuts because it somehow knows it is dying. I suppose it was no different with Ken, and he simply believed that he would somehow get better, and complete the barrels he had in his possession when he got too sick to keep up.
That said, it also surprised me that there are apparently 15 or 16 orphan barrels sets Ken had that the owners have not recovered. I'd have thought they would make a more diligent attempt to recover their property, especially if they paid in advance.
