Oh, I knew coming into this that it would take 2~3 years, it's very common in the custom knife world, this particular maker closed his books after his lead time got out to 4 years. Im just extremely happy I got in before he closed them.
By the way, these guys don't promise anything, standard practice is "I'll let you know when it's getting close to delivery", and then you wait, it's a pure luxury item, and investment. It's not something I need, it's something I want, and I will wait as long as it takes to get that bad boy...