Richard
BOUNCED EMAIL: I need to update my email address in my profile!
- Joined
- Oct 3, 1998
- Messages
- 1,742
First off, let me say...no, I didnt buy these
One of our fellow forumites, emanym ton, in a wild impulse decided to get them
He is holding various little contests in which several samples can be won by somebody for the purpose of evaluation. I won the first little contest, and he sent me 5 knives to evaluate. For reference...go to this link, the knives are pictured and there model names with them.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=110070&a=7087827
The knives consisted of 1-slip joint single blade, 3-lockbacks, 1-liner-lock.
The overall construction, fit & finish on all 5 samples borders on pathetic. All but the liner-lock had excessive blade play in all directions. Handles felt (and are) extremely cheap plastic, except for the "Raider" on which the box states rubber coated aluminum frame (we'll get to that a bit later).
Edges out of the box were, surprisingly enough, kind of sharp. By no means would they shave, but they were able to catch somewhat on a fingernail. Edge holding on all of them was terrible. I was able to cut 1 strip of cardboard(2 for the liner lock) about 12 or so inches long in a sawing motion, and the edge was no longer anywhere near sharp. I re-sharpened a couple of them on the sharpmaker, and again got similar results.
The only knife that saw any kind of use after that was the liner lock....the reasons are as follows.
First, all 3 lockbacks suffered lock failure with hand pressure alone. The force required (remember, just hand pressure) is equivalent to the pressure required to close the main blade on my NON-locking Victorinox SAK. That in not just poor performance...thats dangerous. Should you buy one of these from HSN, do not depend on the lock AT ALL!!!
Second, the single blade slip-joint. After the little bit of cardboard cutting, I tested for further blade play by moving the blade back and forth with light to moderate pressure. At that time the slip joint suffered catastrophic pivot failure, the handles seperated enough to allow removal of the blade, the pivot pin was sticking all the way out of one of the handles. This again, is not just poor, its extremely dangerous.
Lets move on to the Raider, the one that claims an aluminum frame with rubber coating. It was my opinion that you could squeeze the two handles together awfully easy. I used my SAK screwdriver, and starting at the pivot, pryed the knife apart. I took one of the handles and broke it into a few pieces...there is no aluminum frame...the entire handle is some kind of hard rubbery plastic. Here is a photo of the handle cross section.
Notice the arrow pointing to a dis-colored part in the handle. Maybe that is what they consider aluminum frame. By all appearences, it is just part of the plastic that stetched during breaking, and took on the white color that plastic does when stressed for breaking. I took another small piece of the handle that had a similar discoloration, and just to see if it was metal, i cut through it with my Spyderco police model (it wasnt metal
).
The only knife of the bunch that could even come close to being considered usable is the liner lock, although serious problems showed up with it as well. The lock itself was not able to be forced to failure. However, you know how those guys on HSN love to "snap" them open? Well, I did that several times. The blade has to be opened almost half way by hand, and then snapped the rest of the way. Very quickly the blade developed a pretty good up-and-down play.
Notice the stop pin hole...it appears they simply melt the stop pin into the cheap plastic. The snapping on the stop pin caused the hole to deform enough that IMO it would have suffered failure in the not to distant future.
The action on the liner lock was extremely gritty feeling. The reason IMO, is one side had some kind of synthetic washer, the other side, as can be seen in the picture, just had a spacer molded in the plastic.
I would not recommend these knives to anybody. I suppose if your budget is very tight, then perhaps the liner lock could serve as a temporary knife, however, it should be checked EVERY day for structural integrity.
As for the rest of the knives, not only are they poor quality, but they are 100% unsafe to use, even for very light duty. Lockback failure on all 3 lockbacks with light hand pressure alone is inexcusable.
I used to watch the HSN knife show because I thought it was funny, I now have a different attitude. I feel that some newbie that has no clue about functional knives could buy them, and during normal use could very easily suffer a catastrophic failure, and cause an injury.
My advice, stear clear of these knives at all costs. If your budget is such that you cant afford Spyderco or something similar, then turn to Gerber or Buck as they have inexpensive models that will serve you well. Those HSN guys are simply peddling unsafe junk, and IMO should be very ashamed.
And no, they dont even make good paper-wieghts
------------------
Richard
icq 61363141
Just some knife pictures http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=110070&a=4518795
UPDATED and REVISED
[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 07-08-2000).]
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=110070&a=7087827
The knives consisted of 1-slip joint single blade, 3-lockbacks, 1-liner-lock.
The overall construction, fit & finish on all 5 samples borders on pathetic. All but the liner-lock had excessive blade play in all directions. Handles felt (and are) extremely cheap plastic, except for the "Raider" on which the box states rubber coated aluminum frame (we'll get to that a bit later).
Edges out of the box were, surprisingly enough, kind of sharp. By no means would they shave, but they were able to catch somewhat on a fingernail. Edge holding on all of them was terrible. I was able to cut 1 strip of cardboard(2 for the liner lock) about 12 or so inches long in a sawing motion, and the edge was no longer anywhere near sharp. I re-sharpened a couple of them on the sharpmaker, and again got similar results.
The only knife that saw any kind of use after that was the liner lock....the reasons are as follows.
First, all 3 lockbacks suffered lock failure with hand pressure alone. The force required (remember, just hand pressure) is equivalent to the pressure required to close the main blade on my NON-locking Victorinox SAK. That in not just poor performance...thats dangerous. Should you buy one of these from HSN, do not depend on the lock AT ALL!!!
Second, the single blade slip-joint. After the little bit of cardboard cutting, I tested for further blade play by moving the blade back and forth with light to moderate pressure. At that time the slip joint suffered catastrophic pivot failure, the handles seperated enough to allow removal of the blade, the pivot pin was sticking all the way out of one of the handles. This again, is not just poor, its extremely dangerous.
Lets move on to the Raider, the one that claims an aluminum frame with rubber coating. It was my opinion that you could squeeze the two handles together awfully easy. I used my SAK screwdriver, and starting at the pivot, pryed the knife apart. I took one of the handles and broke it into a few pieces...there is no aluminum frame...the entire handle is some kind of hard rubbery plastic. Here is a photo of the handle cross section.
Notice the arrow pointing to a dis-colored part in the handle. Maybe that is what they consider aluminum frame. By all appearences, it is just part of the plastic that stetched during breaking, and took on the white color that plastic does when stressed for breaking. I took another small piece of the handle that had a similar discoloration, and just to see if it was metal, i cut through it with my Spyderco police model (it wasnt metal
The only knife of the bunch that could even come close to being considered usable is the liner lock, although serious problems showed up with it as well. The lock itself was not able to be forced to failure. However, you know how those guys on HSN love to "snap" them open? Well, I did that several times. The blade has to be opened almost half way by hand, and then snapped the rest of the way. Very quickly the blade developed a pretty good up-and-down play.
Notice the stop pin hole...it appears they simply melt the stop pin into the cheap plastic. The snapping on the stop pin caused the hole to deform enough that IMO it would have suffered failure in the not to distant future.
The action on the liner lock was extremely gritty feeling. The reason IMO, is one side had some kind of synthetic washer, the other side, as can be seen in the picture, just had a spacer molded in the plastic.
I would not recommend these knives to anybody. I suppose if your budget is very tight, then perhaps the liner lock could serve as a temporary knife, however, it should be checked EVERY day for structural integrity.
As for the rest of the knives, not only are they poor quality, but they are 100% unsafe to use, even for very light duty. Lockback failure on all 3 lockbacks with light hand pressure alone is inexcusable.
I used to watch the HSN knife show because I thought it was funny, I now have a different attitude. I feel that some newbie that has no clue about functional knives could buy them, and during normal use could very easily suffer a catastrophic failure, and cause an injury.
My advice, stear clear of these knives at all costs. If your budget is such that you cant afford Spyderco or something similar, then turn to Gerber or Buck as they have inexpensive models that will serve you well. Those HSN guys are simply peddling unsafe junk, and IMO should be very ashamed.
And no, they dont even make good paper-wieghts
------------------
Richard
icq 61363141
Just some knife pictures http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=110070&a=4518795
UPDATED and REVISED
[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 07-08-2000).]
