Al Mar Shrike Passaround

Medic1210

Medic1210

Joined
Sep 16, 2002
Messages
1,801
I got off work this morning from my 24 hour shift to find a note in my mailbox stating the USPS attempted delivery of the knife yesterday, but nobody was home so I would need to pick it up at the PO. Well, I just picked it up, and here are some first impressions.

Big: A lot bigger than you would think.

Sharp: Very sharp. Slices paper like nothing. No hair left on my arm. Cuts a hanging hair with ease. Very sharp.

Smoothe: No blood yet, but a fair warning to the rest of you on the list. The blade practically flies open once the ball detent is cleared. I was doing some faster openings with the thumb stud, and I couldn't keep my thumb on the stud because the blade flew open so quick. This led to a close call, where I have a nice reminder on the tip of my thumb of how sharp this is. The blade flew open, and my thumb caught up with it, on the edge. 3/4" slit slit in the first layer of skin. It only went through the first layer, so no blood, but I could feel it. Just be careful, this is an extremely smoothe knife.

Slippery: Scales are too smoothe in my opinion. They need more texture.

Not enough choil: I guess that is what it is called. The lack of a notch to keep index finger from sliding to add a matching slit from the blade as the thumb.

I will post a better review once I get a chance to put it through it's paces.

Thanks go to Mike Dye at New Graham Knives and Gary Fadden at Al Mar Knives for letting me test this baby out.

Mike
 
I had to use the cheap built in flash, which always makes for a poor pic, but these should do for now. Note the blade looks orange from reflected incandescent light on the ceiling. It is a glossy looking, but not polished steel.

Mike

Shrike%201.jpg

Shrike%202.jpg

Shrike%20In%20Hand.jpg
 
Like I said in my original post, this thing opens so smoothly that if you don't keep your thumb on the stud, the blade practically flicks open like an auto. I know this sounds weird, but it's true. I have never held a knife that is this smoothe. I have to say it is almost too smoothe, to the point of almost being dangerous to open, unless you use proper technique. I was sweeping the stud with the side of my thumb in a semi-quick manner. I was noticing the blade would flick open after clearing the ball detent. Earlier, this led to a small cut (no blood) on my thumb from my thumb catching back up with the blade. Well I did it again, and it got me a bit better this time. It drew blood. Nothing major, but annoying none the less. I have found that the safest way for "me" to open this knife is either by flicking it with my wrist, or using my thumbnail to flick the stud, without trying to keep up with the blade. It really looks like I'm opening an automatic knife. In fact that is what my wife thought it was when I showed it to her and opened it. You really have to see it for yourself to believe it. Anyway, if you open the knife slow, with your thumb pad directly over the stud, there should be no problem, but if you use the side of your thumb to sweep the blade open, be careful. The blade will be faster than your thumb, and in the process of your thumb catching up, it could rub the edge and slice your thumb. Here is a pic of my injury. You can see where the original minor "first-layer" cut was to the right. Dead skin peeled off because it was annoying to me. Then there is the second cut where the red is.

Mike

Cut%20Thumb.jpg
 
Nice looking knife....thanks!


"Hunters seek what they [WANT].., Seekers hunt what they [NEED]"
 
Maybe Mike should keep a collection of all the cuts posted here from this knife as it passes around then post them all with the knife on plaque...They are fast and smooth opening knives, but have great lock up when closed not much worry about accidental opening.
 
Originally posted by NGK-Webmaster
Maybe Mike should keep a collection of all the cuts posted here from this knife as it passes around then post them all with the knife on plaque..
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:eek: No fair!! I didn't cut myself with it, Ok send her back to me and I will see what I can do ;)
 
Last night while at work, the clip of the knife caught on something, and bent about 1/2" out. Well, no problem I think, as I'll just remove the screws, and carefully bend the clip back to it's original position. Well, upon removing the screws (there are three-2 long, and one short), I noticed that two of them (the middle long one, and the blade-side short one) had what appeared to be blue loctite on the threads. The only thing that bent was the clip. It didn't pull the screws away from the handle. Well, I thought it was a bit odd that there was blue locktite on only two of the screws if it was a factory job and common on all their knives. Well, I carefully bent the clip back to normal. Upon reassembling the clip, the middle screw just fell into the hole, making no contact what-so-ever with the threads. I looked at the screw, and all threads were still good, so apparently, the threads in the handle are completely gone. I don't know if it was overtightened at the factory, and somebody just glued the screw in place with locktite, or what, but that screw is no longer in the knife (I still have it, and will ship it with the knife). I would have thought it was the clip catching and bending that stripped the threads, but since it was already locktited, I am led to believe that it most likely happened at the factory. If this is the case, I'm surprised that the knife would be shipped in that condition. Again, if it didn't already have locktite on two screws, I would think that I stripped the hole out when the clip caught. Even then, I have never had a problem with that in the past. If the clip bends out, just remove it, bend it back, and replace it. I've never stripped a thread completely out like that. Either the screw only makes contact with the g-10 scale (which seems to be a poor design) or the screws only barely contact the liner. Based on the other screws, I think the screws mount in the liner because they all slide most of the way in, except for the last 1/2 mm or so. Not very much purchase at all.

Mike
 
Hi Medic1210,

I'm not sure if the Shrike that was sent out a stndard off the line model or not. So if I undertsand you, only two screws hold on the clip at this point?
 
Originally posted by DaveH
Hi Medic1210,

...So if I undertsand you, only two screws hold on the clip at this point?
Click to expand...

Yes, only the outer screws are holding the clip. The smaller screw also had locktite on it, but it still makes thread contact, albeit very little based on how far the screw falls into the hole before beginning to thread.

Mike
 
Medic1210 - Check your email.

Those on the passaround, I checked with mdye and he says send it in to be checked. So there will be a delay.

Thanks,
 
Ok guys,

I received a response from New Graham Knives and Dave H. reference how to handle the issue with the clip screw. Here is the message.

Mike at New Graham suggest you send it to Al Mar and keep the passaround info
for now:

My thoughts are to treat it as a damaged knive...ask Medic 1210 to send to

AL MAR KNIVES
PO Box 2295
Tualatin, OR 97062

for warranty work...then we can see how AL MAR handles it....

I would suggest Medic keep all passaround info in his possession and have the
knife returned to him from AL MAR. Medic can then continue the passaround as
before.


Regards, Mike @ New Graham
www.newgraham.com
Toll Free 1.866.333.4445
Click to expand...

Sorry, but there will be a delay while repair work is done. I will send the knife off tomorrow if I get a chance (I'm working 24 hr shift at EMS). If I don't get a chance tomorrow, it'll go out first thing Thursday. When the knife is returned to me from Al Mar, I'll send it to fisherk who is next on the list.

Mike
 
While it's certainly unfortunate that this knife is damaged, and it will delay it getting to me for a mostly free play session, I'm kind of glad it happened this way.

It gives us a chance to check out a couple of things. Once this is over, a bunch of us will have handled an Al Mar Shrike and will most likely come away with a good asessment of Al Mar's current production standards. The ones later on the list like me will get a better ideal of a knife's durability, while a few of the guys further up the list will get a better feel for a knife's initial fit and finish.

With the recent clip screw issues we'll also get a glimpse at Al Mar's Customer Service although that could be a bit skewed as compared to a normal customer because this knife is being featured in such a public way.

I applaud both Mike Dye at New Graham Knives and Gary Fadden at Al Mar Knives for putting this knife out there for evaluation. It was an investment in both dollars (as the knife will certainly not be new when and if it arrives back at it's home) and faith in the bladeforums community in general to have put the knife out there for a passaround.

I look forward to seeing a Shrike close up.

Thanks guys.
 
Thanks for the head's up on this. I will wait patiently for the Shrike. It will probably be a couple of weeks. Medic, would you please drop me a short e-mail when you do ship it out? Then, I can be on the lookout for it.

Ken
 
Originally posted by fisherk
Medic, would you please drop me a short e-mail when you do ship it out? Then, I can be on the lookout for it.

Ken
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Will Do. I'm at work right now, until 08:00 tomorrow morning (I love my job. I get to play on the computer :D ) I'm still going to try to get to the post office today to ship it to Al Mar. I'll let you know when it returns.

Mike
 
Guys, sorry I didn't make the post office yesterday, but the Al MAr is packed and ready to ship Monday morning, the 13th, to Chris(slide 13).

I'll post a review later, I worked this knife side by side with my BM AFCK, the two knives were very similar, let me just say this, if the BM AFCK was never invented the Al Mar would be in the running as an EDC.
 
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