Anyone Tried "Bear and Sons" Knives?

R

rvm45

Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
10
"Bear and Sons" Knives?

Sorry, but there wasn't a Manufacturer's Forum dedicated to their knives.

Hope no one minds me asking about them here.

These folks are notable in that they offer a Reasonable Facsimile of The old Western Bowie, now out of Production.

They sent me a Catalog. Beautiful looking Knives at Reasonable Prices.

I want to Believe!

Has anyone bought anything from them?

What did you think of their Knives.

.....RVM45 :cool::eek::cool:
 
I've seen a handful of them and they all had the crappiest fit and finish I've seen out of a US manufacturer. A shame, and maybe all dozen of them I saw were anomalies, but my experience has been consistent. :o
 
Second time poster; long time lurker: I bought a damascus sideliner from them several years ago when I didn't know any better. It was the worse piece of cr*p I ever held in my hands; worse it was not cheap. The blade was mis-ground, F&F very poor and the liner lock looked as though it was cut from a piece of scrap sheet metal that was lying around. I think you can get a better knife from a DIY kit. The pictures in their catalog are pretty though.
 
I have one of their Balisong trainers (cuz sharpened Balisongs are illegal here in Canuckistan). It gets the job done, but it's kind of a piece of animal refuse. After using it on and off for a little while, it's falling apart.

I've heard it said that 'Bear and Son give "made in USA" products a bad name' - I think that's a pretty fair assessment, based on my very limited experience with them.
 
I have two of the soddies and they are just fine, no issues but I have two Moore Makers made by them that are not good by any stretch. Blade wobble, crappy grind and one even has a nick on the spine where someone probably hit it on the wheel while sharpening it back at the factory. I haven't bought a china made knife with worse fit and finish than those two:rolleyes:
 
If I may: Bear and Sons are pretty shoddy in pretty much every category. I have seen WORSE knives, but still, I wouldn't trust one of these as far as I could throw it. ....Okay, poor choice of words. I would add that their initials are "B&S", which makes this officially the funniest thing I've seen since the laser guided knife.
 
I have a stag peanut with damascus blade.

It is not terrible, but it is not up to the quality of a GEC or Case - it could be better.

They are also not inexpensive. I would love to see them increase the quality of their offerings.

best

mqqn
 
Having had several of their offerings I can't come to their defense either. F&F was pretty miserable and yet they are fairly pricey. I thought I'd support a USA and Alabama made product but they're gonna have to get their Q/C act together before I'll ever consider another purchase from them.
 
I'm surprised. I have not owned one from them, always looked good. Was on my list of maybe one day, but glad to know to look elsewhere.
 
I actually had one of the trainer balisongs for a bit. It seemed durable enough, but was too heavy for me.
 
I also find their damascus to be ugly as sin, but that's a personal preference thing. The grain is coarser and less refined than what you typically see from Pakistani stuff. And it's so dark.
 
They are more of a miss than a hit when it comes to F&F and grind. I have a large (Jumbo) trapper which is numbered with papers, which is good.

The others (trappers, lockback hunter & folding hunter)make good work knives and haven't become loose or fallen apart.
 
their factory is about 20 minutes from my house, so you think I would come to there defense, but nope I'm not It's really a shame that a usa factory makes such poor knives. Each year they have their annual factory seconds sale and billboards and ads go up everywhere and in the papers (it's a small town) and people flock down there to grab up their knives, but for a true knife nut you will be very disappointed if you buy 1 of their knives.
 
I have one of their bears ops butterfly knives, it's actually pretty decent. The finish is poor, but the blade fit isn't bad. The finish on the blade looks crappy though and the handle scales have milling imperfections.
 
Carried one of their lockbacks for about a decade (retiring it a few years ago is what led me to knife-fueled financial death). No frills, held up well enough. Sure, the edge rolled over like a dog when scraping stickers off quarry tile but what do you expect from mystery high carbon stainless? While I wouldn't line up to hand them money these days, they did fine by me.
 
I am glad I read this before I pulled the trigger on one of these. I could buy 7 or 8 Enlans for the price of the one I was going to buy. Dang, that is a real shame.
 
I use to sell bear and son knifes. I sold them for 10 years and I never had one complaint about them. I am sorry for every one here that had problems with them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top