AO opinion?

[beckerhead]

As you handle so many knives and gut them regularly, what would your opinion of the Camillus Robo AO vs. the Kershaw AO be regarding longevity, toughness, and overall design?

I am NOT trying to poke the proverbial hornets nest of Brand "A" vs. brand "B", just honestly curious about the pros and cons of each.

 

[STR]

No thats fine. I've used and handled probably just about all of them but not owning them long term I can't say much except for the ones I've actually had in my posssesion for a while. What I've handled ranges from

SOGs
BenchMades
Camillus
Kershaw
Buck
Myerco
Remington brand
CRKT

as well as many conventional autos


All of them seem to work great when new. The SOGs I've had grew weak before breaking but I liked the Twitch XL and the Flash just fine although I sold both eventually. However I'd rate Kershaws better than SOG. Better for speed and durability both.

I've seen a BenchMade or two that were really finicky. I think the idea is nice and the design seems solid being based on some old automatic type springs but the knives were quite picky about setting the screw tensions just right for the spring to work properly. In fact I recall being quite frustrated with it after a while when I installed some new scales on one but the removable bar to take its assisted opening feature out was nice. It may have been an isolated case because I don't read many complaints of them but its happened twice to me. I do like their design probably best of all of them though.

Myercos were weak with small cheap looking springs.

Remingtons seemed cheap as all get out and felt that way.

Some of the CRKTs work fine and are fast but the ones I've had here for clips were almost too fast for my tastes. I have made note that several have removed that feature from them for this and other reasons. I can't speak for their longevity.

I think I'd rate Kershaws the best after using various ones followed pretty close behind by the Camillus. I've used a couple of the Buck AO knives and they seemed pretty solid but its the one I have never had apart to look at. It did feel quality to me though and I have a feeling its got to have a beefy spring set up but can't be sure.


In answer to your question. It a tough call. Being that Camillus is out of business I doubt the longevity matters since its probably going to be hard to get up and running again unless they use some generic universal spring you can find somewhere else. If you are asking me which I like better I'd pick the Kershaw. I believe the Camillus is faster and feels stronger but again this has little to do with longevity. Sometimes stronger springs mean they are under more stress which can make them last half the time so its kind of hard to tell.

I've never had a Protech or MicroTech that I have not gone through several springs on so my thoughts are that they will all give out eventually. To me for this reason the best ones are ones like the Blur that can be used conventionally or with the AO because the detent ball is activated and the knife is capable of functioning fine when and if the spring breaks. For others that the ball detent is not activated on the knife is immediately a 'gravity knife' the minute the spring breaks since all downward tension to hold the blade closed is lost at that time.

STR