Biggest disappointment!

Kershaw skyline- poor Eros for me and blade does not flip without a lot of wrist

CRK Seb 25- good but not great like other knives that I own. Was not one handed opening for me early on as it was too tight and, in the end, I am not a thumb stud guy. I like holes:)
 
Hinderer XM-18 spanto flipper. I just couldn't get over the secondary price mark up. Accounting for that, it was difficult to justify the mediocre F&F and the fact that it doesnt flip as well as many of my other production flippers. However i was able to use it to trade for a Lightfoot so in the end it held up its end.
 
Allen R. said:
I'm going to get killed for this , but for me it was the Zt 560/561 tried about 5 or 6 of them , and I liked the design I guess , but everyone of them had some little problem that for the price was just unacceptable to me , I did finally get one that I could live with but I wasn't impressed with It's cutting ability so off she went too. I've been disappointed a lot but the 560 is the one off the top of my head.
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Same here, I had a 0561. It's a big knife, bigger than I expected. Mine did fly open very well. I ended up gifting it to someone on the bf forum who was very happy with it. I don't think it had anything to do with ZT at all. I love big knives, but for carry purposes for me, they aren't practical for EDC . There's just something about big folding knives that draw me to them. Im trying to stay in the mid range with size now.
 
I would have to say Cold Steel SRK in San Mai. I was expecting a hard use knife, and it chipped cutting a tomato vine. Sent it back, they fixed the chip but had a dull edge and several chips on the sides of the edge (probably from using a belt or wheel to sharpen). Used it once more to cut down a dog tick, and it chipped some more (smaller chips in a different spot). I'm guessing the very edge was brittle from a bad HT, but it wasn't the hard use camping knife I had heard.

On the flip side, I was also underwhelmed with the PM2, but have grown to like it more. What are you going to do? New knives look sleek and awesome in pictures, almost every knife has a large group of supporters that sing its praises; if you don't buy it in person, it's hard for any knife to meet the high expectations set out by its biggest fans.
 
I have had a few disappointments that stand out.

1. Strider SnG - I have had three now and none of them have had the fit & finish that even resembles their price point.
2. Bradley Alias I - the one I purchased had so many issues Benchmade finally replaced it with a new one.
3. AG Russel Acies 2 - the knife should be at least $100 cheaper than it is.

These are my experiences so don't get on my case, I know a LOT of people love Striders and have not had any issues with them.
 
eschwebach said:
I have had a few disappointments that stand out.

1. Strider SnG - I have had three now and none of them have had the fit & finish that even resembles their price point.
2. Bradley Alias I - the one I purchased had so many issues Benchmade finally replaced it with a new one.
3. AG Russel Acies 2 - the knife should be at least $100 cheaper than it is.

These are my experiences so don't get on my case, I know a LOT of people love Striders and have not had any issues with them.
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I know what you mean with the Striders fit and finish, but boy, can they take some abuse. If you haven't then you should.
 
Brian Tighe mini Tighe-Rod--Its nice, cool blade, but not quite what I was expecting. The handle is a bit unwieldy for my large hands. F&F are great, flips ok not the smoothest out there though. I carry it occasionally, never use it though. Been sitting in a drawer for the last few weeks. Someday I'll get around to selling it. Probably will buy a small sebenza or an umnumzaan with the funds.

ZT0350-Bought a used blem, and am just not that impressed with it. Its ok, I use it, but it hasn't lived up the Zero Tolerance be all end all hype.
 
K.O.D. said:
Brian Tighe mini Tighe-Rod--Its nice, cool blade, but not quite what I was expecting. The handle is a bit unwieldy for my large hands. F&F are great, flips ok not the smoothest out there though. I carry it occasionally, never use it though. Been sitting in a drawer for the last few weeks. Someday I'll get around to selling it. Probably will buy a small sebenza or an umnumzaan with the funds.

ZT0350-Bought a used blem, and am just not that impressed with it. Its ok, I use it, but it hasn't lived up the Zero Tolerance be all end all hype.
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Might want to make that a large. The small is, well...small. Can't imagine it's much bigger, if at all than the mini Tighe Rod.
 
I just thought I'd add my second biggest disappointment which would have to be the gerber para frame. It really seemed like a half decent EDC in its price range. Boy was I wrong! It has a ridiculous amount of blade play and snags on my pocket when I try to pull it out.
 
My first Emerson (a CQC-13) was probably my biggest knife disappointment. I remember being so excited to receive it and when I got it out of the box it felt like it was made in a Chinese sweatshop by a 10 year old little boy. Up and down blade play, blade way off center, lock slip, and on top of everything the lock up was way too far at about 90%.

Since I liked Ernie's designs so much I bought more later on in the future. They were better but some still had a couple of the problems I mentioned. Needless to say I am past the Emerson phase. There are much and I mean MUCH better made knives out there for a substantially lower cost of an Emerson.
 
harcourt22 said:
I just thought I'd add my second biggest disappointment which would have to be the gerber para frame. It really seemed like a half decent EDC in its price range. Boy was I wrong! It has a ridiculous amount of blade play and snags on my pocket when I try to pull it out.
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Noticing a pattern yet?
 
It seems like every time I buy a Case knife, it's great in the store and then sucks when I check it out at home.
Bladeplay, bent blades, gaps, springs aren't flush etc.

I bought a couple Cold Steel Kudus just for fun. I didn't realize they're so huge.

SOG Twitch 2. Back when I first got into knives I requested one for Christmas. TONS of bladeplay and is really gritty.

My first Native 5 had really uneven grinds. I sent it back and asked if it was getting fixed or replaced, and the lady said if they reground it, it would make the blade a lot smaller. That's how off they were. I got a new one a week and a half later, much much better than the first.
 
harcourt22 said:
I've never been able to justify the price of a ZT.
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:thumbup:

my biggest disappoint was prolly my Suchat Jangtanong, for 2 grand the quality and craftsmanship was far less than just about any other PRODUCTION knife I've ever bought
 
BM Contego. I got mine with a very poorly milled/ground engagement surface on the back of the blade, you could feel it grindining against the AXIS lock bar when opening or closing. Sent it back for repair and later sold it. Not bashing BM, just my experience.
 
Benchmade Adamas.
Mine was perfect in every way and ultra smooth and fast opening, but I just couldn't get past the weight and the thickness so I traded it off.
 
Any of the humongous ZTs I have tried. Made my SnGs feel like lightweight scalpels.
 
I've been lucky and not had any huge disappointments in the past few years. Mainly because getting a knife all the way over here from the US is such a pain in the butt (our government is trying to limit importations and purchases made in dollars) that I only order stuff that I'm fairly certain I'll like.

It isn't 100% effective, but it works rather well. Anyway, on to some disappointing knives.

-Queen slipjoints. I bought two fairly high end limited edition knives (a RAT Cattle King and a Schatt and Morgan Mountainman), fit and finish was lovely but the blades were unsharpened. I don't mean a little dull,I mean blunt. They needed grinding, not sharpening. No more Queens for me.

-Buck Crosslock and Alpha Hunter folder. The liner locks on both were awful. I carried the Alpha Hunter folder for months while traveling through Perú and Bolivia (I had a fixed blade but it stayed in my pack most of the time). I felt a bit of a wobble when using it near the end of the trip and realised I could easily close it by pushing on the back of the blade even though the lock was engaged. I didn't abuse the knife or anything like that. Something similar happened with the Crosslock.

-TOPS Vulcan. This one is on me. I didn't quite grasp how thick 1/4" really is, and what I thought would be a nice EDC fixed blade turned out to be a boat anchor. The thick handle slabs didn't help either.
 
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