- Joined
- Aug 4, 2001
- Messages
- 4,973
Well, I just got this little beauty today and I thought I would post a quick review of the fit & finish. I can't actually test the knife yet because it is a Christmas gift from my wife and I'm only checking it out quickly to make sure all is well before it goes into the wrapping paper for Dec 25th.
First off, this is a very nice knife for $50. The price from Bladetech is $10 more but I ordered from an on-line dealer. The fit and finish are pretty darn good for this price level. The blade is perfectly ground, and the back of the tang meets the lock-back spring with a crisp straight line. The traction grooves on the top of the blade are precisely cut. The thumb hole is nice and smooth inside and very neatly done.
Those last two items are interesting to me, because I have an A.G. Russell Strike Force that has an awful looking thumb hole, and a Camillus CQB-1 that has terrible looking traction grooves. I have to wonder why BladeTech can hit a home run on these things and others costing twice to three times as much can't do it. They do some nice work in Seki Japan.
The blade is perfectly centered, the lockup is tight and passes the spine whack test, and the scales are fitted perfectly. I have the hi-vis orange version and I see a few black rubs on it that seem to be tough to get off but this is going to be a user so it's not much of an issue to me. If you get the black FRN version I'm sure you won't see anything at all.
I normally don't care for FRN but in this case the steel liners give the knife a feeling of solidity and rigidity that is very satisfying. If you prefer a lock back to a liner lock and don't mind FRN instead of G-10 or carbon fiber - and want to save a nice chunk of change to boot - this would be a nice choice. I can't wait to unwrap it and ACTUALLY USE IT!
First off, this is a very nice knife for $50. The price from Bladetech is $10 more but I ordered from an on-line dealer. The fit and finish are pretty darn good for this price level. The blade is perfectly ground, and the back of the tang meets the lock-back spring with a crisp straight line. The traction grooves on the top of the blade are precisely cut. The thumb hole is nice and smooth inside and very neatly done.
Those last two items are interesting to me, because I have an A.G. Russell Strike Force that has an awful looking thumb hole, and a Camillus CQB-1 that has terrible looking traction grooves. I have to wonder why BladeTech can hit a home run on these things and others costing twice to three times as much can't do it. They do some nice work in Seki Japan.
The blade is perfectly centered, the lockup is tight and passes the spine whack test, and the scales are fitted perfectly. I have the hi-vis orange version and I see a few black rubs on it that seem to be tough to get off but this is going to be a user so it's not much of an issue to me. If you get the black FRN version I'm sure you won't see anything at all.
I normally don't care for FRN but in this case the steel liners give the knife a feeling of solidity and rigidity that is very satisfying. If you prefer a lock back to a liner lock and don't mind FRN instead of G-10 or carbon fiber - and want to save a nice chunk of change to boot - this would be a nice choice. I can't wait to unwrap it and ACTUALLY USE IT!