- Joined
- Aug 10, 2006
- Messages
- 7,250
I noticed a G10 Robin in the 2007 catalogue, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this knife. I'm a big fan of the G10 Cara Cara, and the Robin looks like it would be a pretty nice little knife. I recently received a Crow and have been carrying that, having been very pleasantly suprised by it. The Crow is a very good size, I've realized I don't need to tote around my Manix all the time, it's awesome, but huge and ultimately unnecessary. I like the size and blade shape of the Crow, but I don't like liner locks. The Robin appears to be a lockback variant, with G10 to boot. The handle shape seems to be similar to the mini-manix.
So my question is this: How does the Robin compare with the Crow and/ or the Meadowlark? (I don't have a Meadowlark yet) Also, I was wondering if I could swap out the clips between the Crow and the Robin. The Crow clip is great- matte finished (parkerized?), the Robin clip is polished. I'm wondering which people like better.
Thanks!
(My mini-review of the Crow follows, from a few days ago)
(pasted from an earlier thread about the Crow) I received a box full of Christmas presents from my family and one package looked very familiar. I recognized a Byrd box by shape and size that my brother had sent me. I kind of panicked, because I had just sent him a G10 Cara Cara, and wasn't going to be happy if I had just sent him the same thing he sent me- I'd be afraid he thought I got his present, wrapped it up and sent it back to him! So naturally I opened it. (Would I have opened any box that obviously contained a knife early? It's very likely. I can't help myself sometimes) At any rate, it was a Crow, not a Cara Cara.
I was pretty excited, because I doubt I would have bought a Crow for myself. I don't like black blades, not too crazy about aluminum handles, and I'm not a big fan of liner locks. But I have to say that I was pleasantly suprised by the Crow. The fit and finish (like that of every other Byrd I have seen) was very, very good. Better than a CRKT M-16, which is the only other aluminum scaled, liner lock in my collection. The CRKT came with very sharp edges all over the scales, the Byrd is perfectly chamfered everywhere.
Overall, it seems to be a very nice knife (especially for the money) -the lockup is very tight, with no blade play in any direction when opened. The action is so smooth, you can flick the blade open easily, remarkable for such a short-bladed knife, at this price point. The clip is very well done, good size and shape, and best of all, it's parkerized, which is always better than painted! Another nice detail on this knife is that the spacers have a dash of decorative machining on them, they look quite nice. The aluminum scales are well done, with smooth machining, no tool marks and good thick anodizing.
My only beef with the knife (and this is something I always complain about) is the black blade coating. I hate blade coating. It looks cool when you first get the knife, but as soon as you use it, it starts to wear off and looks terrible. The blade coating on this Byrd seems to be particularly bad. It's wearing off already, and I've only been carrying the knife for 2 days! I'm going to disassemble the knife and remove the coating. The good news is, it should be easy to remove! One other thing I'm not crazy about, and this is pretty minor-is that the pivot bushings are polymer (nylon? Teflon?) and I prefer bronze (for mainly aesthetic reasons).
But overall, I think the Crow is a great knife, especially for the money. The size, blade shape, handle ergos, thumb "comet", are all good. If this knife had no blade coating, and were a lockback, I'd be raving about it. I actually like the aluminum handles, with the feather texture, they're quite handsome. Much better than FRN! (But not as good as G10). This is probably the best Christmas present I have ever received from my brother. Though I was hoping he didn't know about Byrd, so he would be totally blown away by the Cara Cara I sent him. I guess good news travels fast.
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So my question is this: How does the Robin compare with the Crow and/ or the Meadowlark? (I don't have a Meadowlark yet) Also, I was wondering if I could swap out the clips between the Crow and the Robin. The Crow clip is great- matte finished (parkerized?), the Robin clip is polished. I'm wondering which people like better.
Thanks!
(My mini-review of the Crow follows, from a few days ago)
(pasted from an earlier thread about the Crow) I received a box full of Christmas presents from my family and one package looked very familiar. I recognized a Byrd box by shape and size that my brother had sent me. I kind of panicked, because I had just sent him a G10 Cara Cara, and wasn't going to be happy if I had just sent him the same thing he sent me- I'd be afraid he thought I got his present, wrapped it up and sent it back to him! So naturally I opened it. (Would I have opened any box that obviously contained a knife early? It's very likely. I can't help myself sometimes) At any rate, it was a Crow, not a Cara Cara.
I was pretty excited, because I doubt I would have bought a Crow for myself. I don't like black blades, not too crazy about aluminum handles, and I'm not a big fan of liner locks. But I have to say that I was pleasantly suprised by the Crow. The fit and finish (like that of every other Byrd I have seen) was very, very good. Better than a CRKT M-16, which is the only other aluminum scaled, liner lock in my collection. The CRKT came with very sharp edges all over the scales, the Byrd is perfectly chamfered everywhere.
Overall, it seems to be a very nice knife (especially for the money) -the lockup is very tight, with no blade play in any direction when opened. The action is so smooth, you can flick the blade open easily, remarkable for such a short-bladed knife, at this price point. The clip is very well done, good size and shape, and best of all, it's parkerized, which is always better than painted! Another nice detail on this knife is that the spacers have a dash of decorative machining on them, they look quite nice. The aluminum scales are well done, with smooth machining, no tool marks and good thick anodizing.
My only beef with the knife (and this is something I always complain about) is the black blade coating. I hate blade coating. It looks cool when you first get the knife, but as soon as you use it, it starts to wear off and looks terrible. The blade coating on this Byrd seems to be particularly bad. It's wearing off already, and I've only been carrying the knife for 2 days! I'm going to disassemble the knife and remove the coating. The good news is, it should be easy to remove! One other thing I'm not crazy about, and this is pretty minor-is that the pivot bushings are polymer (nylon? Teflon?) and I prefer bronze (for mainly aesthetic reasons).
But overall, I think the Crow is a great knife, especially for the money. The size, blade shape, handle ergos, thumb "comet", are all good. If this knife had no blade coating, and were a lockback, I'd be raving about it. I actually like the aluminum handles, with the feather texture, they're quite handsome. Much better than FRN! (But not as good as G10). This is probably the best Christmas present I have ever received from my brother. Though I was hoping he didn't know about Byrd, so he would be totally blown away by the Cara Cara I sent him. I guess good news travels fast.
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