- Joined
- Oct 19, 1998
- Messages
- 426
I got to play with a Carnivour a couple weeks ago, and I've since been seeing nothing but good words about it in the Forums, and it's kinda growing on me. But I'm having a little conflict with the ATS34 blade steel...
Er, it's not that I hate ATS34 -- it's weird, it was the new darling of the knife industry and knife buyers, a year or two ago -- it's just that I see complaints, here and there, about ATS34 being brittle, etc., and I've had a little personal experience with it chipping. To be fair, maybe these comments were directed specifically towards the way Benchmade heat treats, or some such. The Carnivour is touted as (and everyone here praises it for) being stronger than any other folder, built like a tank. I think if it were equipped with a CPM440V, BG42 or M2 blade (i.e. one of the steels being touted, uh, this week, for being really tough), with a lesser increase in price over the ATS34 version, I'd probably have bought the one I handled a couple weeks ago. I know, I know, there's Talonite, but that nearly doubles the price of the knife, moving it into a range previously occupied only by the Large Sebenza (and a few MT's, but those are mostly all "limited" runs, and sometimes it feels like they're just printing money). I'll happily accept that Talonite is as wonderful as reported, but I'm not sure I wanna sink that much into a production knife...
I'm curious, is the bar of Talonite really upwards of $100, or is the extra cost partially attributable to lots of extra handwork involved, or other special touches, or because it's a limited edition, or just "economies of scale" in reverse? -- I'm not complaining, mind you, and I have no clue what Talonite costs, I just seek to understand how the price difference breaks down. I presume it's not completely custom at that point, because, well, there's the Crawford customs for that.
I guess what I'm looking for is someone to reassure me that REKAT's done something with/to the Carnivour's ATS34 to make it just as tough as the rest of the knife sounds to be... I'd really like an excuse to get one
Am I making any sense?
-- Carl
[This message has been edited by Carl Jacobsen (edited 08 September 1999).]
Er, it's not that I hate ATS34 -- it's weird, it was the new darling of the knife industry and knife buyers, a year or two ago -- it's just that I see complaints, here and there, about ATS34 being brittle, etc., and I've had a little personal experience with it chipping. To be fair, maybe these comments were directed specifically towards the way Benchmade heat treats, or some such. The Carnivour is touted as (and everyone here praises it for) being stronger than any other folder, built like a tank. I think if it were equipped with a CPM440V, BG42 or M2 blade (i.e. one of the steels being touted, uh, this week, for being really tough), with a lesser increase in price over the ATS34 version, I'd probably have bought the one I handled a couple weeks ago. I know, I know, there's Talonite, but that nearly doubles the price of the knife, moving it into a range previously occupied only by the Large Sebenza (and a few MT's, but those are mostly all "limited" runs, and sometimes it feels like they're just printing money). I'll happily accept that Talonite is as wonderful as reported, but I'm not sure I wanna sink that much into a production knife...
I'm curious, is the bar of Talonite really upwards of $100, or is the extra cost partially attributable to lots of extra handwork involved, or other special touches, or because it's a limited edition, or just "economies of scale" in reverse? -- I'm not complaining, mind you, and I have no clue what Talonite costs, I just seek to understand how the price difference breaks down. I presume it's not completely custom at that point, because, well, there's the Crawford customs for that.
I guess what I'm looking for is someone to reassure me that REKAT's done something with/to the Carnivour's ATS34 to make it just as tough as the rest of the knife sounds to be... I'd really like an excuse to get one
Am I making any sense?
-- Carl
[This message has been edited by Carl Jacobsen (edited 08 September 1999).]
