Dear Sog,
You haven't produced anything that I would consider buying in a very, very long time. The plastic handles on the trident folder I owned were flexible. Not good. You used to make pretty decent stuff back with the old school fixed blades, you need to get back to your roots instead of trying to keep up with all the gimmicky fads.
Cold Steel- About 75% of your product line is an absolute joke. Are you a purveyor of all things mall ninja with a few decent knives or would you really like to be taken seriously in the cutlery industry? Kudos on reinventing the lock back to your liking, and stepping up to a mid grade steel on some offerings, but I'd like to see you dump the cheap toys and while probably unrealistic, consider an American factory for your production before I'll ever consider buying again.
Microtech- Do you really put glass breakers on every single double action OTF model? While I understand it may be a viable option for some I think that there should be another option to leave off the glass breaker for the rest. I can break glass with many objects, but I don't need every MT to have to be set up for this rare emergency. Also your customer service/warranty department is seriously lacking.
Emerson- Chisel grinds, chisel grinds everywhere I see. While I realize that you do have a couple sweet models that are V-ground chisels are extremely prevalent in your products, right down to the edges, even on the customs. More options with out the wave feature would also be nice. All users don't necessarily like this feature in almost every knife model. Waves and chisel grinds are very polarizing features in my opinion. More options for these would be nice.
ZT- Pretty solid product line with lots of options. I would like to see you guys pay to re-open your forum here so all the ZT fans can have a home for their numerous picture threads and where we can all talk about things like how do we define "hard use" actually?
Strider- Prices...Sorry but I am not paying full price for para cord on your fixed blade handles, slap some G-10 on those sharpened pry bars! Also, 6 bills now for a GG SMF because you slapped cerakote on some stainless steel? I understand coating 3V or PD1 and I love the color options but damn, we're venturing into custom prices for something that is kind of a non-issue.
Hinderer- While the slicer grind will always be my favorite, nice job on coming out with more blade shapes and lower pricing. Interchangeable hardware is sweet and I love the reversible pocket clip and liner behind the G-10 side. My only issue is that your flippers don't flip well. When I last owned an XM-18 street prices were like $700 and up, and your flippers were out-flipped by a ZT at like half the cost so I sold both of mine. Now that the prices are more reasonable this issue could be more forgivable.
Chris Reeve- I love the precision and attention to detail. The only thing I don't like is blasted titanium. I can't say I would change anything though, as stone washing the titanium might make it too shiny and coating titanium is unnecessary. Perhaps a few flavors of subtle anodizing would brighten it up a bit. I like the carbon fiber option but I just haven't decided to pull the trigger yet. Keep doing what you do, you are certainly leading the industry in a lot of areas.
I think that covers most of the large manufacturers that I am familiar with. For companies like Case and Buck that I left out, I don't much deal with traditional knives so I will leave that for others to comment on. For guys like gerber and smith and wesson, stop slapping your name on every piece of junk that lands on your desk. Have some self respect.
Generally speaking, if a company produces fixed blades they should come with a decent sheath. If your folder is so large or heavy that is is unfit for a pocket it should come with a MOLLE pouch. The price of SWAG from some companies is ridiculous. If you would like me to place a sticker from your company somewhere, or wear one of your T-shirts throw a sticker in the box, and make your shirt prices reasonable. It's inexpensive advertising paid for by your fans. Maybe some of these large companies raking in all this money could do a little more to support knife rights as well. We have some places in this country with some really terrible knife laws. Perhaps these companies would benefit themselves as well as the customers by investing in some knife rights initiatives. If we all don't stay on top of this it's only going to get more difficult to carry the tools as we see fit.
Of course, these are only my personal opinions and preferences and were not intended to upset any fans of any particular brand. I think any company has room for improvement even if it is just for better customer service or more competitive prices. More options, better quality and competitive pricing can only help the knife community as a whole. Sorry for the giant wall of text.
