- Joined
- Jun 29, 1999
- Messages
- 9,816
First off, I only reluctantly buy made-in-China goods. On the other hand, its practically impossible not to these days, with the majority of running shoes and many garments now being made in China, Singapore, Viet Nam and other low-wage countries. Welcome to globalization, I guess. That being said, I have yet to purchase any hardware that is marked made in China, mainly because the stuff Ive seen is bottom-of-the-bin quality. The other day, though, a colleague from a sister company dropped a made-in-China lockback on my desk, one of those give-aways with the company logo on the bolster. While it isnt anything Id invest my money in, I thought Id give it a once-over.
The frame is steel, 4 long, with laminated wooden red-blue-brown grips (six layers), varnished. The grip is contoured toward the bolster, 11/16 wide at the butt, with a lanyard hole. It fills the hand nicely. The clip point blade is 3¼ long with a nail nick for opening. The blade release is positioned about 2/3 of the way back along the spine. It has a nicely brushed finish and the blade grind is even on both sides, quite nicely done. It had an edge of sorts, with a bit of a burr, not sharp enough to slice paper cleanly. No specs as to what the steel is, but I suspect its not even close to 440A. Probably 420J or something similar. Still, materials aside, it is better work than Ive seen on the rip-off Leatherman and similar mini tools Ive seen from China.
The blade opens smoothly, with very little side by side play. It is nowhere near as slick as a Buck or Schrade or CS lockback, but it does lock and disengage relatively cleanly. The machining inside the frame is a bit rough.
Five minutes work on a DMT regular hone took care of the burr OK, but I could achieve little improvement on the DMT fine hone, for some reason. It does not seem to want to take a hair popping edge. Seems to lose it fast, too, cutting cardboard, which led me to the assessment of steel quality. I dont know if its been heat treated, but I doubt it.
Overall, Id give it (out of 10) a 6 for aesthetics, 5 for quality of workmanship and 3 for steel quality. Im going to keep it as a loaner for those inept folks who never seem to have a knife when they need one. But you know, at one time Japan had a reputation for shoddy goods. Maybe, once China evolves from a slave state, theyll start producing quality blades.
The frame is steel, 4 long, with laminated wooden red-blue-brown grips (six layers), varnished. The grip is contoured toward the bolster, 11/16 wide at the butt, with a lanyard hole. It fills the hand nicely. The clip point blade is 3¼ long with a nail nick for opening. The blade release is positioned about 2/3 of the way back along the spine. It has a nicely brushed finish and the blade grind is even on both sides, quite nicely done. It had an edge of sorts, with a bit of a burr, not sharp enough to slice paper cleanly. No specs as to what the steel is, but I suspect its not even close to 440A. Probably 420J or something similar. Still, materials aside, it is better work than Ive seen on the rip-off Leatherman and similar mini tools Ive seen from China.
The blade opens smoothly, with very little side by side play. It is nowhere near as slick as a Buck or Schrade or CS lockback, but it does lock and disengage relatively cleanly. The machining inside the frame is a bit rough.
Five minutes work on a DMT regular hone took care of the burr OK, but I could achieve little improvement on the DMT fine hone, for some reason. It does not seem to want to take a hair popping edge. Seems to lose it fast, too, cutting cardboard, which led me to the assessment of steel quality. I dont know if its been heat treated, but I doubt it.
Overall, Id give it (out of 10) a 6 for aesthetics, 5 for quality of workmanship and 3 for steel quality. Im going to keep it as a loaner for those inept folks who never seem to have a knife when they need one. But you know, at one time Japan had a reputation for shoddy goods. Maybe, once China evolves from a slave state, theyll start producing quality blades.