Condor Golok Came: I Think I Got a Defect

instead of shipping it back, maybe you can send this link to the company and have them refund you a partial refund for the knife. it may or may not accomplish anything but you will never know.....
 
I just got my golok today and thankfully, it displays almost none of the flaws that the one JNieporte received has. Mine came with a well polished edge that cut paper very well save for two small spots which will sharpen out easily. The handle is very nicely finished and the blade seems to be pretty straight. The blade coating is smooth and evenly applied. This ones seems to be more typical of all of the more recent Condors I have handled which were very well done.

Now I have a sheath problem. I could just order the Condor sheath but I am not always thrilled with their sheaths and it is even harder to find than the golok itself. I could try to find something else that would fit it. I am really hoping that one of the local Bladeforums kydex benders can help me out.

Any one here have a Condor Golok and make decent kydex?
 
matthewdanger said:
...Now I have a sheath problem. I could just order the Condor sheath but I am not always thrilled with their sheaths and it is even harder to find than the golok itself. I could try to find something else that would fit it. I am really hoping that one of the local Bladeforums kydex benders can help me out.

Any one here have a Condor Golok and make decent kydex?
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I just cobbled one together from left-over plastic and duct tape. It works and was free. FYI, a stock 18" machete sheath will hold the Golok just fine.

My plastic-and-duct-tape sheath. The orange webbing is a belt loop.
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And how it looks when seated...
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The 18" sheath, as deep as it will go...
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And seated...
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Same sheath, with the handle flush...
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And seated...
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Really, none of this is too surprising in a less than $30 blade that is 14" in length. Good on you JN for simply dealing with it. This is the crux of machetes. Everybody wants them for under $20 because of the commonality of trams and such yet when companies are forced to compete at that market level they just gotta pump out the volume to make up for the low profit margin. Hence failure of QC.
 
I just got my golok last week, it didn't have the missing chunk out of the handle, so yours must have been damaged, the tang on my handle sticks out a little too, probably about 1/32 of an inch, just a very tiny amount, not enough to notice when in hand. I too can see some of the grind marks, but they don't seem as obvious/numerous as yours and they only go one way, I have a thread a couple pages back with pictures of it.
 
sorry to get off topic but.....where can one get the sheaths for this thing?
 
STR said:
JNieport I'd have done exactly what you did. Its a machete. Round it off and call it done. You'll be beatin' it up soon enough anyways!;)

STR
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Word up brotha, its not like that bad girl was going to the safe...beat the hell out of it and then fix it again!

improvise adapt overcome
 
rctk1 said:
sorry to get off topic but.....where can one get the sheaths for this thing?
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Every place that lists the Condor factory sheath is out of stock (from what I've seen). You can use the generic 18" machete sheath that I pictured above, but a 16" one would fit even better. Maybe a 14" panga (or 14" bolo) sheath from MacheteSpecialist?
 
The one I got at Blade wasn't perfect, either, but it was nicer than yours. Glad you got it cleaned up. They are still great users. Those of us who have used Tramontinas for years are used to some final user finishing like sanding the handles flush and putting on a good edge. Mine came with a beautiful polished convex edge that was amazingly dull. It took maybe 20 minutes on my belt sander to get it right. Mine fits in an old Martindale bolo machete sheath (on the right).

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It's a great chopper!

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The condor that I sent you has barely been touched up. The used version that I sent you is the way the normally come...perfect. I wish you would have received that in time for this review.
You have got the worst defect to date. There will be a replacement.
 
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As a follow up, for Peru, all I did was take a poly sheath like this, and cut it to 15" with scissors. It worked marvelously. I sent that version to Josh Monday, before he did this review, but it did not get there in time apparently. I'm sad to see that you got one of these pathetic excuses for a golok. Jnieporte, the one you got in the mail is the one I took to peru. I may have hit it with a ceramic stone lightly, about three times since I've owned it.
 
Fortunately I've never ONCE seen a Condor with a bad HT--just fit/finish and grind problems. :o
 
Toucan Oasis said:
Just hope the guy in QC didn't pass his crack pipe to the guy in heat treat.
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Inappropriate. Condor does a pretty good job at putting out a great product. You get a lemon every now and then, I understand this, and nobody wants theirs to be that lemon. Now we'll see if Condor's customer service is as stellar as everybody says ;)
 
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