Despite the Hype, what knives disapoint you?

I have the Native as my first Spyderco, clearly, the sharpness does not compare to any of the many Kershaws i have. I'm trying to trade away the Native now, but nobody's been biting. thanks for this tread, now nobody is gonna get it from me!
 
Practical Use said:
Sebenza - I take my Benchmades. Bought a large Sebenza, sold it. Well made knife, but did not float my boat.
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Same here. bought a sebie and sold it shortly there after. :thumbdn: Ill stay with my benchmades and kershaws! :thumbup: ,,,VWB.
 
Benchmade 710. I just could never get myself to like it. I owned one for a short while and traded it.
 
The sebenza. I have owned both a large and a small classic. Both brand new from the factory. They are extremely well made and very good looking. I just do not like the ball and detent system to retain the blade. It simply is not enough to feel comfortable that the blade wont deploy when unwanted. The axis lock and standard lock back knives give me the kind of blade retention I require. Another gripe I have with the sebenza is the pivot bushing used. I do not like how extremely tight the tolerances are with this setup. Everyone claims that with the pivot bushing, you can cinch the screw down "as tight as you want" and you will still have the same smooth blade opening action. FALSE. Titanium is a soft metal (relative to steel). If you cinch the pivot down really tight, all you are doing is pushing the bushing into the titanium slabs to the point that the purpose of the bushing is defeated. If you use the provided allen-wrench to tighten it, and orient the wrench so that you are turning it by the shorter length (less leverage orientation), then you can tighten it pretty much as tight as you can in that position. But the fact is, nothing is ever tight enough if you are using the wrench that way. I prefer to tighten things so that they will not come undone under stress/torque/impacts. I tried taking off about .005" off of each washer so that I might allow myself the ability to tighten the pivot nice and tight while allowing smooth playless opening/lockup. It did allow me to tighten the pivot nice and tight without any bladeplay, BUT, the lockbar putting side-to-side pressure on the blade made opening action spotty and uneven in smoothness. So I had to resort getting everything back to its original tolerances (relative to the altered bronze washers). I measured each and every part ( washers, bushing, stop-pin, rear spacer) with my mic that is acurate to .0005". So after I re-fit the parts, it was back to normal exept the bushing,stop-pin, and rear spacer being about a thousandth of an inch smaller.

So basically, I dont like how the blade comes open so easily, and how the pivot cant be tightend to an assuring tightness without compressing the bushing into the titanium thus sqeezing the washers.
 
Interesting. I personally love the spyderco native, and think the S30V version was very sharp out of the box. It was sharper than my microteh ultratech, benchmade 630, and piranha bodyguard.
 
My wally world Native was hair-popping sharp out of the box. Other than being stiff, its outstanding. It certainly was an outstanding value for the buck.
 
Tblock1 said:
Interesting. I personally love the spyderco native, and think the S30V version was very sharp out of the box. It was sharper than my microteh ultratech, benchmade 630, and piranha bodyguard.
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The Native S30V was EXTREMELY sharp out of the box (got cut several times) it just didn't hold that sharpness up to the S30V hype/reputation. All my Spydercos in VG10 and other knives in plain 154CM hold a lot better. Not to mention the crazy brittleness. I've never had a problem making holes and cutting beer cans with other steels, but apparently, aluminum cans it is just too much of "abuse" to my poor little Native...
 
My lad, I never met a knife I didn't like.
 
Tarani Journeyman Karambit. It's more for self-defense but i wanted to see how it would do in the garden cutting weeds, etc. It did not hold it's edge at all. And i had a hard time trying to get it back to a decent sharp edge...until i got a sharpmaker.

The heat treat must have been off but regardless, I was put off by Tarani models in particular and 154cm in general for a long time until i got a mini-grip.
 
My biggest disappointments were the earlier kershaw onion knives. I cut through the plastic safety on the gryst closing the knife, the speedbump stud-lock SUCKS, and i wasn't too happy that the whirlwind spring assisted knife had no safety whatsoever, i never bothered to carry it. It sucks because everyone seems to like Kershaw now but i won't buy another, even the ZT knives.
 
I normally don't buy a knife that will disappoint me.

As far as all the negatives about the Native, I don't agree, personally. They two I've had have had some vertical play, which is normal, but no side to side. They way you have to think of S30V on the native, is that it's kind of like a hybrid between a plain edge and serrated blade. It loses it's razor edge rapidly, but holds an good working edge for darn near ever.
 
I like the Native, Im not knocking the knife itself. I have heard alot of good things about it but the one that I got only lasted a year before the blade started chipping and the side to side wiggle started and the pocket clip sprang out and understand that this is not being hard on the knife at all. The only thing I did with it was carry it to open a skoal can or cut rope or just somthing of that nature. I like the knife, i was just disappointed in its service life. Im going to send mine in a get it fixed and then carry it some more. It could just be that certain knife is that way. I still love them Spydercos and I love the Kershaws.
 
I like spyderco's more than kershaws, I guess I just haven't had a lot of experience with kershaws.
 
ranger renegade tomahawk....not a knife i know, but the factory grind is the worst ever. my spyderco tenacious had a more even grind and sharpness compared at a fraction of the price.

i've re-profiled and convexed so it's all good now, but for the price you pay, not acceptable.
 
Most Kershaws.

In most aspects I think they do a good job...customer service, pricing, lock reliability, fit and finish etc. They do a few things I don't care for that I can ignore or fix (Beadblast finishes, obtuse edge grinds) but the deal breaker for me has always been the ergonomics of their knives. The Leek is one of my favorite designs of theirs but the handle just doesn't sit right in my hand. Same thing with the mini-cyclone, speed bump, needs work, vapor, storm and so on. The Skyline and Groove both fit me well though, wouldn't mind getting another of the latter if I weren't so happy with other knives.
 
I guess Im a Buck kind of guy but I do love the Kershaws, not so much as to what they look like but there just really good knives IMO.
 
KA BAR utility. It didn't do anything for me....it was like $47...so it's kind of like my bad ass flint steel now.
 
one i was dissapointed in (and it being a large folder i wanted to like it) was the BM skirmish, didnt like it being tip down, mine had a rather obtuse grind, and hated the pocket clip, only pro to it was i swapped it for a spyderco ti ATR which i just love.
 
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