Ever disappointed in a knife?

I've been disappointed in a few, mostly from the same maker. I sent the knives in for repair, and they repaired them. But, the knives weren't cheap knives, and should not have had the problems they had. I moved on from that maker, and now purchase knives from other makers. I'm sure every maker throws a lemon or two. But, after getting 3 from a single maker I decided it was enough from them. Perhaps I was just unlucky with them. But, at any rate, I'm very much happy with the knives I've gotten here lately. As for Taiwan made knives, I love my Sage 1 and Gayle Bradley from Spyderco, both made in Taichung. Them fella's know how to make knives, and I will be buying more from them.
 
Allen R. said:
I'm probably gonna take some hell for this but i was disappointed with the zt 560/561 I've owned 4 of them ,i believe trying to find the one that was perfect, all of them the detent was either too weak or it had blade play something, so i bought and sold a few, and everyone of them I had had something wrong with them, I may just be picky,but for the price i expected alot more , but never got it , so i gave up on the 560 /561 and went back to the 550 which IMO is a much better knife. That's just my opinion.
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With all the hype on those I expected a bit more also. My 560 had some serious lock issues. I had to send it in twice before they got fixed. ZT did fix the knife. Their service is great. Their employee's are very dedicated. But, I never could warm up to the 560 after that. I love the looks of the knife, and it's design. But, with the issue's I had it was best for me to move on.
 
Allen R. said:
I'm probably gonna take some hell for this but i was disappointed with the zt 560/561 I've owned 4 of them ,i believe trying to find the one that was perfect, all of them the detent was either too weak or it had blade play something, so i bought and sold a few, and everyone of them I had had something wrong with them, I may just be picky,but for the price i expected alot more , but never got it , so i gave up on the 560 /561 and went back to the 550 which IMO is a much better knife. That's just my opinion.
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You won't be catching any hell from me on that one. I have one 0561 and a blem 0560. Both had very weak detents. ZT fixed the 0561 (but it took two trips back to the factory and they eventually gave me a different knife) and I have a thread going in the KAI subforum about fixing the 0560 myself. They also use pocket clip screws that were too short to install on the G10 side on both of them so I ended up having to hunt down longer screws. I can accept some flaws on the blem, but given the price point I think the 0561 should have been d@mn near perfect. It's one of the most expensive knives I own and it's the only one that has had to go back. The fact that the 0560 blem had the same problems tells me that the knife has either a design or quality control problem. Other than these issues I really like the knives, but I'm not very accepting of problems with higher-end products, part of what I'm paying for should be better QC. I'll keep the 0561 for sure now that the issues are worked out, I'm not sure about the 0560. I can say with certainty I won't be buying any more of them. I'll stick with the 0550 from here on out as well.
 
Yea blade play on a $260.00 knife is unacceptable to me, the detent wasn't that big of a deal but the blade play, along with a knife that locked up at around 60-70% out of the box , add to that the knives came dull, again not a big deal but for the money i want perfect F&F nice early solid lockup and a blade i don't haft to sharpen just to get it to cut paper straight out of the box. People blast Microtech but i will say this the 2 or 3 socom elites i owned(around the same price mind you) were perfect solid lock up smooth deployment and sharp as you know what out of the box, I needed cash so i sold both of them but for the money the socom beats the 560 hands down. Ok now I may catch hell. Oh well truth hurts sometimes. I'll give ZT some love though, I have a 0300 and that is a knife solid lockup and tough as nails, the 550 and 0300 are great knives, the 560 isn't even in the same league IMO
 
Everything from benchmade I've ever held has been terrible. I don't like the feel of plastic.

I didn't like the Izula either, not really a fan of coated blades. But it is a sweet little knife.

And the pocket clip on the skyline I hated. Aside from that though the knife is a knockout.
 
I've been quite disappointed with the Kershaw Cryo. Was pretty hyped in advance, but once I got it, it never grew on me and I did not really like it. Sure, it has some potential, but it just lacks some things, don't really know what. It never made it into my EDC rotation past the first week for testing.
I do like the deep carry clip, I like the concept and I think the framelock is pretty good. However, it's the only 8cr blade that rusted by just sitting in a drawer, even with the coating. It's too darn heavy for the small package you get and if I'd want to deassist it, I'd need a whole lot of powertools which I don't have. On top of that, the coating in the jimping is sloppy, lots of residue. The flipper is extremely sharp and uncomfortable too, hotspot galore. Oh well. I've seen around the web that it works for a lot of people, but it doesn't for me. And yet, I still hold on to it... Perhaps as some kind of lesson learned.
 
I picked up one of the Microtech Zombie Techs, and that thing was beyond disappointing. The edge was dull, very dull. The action was beyond stiff, practically unusable. I'll never waste my money on a Microtech again.
 
Allen R. said:
Yea blade play on a $260.00 knife is unacceptable to me, the detent wasn't that big of a deal but the blade play, along with a knife that locked up at around 60-70% out of the box , add to that the knives came dull, again not a big deal but for the money i want perfect F&F nice early solid lockup and a blade i don't haft to sharpen just to get it to cut paper straight out of the box. People blast Microtech but i will say this the 2 or 3 socom elites i owned(around the same price mind you) were perfect solid lock up smooth deployment and sharp as you know what out of the box, I needed cash so i sold both of them but for the money the socom beats the 560 hands down. Ok now I may catch hell. Oh well truth hurts sometimes. I'll give ZT some love though, I have a 0300 and that is a knife solid lockup and tough as nails, the 550 and 0300 are great knives, the 560 isn't even in the same league IMO
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I was fortunate in that I didn't have blade play with either of mine. The detents were bad enough. I haven't seen a Microtech that was anything less than flawless (although I don't have a huge amount of experience with them). Unfortunately they seem to object to drilling their knives for left hand carry and big brother in WI says we're not supposed to have autos so I won't be buying any until one of those things changes. It's a shame though, I really want a Whale Shark, but until I can carry it tip-up in my left front pocket it's not going to happen.
 
I bought a Custom George Muller Folder from AT Barr which arrived with significant vertical bladeplay...Such a shame as it was my first foray into custom knifes-I mentioned this to the seller after recieving the Knife and he said yes he had noticed it....Wish he would have been a bit more up front about it.
 
My ZT560 gets very little carry time because I don't like the ergonomics that much, with those tall and thin scales. My Benchmade Ares 732 also doesn't get much use because the shape of the scales makes it prone to wear out a hole in my jeans pocket since I like to carry in my right rear pocket, tip up. Nothing wrong with the knives, per se, but they just don't work for me very well.
 
The last couple of SOGs I've purchased have had dull blades... they had a hard time cutting tape or through plastic bags.
 
I accidentally bought a Taylor Schrade Minuteman slipjoint a few months back.

The blades were unevenly ground - not the edges, mind you, the whole blades in relation to the base/ricasso/ whatever it is called on a slipjoint. They were bent too.

I applied gentle pressure with my thumb and index finger and snapped the main blade right off. Absolute rubbish.
 
My Kabar Big Brother broke right where the blade meets the handle. I knew when I bought the knife it was a stick tang, but its a Kabar so I figured it would be well made with good heat treat. When I saw how thin the tang was, I was shocked...not what expected to see on a knife that size. Considering the amount of abuse I put my regular kabar through I do not consider light chopping and batonning to be abuse for a knife this size. I returned the knife to Kabar and they promptly replaced it, but now it just sits in the box because I am afraid to depend on it in a critical situation. A knife that size that you can't chop or baton with is pretty much useless. But it is gonna look great in my shadow box some day.
 
I was disappointed when I got my spyderco leaf storm. The edge, fit, and finish were all fine. What I disliked was how impractical it was to use. It's really just a 150$ paper weight. Neat to look at though
 
bamahabir said:
Everything from benchmade I've ever held has been terrible. I don't like the feel of plastic.

I didn't like the Izula either, not really a fan of coated blades. But it is a sweet little knife.

And the pocket clip on the skyline I hated. Aside from that though the knife is a knockout.
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I'm curious what Benchmades you've tried. I've found them to be somewhat hit or miss and all but one has required some TLC. My 580 Barrage was good to go out of the box. The 551 was either stiff to open or had blade play no matter how I adjusted the pivot. I ended up polishing the washers and that improved things somewhat but it's still too stiff to flick open. Both the Rift and the Mini Bone Collector also required a polish job on the washers but now they work great, both probably would have broken in on their own but I was impatient. The mini BC was butter knife dull out of the box but the other three would shave.

Really the only major company that hasn't disappointed me at all has been Spyderco. They've all been pretty much perfect right out of the box.
 
I was kinda disappointed when I got my BHK Outdoors Machete. I love the piece but there were some issues with QC nothing major but annoying. Small gap between the tang and one of the handle scales at a corner and uneven edge on both sides. The sheath retention system was a joke also. I contacted Blind Horse about the QC issues and never heard back from them. The problems were easily fixed but the QC on such an expensive machete should have been better, really at that price it should be perfect. I still like Blind Horse alot but I wonder about their customer service since they never responded to me.
 
I just got a ZT 0561 and it arrived with an incredibly gritty feeling when opening and closing it. Will be contacting ZT about right away.
 
Buck Strider. Wouldn't lock up. Didn't like the ergos anyway. Sent it back.
 
My mini grip came too dull to cut butter, I was disappointed for it's price range. Put it to a 30 degree inclusive edge on my wicked edge and it is hair whittling sharp now.
 
SOG Trident. Biggest complaint is the tons of up-and-down, and side-to-side play. Tightening the pivot didn't help for me. Super sharp blade, but the cutaway area in the handle doesn't seem to work like I thought it would. It's the only knife in my collection that has had zero carry time.
 
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