Tyson A Wright
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2020
- Messages
- 1,801
I thought I'd offer a review of my Cudeman 453-L. I see these very occasionally posted in pictures here (it's probably
B
BrotherJim
's fault that I broke down and bought this - with absolutely no regard for my wallet, he has posted his several times, and it's just such a good-looking knife). But couldn't really find any review of them. I thought these were lovely, and when I saw how inexpensive they are I bought one on a whim, not really knowing what I would get. I'm sure that there is some interesting history behind this design, this company, this particular knife, but I don't know any of it - if you do, please share it with us! But this is just an attempt to share my early impressions of this knife.
Pocketability - the 453-L is a very lightweight knife, and the rounded shapes go very well in a pocket. It's surprising how easily this 4"+ knife carries. My only complaint is the exposed joint - the front of the handle does sweep towards the joint, but does not cover it, and the joint itself is pretty sharp. I suspect that this will snag and tear pockets eventually. I don't much use pocket slips (except for very small knives), but this is one where a pocket slip would probably be a good idea.
Openability - with no nail nick or long pull, it's good that this knife is easily pinchable. I don't know if they did something intentionally clever with the shape of cam on the tang, but it seems to get progressively heavier as you move from open to close. So it's easy to get started, and somewhere around halfway it gets a bit heavier, ending in a really positive snap. This works quite well, but I do wish this knife had a half-stop - I can open it one-handed, but without a half-stop I don't really trust closing it one-handed (I can't get the closing started without having my fingers in the way, and it's a bit too heavy for that to feel safe). Overall, this works well - this is not too hard to open, but it's never going to close on me while doing anything I would do with a folding knife.
Ergonomics - this is quite comfortable in hand. If you like the ergonomics of a toothpick, here it is cranked up to 11. If you don't like the toothpick, you probably won't like this. (I like toothpick patterns a lot.)
Cutting - I haven't done any kind of heavy duty testing with this, and probably won't, to be honest. I have other knives for getting serious work done. But this slices quite well for the few things I have used it for - cutting boxes, paper, string, etc. The blade steel (420) is not very good, and doesn't hold an edge as long as I would like. This is probably the weakest detail of the knife - keep everything the same, but improve the steel even a tiny bit (use Buck's 420HC, use 440C, etc.) and I would be really happy. (And if someone made a CPM Magnacut version of this knife, I would be ecstatic!) I wondered if having a half-hallow blade would degrade slicing performance (compared to a full flat or a full hollow), but coupled with the thin steel stock, it works well. It just gets dull a bit faster than is my preference.
Fidget factor - I like the feel of this knife a lot, and the olivewood handle is beautiful. It is nice to fidget with, but having a half stop would have really improved this for me.
Aesthetics / Fit and Finish - this is mixed bag. The overall aesthetics are what drew me to this knife in the first place - it is graceful, and the olive handle is lovely. There are some details that Cudeman did poorly, however.
There are a couple of things I'd like to point out on the positive side:
Overall Impressions - this is lovely knife, and I'm glad I bought it. I may polish up the handle a little bit more, to really make the most of the olivewood. This probably wouldn't work for me as my only knife, mostly due to the quality of the steel used, but for now I'm enjoying it. If you own one of these, I'd love to see pictures - I like especially seeing how handles look on different ones.
Pocketability - the 453-L is a very lightweight knife, and the rounded shapes go very well in a pocket. It's surprising how easily this 4"+ knife carries. My only complaint is the exposed joint - the front of the handle does sweep towards the joint, but does not cover it, and the joint itself is pretty sharp. I suspect that this will snag and tear pockets eventually. I don't much use pocket slips (except for very small knives), but this is one where a pocket slip would probably be a good idea.
Openability - with no nail nick or long pull, it's good that this knife is easily pinchable. I don't know if they did something intentionally clever with the shape of cam on the tang, but it seems to get progressively heavier as you move from open to close. So it's easy to get started, and somewhere around halfway it gets a bit heavier, ending in a really positive snap. This works quite well, but I do wish this knife had a half-stop - I can open it one-handed, but without a half-stop I don't really trust closing it one-handed (I can't get the closing started without having my fingers in the way, and it's a bit too heavy for that to feel safe). Overall, this works well - this is not too hard to open, but it's never going to close on me while doing anything I would do with a folding knife.
Ergonomics - this is quite comfortable in hand. If you like the ergonomics of a toothpick, here it is cranked up to 11. If you don't like the toothpick, you probably won't like this. (I like toothpick patterns a lot.)
Cutting - I haven't done any kind of heavy duty testing with this, and probably won't, to be honest. I have other knives for getting serious work done. But this slices quite well for the few things I have used it for - cutting boxes, paper, string, etc. The blade steel (420) is not very good, and doesn't hold an edge as long as I would like. This is probably the weakest detail of the knife - keep everything the same, but improve the steel even a tiny bit (use Buck's 420HC, use 440C, etc.) and I would be really happy. (And if someone made a CPM Magnacut version of this knife, I would be ecstatic!) I wondered if having a half-hallow blade would degrade slicing performance (compared to a full flat or a full hollow), but coupled with the thin steel stock, it works well. It just gets dull a bit faster than is my preference.
Fidget factor - I like the feel of this knife a lot, and the olivewood handle is beautiful. It is nice to fidget with, but having a half stop would have really improved this for me.
Aesthetics / Fit and Finish - this is mixed bag. The overall aesthetics are what drew me to this knife in the first place - it is graceful, and the olive handle is lovely. There are some details that Cudeman did poorly, however.
- Both sides of the pivot pin are rough - on the mark side, there is a chunk missing on one edge of the circle. On the pile side, the pin is very visible against the washer (that's out of the box, before ever opening it). I tried to show both of these in the pictures below.
- There are some gaps in the fitment between the wood and the liners. On the mark side, near the end of the knife, I can see light between the wood and the liner.
- While the blade is centered, both closed and open, the grinds are uneven. On the mark side, at the plunge the grind is .293 inches (7.45 mm) high, but it is only .210 inches (5.35 mm) high on the pile side. I tried to show both of these in the pictures below - note how the top of the grind is level with the top of the pivot on the mark side, but level with the center of the pivot on the pile side.
- The edges of the liners are very sharply squared off, enough that sliding your fingers over the open blade well can be difficult because it grabs your skin. Not enough to cut, or even be super-noticeable in use, but just breaking those corners a little bit would be an improvement.
There are a couple of things I'd like to point out on the positive side:
- The wood is beautiful (I wish my pictures could do it justice). It's not finished to a high polish, but it looks good.
- Cudeman also managed to make the open blade essentially flush with the backspring. None of my GEC or Case or Böker knives seem to pull this off, but this humble 453-L does. This is one of those details that I guess nobody but me cares about, because I never see it mentioned, and almost every knife I own has the blade a bit lower than the spring. (Actually, it's mostly my less expensive knives that get this right - my Klein TL-29, my A. Wright & Son lambsfoot, and this Cudeman are the only ones I can think of off-hand that I own that have the back of the blade flush with the backspring at open).
- The spring is flush(ish) with the liners both open and closed. It's not perfectly flush, but it's so close that it's hard to feel the offset (you can see it, but it's pretty slight).
Overall Impressions - this is lovely knife, and I'm glad I bought it. I may polish up the handle a little bit more, to really make the most of the olivewood. This probably wouldn't work for me as my only knife, mostly due to the quality of the steel used, but for now I'm enjoying it. If you own one of these, I'd love to see pictures - I like especially seeing how handles look on different ones.
