First Impressions- Schrade Jackmaster Barlow (Chinese)

[thesouthernguitarist]

I have never had any experience with the Barlow pattern whatsoever. Never held one, seen one in person, or knew anybody that carried one. So I was pretty curious, and began to read about the history of the knife, and decided I wanted one. I read that historically, Barlow knives were designed to be cheap, hard working knives. So I figured I'd just buy a really cheap one for dirty work around the house and whatnot. I also thought that I'd be sort of keeping with tradition by buying a very cheap knife, because Barlow knives have always supposed to be cheap. Which in retrospect, was sort of stupid.

Now on to the knife itself. The word cheap is an understatement. I payed $4 for this knife, and I sort of expected this, but WOW. There are gaps everywhere, and both blades are pretty gritty to open. I dropped some good ol' 3 in 1 oil in the joints, but that did absolutely nothing. Plus the pins are pretty small, so I'm not so sure how much abuse this thing could really take. Also, I got the impression from the photos, that this knife had sawcut handles, and it does not. There is one thing about this knife that's kind of bugging me tho, nowhere on the knife, does it say made in China. It just says Imperial on the main blade, and 278 on the opposite side. So that's misleading if you don't know any better.

All in all, Rough Rider knives absolutely, in every way possible, blow Schrade out of the water. But we all knew that. At the end of the day, the major lack of quality really doesn't bother me, because I'm gonna beat the crap out of this knife.

 

[ikelo]

the kissing crane i just got was not stamped china. it had a sticker on the blade that said handcrafted in china, but once that sticker is off, there is no origin reference.

 

[Voltron]

There is a HUGE difference between a cheap knife, and an inexpensive knife. As we have seen, many imports are now inexpensive, but quite good, knives. Some, however, are cheap. If you want an inexpensive Barlow, which will hold up to years and years of hard work, try an RR Barlow. Inexpensive, but top quality beaters.

 

[thesouthernguitarist]

Yes I know, I probably should've just bought a Rough Rider. But I was curious, and the Jackmaster Barlow also looked a little more attractive in the photo. O well, I'm not regretful, it's a cheap knife. Hopefully somebody out there learned something from my previous post.