- Joined
- Apr 10, 2007
- Messages
- 7,395
After reading lots of horrible things about Linton knives and their bad business practices, ripoffs, crappy construction, etc. I noticed not many people had actually owned anything from Linton. Unlike many people, when I read a lot of speculation or negative feedback about a knife or knife company without anything concrete to base it on, I take the risk and go buy the damn thing to see for myself. (This is how I ended up with a Cold Steel O-Katana, anyone need one?). Luckily, I pay wholesale for my knives and decided that half-price on two similar-looking Linton knives wasn't going to break the bank. I purchased the Gigantosaurus and Daspletosaurus out of the BRK book because these two were the most appealing (names aside) to me. The Gig and Das measure 11 7/8" overall, 6 3/4" blade and 12" overall, 7" blade, respectively. According to BRK, the blade material is AUS-8 and the handles are made from recycleable wood (looks like some kind of hard composite). The Linton website says both blades are made from ATS-34, not that there's a huge difference. Anyway, here goes:
Not that I'm one for judging a book by it's cover or anything but some things are tough to ignore. Printed in huge, bold letters on the front of each box are the words "MACHETE KNIFE". Neither of these knives are what I would call a machete by any stretch and only a complete ignoramus would look at either and think 'That's a machete'. The trademark 'Linton' in the shape of a scorpion with too many legs on one side is present and in case the scorpion-shaped logo is too hard to read they also print 'Made By Linton' on there too.
As soon as I took the knives out of their boxes I noticed the sheaths. They are identical for both knives and made from what looks like cheaply woven green nylon stitched to thin, flexible plastic. The sheathes have a small pouch on the front that looks like it could carry a uselessly-small sharpening stone pretty well. The Scorpion logo makes an appearance here as well, in the form of a printed leather square stitched on just above the pouch. The knives are secured in the sheath by nylon straps with button snaps that have to be forced together to close. :thumbdn: In my honest opinion, the sheaths are complete crap and suitable only for mall ninja 'survival' knives. I'm already envisioning the shoddy stitching coming apart at the seams and the whole thing falling apart or ending up in the trash well before they even get the chance to.
The next thing I noticed was the handles. Unlike the hard, textured, composite wood I expected, (like the park benches made from recycled wood), the handles are soft and rubbery. I don't know the exact definition of 'recyclabe wood' but it appears Linton believes it to mean 'sawdust mixed with rubber cement'. You can actually cut into the material with a little pressure with a thumbnail and I don't imagine they'd turn out to be in the least bit durable. Like the sheaths, both the handles and tang of each knife are identical. When held, materials aside, the knives are comfortable in both standard and reverse grip, though the saw-dust-rubber is a little thick for my taste.
On to the actual blades; The shapes of both are pretty decent and fairly simple. No serrations, strange grinds or anything out of the ordinary. The Das has a semicircular cutout just after the milled thumb-grip on the back of the blade, creating a little 'bump' on the side opposite the thumb-grip. It's hard to describe but you'll know what I'm talking about if you check the picture on Linton's website. The cutout and little bump it creates doesn't look bad and actually kind of gives it a 'dinosaur' look. The blades have a hefty thickness of 4mm and seem pretty solid and stonewash finish is actually kind of nice and looks great on both knives. Both knives were very sharp out of the box and shaved without a problem. Grind lines on both seem pretty even though not very crisp, much like what I've seen from a few CRKT fixed blades (First strike, hissatsu, etc.) but for the price, I guess I can't ask for better. I have to say that I wasn't too dissapointed in the blades on both these knives for their $65 price tags.
Overall, I don't feel I wasted my money buying these at wholesale price but wether or not they are worth the retail price is debatable. I personally plan on removing the crap handles and replacing them with micarta or maybe even paracord, throwing out the sheaths they came with and making new kydex sheathes. If you are willing to do the same, $65 may not be bad for a solid, good-looking, AUS-8 (or ATS-34 ) blade to practice your handle and sheathmaking skills on. I think with a little work I'll end up with two nice knives. If you don't want to put out the effort, avoid these two knives like the plague.
Final breakdown:
CONS:
Worthless handle material, they shouldn't have even bothered.
Sheath is junk, definitely needs to be replaced.
Linton trademarks etched in steel on blade, not easy to remove.
PROS:
Good bladesteel, if they aren't lying about it.
Nice finish.
Decent weight and feel.
Suprisingly well balanced despite blade length and size.
Sharp out of box.
Low price.
I haven't tested the cutting/durabilty of these knives yet beyond cutting paper but I'll be sure to update this if anything comes up.
Not that I'm one for judging a book by it's cover or anything but some things are tough to ignore. Printed in huge, bold letters on the front of each box are the words "MACHETE KNIFE". Neither of these knives are what I would call a machete by any stretch and only a complete ignoramus would look at either and think 'That's a machete'. The trademark 'Linton' in the shape of a scorpion with too many legs on one side is present and in case the scorpion-shaped logo is too hard to read they also print 'Made By Linton' on there too.
As soon as I took the knives out of their boxes I noticed the sheaths. They are identical for both knives and made from what looks like cheaply woven green nylon stitched to thin, flexible plastic. The sheathes have a small pouch on the front that looks like it could carry a uselessly-small sharpening stone pretty well. The Scorpion logo makes an appearance here as well, in the form of a printed leather square stitched on just above the pouch. The knives are secured in the sheath by nylon straps with button snaps that have to be forced together to close. :thumbdn: In my honest opinion, the sheaths are complete crap and suitable only for mall ninja 'survival' knives. I'm already envisioning the shoddy stitching coming apart at the seams and the whole thing falling apart or ending up in the trash well before they even get the chance to.
The next thing I noticed was the handles. Unlike the hard, textured, composite wood I expected, (like the park benches made from recycled wood), the handles are soft and rubbery. I don't know the exact definition of 'recyclabe wood' but it appears Linton believes it to mean 'sawdust mixed with rubber cement'. You can actually cut into the material with a little pressure with a thumbnail and I don't imagine they'd turn out to be in the least bit durable. Like the sheaths, both the handles and tang of each knife are identical. When held, materials aside, the knives are comfortable in both standard and reverse grip, though the saw-dust-rubber is a little thick for my taste.
On to the actual blades; The shapes of both are pretty decent and fairly simple. No serrations, strange grinds or anything out of the ordinary. The Das has a semicircular cutout just after the milled thumb-grip on the back of the blade, creating a little 'bump' on the side opposite the thumb-grip. It's hard to describe but you'll know what I'm talking about if you check the picture on Linton's website. The cutout and little bump it creates doesn't look bad and actually kind of gives it a 'dinosaur' look. The blades have a hefty thickness of 4mm and seem pretty solid and stonewash finish is actually kind of nice and looks great on both knives. Both knives were very sharp out of the box and shaved without a problem. Grind lines on both seem pretty even though not very crisp, much like what I've seen from a few CRKT fixed blades (First strike, hissatsu, etc.) but for the price, I guess I can't ask for better. I have to say that I wasn't too dissapointed in the blades on both these knives for their $65 price tags.
Overall, I don't feel I wasted my money buying these at wholesale price but wether or not they are worth the retail price is debatable. I personally plan on removing the crap handles and replacing them with micarta or maybe even paracord, throwing out the sheaths they came with and making new kydex sheathes. If you are willing to do the same, $65 may not be bad for a solid, good-looking, AUS-8 (or ATS-34
) blade to practice your handle and sheathmaking skills on. I think with a little work I'll end up with two nice knives. If you don't want to put out the effort, avoid these two knives like the plague. Final breakdown:
CONS:
Worthless handle material, they shouldn't have even bothered.
Sheath is junk, definitely needs to be replaced.
Linton trademarks etched in steel on blade, not easy to remove.
PROS:
Good bladesteel, if they aren't lying about it.
Nice finish.
Decent weight and feel.
Suprisingly well balanced despite blade length and size.
Sharp out of box.
Low price.
I haven't tested the cutting/durabilty of these knives yet beyond cutting paper but I'll be sure to update this if anything comes up.
