Heavy Duty Folder Flipping Awesomeness

Joined
May 7, 2013
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8
By looking at the list of knives below I was hoping that people could add to them because finding the ones I know about has been a chore, I don't exactly know where to look... You can kinda see a similar style with the ones listed, please tell me more, or at least where to find more...

Medford Praetorian
Direware S-90 or Solo-V4
The Reloader by Jason Brous
Grayman Satu
Zero Tolerance 0300, 0200
Extrema Ratio RAO
Strider

The first three on the list are my favorite and I would like to learn about more. If anyone can add to the list I would greatly appreciate everyones opinions...

Thanks

Josh
 
You should check the Want to Buy, and folders for sale by individuals in the forum, great resource, and you can find good deals.
 
Spyderco Vallotton
 
Not sure if in your title you meant these are "flippin' awesome", or if they were awesome flippers.

Strider and Grayman do not make flippers, as far as I am aware.

Heavy duty?

Zero Tolerance 0550/0551
Zero Tolerance 0560/0561 (debatable, it's not quite as thick as the 0550/0551)
DPX HEST (production consistency variable)
Three Sisters Forge Beast (just got mine, it's great, at 3" a little small though at some point Jim may reopen his list for the Super Beast)
Dalibor Sirius/Regulus (books recently closed, likely to resume taking orders in the next half a year)
Hoback Kwaiken/A10/A15
Les George VECP
Hinderer XM18/XM24
Spyderco Military Ti
Surefire Charlie
....

Apologies for how haphazard this list is, I just turned around and looked at my desk. If I think of more I'll edit them in.

What price range are you interested in? You've mentioned blades costing between 100 and 1000, is why I ask.

Hope this helps!

Jon
 
Not sure if in your title you meant these are "flippin' awesome", or if they were awesome flippers.

Strider and Grayman do not make flippers, as far as I am aware.

Heavy duty?

Zero Tolerance 0550/0551
Zero Tolerance 0560/0561 (debatable, it's not quite as thick as the 0550/0551)
DPX HEST (production consistency variable)
Three Sisters Forge Beast (just got mine, it's great, at 3" a little small though at some point Jim may reopen his list for the Super Beast)
Dalibor Sirius/Regulus (books recently closed, likely to resume taking orders in the next half a year)
Hoback Kwaiken/A10/A15
Les George VECP
Hinderer XM18/XM24
Spyderco Military Ti
Surefire Charlie
....

Apologies for how haphazard this list is, I just turned around and looked at my desk. If I think of more I'll edit them in.

What price range are you interested in? You've mentioned blades costing between 100 and 1000, is why I ask.

Hope this helps!

Jon

Thanks darkangel55555! That's exactly the kinda response I was looking for, now I'm going to look them all up...

As for my price range, I think $2000.00 and below should get me a great selection of the style I'm inching towards.

And you're right about strider and grayman. But I do want flippers. But if I was shown a bad ass folder that wasn't a flipper, I still might consider it, as long as it's like Medford or Direware =)

Just looked at the Dalibor Sirius, that is siiiiiiiiickk, that and the xm24... anymore like that???
 
Last edited:
Hi again Josh,

"$2000 and below" would get you probably two fine examples custom-made of just about any thickness/durability/material you wanted.

Here's some flippers in the production/midtech category for you.

9blades said:
Ray Laconico blast 2
Sniper Bladeworks
Darrel Ralph/HTM
Brous
Brian Tighe
Sacha Thiel
Microtech Whaleshark
Rassenti
Les Voorhies
Rexford
Galyean
Southard
Yuna
Shirogorov
Wilson Combat
Begg

Not flippers?
Mission
Demko
Spyderco Tuff
Farid
Hogue
A.G. Russell Acies2
Bradley Alias

The Dalibor is the thickest midtech I've found. I got my order in a couple days before Dalibor closed his books. In the same category, few things exist - slightly smaller, and more options surface. If ever he starts making flippers, I'm going to have to get on that list. Just gotta.

STR makes a pretty nice framelock compact folder in titanium and G10, but I don't know that he does all that many. It's also probably around the thickness of a Spyderco Sage, which is much too thin for me.

At one point I had a table of all these double titanium midtech folders, with blade steels and lengths, when I was looking for something to order. It's gone now, but you could probably do something similar, and add in a column for total thickness, if that's what rocks your boat.

I would recommend taking another look at Jake Hoback's offerings. From the knives you named in your opening post I'm guessing you're fond of the G10 front Ti framelock side configuration, but double titanium can be pretty appealing, too.

If you get narrowed down, we can probably point you closer to your goal.
 
If you get narrowed down, we can probably point you closer to your goal.

Getting closer... And yes, I do like the double titanium look, a lot.

Here are the ones that i like the most:

Medford Praetorian
Direware
Dalibor Sirius
Brous - The Reloader
Hinderer - XM24
Microtech - Whaleshark
Peter Rassenti - X Alphahunter
Todd Rexford - Injection
Yuna - Hard Series
Wilson Combat - Eagle Framelock Titanium Flipper
Todd begg - Bodega with Carbon Fiber inlay

These were all pretty nasty blades, but the first 5 would be the favorites...

I can't wait to finally get one of these in my hands... =)
 
Get a ZT 0200 to play with while you are deciding and maybe you will find you don`t need to look anymore.
 
Get a ZT 0200 to play with while you are deciding and maybe you will find you don`t need to look anymore.

That's a great idea! I actually was already looking on ebay... just wasn't sure if I was going to grab the 0200, the 0300, or ther 0560. Eventually I will just get all three, but I'm not sure which one to get first. I have the 0350 now, but I'm not sure how I feel about the spring assist just yet, other than that, it's a pretty cool blade...
 
The Lionsteel knives are really nice as well... SR-1, and I like the lionspy and the pohlforce models.
 
The Satu is a BEAST! I love mine and it feels indestructible! And as far as I have found it is.
2013-02-23_09-22-10_762_zps52a955f6.jpg

2013-02-11_22-13-12_405_zpscd8102cf.jpg
 
The Satu is a BEAST! I love mine and it feels indestructible! And as far as I have found it is.
2013-02-23_09-22-10_762_zps52a955f6.jpg

2013-02-11_22-13-12_405_zpscd8102cf.jpg

this has me drooling lol if they made a smaller version I would be all over that knife. 9-7/8 OA length is a bit big for my tastes but damn I love the look of that blade its like a bigger better pipsqueak :)
 
Medford is, what, around six C-notes? Direware gets up to 9, but they're a little smaller so if you're counting cost for volume you're winning with the Praetorian.

Dalibor Bergam is not taking new orders.

Brous' stuff is readily available, albeit a little less than Medford.

Plenty of Hinderers at the 7-9 mark, not so much under 6. Definitely nothing on the secondary market below 5.

Double titanium Hinderers are a possibility, RHK make a Ti front scale.

Among those five, I'd probably get a Medford, just because it's something I don't have, but want. Really, really want.

Have you seen the Southern Grind Bad Monkey? It's a little less substantial, but the construction looks good and it's waved for extra fun. CF slabs might not appeal to you, though.

Get yourself to SHOT or BLADE or something, meet the makers (pardon the humour), and talk to them. You might find that your decision is a little swayed by the designer's mentality or personality. I know I was excited to place an order with Dalibor because of how enthusiastic he is about what he makes.

EDIT: Forget the 0200, grab a 0300 from KershawGuy (a blem is less than two bills) and that should tide you over awhile. Strip out the torsion bar, and lube it with something good so it flips just as fast. Think they're almost eight ounces, and while one side is G10, they're pretty d--n thick slabs. I'm not a huge fan of sharpening recurves with bench stones, but have to admit that they make large, messy cuts a lot easier.

EDIT again: By the way, you should look up William Woods Bladesworks. Talk about overkill...
 
As far as the brous reloader gos just be aware that the detent hole and the track the detent wears into the blade are visible when open. This was a deal breaker for me.
 
I have a couple knives from your list that id be willing to sell! PM or email me.
 
As far as the brous reloader gos just be aware that the detent hole and the track the detent wears into the blade are visible when open. This was a deal breaker for me.

How did you see this, do you have a picture I can look at? I searched online but couldn't find anything...


Edit: Nevermind, I saw what you're talking about, I understand now....
 
this has me drooling lol if they made a smaller version I would be all over that knife. 9-7/8 OA length is a bit big for my tastes but damn I love the look of that blade its like a bigger better pipsqueak :)

Grayman Dua is the smaller version.
 
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