Help...Trying to catch back up...

jokrswylde

jokrswylde

Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
442
Been out of the knife addiction for many years. Last time I was really active, Cliff Stamp was running around scientifically destruction testing every knife he could get his hands on, flippers were just getting popular, and my "smart phone" was a state of the art nextel with the push to talk feature.

Anyway, I have been perusing the forums over the past few weeks, and along with noticing some of the more prolific posters from back in the day (Golnick or glockmann99 still around?) don't seem to be active, I have a few questions maybe y'all can help with...

1. I see several posts referencing "drop free" blade. What is this and do I need one?:confused: I know what the spydie drop is, I know what flicking open a blade is...but am at a loss for free drop.

2. I saw a thread where someone mentioned high quality, high precision Chinese knives... What??? Is this a thing now? I have a couple of AG Russel(RIP) made in China, but he assured me in his catalogue that the tolerances were set by him. I assumed this to be the exception vs. the rule? Is the cheap, China knockoff gone the way of the dodo?

3. I have read many threads talking about Cold Steel and their quality, ruggedness, and durability. 15 years ago CS was more of a tacticool, foreign made, for mall ninjas type knife. Have they broadened their target consumers? Are they worth checking out?

4. Does Ken Onion still do the Kershaw designs? Last Kershaw I bought, they did something where they used some kind wizardry to fuse two different blade steels together...was that a gimmick or are they still doing that?

5. You mean to tell me s30v is not the industry standard anymore?

I guess that is all for now...but man a fella takes a few years off and gets left in the dust!
 
Drop free or drop shut is when you go to close the knife, the pivot is smooth enough that the blade drops into the handle completely, with no assistance.

Ken Onion design for CRKT now, though Kershaw still sells the Ken Onion designed knives like the leek, chive, shallot, etc.

China does have a few companies now that make very, very high quality knives. WE, Reate, Kizer, Bestech. Meanwhile, Benchmade's QC has gone down, and their prices way up.
 
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welcome back.

some of old members are still here. some have passed on....R.I.P. some have fallen away from the forum. some come back once in a rare while though.

1. think they mean without a lockbar touching the blade swings freely say on a crk as an example.

2. yes there are serious makers in China now that make high end materials and tolerances knives now. high dollars too.

there is also makers who pump out value stuff and also makers who still make garbage fakes like always though.

3. cold steel where to start. ill paraphrase quickly. Andrew Demko with the tri-ad lock pushed things into super strong and good quality for lower dollars. many dislike marketing but liked some of their knives.

now company is sold to gsm which we shall see what they will end up doing. so far they've released super high dollars on 2021 msrp prices on their website.

4. some they still make. Ken's also done other brands designs. crkt for an example. the layered steel stuff i havent seen much lately, but other brands have been doing limited runs in this somewhat. even Buck did a few limited with this San mai type steels setup.. not the patterns with shapes that kershaw was doing but the softer jacket steels and harder core steels.

5. still common, but s35vn has replaced it mostly. s45vn seems to be the next s30v. also lots of other steels.
 
The most important answer is no, you to not need drop shut or drop open action.

Lots of great steels.

Id also note Traditionals knives by GEC have really gotten hot. Hard to get and flippers marking them up like cocaine.
 
Too bad that you missed out on the CPK DEK1 preorder. You can still find one being sold occasionally.
 
I'd like to add:
1. In addition to CRK, look at Shirogorov and Koenig for flippers that will drop closed when the lock is disengaged.

2. Reate, and WE Knives are putting out some extremely high quality production knives. Bharucha, Pena, Diskin, Mah, Begg, and Chaves are all using Reate to produce Mid-Tech's for them.
 
Welcome back, Bruddah.

Glockman99 passed away. We met for brews over at his neighborhood bar when we did a trade once. Vowed I'd be back to swap some more stories and knives later...

But that never happened. Damn the luck, he was a solid citizen.

Haven't seen Gollnick in some time. Dunno what he's up to.

S30V is still a "standard" in some form or fashion... what slays me is that VG-10 and ATS-34 aren't the kings-of-the-hill anymore.

Remember BG-42? Sheesh.

At any rate, the Knife Review and Testing forum should get you up to speed on some of the newer stuff. That's where I look often.

See you around!
 
jokrswylde said:
2. I saw a thread where someone mentioned high quality, high precision Chinese knives... What??? Is this a thing now? I have a couple of AG Russel(RIP) made in China, but he assured me in his catalogue that the tolerances were set by him. I assumed this to be the exception vs. the rule? Is the cheap, China knockoff gone the way of the dodo?
Click to expand...

I remember the days you're talking about. :)

China is home to a lot of manufacturers. Some of them still churn out junk, counterfeits, etc. However, some of them have come a long way. It makes sense if you think about it. Chinese manufacturers make all kinds of stuff from pants to precision electronics. Especially with companies like Kershaw and CRKT using them to make their lower-end knives all this time; did nobody expect them to learn how to do it themselves?

Now there are a bunch of decent companies out there such as WE, Reate, and Kizer. A few years back, we saw a major revolution in budget knives coming out of China too. Check out WE's budget division, Civivi. They knock it out of the park in the under $100 category. They've also perfected the heat treatment for 9Cr18Mov. It's a bit like the difference between average 420HC and Buck's 420HC with the Bos heat treatment, only from a better starting point.

My pick for the best example of this is still the Civivi Baklash. It's got G10, sweet manual action on captured ball bearings, skeletonized liners, decent blade geometry that gets nice and thin behind the edge, and that perfected 9Cr18Mov I mentioned; all for under $50. (It's just over $50 if you want it with wood scales.)
 
Back when I was still a lurker, I’ve seen a couple of Cliff Stamp posts. Shared plenty of useful information. What happened?
 
Oh, and BTW you cannot "catch back up".

The knife world moves too fast nowadays. You are a decade behind, and a decade behind you shall stay.

Good luck back there, ridin' drag and eatin' dust. You have my pity.

:D;):D
 
jokrswylde said:
Been out of the knife addiction for many years. Last time I was really active, Cliff Stamp was running around scientifically destruction testing every knife he could get his hands on, flippers were just getting popular, and my "smart phone" was a state of the art nextel with the push to talk feature.

Anyway, I have been perusing the forums over the past few weeks, and along with noticing some of the more prolific posters from back in the day (Golnick or glockmann99 still around?) don't seem to be active, I have a few questions maybe y'all can help with...

1. I see several posts referencing "drop free" blade. What is this and do I need one?:confused: I know what the spydie drop is, I know what flicking open a blade is...but am at a loss for free drop.

2. I saw a thread where someone mentioned high quality, high precision Chinese knives... What??? Is this a thing now? I have a couple of AG Russel(RIP) made in China, but he assured me in his catalogue that the tolerances were set by him. I assumed this to be the exception vs. the rule? Is the cheap, China knockoff gone the way of the dodo?

3. I have read many threads talking about Cold Steel and their quality, ruggedness, and durability. 15 years ago CS was more of a tacticool, foreign made, for mall ninjas type knife. Have they broadened their target consumers? Are they worth checking out?

4. Does Ken Onion still do the Kershaw designs? Last Kershaw I bought, they did something where they used some kind wizardry to fuse two different blade steels together...was that a gimmick or are they still doing that?

5. You mean to tell me s30v is not the industry standard anymore?

I guess that is all for now...but man a fella takes a few years off and gets left in the dust!
Click to expand...
Question 3: Cold Steel has a couple of gems here and there. Their mid-tier to upper-tier folders are great and some of their fixed blades aren’t too bad either. There are still some issues though. Their “Secure-Ex” sheaths are notorious for dulling blades, and the lock of their folding blades aren’t, well, the friendliest. The company’s also been recently sold to GSM. Plenty of threads covering that in the Cold Steel forum.

Question 5: Oh boy. One minute I hear it’s M390, then CPM-20CV, then Maxamet, and on and on it goes. S35VN is also pretty popular nowadays.
 
jokrswylde said:
2. I saw a thread where someone mentioned high quality, high precision Chinese knives... What??? Is this a thing now? I have a couple of AG Russel(RIP) made in China, but he assured me in his catalogue that the tolerances were set by him. I assumed this to be the exception vs. the rule? Is the cheap, China knockoff gone the way of the dodo?
Click to expand...
Well, I’ve had some positive experience mainly with Kershaw and Spyderco. Both the Camp 10 and Resilience are made in China, but they’re pretty good knives. The Cold Steel Shanghai Shadow ain’t too bad either. In terms of fit and finish though, I’d say Taiwan, Japan, and the US are still ahead.
 
I think you could definitely say you've got your pick of just about whatever steel you want in a knife in these days.
Spyderco is always offering all kinds of different steels.
If you're just catching back up, look into the newer CPM steels like S35VN
 
WB - 2004 means you were just coming on board as I was drifting away.
I just recently returned to the fold myself. I had to direct most of my income to the power tool world so I could pursue a career in house renovation.
Health issues have forced me out of that -so - here I is!

At the end of the day - not much has changed. There's the same old 9mm vs .45 acp debate. PC vs Mac debate. Ford vs Chevy. Stainless vs rusty steel. Coke vs Pepsi (vs the only real cola which is RC)
 
sounds like you drifted away for a while.
giphy.gif

but hey! welcome back to the forums.
and not to worry about what's hot.
you've jumped in blind before.
and you got a second chance
at taking the old credit card
a notch higher at full warp speed.
its a different world today
but one can always count on
forumites for help :-)
 
Thanks for the response guys!

Velitrius said:
Welcome back, Bruddah.

Glockman99 passed away. We met for brews over at his neighborhood bar when we did a trade once. Vowed I'd be back to swap some more stories and knives later...

But that never happened. Damn the luck, he was a solid citizen.
Click to expand...
Sorry as heck to hear that. I never met him in person, but he was always helpful and a solid poster here.

Chronovore said:
I remember the days you're talking about. :)

China is home to a lot of manufacturers. Some of them still churn out junk, counterfeits, etc. However, some of them have come a long way. It makes sense if you think about it. Chinese manufacturers make all kinds of stuff from pants to precision electronics. Especially with companies like Kershaw and CRKT using them to make their lower-end knives all this time; did nobody expect them to learn how to do it themselves?
Click to expand...

I hear you. Still hard to fathom though. I will have to look into the companies you mentioned...

DangerZone98 said:
Back when I was still a lurker, I’ve seen a couple of Cliff Stamp posts. Shared plenty of useful information. What happened?
Click to expand...

I think folks got tired of him trying to chop concrete blocks with filet knives, and then giving them bad reviews when the failed! :)

Velitrius said:
Oh, and BTW you cannot "catch back up".

The knife world moves too fast nowadays. You are a decade behind, and a decade behind you shall stay.

Good luck back there, ridin' drag and eatin' dust. You have my pity.

:D;):D
Click to expand...

It sure feels like I am behind...wait...Buck still makes the 110, right??


Hal said:
At the end of the day - not much has changed. There's the same old 9mm vs .45 acp debate. PC vs Mac debate. Ford vs Chevy. Stainless vs rusty steel. Coke vs Pepsi (vs the only real cola which is RC)
Click to expand...

Yep, from what I can tell, Busse is still churning out tanks, Every framelock still gets compared to the Sebenza, and the SAK is still more knife than most people will ever need :)... that about cover it?

Oh, and in another thread, someone mentioned that the axis lock from BM hasn't aged well. Really?
 
There are corrosion proof stainless steels now. H1, LC200N, and Vanax. None will rust, and the latter two have very good edge retention.
 
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