High Value, Budget, EDC Knives, narrowed down. Advice Wanted...

Chronovore said:
Overall, the Kizer Gemini remains one of my all-time favorite designs. It's a little thicker but fits into the same size category as the Elementum. It's just a fantastic knife in any variation, whether the $75 liner-lock with Micarta and N690 (Mojave Outdoors exclusive) or the $200 titanium frame-lock with wood inlays and S35VN (Kizer website exclusive).
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There's a S35VN Gemini on sale for $103 at Chicago Knife Works, 3oz. Calling my name lol.

I'm not a huge thumb stud guy. Same with button lock. I can't help but think the button is just one more thing to get jammed or break and the thumb studs are both uncomfortable and put frequent lateral pressure against the blade, which isn't ideal. I think the back or a good front flip design might be where I'm headed.

Snap looks like a cool knife. I'm digging the Fritch. A little smaller. Got skiff bearings when I ordered it to put in at your previous suggestion :)
 
Truesome said:
Little update for those who are curious. I actually came across a few of these in the wild and ordered a couple as well. Turns out a neighbor has the Kizer Cozy and apparently the Elementum is pretty much everywhere. Turns out there’s an outdoor show going on near me right now with a bunch of knives. How convenient! Thoughts so far…

Cozy is solid. Best action of any of the knives I’ve tried. The liners sit proud to the micarta which somehow irritated me, and the handle felt a little clunky to my hand. Blade’s probably bigger than I’m looking for, and this one’s at the higher end of the budget. Very cool knife, but it’s a pass.

Elementum had the weakest action (or detent, I guess, as people here say). Deployment failed over and over. Sweet little knife, but there’s a lot of competition at the $50 mark.

Petrified Fish 818: this is a great knife. Inexpensive. Great action, great in the hand. Again, probably a bigger blade than I’m realizing I probably want. Also, the lock bar is not jimped and is almost recessed. Maybe could get used to it, but compared to other knives, pretty inaccessible. Still, cheapest of the bunch and is awesome.

PF Flavorist. I was excited about this one because the reviews suggest it opens with a thumb or index-over-the-top, but try as I might, it just takes tremendous force to get it to budge with the index. Thumb worked pretty good. No thumb studs. On the fence. This one’s almost $20 more than the 818. One thing i realized I really like about this front flipper though is that there’s no flipper tab to hit your finger when you’re closing the knife. Tougher to deploy but definitely smoother to close vs a back flipper. (Do people say back flipper??). Great size, great action, great blade shape. Like a cheaper version of the new Sokoke.

Sencut Neches: felt like a steak knife to me. Long pointy blade. Lock bar was another tricky one, but not as bad as the 818. 10Cr steel. Wanted to love it. And really not a thing wrong with it or it’s value. Just wasn’t a match.

Sencut Fritch: This one’s the front runner. Great blade shape, perfect size, beautiful handle, pops open and closed with ease. Fits the hand. Under $50.

I’m told there’s a Sokoke and maybe a Pintail at this outdoor show too so maybe will have to go back if there’s time. Really fun learning about all the designs and my preferences. Lots of help here. It’s been fun, thanks!
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Nice that you get hand on experience on your option now.

There are many little things that reviews might leave out, same thing good for some but not for other, people recommending can't catch others' taste and Youtubers... we already talk about that.

Some knives need a little break-in period to get smooth, it happens with my Kizer (surprisingly, my QSP is the smoothess knife I ever handled). It might give a bad first impression, but it is a non issue in my opinion. I have no problem with protruding liner lock. Meanwhile, back flipper is not my thing, nevertheless they are easy to deploy, less weak spot on the blade, and act as finger guard when deployed.

Anyway, enjoy your purchase.
 
The Terminus XR with S35VN is only $85 right now. That's not a horrible deal.
Truesome said:
There's a S35VN Gemini on sale for $103 at Chicago Knife Works, 3oz. Calling my name lol.

I'm not a huge thumb stud guy. Same with button lock. I can't help but think the button is just one more thing to get jammed or break and the thumb studs are both uncomfortable and put frequent lateral pressure against the blade, which isn't ideal. I think the back or a good front flip design might be where I'm headed.

Snap looks like a cool knife. I'm digging the Fritch. A little smaller. Got skiff bearings when I ordered it to put in at your previous suggestion :)
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You'll find most deployment methods have they advantages and disadvantages. The flipper tab can get in the way when cutting against a flat surface or when trying to grip the knife closer to the blade. For those reasons I prefer front flippers. Button locks are my favorite deployment method tho, as long as the button is placed correctly. You'll see all of this tho, sounds like you're deep into the rabbit hole already :)
 
minimag03 said:
... The flipper tab can get in the way when cutting against a flat surface or when trying to grip the knife closer to the blade. For those reasons I prefer front flippers. Button locks are my favorite deployment method tho, as long as the button is placed correctly. You'll see all of this tho, sounds like you're deep into the rabbit hole already :)
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In the quarter-century I've been using flippers, I've literally never cut anything with my EDC folder where I needed to get the handle so close to the surface that the flipper tab obstructed me.

It's rare but I've occasionally had thumb studs get in my way. Don't get me wrong. I'm okay with thumb studs when they are done well. They've just been the only opener to cause this kind of issue for me. If a knife has multiple deployment methods, I don't want thumb studs to be one of them.
 
FWIW I found a new Civivi Sokoke in the wild today. Nice knife for all the reasons you see on paper, but for my hand, the action of the PF Flavorist was significantly better than on the Sokoke. The PF just launched open every time, solid. The Sokoke was a B+ by comparison and reminded me more of the elementum—not bad, but not the best of the bunch. PF doesn’t have thumb studs, but if someone out there wants a high value front flipper, I have to think the Flavorist is high on the list of contenders.
 
Chronovore said:
There are a bunch of knives with slightly proud but rounded liners that are fine. Among them, the Sencut Snap is a gem. I love the wood scales. (I just gave mine a little TLC.) The action from the box was very good but like the PF818 and the Neches, I did upgrade it to Skiff bearings.

For button locks, the Conspirator and Chevalier from Civivi fall into that category. I'm still 50/50 on button locks but some of that is just me subconsciously reaching my finger for the liner/frame. 😜 The other issue is that I prefer a detent that breaks crisply. The recent wave of button locks is better than the axis/cross-bar/clutch locks I've tried but they don't match liner and frame locks in that respect.

If you like flickable thumb studs, the full-sized Sheepsfoot Domin from Kizer is surprisingly good. The liners are quite proud and while that did stop it from being my knife of the year in 2022, it still managed to be my runner up. Between the action and the blade shape, it's awesome.

Getting away from proud liners, the Civivi Voltaic is good for what it is. I expected the extra weight from being a steel frame-lock to be an issue but with the inlays, it really hasn't been. I scale-swapped a pair of them to get both a blackout and naked steel with wood.

For something a little more premium, I like both the Beacon and the Seer from WE. The Beacon is the winner on action but the Seer is the winner on ergonomics. For thumb studs plus a front flipper, the WE Esprit is excellent.

Overall, the Kizer Gemini remains one of my all-time favorite designs. It's a little thicker but fits into the same size category as the Elementum. It's just a fantastic knife in any variation, whether the $75 liner-lock with Micarta and N690 (Mojave Outdoors exclusive) or the $200 titanium frame-lock with wood inlays and S35VN (Kizer website exclusive).
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I noticed you haven’t mentioned replacing the Kizer bearings. Any reason to put Skiffs in those?
 
Truesome said:
FWIW I found a new Civivi Sokoke in the wild today. Nice knife for all the reasons you see on paper, but for my hand, the action of the PF Flavorist was significantly better than on the Sokoke. The PF just launched open every time, solid. The Sokoke was a B+ by comparison and reminded me more of the elementum—not bad, but not the best of the bunch. PF doesn’t have thumb studs, but if someone out there wants a high value front flipper, I have to think the Flavorist is high on the list of contenders.
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Most knives can be tuned for better action. Cheap knives are not assembled with the care that should (but sometimes doesn’t) goes into more expensive ones and there is often quite a bit of variation in the action between knives in the same series.

The true measure of a knife's action is after it is properly tuned. Action out of the box may not be ideal.
 
Truesome said:
I noticed you haven’t mentioned replacing the Kizer bearings. Any reason to put Skiffs in those?
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I own a few Kizers and have never felt they needed new bearings. It's more of a customization/tinkering type of mod than a necessity. I plan on picking up Skiff bearings for my nicer Kizers, just been too lazy to figure out the sizes I need for the ones not listed on the site lol
 
Truesome said:
I noticed you haven’t mentioned replacing the Kizer bearings. Any reason to put Skiffs in those?
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Kizer seems to have surpassed WE on action and lock-up. Whether the Lan or the recent full-sized sheepsfoot Domin, a lot of Kizers just drop shut beautifully with no hint of blade play. Kizer also seems to be the first company to use multi-row bearings in a budget knife (Towser K).

Another reason I haven't swapped them is that they use less common sizes. They've been using smaller bearings than most other Chinese companies, maybe 1mm?

Coincidentally, the bearings and steel choice are what convinced me that Kizer was the OEM for my Vosteed Nightshade. Sure enough, I looked it up and found confirmation.
 
Chronovore said:
Coincidentally, the bearings and steel choice are what convinced me that Kizer was the OEM for my Vosteed Nightshade. Sure enough, I looked it up and found confirmation.
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Really? Thats pretty cool. I’d like to get my hands on a Racoon one day. They just seem to be constantly sold out at the places where they’re a reasonable price.
 
Any thoughts on the Terzuola ATCF Lite? Pretty slick...
https://www.chicagoknifeworks.com/terzuola-knives-atcf-lite-linerlock-black-2/

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Notes on the Sencut Neches:

Very nice with one flaw: Because of limited access and the stiffness of the lock bar it is hard to release, and the blade hangs on the detent when closing because it is hard to keep pressure on the lock bar with such little thumb engagement.

I considered sending it back. Instead I adjusted the bend of the lock bar to reduce spring, installed Skiff bearings, and honed the roughly ground locking portion of the blade for more clearance and deeper lock engagement. On a couple of inexpensive knives now I've seen the lock bar bent in the middle instead of from the beginning, making for stiff action on the detent. This seems to be a common problem.

The knife is a keeper now. The shallow access to the lock bar is no longer an issue because of the lighter spring action.
 
nhobo said:
Notes on the Sencut Neches:

Very nice with one flaw: Because of limited access and the stiffness of the lock bar it is hard to release, and the blade hangs on the detent when closing because it is hard to keep pressure on the lock bar with such little thumb engagement.

I considered sending it back. Instead I adjusted the bend of the lock bar to reduce spring, installed Skiff bearings, and honed the roughly ground locking portion of the blade for more clearance and deeper lock engagement. On a couple of inexpensive knives now I've seen the lock bar bent in the middle instead of from the beginning, making for stiff action on the detent. This seems to be a common problem.

The knife is a keeper now. The shallow access to the lock bar is no longer an issue because of the lighter spring action.
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Completely agree with that assessment. I sent it back mostly because of that lock bar access (and party because the long thin handle/blade just wasn't ideal for my hand).

I will say, for VALUE, so far this Petrified Fish 818 at $28 wins by a distance. Action is significantly better than the Civivi and Sencut and rivals the Kizer, even with factory bearings. Blade came much sharper than the Fritch. Handle feels solid and of higher quality than the Micarta on the Kizer, Civivi, and Sencut. Lock bar works great. Knife is solid and good looking. Only drawback to their line is they don't have many lighter weight options (a lot of 5oz knives; the 818 is an exception), and they're almost all D2. I will say though, I was more impressed with the Petrified Fish Flavorist than with the Civivi Sokoke. These PFs are an incredible deal.
 
For anyone who's interested, looks like the Ferrum Forge Gent 2.0 (made by WE/Civivi/Sencut) is on sale for $49.50 at Chicago Knive Works right now. Always thought this was a very handsome knife that was way overpriced at $75. Sale price is much more reasonable...

www.chicagoknifeworks.com

Ferrum Forge Knife Works Gent 2.0 Linerlock Black (2.88″) for Sale $40.94

3.88" (9.86cm) closed. 2.88" (7.32cm) stonewash finish 9Cr18MoV stainless drop point blade. Black G10 handle. Extended tang. Pocket clip. Ceramic detent ball.
www.chicagoknifeworks.com www.chicagoknifeworks.com
 
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Truesome said:
For anyone who's interested, looks like the Ferrum Forge Gent 2.0 (made by WE/Civivi/Sencut) is on sale for $49.50 at Chicago Knive Works right now. Always thought this was a very handsome knife that was way overpriced at $75. Sale price is much more reasonable...

www.chicagoknifeworks.com

Ferrum Forge Knife Works Gent 2.0 Linerlock Black (2.88″) for Sale $40.94

3.88" (9.86cm) closed. 2.88" (7.32cm) stonewash finish 9Cr18MoV stainless drop point blade. Black G10 handle. Extended tang. Pocket clip. Ceramic detent ball.
www.chicagoknifeworks.com www.chicagoknifeworks.com
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Along those same lines, they recently did a Ferrum Forge knife in their Sencut line that goes for $40-45. It's a small but capable knife and they do a good heat treatment on their 9Cr18Mov. Limited color options though...

 
Looks like I'm late to the party on this discussion, but to answer the OP's original question, I highly recommend the Rat II. I'm more into customs in my old age, but my every day work knife that I'm comfortable abusing and beating the crap out of is a rat 2 and it's handled everything I've thrown at it and takes an edge well.
 
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