A lot of people stand behind strider knives. Some take it to a whole nother level; tattoos and such. I once questioned the people that complained about this strider or that, for this reason or that. Then I tried some on my own. I didn't need the strongest knife avalible, and didn't even use the ones I had real hard. In reality, I probably just got one to say I had one. I also used to read about people pumping up sebenzas like crazy too and couldn't understand it for the world. Before owning either one, I thought, well, at least the strider is a super strong knife for the price, and it looks cool -all people can say about the sebenza is how nice the fit and finish was, which was meaningless to me at the time. So, eventually I went to a knife dealer and traded several fine mint knives for an sng. Wow, my first really expensive knife. I thought it was really cool. Seemed like it was unstopable and I was proud to have it in my pocket. I used it for edc, cutting this and that. I never really pushed it though, just because the thing cost so much (way more than retail due to the trade I made). It was tight to open, but I always heard of the break-in period they need. After about two months of use and hundreds of openings, it was still no easier to open, so I loosened the pivot. Now it had blade play. Damn, can't stand that. So I tightened it back up, and went on using it, hoping it would loosen up a bit with regular use. I really didn't want to send it in for warranty work, it was my baby. Then one day the pin just simply fell out. I now had no choice but to send it in. It came back, and I was happy to see it again. Fixed. I used it more, still stiff as day one, but I had excepted that. Finally, I woke up one day and the blade was rusted like it had been sitting in the jungle getting pissed on by monkeys for a few months. No. How did I let that happen, I always kept a tuf cloth handy? Well, it was time to get it bead blasted and trade it off. What a waste of my original knives. I believe I ended up with a mission mpf in A2. It was nice, but I just didn't care for it. I thought hey, maybe I'll give a different strider a try. -I wasn't a big fan of the sngs handle anyhow. Maybe I'll try to find a smf for trade. So I did. Got it home, openned the package and thought wow, this is a awsome knife. Then I openned it and it had blade play. Maybe the pivot was just a bit loose, luckily I also made out with a strider prybaby in the deal, so I adjusted it back and forth and it was exactily like my new sng had been. Too tight or with play. Well, I wasn't gonna wait for the monkeys to come back, so I trade it off for a large regular sebenza. I already had owned 2 striders and a mission, why not give that plain looking sebenza a try. I'm not a wealthy man, but I finally found an expensive knife that was worth the crazy price they sold for. -Absolutly perfect in every way.
That is the story of my experience with strider knives and a couple others in a similar price range. Maybe I was just unlucky with the two I had, but I wont give a third a try. Some people seem to really love them, and I doubt they're all carrying knives that are tight, rusted up, or have blade play. At this point, my sebenza is gone due to financial reasons, and I either carry a spyderco jess horn, or my emerson #12. They're all I seem to need, and really, I could probably live with just that little pink looking spyderco that cost under 100 bucks. It locks without play and opens nicely. Like I said, I'm pretty sure I had some bad luck with the striders I had. I tried to like them, but I don't. -I don't even trust them personally. Now when I read people complaining about a strider that aint right, I don't question them. And if you ever catch me with a knife that cost in the ball park of a strider someday, it'll likely be a plain looking sebenza.
By the way, I live in Ohio, not the jungle, and if high end cars had less than 20 parts on them, I bet they'd have a lifetime warranty too.
