How much do little imperfections bother you on a traditional knife?

S

sunandsteel

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Oct 23, 2013
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I can see something more than minor but how do you all feel about a very little imperfection when you first get a new knife? Is it worth all of the trouble to send back, or do you go with it and just use the knife?
 
Out of hundreds of knives purchased, I have sent exactly one back. it was for a wandering center pin hole on a very expensive knife, so should never have left the factory. Minor things like small gaps, blade rubs, less than perfect edge grinds, etc., just come with factory knives. Now if any of the aforementioned small imperfections were glaringly large, I would return those as well.
 
Just depends, but minor no I would't worry about it generally. Mine are all meant to be carried and enjoyed, not collected for their value.
 
arizonaranchman said:
Just depends, but minor no I would't worry about it generally. Mine are all meant to be carried and enjoyed, not collected for their value.
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I agree with you. I buy the knives because I want to enjoy them and use them so I guess any small imperfection will either be forgotton or be worked out when you put the knife to work.
 
For me how much it bothers me depends on the imperfections. Less than ideal handle color or matching of colors doesn't realy consern me. However things such and very weak springs or unevenly ground blades get under my skin. It would take a lot to make me go through the headache of sending a knife back though. I just do my best to correct or live with the issue.
 
For Factory made knives I am pretty tolerant. I understand that not many will be perfect and if they were the price point would be up with the Custom makers. Unless there is a serious issue that make the knife really ugly or unusable, I would not be sending it back. On Customs I am more picky. Steven
 
I generally buy badly beaten and bruised slipjoints so not much really kills it for me. Extremely sharpened down blades, snapped tips and severe blade play are red flags though. Rust, patina, staining, scratches, dents and scuffs are welcomed in open arms.
 
How bout a new knife with centering off a hair? I'm fairly new to the knife game so not sure if this is acceptable.
 
For factory knives I am not very picky as long as it does not affect function. My knives also ride in a pocket with keys and change and have suffered an occasion drop (nothing like a concrete patio to add some character to a bolster).

I never checked blade centering until I started reading this forum and even now I rarely check since it doesn't bother me on a knife I intend to use. I only care that the blade is not wobbly on a new knife.
 
Centering just off a hair...that's fine at almost any level of production knife I'd say.

When it comes to production knives I look for overall quality assembly, fairly tight construction, very little to no blade play, and reasonably well centered blades (a little off is totally acceptable) etc. I know there will be some small issues on almost every production knife, I've yet to see one that truly matches up to a really well tuned custom from a top tier maker. And that's fine, you can only expect so much for $100 or so.

I expect more when I get into custom knives but it's important to remember that you are still dealing with a handmade item and true perfection is pretty much unattainable, it's all about bringing the tolerances down to a level where any slight imperfection is virtually unnoticeable....it's actually shocking to me how close some of the best makers consistently get their knives to that level.
 
Alan G. said:
I never checked blade centering until I started reading this forum
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Same here. It's almost like too much information can be bad for your health.:p I didn't know anything about knives until I joined the forum, now I start to look at things that I didn't notice before.
 
Of course it depends what you mean by little imperfections.... :confused:

There are certain things I can't tolerate: springs not flush on open or closed that create sharp surfaces, these spoil the feel in hand. Ditto poorly radiused handles or sharp edged bolsters. Badly inlet shields... Other people might not be much bothered by these, but if a knife doesn't feel smooth and comfortable in the hand, I can't use it!

Blades not being centre, some blade rub on multi blades, gaps you really have to look for, these are to be expected but the less they occur the better the knife for sure. GEC has a very annoying habit of frequently sinking their pins too deep leaving one eye-sore sink hole, but it's not going to make me send it back, just prefer if the knife didn't have it. Mismatched stag annoys many, I think it's a minor imperfection provided both sides have nice stag. One man's little imperfection can be another man's nightmare in the collecting/using world :D:eek:
 
Everyone has different interpretations of minor imperfections. A minor imperfection on one brand may be a major design flaw on another brand.
 
Small imperfections don't bother me at all. Lord knows I've got a bunch of older, beat up knives too. On the new ones, the only thing that would make me send a knife back would be something not working properly. Handle/scale imperfections don't bother me at all. Obviously don't want beat up bolsters or dents in a new knife tho.
 
I've only sent one production knife back, and that was due to an overly wobbly blade. I don't mind mismatched scales, centering, or even weird blade grinds. The one thing I do fix on my own if its an issue is the spring being flush when open. Otherwise it just feels weird against my thumb or finger in use, but this is usually as easy as 5 minutes with sandpaper to correct. I've even tweaked a few customs to get that perfect flush fit. I guess gaps in liners if its a new knife are bothersome also, but I have SOOO many old beat up well loved ones I don't really mind
 
How does this centering look to you guys?

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I've got probably 80 or more traditional knives. Some purchased new, some used. All (so far) of US or Swiss manufacture. I have had minor fit and finish issues with a number of the new knives. None have been enough to warrant a return visit to the manufacturer or impair the functioning. I consider them to be within the acceptable deviation from the norm for a product with some hand finishing steps involved.

The level of off-centered-ness you are showing in that pic is probably something I would never have noticed.
 
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