I Hate FRN

donny bee said:
If you dont know much about it, how can you hate it? Do you use that same kind of logic with people? Sir you are a cad, many people in the know consider frn as being the best folder material around.
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Dude, it's New Years day. Lighten up. (Ya'll must have a huge hangover.)
 
donny bee said:
If you dont know much about it, how can you hate it? Do you use that same kind of logic with people? Sir you are a cad, many people in the know consider frn as being the best folder material around.
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Kinda rude.

donny bee said:
Knives were made for a purpose "to be used/performance", not "aesthetics/ mental illness". Please do yourself a favor and do not romantisize/fantasize yourself into mental illness.
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I disagree completely with this statement. There are tons of knives made specifically for aesthetics, in fact, this native is one of the 3 knives I own that are being used. Every other knife in my collection is displayed as works of art.
 
Hi Secspyral,

FRN is one of those materials that one can't "know" easily. It's kinda like steel. "All steel looks the same". The truth is that steels can vary a great deal in their ability to deliver performance in particular areas. Not obvious without long term use.

Credit for FRN knives should go to Blackie Collins. While designing for Pete Gerber, he felt that FRN, a new material, could be very effective to make the handle of a knife. Blackie and Pete created the first "fiberglass reinforced nylon" handle for a knife, with no metal supports. Hindsight shows it to be an excellent performing material for all of the reasons posted.

Industry has learned a great deal about pushing the FRN envelope in the past 25 years. We can create strength, durability, form, texture, resistance, toughness at less than half the cost of machining aluminum, G-10, Ti, etc.

We can also make it different colors.

Mold costs can be very expensive, so mold costs have to be figured into each handle, but the trade off still puts the FRN ahead in the value area.

Try to keep an opened mind to the offerings of the newer materials and processes that modern Industry provides and I believe you will come to appreciate the "space age" materials that we have today.

The value of something like Steel or FRN is best decided with longer term knowledge and experience than just how "I think it looks or feels", at first look, in my opinion.

BTW, the current FRN Native is a 10 year old mold. The new design, out later this year, incorporates all we've learned in the Endura/Delica series. We're still learning.

sal
 
Thanks for the info Sal, I'll try to keep an open mind. It really is just personal preference, for me, I prefer a different material. Which is why my Native is going to take a backseat to my Caly 3 or 940 Osborne for daily use. I will break out the Native when the work calls for it. I'm a young guy who has a different outlook on knives from the next guy. FRN is probably something I just have to "grow into".

P.S. Please don't take offense to the "I Hate FRN" thread title (it was too harsh of a title). I'm not bashing the material, I just prefer a different type.
 
though FRN works great and is plenty strong imho it just looks cheap, give me G10 every time.
 
I've had great success in FRN handle Spydies and I find that the handle feels cheap but I know that it's an awesome material.
 
I wonder if it would be easy to replace the FN handle on an endura with some g10 or micarta myself. I just finished it for my griptillian.
 
eyeeatingfish said:
I wonder if it would be easy to replace the FN handle on an endura with some g10 or micarta myself. I just finished it for my griptillian.
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Please show photos of the finished product! :D

I keep seeing the "90's Delica" replacement scales on the 'Bay for relatively cheap, and wondering how difficult it would be to work on some G-10 slabs for my Delica 4.

I love FRN, I think it's a fantastic material. It's featherweight, strong, and durable.

It just doesn't look all that classy. But for pure utility, it's hard to beat.
 
I will take some pictures when it is done. I have a few minor modifications to do. It was time consuming too...
 
I have a little list that I have in the back of my mind when i go to buy a knife.

that list helps determine what use the knife will get after i purchase it.

part of this list is what material the handle is made of. If it is FRN, it is at the bottom of the list if I am buying the knife for its looks and such. Ti or CF are at the top for that one. If the knife is for hard use, and it comes in FRN, then i consider it. Truth be told, i go with G-10 more often than not, but if the knife i want only comes in FRN, then i will prolly buy it. I can almost always wind up getting new material for it later on if i want to.

It has its place and that place is different for everyone. For some its their CF or micarta. All a matter of opinion.
 
I love the stuff. I have a Bryd Cara Cara with G10 handles and one with FRN handles. I also carry Cold Steel knives and really like my Spyderco Native. It's light, doesn't conduct heat or cold and a full grown gorilla couldn't break it. In fact, it's a waste to put steel inserts in the things because they're strong enough without it.

This is a space age material. Bury an FRN handle along with a Buck 110 handle and come back in 50 years and see which one is still intact.
 
FRN is not all that bad. I too have outgrown FRN/Zytel about 9 or 10 years ago. I pretty much only do G-10 or 6061-T6 aluminum now.
 
enderwiggin said:
Please show photos of the finished product! :D
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Here is a picture of the micarta handles i made for my griptillian. This took a lot of work! Its smooth now with a similar shape but not as grippy. It took some work because I had to keep shaping it then get it together and shape some more and keep working like that till it had a good fit. For example the thumb studs for the axis lock had to stick out far enough for you to get a good grip on it. The screws/holes had to be the perfect length so they can reach the threads but not go too far and every time i made an adjustment it meant more adjustments. It would have been easier if i just used a flat thinner piece of micarta but i like shaping curves and stuff. Also reduced the size of the handle around the front of the handle so the grippy part of the liner is exposed.

It is a 3d denim micarta from knifekits.com so it has a nice pattern to it and it matches jeans. It was a little flexible at the thickness i sanded it too but that might be normal for micarta. I used flatheads for screws because the hardware store did not have specialty screws. But thats ok because flatheads are easy to find if you need to clean the knife, but its open now so its easier to clean. The fat one at the end of the handle is a little too large, but ill figure that out later.
The liners are no longer nested inside the handle so the knife is a little thicker, and because the handles do not screw together like in the original I had to make my own spacer our of threaded aluminum which isnt the prettiest thing but is functional. I sanded it a tad too short and the liners taper slightly towards the tail of the handle so I need to buy a new one and resize it.
Also because the handles did not touch that mean less stability because originally there was just the bearing screw holding the blade and a screw for the liners, but without the plastic molded to hold the liners just right I wanted extra security. Luckily instead of having to tap the liners it turns out there is another set of threaded holes in the liners! So i just went and got screws to match and cut them to length. 4-40 size for the liners. That way the liners are secure to the handles.
Had to drill and shape the spaces for the axis lock studs which too work because it had to be thin enough for the studs to be exposed enough to grip. Also one of the hard parts (which turned out to be not that hard) was grinding out the areas for the axis lock springs to have room to do their things. I ended up using a dremel tool with a round headed bit and was able to just carve out a sort of circular area just deep enough for the spring to nestle inside and it worked well.

So all in all im happy. I think it looks good. Maybe crude in some areas though. It seems like it doesnt open quite as smoothly but i may still need to adjust the tension of the main screw as well as figure out possible spacer issues making it not meet up perfectly.
I jsut need to figure out how to mount a pocket clip on it. I dont know if the micarta will be very strong to hold screw threads. I could try to use the pocket clip from the old handle but not sure how to sink the threaded female ends, or i could sunk a bolt on the inside of the handle... I could just leave it without a pocket clip... jsut so use to pocket clips on knives now.
Well enjoy the pictures.

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Jake Bauer said:
For some reason, people associate any kind of plastic as cheap, flimsy, and easily breakable compared to metal. Spyderco's FRN, Benchmade's Noryl GTX, HK and Glock's polymer are all a type of plastic and are some of the most durable materials out there, for a lot less weight than metal. You just have to get over the mentality that if something is made of plastic that it's cheap.
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maybe so, but a lot of plastics are cheap. FRN is 'just' barely acceptable to me, but its still cheap in that it get all scratched up and fuzzy at the scratch points. Put any sort of side load on a FRN framed blade and watch the flex. Use a FRN handle in a - 20 industrial freezer and watch the little bits of plastic scatter on the floor. And it just plains feels cheap and way too light to me. (i'm talking folders here).

For example i have a Spyderco rescue Assist, GREAT KNIFE, its seen 9 broken car windows now, and has sliced thru 3 seatbelts and countless amounts of rope. GREAT KNIFE. I just wish it had an all metal frame....The FRN has held up well, but i'm just not a fan of it (FRN) YMMV

qoute
"You just have to get over the mentality that if something is made of plastic that it's cheap." unqoute

its not a mentality, its user experience and personal choice. Some people have had FRN that has broken, some have not, some like it, some dont.

Its not the law that because FRN is the latest and greatest plastic that it is the best.....agian, its personal choice and using the right tool for the job. :cool:
 
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funny, i had been avoiding the FRN delica because i dont like "zytel". well i finally picked it up and spyderco's FRN feels just as quality and grippy as their g-10 and no weight of the full steel liners. im glad i was able to open my mind to it finally and gave it a try, its great!
 
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