I just ordered a Dark Ops knife - bad idea?

My Dad bought one a few years back just to check it out and while he decided to eBay it away last year. (funny thing a blade forums member won it and was happy to get it, I'll never say who)
I have to say it was solid as any folder was fitted well too, had not a bit of blade play in it's lock-up, just a huge heavy folder. Thing was razor sharp too.
After coming here and reading how the brand came about and all the negative, I'm sure my family will never own another. But, you can get your money back if you get it and decide to put it on eBay as they seem to sell fairly well there. On here I doubt it would go nearly as well.
 
Be nice guys, we all have to start somewhere.

Glad to see you're asking around. Much knowledge can be obtained from sticking around here in Bladeforums.

I own one which I got cheap from a fellow forumite (Jill Jackson I believe) in EBay. More for the prupose of studying it than actual carrying around and using it (it's just too heavy). These are my findings.

I had to grind a little in the lock cavity area and the lockbar just so the bar would settle fully inside when opening. If you want to do it just remember not to screw the bolts to tight cause the aluminum isn't very good at resisting stripping.

Secondly the lockbar snapping sound is misleading. Like the Extrema Ratio folders and the Dark Op folders they all have shotgun-like snapping sound when opening. This gives impression of strength but if you analyse further it is not so. Ultimately the key component which decided the strength of the lock is the weakest component. This is because the weakest component determines the effective strength.

I am referring to the little pivot bar (cylindrical in shape) which the lockbar pivots on. It is too thin and it is so much a pity cause there is actually a lot of room to incorporate a thicker pin. Under loads/stress the pin is quite thin and can only resist a small shear load.

I recommend the Tri-Ad series of folders from Cold Steel, the ATR from Spyderco, the ZT300 series from Kershaw and the Masters of Defense Mark 1 (or the new economy version by Blackhawk) for their strength and overall quality.

PS: Return the DarkOps folder. Not only is the lock strength weak, the blade is not very good in cutting though the steel ain't half bad.
 
though i dont own one i have seen a few stratos and the F&F did seem better on the later ones, i would still prefer a ER version but the strato i saw with the better F&F wasnt too bad at all.
 
thanks for sharing. I knew dark ops weren't trash knives. But yeah, I do agree that there are much better options. For the money, you could easily pay a little more to get a zero tolerance or a strider even, both of which are great designs and great knives, have very good reputations, and are known for excellent customer service.
 
jill jackson said:
My Dad bought one a few years back just to check it out and while he decided to eBay it away last year. (funny thing a blade forums member won it and was happy to get it, I'll never say who)
I have to say it was solid as any folder was fitted well too, had not a bit of blade play in it's lock-up, just a huge heavy folder. Thing was razor sharp too.
After coming here and reading how the brand came about and all the negative, I'm sure my family will never own another. But, you can get your money back if you get it and decide to put it on eBay as they seem to sell fairly well there. On here I doubt it would go nearly as well.
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I am that member!!! What are the chances of me posting directly after you :) Yes it was your father and it was a great deal and with equally great service (though I should have mentioned this in the Hall of Fame section :))

What are the chances :)
 
3Guardsmen said:
But Brownie said the lock was SuperDuperUber-strong!:rolleyes:

Here you go (locked thread):
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=449038

Regards,
3G
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I do not doubt Brownie. It was his review (was it the one where he steps on it? Cause my internet connection is to slow I can't seem to view the locked thread you mentioned/included) which made me want to buy it.

I'm more comparing the relative strength of the folders based on the design. I did not say it would not take a human weight. I'm a hundred kilos (sad to say for 5 foot 6 me :)) and it took my weight. Since I'm not planning to use it but more for analysis I decided to 'step on it' just for the fun of it. I forgot how heavy is Brownie but I'm sure I'm not too far behind :)

If I am then a couple of burgers and beers would settle it :)

(Relative to a Cold Steel Tri-Ad lock the Darkops can take 100kilos (I confirmed this) but I'm sure it can't take 400 pounds (I think that's the figure) as can be taken by the Espada by Cold Steel. Relative to my Rajah with it's super duper uber thick stop pin and backup pivot pin, the Extrema Ratios (Exception of Rao) and Dark ops are weak)
 
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None of your aforementioned knives can covertly deanimate a cardboard box. If this knife is halfway decent I'll keep it because it is freaking huge and bigger than my roommate's knife.
 
whatever happened to the originator of the brownie pop anyway, i havent seen him post for a while now.
 
Cotherion said:
I am that member!!! What are the chances of me posting directly after you :) Yes it was your father and it was a great deal and with equally great service (though I should have mentioned this in the Hall of Fame section :))

What are the chances :)
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I wasn't going to ever mention your name here as the party that bought it.
Because of all the stigma associated here over DO!
Dad bought that knife a bit before I found this place and I learned all about the details of the founder of the brand being a former distributor of Extreme Ratio.
Are you saying the Extreme Ratio's are similar in construction to the DO, or much better?
 
3mptin3ss said:
return that knife and buy the spyderco police 3 instead.
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I just got the Police 3 yesterday
2nbw08h.jpg
 
3Guardsmen said:
That's your first mistake, Coth.:D

Regards,
3G
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Actually for the sake of accuracy I lost count of my mistakes :)

Personally I like to assume people are innocent until proven otherwise cause I could make the mistake of doubting an innocent man. That's why I always assume people aren't lying to me... .... However it sometimes does not turn out as I like but that's life :)

jill jackson said:
I wasn't going to ever mention your name here as the party that bought it.
Because of all the stigma associated here over DO!
Dad bought that knife a bit before I found this place and I learned all about the details of the founder of the brand being a former distributor of Extreme Ratio.
Are you saying the Extreme Ratio's are similar in construction to the DO, or much better?
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I got a Fulcrum and a Stratofighter. The design is pretty much a souped up lockback with thicker lockbar and larger contact area for the lock contact to blade area.

In terms of ergonomics then DarkOps (DO) win hands down. I can live with the funny scratchy stuff on the DO's handles but the Extrema Ratios (ER) has pretty slippery and crappy ergos IMO (feel free to disagree guys but maybe cause I got little girly hands on gorrila biceps. Man I look weird :().

In terms of strength I shall focus on the lockbar pivot pin as it is the weakest component. 4mm in diameter is what I recorded and it could easily fit in a 5 or 6mm diameter pin. For your info a 5mm pin has an area of 19.6mm squared and a 4mm pin has an area of 12.6mm squared. Unless my maths sucks (I can be pretty careless sometimes) the small increase in the pin diameter by one milimeter gives an increase of 56% in the area.

The area (assuming materials used to make pins are not significantly different) increase will make the folder stronger significantly. Compare both ER and DO folders to the CS Rajah with it's 6.5mm diamter stop pin in addition to the 4mm diameter lockbar pivot pin. The Cold Steel Tri-Ad lock is better by leaps and bounds I tell you. Still assuming there is no significant difference in material shear strength which for different steels is not too much different based on shear tests I asked a university to run for me (construction work related issues).

With the Exception of the ER Rao. Other than shitty ergos and low integrity construction (Again IMHO) it is strong in the axis of pivoting (ie opening or closing direction). The Rao could be improved significantly IMO but many guys have mentioned that it hasn't failed yet. In my case I'm getting my machinist pal to machine me a 6mm diameter pin to slot into my DO Stratofighter and another different machinist guy (different skills) to modify the handles and increase the structural rigidity of my Rao as well as put in a stronger spring.

Interesting topic this is. :)
 
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SIFU1A said:
whatever happened to the originator of the brownie pop anyway, i havent seen him post for a while now.
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I've observed that shills for companies accused of shady dealings don't tend to frequent forums where ethics are held in high regard.;)

Regards,
3G
 
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