I Was Wrong About WE Knives

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Cvrobinson said:
Have yet to purchase a WE for reasons expressed in this thread already. Am sure that fit and finish is excellent from feedback of members I trust and handling a few, but, the designs do not speak to me. What I see is a lot of well made parts, put together well, with no soul. See a CRK, you know it’s a CRK, same as Emerson, Strider, Onion, Demko, the list is endless of makers/designers who’s knives are instantly identifiable. Taking parts, pieces from proven designs, assembling them randomly in a flavor of the month, rarely keeping a design long enough to stand the “test of time” does not constitute a knife design I really want. There are no facts presented here, just a 1 guy’s opinion.
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I agree with you that most of WE's in-house (non-OEM/collaboration) designs aren't my cup of tea (the Drakon, Deacon and a few of their Civivi models being the exceptions for me), but there's a substantial difference between an individual designer and a large manufacturer that produces designs from numerous designers, which makes comparing the two categories pretty useless.

A Ken Onion design is definitely identifiable as a Ken Onion design, but that applies whether made by CRKT or Kershaw or Ken himself. It's telling that your list, other than CRK, is all designers rather than production manufacturers (CRK being on the fringes of "production"). Even then, CRK's fixed-blades are pretty clearly Bill Harsey's work rather than what'd be identifiable as a Chris Reeve design. The Elijah Isham designs that WE produces are pretty clearly Isham knives, the Malice is very much a Ferrum Forge design, and the Zinker models are definitely Brad Zinker's. There really isn't a large-scale manufacturer that uses few enough designers to have a truly unified and consistent design language across the board. The KAI brands probably have the closest thing to a really identifiable design language, whether in-house design or collaborations with named designers (although they've started branching out with some stuff that really isn't within their wheelhouse). I could see an argument for Spyderco, but even their stuff is pretty readily separated into distinct "Glesser" and "non-Glesser" categories.

Knives designed by unnamed in-house designers being mediocre and/or generic seems to be pretty standard in the industry. The number of prominent, distinctive designs that don't have credited (or at least known) designers is pretty low. There are some designs that are popular but generic (e.g. Bugout and its derivatives) and some that are distinctive but unpopular (e.g. WE Double Helix, which even had a novel lock mechanism). Again, the KAI brands have probably the best catalog of in-house designs in terms of being both unique to the brand and well-executed enough to be popular (the 0777 and its derivatives being the highlight). As craytab craytab and Hackenslash Hackenslash said, WE's in-house stuff frequently tends toward gratuitously ornate framelock flippers.
 
soc_monki said:
RC51s are sweet bikes! I'm honestly a little jealous!
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Don't be. Like 15 guys in our track club had them. They weren't that great of a bike. It was tall, the gears were mad tall. I loved how you could feel the ground from 15 feet away while the engine was on. But to be honest it was a porker of a bike and not that fast.

My wife's GSXR 750 was a better bike on the street and my R6 was the better track weapon. The 2nd gear wheelies were awesome though...

Gaqwcdf.jpg
 
cchu518 said:
Don't be. Like 15 guys in our track club had them. They weren't that great of a bike. It was tall, the gears were mad tall. I loved how you could feel the ground from 15 feet away while the engine was on. But to be honest it was a porker of a bike and not that fast.

My wife's GSXR 750 was a better bike on the street and my R6 was the better track weapon. The 2nd gear wheelies were awesome though...

Gaqwcdf.jpg
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Maybe, but damn if it isn't sexy!!
 
I remember early on everyone complained about the star hardware. I liked the looks of it even though it was a nightmare to use the tool to take them apart,so i just avoided that and used an air compressor to blow it out...
 
There’s a lot of interest in WE knives, so I’ve decided to do a giveaway of a WE 605H. It’ll be over in the contest/giveaway forum which I think you need a paying membership to access.

If you’ve been on the fence about getting a paid membership, now might be a good time to give it a try.

See you over at:

https://www.bladeforums.com/forums/giveaway-contest-raffle-forum.919/
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Hackenslash said:
There’s a lot of interest in WE knives, so I’ve decided to do a giveaway of a WE 605H. It’ll be over in the contest/giveaway forum which I think you need a paying membership to access.

If you’ve been on the fence about getting a paid membership, now might be a good time to give it a try.

See you over at:

https://www.bladeforums.com/forums/giveaway-contest-raffle-forum.919/
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Wow! A very nice gesture! I guess we can't call you a hater!
 
Does anyone here have a Drakon? I was going to pull the trigger on one for a couple of months and then lost my wood for it. Tell me I was right/wrong. It's a little too Harry-Potterish for my usual style, but once I am working in an office again I might like a cute knife to keep with my pens.
 
Boombats said:
Does anyone here have a Drakon? I was going to pull the trigger on one for a couple of months and then lost my wood for it. Tell me I was right/wrong. It's a little too Harry-Potterish for my usual style, but once I am working in an office again I might like a cute knife to keep with my pens.
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$280-$320 is a bit much for a “cute knife to keep with pens” for me anyway.
I have a hard time justifying the Drakon when you can get the Synergy 2 integral for near the same price and it’s a much better knife IMHO.
 
Roy Batty said:
$280-$320 is a bit much for a “cute knife to keep with pens” for me anyway.
I have a hard time justifying the Drakon when you can get the Synergy 2 integral for near the same price and it’s a much better knife IMHO.
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That's a nice knife I'm sure, but quite different than the Drakon.
 
Danno4017 said:
I do not care what Iran does.
I care about what I do and I feel ok about not buying Chinese products that kills off the industry and manufacturing in my Country and shuts down our industry to become reliant on China.
Now if you are happy with the state of play and all of the products that China sells at Walmart and others to the detriment to the USA's economy and employment that is fine.
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I buy USA whenever possible. China will be the downfall of America.
 
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Pandora said:
I buy USA whenever possible. China will be the downfall of America.
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WE makes spectacular knives though. They are not just a Chinese company they are a serious knife company that cares about quality and the proof is in the pudding. The owners are knife geeks like the rest of us.
 
We didn't need to Necro this thread for your first and only post after four years of membership, P Pandora .

We'll let this dog lie. (And for the record, political discussion is not permitted in GKD.)
 
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