Is there a difference between today and 5 to15 years ago?

[Reeek]

I know designs and technology have inproved function and certainly manufacturing efforts and cost of folders considerably from the "good old days" but I often wonder if ancilliary parts of today's folders, even the great ones, have gotten cheaper than in the recent past.

The reason this question came to mind is because I have received a few knives today that had semi-stripped screws from the MFG. I was trying to extract one recently on a very good knife by gripping the stand off with smooth pliers and turning the stand off and the stand off marred from that. I was also recently disassembling an out of production USA made Camillus from a few years ago and had to grip a stand off with a pair of pliers with grooves in it and noting to protect the stand off and the stand off was harder than the pliers. No marks at all.

Do you think things like screws and stand offs and other parts are softer and not as high quality as they were years ago? Today's screw sure seem to strip easily.

Also, I wonder if the use of loctite is a little overkill today. I take good care of my kives tna that includes inspecting them frequently.


Thoughts?

 

[StretchNM]

I can speak only about Benchmade, Spyderco, and Buck, because they're the only ones I had 10 years or more ago. I see no appreciable difference in quality, in fact, the quality with BM and Spydy is even better - better locks, nicer designs, better steels and scale material. Buck hasn't changed much, at least with their 110 Folding Hunter.

I paid $120 or more for my first BM: a 975S Emerson liner lock. It's a little beat up, but it functions as well today as the first day I bought it. The lock has worn to where it crosses the halfway point at lockup on the back of the blade, but it still locks and unlocks well.

My Spydys, Endura and Police model, haven;t changed a bit. Of course, they didn;t see quite the use the BM did, but I'm sure they'd have held us as well if they did. I can;t remember what I paid for the Endura, but I think I paid about $70 for the Police during the early or mid Nineties.

My Buck 110 is hiding somewhere. It could be lost, but I think it's just snuggled itself up somewhere so deep and tight I can;t find it. I bought it during the mid-Eighties and the last time I saw it was about 9 years ago. It hadn;t suffered a bit except it was dull and the brass bolsters were tarnished. It still opened smoothly and locked up legendarily tight. I can;t remember what I paid for it, maybe $25 or $35? So...not much different than today.

All in all, I'd say the knives have gotten better but the prices have kept below inflation.

 

[citizensoldierNY]

I don't know it sounds like you just got a bad one. I think today's knives are leaps and bounds better than the past. There was always great knives to be had it's just that there are now tons of great knives at even the lower price points. Not to mention all the innovations like AO, different steels, finishes, and construction methods for locks. Definitely happy with the knives I have got recently from Kershaw and CRKT, functional and built with great craftsmanship. They are every bit the equal of the Buck I have had for 20 years.

 

[fudo]

Generally speaking, I think knves are of better quality now, except for CRKT, which continues to manufacture reasonably good designs rendered in age hardened cheese, and Cold Steel, who downgraded many knives to 4116.

 

[tirod3]

It's not a given today's knives are better. Too many good brands have fallen on value engineered decisions to make a little more money, by making the knife crap. Gerber comes to mind, along with others mentioned.

Your experience with screws and standoffs (what are those, anyway?) isn't uncommon. Add to that, lots of knives are now put together with them, so the customer tinkers with them. Old school knives were largely pinned, and disassembly was nearly impossible at the user level. So, the increase in technical assembly methods has carried an increase in defects and parts not manufactured correctly. Anyone who's bought a box of bolts and found one completely unthreaded understands the low level quality control we now suffer. It just didn't happen as much in the old, expensive, human inspected days.

One signficant aspect is how many designs are churned over in the marketplace, each with some new feature to excite the buying masses. An overview of the linerlock is a good example. When custom built by Michael Walker, they never fail. When stamped out by Buck in Idaho, not so much. Engineers/ product designers are still learning the rules to make them work reliably. Backlocks were far easier to keep in a functioning window.

Is this the Golden Age of Knives, as some have touted? Yes, I agree, but it's the junk in buckets at cash registers that sets the counterpoint to how bad it's gotten, too. A cheap carbon steel Boy's Knife of the '50's is still a better deal than 420 stainless and FRN.