Kizer advice

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redman2006

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Nov 6, 2012
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I was just flipping through the online stores and ran across a big sale on Kizer. I have been curious about these for a while, and wanted some input on where to dive in. My favorite carry knives have been a benchmade Rift and a ZT The zt was just a little too heavy for every day. I noticed they have a scaled down version of the one I had, so I am still considering getting that. (561....I think?)

Anyway, any suggestions with a knife the size of the rit or just a tick smaller in the Kizer brand? Any to avoid?

Thanks
 
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Vanguard series sovereign looks to be quite similar to the rift in terms of size, shape, weight, etc.
 
That was one of the ones that popped out to me, but I did not really heed a repeat of the rift. I may still look at it for $75
 
I got a Kizer Sovereign Tang about 6 months ago. I took it down, cleaned it all out, adjusted lock bar tension to my liking, Nano-lubed and mirror polished the washers. It now flips as fast & smooth as just about any ball bearing pivot flipper I own. It's equally smooth & solid as my ZT Slyze Bowie now, at a fraction of the price. Ergos are great. It has become one of my favorite knives to edc. VG 10 blade takes & holds a razor sharp edge and flips fast, smooth & hard...glides closed on it's own weight. Has a nice, rounded, finger choil too. A great, comfortable and well balanced knife (especially for the money!) Thinner profile than the Rift. Much nicer in pocket. Also love the flipper tab geometry. Really makes that blade FLY out easily.
Kizer Sovereign Tang.jpg .
 
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strategy9 said:
Vanguard series sovereign looks to be quite similar to the rift in terms of size, shape, weight, etc.
Click to expand...
I have the Ti version, green Greek design. Fabulous knife, even though I prefer smaller knives. Called the Ki 4423.
 
I handled some at SMKW a while back, they are nice looking knives but I ended up passing on it instead.
 
Scrim said:
I got a Kizer Sovereign Tang about 6 months ago. I took it down, cleaned it all out, adjusted lock bar tension to my liking, Nano-lubed and mirror polished the washers. It now flips as fast & smooth as just about any ball bearing pivot flipper I own. It's equally smooth & solid as my ZT Slyze Bowie now, at a fraction of the price. Ergos are great. It has become one of my favorite knives to edc. VG 10 blade takes & holds a razor sharp edge and flips fast, smooth & hard...glides closed on it's own weight. Has a nice, rounded, finger choil too. A great, comfortable and well balanced knife (especially for the money!) Thinner profile than the Rift. Much nicer in pocket. Also love the flipper tab geometry. Really makes that blade FLY out easily.
View attachment 706533 .
Click to expand...
That's really beautiful. And a nice mirrored edge to boot!!!
 
At roughly 0.025" in overall length (0.05" in the blade), according to bladeHQ, and 0.05" thinner in the handle, you could say it's "a tick" smaller then a rit
Though it is 0.13 oz. Heavier
 
The Sovreign is great, as is the Gemini, although the later may be a little too smaller for you...
Kizer makes so many great knives at a good price...
A lot of people overlook the V3 Vigor. It was my first Kizer and I still enjoy using it...
kizer-ki403a1-cm-large.jpg

The Intrepid might make a good choice for you...
kizer-ki4468a1-cm.jpg


The Uprising...
Kizer-Uprising-Ti-SW-Ki4491A1-BHQ-52444-jr-2-large.jpg

The Yamakasi...
Kizer-Willumsen-Yamakasi-Black-Ki4489-BHQ-50200-jr-large.jpg

And I'm waiting for the Kizer Toro because I love Diskin designs...
Kizer-Diskin-jr-large.jpg
 
Those are on my short list as well. I almost bought a few at the last Blade show, changed my mind but 2 years later, I still want one so I guess I have to pick one up :)
 
You won't be sorry Trad!!
They are making some excellent knives, with great materials, and great designers at very reasonable prices!
I have 2, Nomad & a Corto and both are amazing knives with excellent actions!
Joe
 
I was a little surprised, and disappointed, when I started looking for a Horizon by Reate. The price has doubled on those. I guess I waited too long to pull the trigger there. I wonder if Kizer is going the same route?
 
redman2006 said:
I was a little surprised, and disappointed, when I started looking for a Horizon by Reate. The price has doubled on those. I guess I waited too long to pull the trigger there. I wonder if Kizer is going the same route?
Click to expand...

The prices on Kizers have risen since the early days for sure. Not to the point of the likes of Reate, stedemon, Maxace. Kizers seem to have leveled off to about $200-250 for their higher end models. They have risen in quality though and have some good collabs going.
 
Wow Kizer looks like they are going to do an amazing job the Gunhammer! HTM did not impress me much. After hearing all the problems with their gunhammers I stupidly bought a Bullwhip from them. Same horrible lockup issues.

The Kizer that is a must buy to me is the Feist.
 
redman2006 said:
I was a little surprised, and disappointed, when I started looking for a Horizon by Reate. The price has doubled on those. I guess I waited too long to pull the trigger there. I wonder if Kizer is going the same route?
Click to expand...
I remember the Horizon A and B as such great values. A few years ago I got a B new for $160 and a short time later picked up a lightly used A for $185...those prices are gone forever. That was an incredible value on those knives. You can still find a Horizon C for right around $250, but they're getting harder and harder to find. I think they're selling out remaining stock. Even at $250 the knife is priced OK considering it competes with most ZTs and top line Spydies and beats them both at quality and F/F. If you want a Horizon you might try looking specifically for the "C". There used to be a few different versions of the C, but I think all that's left now are the ones with blackwashed handles.

It was the Horizon D, the knives that most vendors have in stock, that took the big jump in price. They came out priced at $400 and have basically held that price since release. I did eventually buy a modified D-CF, but at a much reduced exchange price. The newest Reates are coming out in the $500-800 range and I really have a hard time paying that kind of scratch for a lightly supported, imported production knife.

Kizer took a different, and in my opinion, better approach to pricing. Rather than push up pricing for all their knives as they became more popular, they created pricing tiers. The Bladesmith series are their collaborations with known knife makers and are their most expensive offerings. The Prime series were still premium materials but in-house designs and were offered at a discount to Bladesmith. Then they offered the Vanguard series which are some of the best values in the knife world. At a time when Kizer's popularity was growing exponentially, they released Vanguard knives that allowed a buyer to try a Kizer for less money than ever before. I really appreciate that kind of marketing.
 
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