Kizer warranty?

dkb45

dkb45

Joined
Dec 16, 2012
Messages
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I bought my first Kizer knife, and I thought about warranty (dumb to think afterwords) and I decided to Google search... I couldn't find much. I see Kizer has a warranty, but I didn't see anything about a US office (obviously a trip to China is out of the question). My question is if there is any warranty for the US customers?
 
I think they are warranted for either 1 or 2 years. There is a USA location where knives can be sent. Find the big thread about Kizer experiences and Kizer has several posts in the thread. The spokesman for Kizer, David, has said that the warranty location is getting whole knives atm, but will receive parts eventually. I have two Kizers, the Gingrich GTI, and the big framelock, Phantom Ki5401A2. I had a Klecker but gave it to a friend after he fell in love with it. Love 'em so far!
 
I got mine in and after an abysmal out of box performance, I had to take it apart and adjust the lock bar, completely reoil it, polish the washers (they were black), adjust the clip, and will soon sharpen the blade. All that aside (normal new knife adjustments), the machining is excellent. Everything snaps together with no wiggle room, and the knife is extremely solid. Lock sticks, but titanium locks frequently do.

The knife I bought is http://www.knifeworks.com/kizercutl...lessbladetexturedblackg-10titaniumhandle.aspx and the handle is anodized titanium, both the titanium and G10 are dimpled and provide wonderful grip. I can honestly say I am loving this knife. Hell of a knife for a measly $100. By the way, the detent ball is CERAMIC! The pivot is also adjusted with a 5mm Allen wrench.
 
Weren't you just on another thread saying how your kizer has "too much side to side blade play" or something?
 
Blues Bender said:
Weren't you just on another thread saying how your kizer has "too much side to side blade play" or something?
Click to expand...

Nope. Never owned or even handled a Kizer before. I have been really anxious to, for good reason, apparently. If I can get the flipping action a little better, this knife will totally be a prettier sibling to the ZT 560.

I am thinking I will need to get new washers, though. The ones in it are pretty badly damaged, with a lot of deep scratches not initially visible. That is probably why my flipping action is less than perfect.
 
Took all 3 of mine apart and all of them had blackened washers from the grease used in the construction process. A couple of the washers were as you described, but I polished them and put them back despite the scratches. I used Miltec 1 and after reassembling it really made a difference in the smoothness, so as long as the washers are flat I don't think the scratches will matter all that much. I also found that all 3 of these knives just snapped together so kudos for the tight tolerances and excellent machining.

As time goes on and Kizer listens to the constructive feedback here I would think that improvements will happen. These are great knives for the price and I think they compare favorably to some of the knives that sell for twice the price.
 
As soon as the US warranty office gets parts for replacement or sending off, and if they do the torx pivots like I saw the Kizer rep post, then Kizer will easily be real competition for the likes of Spyderco and ZT (not Benchmade because they seem to be all liner and frame locks aside from a handful of lock backs).

I gave my Kizer a little more adjustment and more time for the knife to break in and aside from a really small amount of side play it is great, especially for a $100 knife. I have next to nothing bad to say about the knife.
 
Kizer will write its own history. I'm not ready to jump yet, as a knife that costs $100 and "might be a good one" doesn't interest me. Give the company some time to respond to posters' various positive remarks and criticisms and perhaps I'll join in later. No hurry; there are so many great folders out there right now that don't cost much more than the Kizers.
 
dkb45 said:
Nope. Never owned or even handled a Kizer before.
Click to expand...

Oops, I had your name confused with someone else. But there is actually a little info on what kizer's warranty service is like if you look at the last few pages of the "kizer cutlery, experiences?" thread.

A guy had a kizer 3404 that developed blade play over time, and apparently kizer is sending him a new pivot and washers to see if it fixes his problem. Other than that, he either need to send his knife to the dealer for an exchange or send it to china for warranty service. No usa warranty center.

What really can you expect when the product is coming from china; lionsteel from Italy is similar.

As far as polishing washers, I find that rubbing them on paper with flitz on it polishes them in a matter of minutes. This made my kizer smooth as silk.
 
When I bought my Kizer Ki4401X, I bought it with the consideration that the warranty would be difficult to deal with. But at $165 for a knife made of these materials, I felt it was worth a try. I am extremely pleased with this knife. I have used it a lot and the knife is as tight and functional as the day it arrived. Are they all like that? I dunno but I do know that the model that I own is the equivalent of a $300+ knife. Much better than several knives that I own that cost far more than $165.

FWIW
 
I have noticed that the grinds are kind of wonky. A bit uneven, and the bevels (I didn't notice) were horribly obtuse, something around 25° per side! Redoing that wasn't fun, and a lot of people would probably just return it, but for $100 I can live. I will get some pictures up at some point.

I gotta revise what I said, though. The f&f is a bit rough, but for a knife that would easily be $200 with perfect f&f and the issues are easily fixable, I can easily live with it. I just can't get over the ceramic detent ball...
 
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