Knifekits.com: What manufacturer?

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sharpenit

Joined
Apr 14, 2011
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I recently bought a kit from Knifekits.com and put together a nice little folder. Anybody know who the manufacturer is of these kits? I'm guessing it's chinese.
 
singularity35 said:
Pics? I find this very interesting. What steel?
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The steel is 440 Stainless (RC 52-55)

Here's the page from the catalog:

www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?cPath=1_162&products_id=860

product_info.php
 
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cziv said:
I've checked there a few times but the blades are so little that I forgot about them except for some washers I bought recently. Nice little folder there btw! :)
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I'm pleased with it. Very well designed, no play in the blade, fits my hand nicely and you sure can't beat the price. And though it's easy as can be to put the kit together, it still gave me a sense of satisfaction to do it.
 
sharpenit said:
I'm pleased with it. Very well designed, no play in the blade, fits my hand nicely and you sure can't beat the price. And though it's easy as can be to put the kit together, it still gave me a sense of satisfaction to do it.
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Very nice! What did putting the knife together involve? Some grinding? Aligning and tightening?

I think it's pretty cool.
 
The ones I always was interested in are the "DDR" series, because they are designed by Darrel Ralph.
I notice now that they also offer a laguiole kit.
 
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singularity35 said:
Very nice! What did putting the knife together involve? Some grinding? Aligning and tightening?

I think it's pretty cool.
Click to expand...

The knife comes disassembled. It includes a generic instruction sheet -- they apparently send out the same instruction sheet regardless of the style of knife. But still, once you look at the sheet and study the screws, spacers and frame parts for a few minutes, it's pretty clear how everything is meant to go together. A good piece of advice I picked up from a review on the Knifekits site: when installing the teflon washers on each side of the blade pivot, put the smaller-diameter washer on the side of the blade where the frame-lock is, so that the washer doesn't interfere with the operation of the frame-lock.

Also, you need Torx (also called "star") screwdrivers to put these together. This knife required Torx screwdriver sizes T-6 and T-8.

As for filing, the only thing I filed was the end of the frame-lock bar, so that it would seat a little more fully and securely behind the blade. This meant dissassembling the knife in order to get at the lock-bar with a file. I took just a few swipes with a file, to make the lock-bar just a microscopic bit shorter. You don't want to file too much off the lock bar, otherwise there will be play in the blade. I was lucky enough to get it right on the first try, but you might have to dissassemble, file and then reassemble more than once until you get it to lock snugly.

By the way, if you look at the Knifekits site, the descriptions of each knife will list the difficulty of assembling each one. This one was listed as being quite easy. And it was.

Another poster noted that the steel for this knife is "soft." I'm no expert on steel hardness. But different Knifekit knives use different steels, so someone concerned about steel hardness may be able to find a kit that satisfies their preference.
 
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sharpenit said:
The knife comes disassembled. It includes a generic instruction sheet -- they apparently send out the same instruction sheet regardless of the style of knife. But still, once you look at the sheet and study the screws, spacers and frame parts for a few minutes, it's pretty clear how everything is meant to go together. A good piece of advice I picked up from a review on the Knifekits site: when installing the teflon washers on each side of the blade pivot, put the smaller-diameter washer on the side of the blade where the frame-lock is, so that the washer doesn't interfere with the operation of the frame-lock.

Also, you need Torx (also called "star") screwdrivers to put these together. This knife required Torx screwdriver sizes T-6 and T-8.

As for filing, the only thing I filed was the end of the frame-lock bar, so that it would seat a little more fully and securely behind the blade. This meant dissassembling the knife in order to get at the lock-bar with a file. I took just a few swipes with a file, to make the lock-bar just a microscopic bit shorter. You don't want to file too much off the lock bar, otherwise there will be play in the blade. I was lucky enough to get it right on the first try, but you might have to dissassemble, file and then reassemble more than once until you get it to lock snugly.

By the way, if you look at the Knifekits site, the descriptions of each knife will list the difficulty of assembling each one. This one was listed as being quite easy. And it was.

Another poster noted that the steel for this knife is "soft." I'm no expert on steel hardness. But different Knifekit knives use different steels, so someone concerned about steel hardness may be able to find a kit that satisfies their preference.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience with knife-kits sharpenit. :thumbup: There may have been other reviews but I missed them. I've thought about them but dismissed the idea because of short blades. Now I see there are some Darrel Ralph designed 3.5" ers there. Maybe I'll try one out. :)
 
I haven't tried any of knifekits slipjoints but I've done several of their other folders. The DDR series, GX-6, GPC, and EV4N1 are all high quality folders that finish out beautifully. Here's a photo of one I recently gave my brother.

fishingtrip036-2.jpg
 
cziv said:
Thanks for sharing your experience with knife-kits sharpenit. :thumbup: There may have been other reviews but I missed them. I've thought about them but dismissed the idea because of short blades. Now I see there are some Darrel Ralph designed 3.5" ers there. Maybe I'll try one out. :)
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Cziv, if you, or anybody else tries one of these kits, let me know how you like it, and pass along any advice you have. I'd like to try some of the other kits, too. The knife I built, the FLX-25, is held together entirely by screws. But some kits use brass or steel pins (such as the laguiole kit), which is something I know nothing about. So if somebody else tries a kit using pins, I'd love to have advice on how pins work and what skill is required.
 
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Ive put together dozens of these as presents for family and friends , adding my own touches. If you look at the pivot screw's shape you will see that same shape on other pre-assembled Chinese imports as well.

I've tried two slipjoints , you get a new appreciation for slipjoint makers after trying one of those kits ! That is some serious work and frustrating the first time. :)

I kinda like that new-ish little button-lock they have....

Tostig
 
Tostig:

Can you elaborate some about what makes the slipjoints more difficult? I'm thinking of trying the laguiole kit, and that's a slipjoint.

Yeah, I've looked at the button-locks, too. I wonder how much more complicated they are than a frame-lock.
 
I've spoken to two people there, a woman on the first call, and a guy on the second call several weeks later. Both times they said someone would get back to me regarding more detailed specs on their pocket clips. In particular I was trying to find out the distance between the screw mount holes on their low-rider pocket clips so I could try them out. I also reiterated to the guy on the second call that if I could get that info I could promote it on the forums and hopefully generate some sales for them. I guess they don't need the help because he never got back to me with an email as promised with the info.
Too bad, I was hoping they had low rider clips that'd fit my Benchmades and Spyderco knives. Looks like you guys have been having better experiences with them so that's good.
 
NaturalMystic:

A shame they didn't get back to you. It's surprising that so many businesses don't understand that customer service is everything. One employee going the extra mile for a customer generates so much good will, and that happy customer spreads the word to others.
 
sharpenit said:
NaturalMystic:

A shame they didn't get back to you. It's surprising that so many businesses don't understand that customer service is everything. One employee going the extra mile for a customer generates so much good will, and that happy customer spreads the word to others.
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Hi Sharpenit, yeah I was a bit perplexed because they both seemed nice on the phone. I was very friendly with them, even the second time after I mentioned that no one had returned my first call. As mentioned, I told him several times that I know of several people on the forums that are always modding knives and looking for good clips and that I'd happily refer them to the site.
Several of the clips do have some measurements listed and mentioned that they will fit many "popular brands" but I found several of the measurements unclear in terms of what the actual measurements were for, and some just seemed too big for the pocket clip they were measuring. Even though the prices are relatively inexpensive I don't want to be spending $20-40 trying various clips and covering postage, gambling that one or two clips will fit.
Maybe I'll try them again, who knows, they say the third time is a charm!


EDIT: I forgot to mention that one of the things I was suggesting they do is if they could reference some of the specific brands/models that the clips would fit since quite a few of the clips' measurement points are vague at best.
This one for example doesn't give a proper attachment point width:
http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?cPath=60_101_297&products_id=1549 the description says "...these will work on almost any knife design, including many popular production knives and flashlights." If I were serious about sales I'd be a bit more specific than that. With the economy in the tank the way it's been, I'd be doing whatever I could to increase my sales, but that's me.


Cheers
 
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Natural Mystic:

Sounds like you were offering them excellent advice. They'd also do themselves a favor if they monitored this and other knife-enthusiast forums, to find out what people are saying about them. Maybe I'll do them a favor and send them a link to this discussion.
 
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