First, let me start off by saying that this is a horrible choice for a dress knife.
It looks nice, right? Carbon fiber, bright blade, no "foreign" markings. Good choice, right? Wrong. And I'll tell you why. I didn't know where exactly to start this review, as there are so many things wrong with this knife. This knife is the Linton (not Linder) Speed, model 211.
The price is $35, and before you say "you get what you pay for" I'll have to disagree. In that $35 range, I could have an almost infinite selection of US and foreign-made knives that are better than this. Let's see... almost any Byrd I want, a Spyderco Tenacious, a Spyderco Ladybug or Dragonfly, a huge selection of Kershaws, the Kabar Dozier folding hunter line, many Bucks, and even some Opinels and Moras, and many more.
This knife is made in Taiwan, and I only know that because the box and literature that came with it said so. There are no markings on the knife, inside or out, to tell me the country of origin. I thought that for U. S. import, country of origin was required, but it's nowhere to be found on the knife itself. I can see how this would confuse someone to think it's a U. S.-made knife.
Well, let's get to the knife itself and see what I hate about it. Keep in mind that I'm trying to be fair, but it's hard to be fair and unbiased when you realize the nice "dress knife" you purchased is an utter piece of garbage.
The Handle: Closed, the Speed is 2-1/2" long and 15/16" wide. It's pretty thin at only 1/4". The outside has two handle scales made of carbon fiber, which have a nice pattern. At least they would if they weren't scratched all to hell. This is a new knife, in the box, ordered from an on-line retailer. Not a used knife. Yet I can see specific areas on the handles scales (yes, both of them) that look like somebody missed the final step in polishing them. You can run your finger over these areas and feel that they aren't smooth like the rest of the handle; they're rough as if something scratched them up. This isn't a small thing either; in a handle area this small, about a quarter of it is full of these scratches. What's worse than the scratches is the fact that right near the lanyard hole, there's a piece of carbon fiber missing. It looks like a worker just dropped the knife on the ground, chipped a piece of carbon fiber off, and threw it in the box. Again, this is from a new knife. Okay, back to the handle...
The liners are a brushed matte grey, and they're under 1/16" thick. The right liner serves as the locking mechanism, and that's about the only good thing I can say about this knife; lock-up is tight. I still had up-and-down blade play, even after adjusting the pivot pin, but it's hardly noticeable. The liners are jimped near the blade and near the butt, and they're more of a decoration than a functional feature. The knife is a semi-open design: there's a metal spacer an inch long in the butt of the knife, otherwise the back is open. An inch wouldn't matter much on a larger knife, but this thing is only 2-1/2" long. You get a tiny lanyard hole. By tiny, I mean just over 1/16" in diameter. I can barely get a piece of the inside of 550 cord through that thing.
The knife itself is a screw-together construction; two Torx (T-6) screw on each side hold the handle together, while one larger-diameter T-6 screw acts as the blade pivot screw.
The Blade: Here's another mess. The blade is marked ATS-43 but I don't believe it. Let's get those markings out of the way: the right side of the blade has ATS-34 lasered on, and the left side has the Linton logo lasered on, which you can see in the picture provided. The blade opens via thumb stud, mounted on the left side (for the righties). This thumb stud is inlaid with a Swarovsky crystal. Ooh, fancy. Not! The crystal is mis-shapen, and obviously has several major flaws. On top of that, they even laid it off-center! The crystal hangs over one edge of the stud, while a large gap is visible on the opposite side. Looking closer, I can see a drop of glue on the side of the thumb stud; the crystal is simply glued in. What a shoddy finishing touch! The thumb stud is adjustable with a T-6 bit if you want to switch it.
Ther blade itself is a disgrace. It came out of the box extremely dull, and upon further inspection, it was ground horribly. Looking down the blade at the edge, it bends in an "S" shape. Yes, the cutting edge is ground that badly. Even more, the tip is ground highly on the left side and almost not at all on the right side. A five-year-old in the backyard with a rock couldn't have messed the blade up this bad, and this is from a factory with machinery made for knives! I straightened out the blade as much as I could, but it's still an abomination. The grind was very uneven, which I have yet to fix. Oh, it's 1-3/4" long and 1/8" thick, although that hardly matters with all the other problems with it.
The finish of the blade is another flaw. Most of the blade has a nice, shiny, polished finish. But parts of it have a satin finish, like somebody took one of those magic rust erasers and just started rubbing at the blade with it. This is on a total area of about 30% of the blade; both sides.
The blade rides on some white nylon washers, and they're pure crap. They're not coated very well, and even after taking the knife apart and adding some RemOil they're still crappy. I don't know where the "Speed" part of the knife designation came in; maybe it was made by somebody on speed. Or maybe they chose speed of manufacturing over quality. I don't know.
On to the ATS-34 thing; I don't believe it. This steel was a real pain to sharpen, mostly because it kept folding over on me. I'm not talking about a burr; I mean the entire edge folded over a few times. And when I finally did get it sharp enough to slice paper, it dulled after less than 20 cuts. If this is the ATS-34 that I've come to love, then there's something wrong with the cutlery world. The blade is flat ground with what I'm guessing is a secondary bevel; it's hard to tell when the edge keeps switching angles and is curved.
The Sheath: Yeah, this POS comes with a slip pouch. There's no belt loop; it was made to carry the knife flat in your pocket so it doesn't get scratched up. That's funny. A knife scratched-up from the factory, and they send you a slip pouch so you don't scratch it up. The pouch is black simulated leather, and it just feels cheap. It snaps closed and has the Linton logo embossed on it. With the knife snapped in, it's 3" long by 1-3/4" wide. 3/4" wide. Whoopty doo.
The flaws that I noticed weren't caught through the eye of some great knife collector; I've shown this thing to friends on the street who I know aren't knife people, and they even noticed the many flaws in this piece of crap without me asking. At $35, you can do a lot better. I'm sure I can get the edge the way I want it, but it won't stay that way. The crystal will have to stay where it's at; it's simply not worth the time or money to fix it. Same with the carbon fiber.
If you want an inexpensive, nice-looking dress knife that actually is good quality and still has carbon fiber, you can get the Buck Nobleman.
This knife -the rushed crystal, the scratched carbon fiber, the abortion of a blade- is an example of that old saying "You can polish a piece of crap all you want, but it's still a piece of crap". Playing schhol teacher, I'm giving this knife a D-. The only reason it's not an "F" is because there were no mechanical failures. Give it time.
The price is $35, and before you say "you get what you pay for" I'll have to disagree. In that $35 range, I could have an almost infinite selection of US and foreign-made knives that are better than this. Let's see... almost any Byrd I want, a Spyderco Tenacious, a Spyderco Ladybug or Dragonfly, a huge selection of Kershaws, the Kabar Dozier folding hunter line, many Bucks, and even some Opinels and Moras, and many more.
This knife is made in Taiwan, and I only know that because the box and literature that came with it said so. There are no markings on the knife, inside or out, to tell me the country of origin. I thought that for U. S. import, country of origin was required, but it's nowhere to be found on the knife itself. I can see how this would confuse someone to think it's a U. S.-made knife.
Well, let's get to the knife itself and see what I hate about it. Keep in mind that I'm trying to be fair, but it's hard to be fair and unbiased when you realize the nice "dress knife" you purchased is an utter piece of garbage.
The Handle: Closed, the Speed is 2-1/2" long and 15/16" wide. It's pretty thin at only 1/4". The outside has two handle scales made of carbon fiber, which have a nice pattern. At least they would if they weren't scratched all to hell. This is a new knife, in the box, ordered from an on-line retailer. Not a used knife. Yet I can see specific areas on the handles scales (yes, both of them) that look like somebody missed the final step in polishing them. You can run your finger over these areas and feel that they aren't smooth like the rest of the handle; they're rough as if something scratched them up. This isn't a small thing either; in a handle area this small, about a quarter of it is full of these scratches. What's worse than the scratches is the fact that right near the lanyard hole, there's a piece of carbon fiber missing. It looks like a worker just dropped the knife on the ground, chipped a piece of carbon fiber off, and threw it in the box. Again, this is from a new knife. Okay, back to the handle...
The liners are a brushed matte grey, and they're under 1/16" thick. The right liner serves as the locking mechanism, and that's about the only good thing I can say about this knife; lock-up is tight. I still had up-and-down blade play, even after adjusting the pivot pin, but it's hardly noticeable. The liners are jimped near the blade and near the butt, and they're more of a decoration than a functional feature. The knife is a semi-open design: there's a metal spacer an inch long in the butt of the knife, otherwise the back is open. An inch wouldn't matter much on a larger knife, but this thing is only 2-1/2" long. You get a tiny lanyard hole. By tiny, I mean just over 1/16" in diameter. I can barely get a piece of the inside of 550 cord through that thing.
The knife itself is a screw-together construction; two Torx (T-6) screw on each side hold the handle together, while one larger-diameter T-6 screw acts as the blade pivot screw.
The Blade: Here's another mess. The blade is marked ATS-43 but I don't believe it. Let's get those markings out of the way: the right side of the blade has ATS-34 lasered on, and the left side has the Linton logo lasered on, which you can see in the picture provided. The blade opens via thumb stud, mounted on the left side (for the righties). This thumb stud is inlaid with a Swarovsky crystal. Ooh, fancy. Not! The crystal is mis-shapen, and obviously has several major flaws. On top of that, they even laid it off-center! The crystal hangs over one edge of the stud, while a large gap is visible on the opposite side. Looking closer, I can see a drop of glue on the side of the thumb stud; the crystal is simply glued in. What a shoddy finishing touch! The thumb stud is adjustable with a T-6 bit if you want to switch it.
Ther blade itself is a disgrace. It came out of the box extremely dull, and upon further inspection, it was ground horribly. Looking down the blade at the edge, it bends in an "S" shape. Yes, the cutting edge is ground that badly. Even more, the tip is ground highly on the left side and almost not at all on the right side. A five-year-old in the backyard with a rock couldn't have messed the blade up this bad, and this is from a factory with machinery made for knives! I straightened out the blade as much as I could, but it's still an abomination. The grind was very uneven, which I have yet to fix. Oh, it's 1-3/4" long and 1/8" thick, although that hardly matters with all the other problems with it.
The finish of the blade is another flaw. Most of the blade has a nice, shiny, polished finish. But parts of it have a satin finish, like somebody took one of those magic rust erasers and just started rubbing at the blade with it. This is on a total area of about 30% of the blade; both sides.
The blade rides on some white nylon washers, and they're pure crap. They're not coated very well, and even after taking the knife apart and adding some RemOil they're still crappy. I don't know where the "Speed" part of the knife designation came in; maybe it was made by somebody on speed. Or maybe they chose speed of manufacturing over quality. I don't know.
On to the ATS-34 thing; I don't believe it. This steel was a real pain to sharpen, mostly because it kept folding over on me. I'm not talking about a burr; I mean the entire edge folded over a few times. And when I finally did get it sharp enough to slice paper, it dulled after less than 20 cuts. If this is the ATS-34 that I've come to love, then there's something wrong with the cutlery world. The blade is flat ground with what I'm guessing is a secondary bevel; it's hard to tell when the edge keeps switching angles and is curved.
The Sheath: Yeah, this POS comes with a slip pouch. There's no belt loop; it was made to carry the knife flat in your pocket so it doesn't get scratched up. That's funny. A knife scratched-up from the factory, and they send you a slip pouch so you don't scratch it up. The pouch is black simulated leather, and it just feels cheap. It snaps closed and has the Linton logo embossed on it. With the knife snapped in, it's 3" long by 1-3/4" wide. 3/4" wide. Whoopty doo.
The flaws that I noticed weren't caught through the eye of some great knife collector; I've shown this thing to friends on the street who I know aren't knife people, and they even noticed the many flaws in this piece of crap without me asking. At $35, you can do a lot better. I'm sure I can get the edge the way I want it, but it won't stay that way. The crystal will have to stay where it's at; it's simply not worth the time or money to fix it. Same with the carbon fiber.
If you want an inexpensive, nice-looking dress knife that actually is good quality and still has carbon fiber, you can get the Buck Nobleman.
This knife -the rushed crystal, the scratched carbon fiber, the abortion of a blade- is an example of that old saying "You can polish a piece of crap all you want, but it's still a piece of crap". Playing schhol teacher, I'm giving this knife a D-. The only reason it's not an "F" is because there were no mechanical failures. Give it time.
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