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- Apr 20, 2018
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- 4,458
A few days ago I received my lionSTEEL Gitano and while I would normally want to get to know a knife over a couple weeks before reviewing it, we've already been discussing it in GKD so I felt I should conduct this review in hopes of explaining some things.
I'll say upfront, this knife is a yes/no recommendation for me.
I purchased my olive wood handled model from @knifeswapper :
https://www.collectorknives.net/sho...sters-olive-wood-handles-niolox-steel-gt01ul/
As always, shipping was quick and I had it in my hands soon enough.
QUALITY: With an undeniable asterisk I'm going to say the build quality of this knife is outstanding. This is my first lionSTEEL and the fit and finish is excellent. The rounded spine and overall contouring is fantastic. Centering is great, transitions are smooth, really nice materials, etc. At $115USD, I think a lot of companies should take note. I'll get to the asterisk soon.
DESIGN: This is a collaboration with Gudy van Poppel and done in the Navaja style. I freaking love it! Super sleek and sexy but with a meaty-looking blade. It just melts into my hand and manages to produce a grip-feel that is both confident yet slender. It is very high up on my list of knives I've handled.
It carries really nicely in the pocket and for a blade as tall as this, it really is deceptively unassuming in the pocket. The clip isn't the strongest but has done it's job.
I know
miso2
and others have experienced thick edges on their lionSTEEL offerings but this one doesn't seem too bad. Admittedly, I haven't done a lot of cutting yet but what I have done it has been fine.
And the bottom line is, it's a seductive knife.
THE ASTERISK: So why the asterisk on quality? This knife is intentionally designed to enhance the security of a slip joint knife. Which is a cool thing. It has a "tab" if you will, that rides up into a rather strong back spring that I presume has a slight notch. If not, it, at the very least, requires the spring to raise up more and that makes for a very secure open position. The trouble on mine was, it was ridiculously strong.
I almost immediately wanted to send it back (and I know Mike would have been great about doing that). The knife was so hard to open past the half-stop that without a really firm pinch it would slip and then once it slammed into the open position it was quite literally unsettling to try to close it. It required sufficient force that I had to keep my fingers wrapped around the handle to hold it tight, in the line of fire, and with my left hand try to pinch the blade in hopes of keeping it from snapping onto my fingers while my right thumb applied increasing pressure to the spine. I'm talking hand-shaking pressure here. Once it broke, it was good-to-go.
But the force required was sufficient that the knife bit me twice.
I actually contacted Mike about returning it. But I just knew that design aside, this couldn't be right. While the knife is designed to be strong, there was no way they meant it to be this strong. So I slept on it. I have the means, and if need be, the folks, who can fix such things and I love the knife so much that I wanted to see what was going on.
I watched some video reviews of the knife and while people talked about the strength feature and how it was indeed obvious, none of them appeared to be struggling as much as I was.
My apologies but I didn't take pictures until after I did my work. Once I started investigating I just got going.
Here's the tab:
Shown here in the half stop position:
When I got this under magnification, I discovered the edge of that tab was noticeably taller on one side. I didn't have enough magnification to know if it was a burr or bad material removal but it was definitely off.
A little careful and deliberate work with some 100grit sand paper and I had a new knife!
Now the knife exhibits the extra stiffness it should but breaks cleanly and safely and I really love it. I think this is still a two-hand closer and not sure I'd want to try it on the side of my leg but it is doing what it is designed to do.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Obviously this knife is primarily aimed straight at the "slip joint only" market. If you are in such a locale and want a knife that inspires confidence, then this one does it and does it with style. It's also a very cool knife for people who just like the design.
I have to believe my example is an anomaly and the majority are not as hard to close as mine initially was. But, because I can't say that for certain, it makes it hard to just give it a full "yes" recommendation.
Sorry for the very long review but not sure how else to go about it.
SUMMARY: If mine was an anomaly and all the other examples function as mine does now, then yes I do recommend this knife. If though, my knife is the norm, and you don't want to mess with it, then it's hard to say yes.
I'll say upfront, this knife is a yes/no recommendation for me.
I purchased my olive wood handled model from @knifeswapper :
https://www.collectorknives.net/sho...sters-olive-wood-handles-niolox-steel-gt01ul/
As always, shipping was quick and I had it in my hands soon enough.
QUALITY: With an undeniable asterisk I'm going to say the build quality of this knife is outstanding. This is my first lionSTEEL and the fit and finish is excellent. The rounded spine and overall contouring is fantastic. Centering is great, transitions are smooth, really nice materials, etc. At $115USD, I think a lot of companies should take note. I'll get to the asterisk soon.
DESIGN: This is a collaboration with Gudy van Poppel and done in the Navaja style. I freaking love it! Super sleek and sexy but with a meaty-looking blade. It just melts into my hand and manages to produce a grip-feel that is both confident yet slender. It is very high up on my list of knives I've handled.
It carries really nicely in the pocket and for a blade as tall as this, it really is deceptively unassuming in the pocket. The clip isn't the strongest but has done it's job.
I know
miso2
and others have experienced thick edges on their lionSTEEL offerings but this one doesn't seem too bad. Admittedly, I haven't done a lot of cutting yet but what I have done it has been fine.And the bottom line is, it's a seductive knife.
THE ASTERISK: So why the asterisk on quality? This knife is intentionally designed to enhance the security of a slip joint knife. Which is a cool thing. It has a "tab" if you will, that rides up into a rather strong back spring that I presume has a slight notch. If not, it, at the very least, requires the spring to raise up more and that makes for a very secure open position. The trouble on mine was, it was ridiculously strong.
I almost immediately wanted to send it back (and I know Mike would have been great about doing that). The knife was so hard to open past the half-stop that without a really firm pinch it would slip and then once it slammed into the open position it was quite literally unsettling to try to close it. It required sufficient force that I had to keep my fingers wrapped around the handle to hold it tight, in the line of fire, and with my left hand try to pinch the blade in hopes of keeping it from snapping onto my fingers while my right thumb applied increasing pressure to the spine. I'm talking hand-shaking pressure here. Once it broke, it was good-to-go.
But the force required was sufficient that the knife bit me twice.
I actually contacted Mike about returning it. But I just knew that design aside, this couldn't be right. While the knife is designed to be strong, there was no way they meant it to be this strong. So I slept on it. I have the means, and if need be, the folks, who can fix such things and I love the knife so much that I wanted to see what was going on.
I watched some video reviews of the knife and while people talked about the strength feature and how it was indeed obvious, none of them appeared to be struggling as much as I was.
My apologies but I didn't take pictures until after I did my work. Once I started investigating I just got going.
Here's the tab:
Shown here in the half stop position:
When I got this under magnification, I discovered the edge of that tab was noticeably taller on one side. I didn't have enough magnification to know if it was a burr or bad material removal but it was definitely off.
A little careful and deliberate work with some 100grit sand paper and I had a new knife!
Now the knife exhibits the extra stiffness it should but breaks cleanly and safely and I really love it. I think this is still a two-hand closer and not sure I'd want to try it on the side of my leg but it is doing what it is designed to do.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Obviously this knife is primarily aimed straight at the "slip joint only" market. If you are in such a locale and want a knife that inspires confidence, then this one does it and does it with style. It's also a very cool knife for people who just like the design.
I have to believe my example is an anomaly and the majority are not as hard to close as mine initially was. But, because I can't say that for certain, it makes it hard to just give it a full "yes" recommendation.
Sorry for the very long review but not sure how else to go about it.
SUMMARY: If mine was an anomaly and all the other examples function as mine does now, then yes I do recommend this knife. If though, my knife is the norm, and you don't want to mess with it, then it's hard to say yes.
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