Lone W olf Harsey Tactical Review

[goldie]

Theres both good & bad associated with this knife. on the good side, it is a large knife, with a 4 3/4" bead blast blade of s30v,& it was very sharp from the factory.it has left & right thumb studs that are huge,too, & theres lots of contact surface to grab your thumb with . the linen micarta handles were huge,too, well shaped & was very comfortable. the color was grey & black streaked linen, which was nice looking and was very grippable. handle is very wide,too.the pocket clip is massive, & has a ventilated hole in it, but is a bit tough to get in the pocket with .as far as the bad goes,the blade on this model would not stay centered,no matter what adjustments were made.some adjustments made play between the locking liner & back of the blade lock area, resulting in movement of the blade when locked. the lawks safety lock that it comes with was also a nuisance.it clicked & clacked as the knife would close. it moves as you close the blade, & there is a little metal tab on the inside that sometimes gets cought on the inside pivot area, then bounces off.its also positioned very far foward on the front right, making it hard to operate.the titanium liners are thick, as is the liner lock itself,& are bead blast but you can see all kinds of machine marks throughout the linersslightly covered by the beadblast finish.this is a 280.00 retail semi custom,i dont want to see these kind of machine marks on a knife of this price.these problems bothered me enough to wind up selling the knife.its a nice design, & solid,but i dont think its worth the money, ive seen them for about 250.00,but with these issues,its a disappointment.i recommend handling one to anyone interested in it before buying one........

 

[Roadrunner]

I saw one of these at Blade and although it was nice, the point of such a massive folder eludes me. Not the massiveness in terms of length, but rather bulk. It's just too big to be comfortable in a pocket. The Camillus Maxx, OTOH, fits in a pocket very comfortably and has a longer blade to boot! If you require a knife that burly, why not just have a fixed blade; especially since it's marketed as a tactical folder? If you're carrying in a true tactical situation odds are a fixed blade will be just as acceptable as a folder. That's my rationale anyway.

 

[goldie]

The cuda maxx is much better, less than half the price, & although has some machine marks around the guard area, i can live with that much more for about 120 than 250.i like d2 & titanium handles better,too, & the blade is centered perfectly. lock up is perfect,too.the same is for the aftermath,too, even though price is even

 

[berzerker]

I have seen similar problems, but the Harsey I bought has none of them. I think it comes down to seeing/trying before you buy.

I also have both two CUDA MAXX, one of each blade style. I could have easily applied the criticisms of the Harsey to the spearpoint version. It arrived totally out of alignment--to the degree that the centerline of the blade was around 7 degrees off from the centerline of the handle. Machine markings, not aligned in the handle, and the edge was nothing special either. All complaints were eventually put to right by Camillus.

I've also had QC problems with my Tanto point Buck/Strider. (Plenty of forum traffic on that issue, too.) Again, fixed by the company.

The point I am making is this: Liner locks are tricky to align correctly. It is far, far better to buy a piece you can inspect firsthand, than a lower-priced version of the same model which you cannot. Add in one's time, the aggravation, cost of return shipping and insurance, and you might not be saving much. I suppose you could always ask an online seller to inspect the piece before they ship is out, but you wouldn't know if their standards were equal to yours.

As for size, comfort, balance: That's really one's preference. I like the feel-in-hand of my Harsey much more than that of either of my CUDA MAXX. I think the LAWKS is a matter of preference as well; I personally like the added safety.

 

[rev_jch]

I was curious about this one myself. It was too big to really interest me enough to spend that kind of money, but now after your comments I will not be giving that one any more thoughts!!!

Thanks much appreciated!!!!

 

[goldie]

My knife could have been a slightly defective one, who knows,but i'd hate to ever get another without seeing & playing with it first. i guess it can happen to any brand.......

 

[Steven Roos]

From what I have seen, so have been good, some have been bad.

Also, I think this is the 20,000th post in this forum! Whoho!