I want to state at the outset of this post that this is one of my favorite folders to come out in a while. It has many nice features that make it pocket friendly and practical as a gentlemens type folder. I love the overall size and clean simple lines. The blade shape and geometry are very good with a nice full height grind that is thin behind the edge. I like the neutral handle shape with the fuller groove for visual flare and gripping texture. The pocket clip has a nice smooth shape that does not form a hot spot for me. The double-detent mechanism with front flipper is fast to deploy and fun to fidget with.
Do I think the EWC is a perfect knife? No I do not. Very close yes, but there is a design defect in my mind that needs to be addressed to get there. Let me explain below.
I agree that it would be a simple manufacuring improvement to add a tiny radius around the inner edges of the handle scales to eliminate the sharp feel there. I will be kissing these edges on mine today with some wet 600 grit sandpaper to improve the feel while I have the knife apart.
The “gritty” feel that people have commented about is design and/or manufacturing related. If you close the knife slowly, you will notice that the blade catches in this position.
The reason for this is contact between a section of the jimping and the detent ball. The orange wire in the photo bepow shows the line of the jimping in the handle and the tip of the paper clip is approximately where the detent ball is.
I removed the show side scale and replaced the pivot screw to show what’s going on inside.
What causes the gritty feel is that the detent ball rides over the sharp edges of the center jimping tooth as the blade rotates through its arc.
What happens in practice is that the detent ball pops up slightly into the radius groove to the left of the center tooth...
...then the ball drops down to pass under the tooth...
...then the ball pops up again into the groove on the right of the tooth before dropping down again as the blade continues on its movement arc.
That up-down-up-down movement of the detent ball over the sharp edges around the center tooth creates drag which those of us with OCD tendencies may call grittiness. I don’t think that the average Joe will notice this as an issue to be concerned about.
In all fairness, this condition doesn’t hamper the fast opening or closing of the blade in normal use. It is just something that could and should be improved as a CQI update on future manufacturing runs. I could foresee two ways to fix this. The first would be moving the location of the detent ball forward to be closer to the pivot. The other way that makes more sense to me would be eliminating the unnecessary jimping that runs behind the flipper extension section. This area of jimping is non-functional because it sits below scales in both the open and closed positions.
Today I am going to polish a tiny .001-.002 break on the edges and grooves around the center jimping tooth to smooth things up a touch on mine. I will report back tomorrow if this creates any noticable improvement.
Even with the above nit-pick comments, this is a great little knife that I fully intend to keep, carry and use regularly.
Phil
