Messed up my friend's Kershaw 1670 :( Replace with Manix XL? Help, please.

[RemyKaze]

I'm just gonna say...you can't pick a knife out for another person. No matter how well you know them. It's best to let him go handle them, open them, check out the specs and such, then buy it for him. Picking out his knife for him is like picking what his next meal will be. Everyone has a different idea of what they want.

 

[darthsoaker]

Anyway, I offered to fix it for him.
I did a pretty damn good job on reshaping the blade with a dremel.
Then I went to work on the liner lock.
I decided to remove material from the flat on the blade rather than try to reshape the liner lock.
That was probably my first mistake.
My second was to measure once and grind twice.
I took too much material off and now the blade has noticeable play on its pivot.
I thought he was going to cry when I returned the knife to him.
.

1. When in doubt, do not dremel. Even when not in doubt, you probably shouldn't dremel.

2. Never touch the lock face of a folding knife with an abrasive.

For the love of god, never violate either of the rules again.

 

[darthsoaker]

Enlan EL01, buy him 3. Tough for daily use, thick tip that should stand light prying, you don't get broke and he gets quality knife (knives).

Why 3? It comes in 3 color handles, black, grey & khaki. It takes some breaking in, but once smoothed out, flips nicely.

Also the look is quite tactical.

A more gentleman look would be EL02 with axis design.

These are in my EDC list. You might have made up your mind, just to offer you alternatives.

I have nothing against foreign made knives, but I would be absolutely enraged if my friend broke my US manufactured Kershaw Blur and tried to replace it with a $10 chinese no-name folder.

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

No problem. From what I see, his friend is not very much into knives (sample: prying). Price was his concern as well (not OP, but his friend). As a starter, those Enlans can be used and abused, and when he's grown further, he can appreciate American made knives better.

From personal use and others who has more expensive knives to do the comparison, the Enlans might be sold at 10$ but the quality is comparable to 50$ branded ones.

OP can still give him the price difference to be saved up to the point his friend is ready.

 

[futant]

1. When in doubt, do not dremel. Even when not in doubt, you probably shouldn't dremel.

2. Never touch the lock face of a folding knife with an abrasive.

For the love of god, never violate either of the rules again.

I hear you.
Honestly, I reshaped the blade really well with the dremel.
I actually think it's a better and stronger blade than it was stock.
If I had had the right tools I would have used them but, as it was, I didn't.
I took a knife without a tip and gave it a good one and a nice edge.

As far as the part about the lock face, yeah... I learned my lesson.

So it's ended up being a knife that nobody here recommended.
First, I really don't have the money to be buying him a $100 knife. I would if I had destroyed A knife that valuable but I didn't.
I could find his knife new for about $30-$35 so gave him options.
He found the Spyderco Resilience, Chinese-made but he didn't care.
$40 shipped and that's what he's getting.
Worked out as it should have, I don't spend a fortune and he got to pick a new knife.

Unless anyone has horror stories about the Resilience...

Your input hasn't gone to waste.
I'm going to be in the market for another EDC soon and I'll be remembering all that you've said here.

Cheers.

 

[futant]

Thanks, Chris. Sound take on the situation. I appreciate the budget-conscious response.

 

[futant]

Wanted to let you all know that he received that Spyderco Resilience.
It's the best $40 knife I've run across.
It feels pretty nice, sits light in the pocket and has a 4.25" blade if you're looking for large.
The fit and finish are also pretty impressive for something in that price range.
I choose to buy American with my knives but those who don't mind Chinese-made should check it out.
This definitely isn't one of those $8 Chinese knives that you find in your neighborhood smoke shop (maybe that's just LA?).

 

[mkjellgren]

This definitely isn't one of those $8 Chinese knives that you find in your neighborhood smoke shop (maybe that's just LA?).

Definitely not just LA...they've got them here in MN too I had the guy pull a few out one time just so I could laugh to myself at the epic fail.

 

[futant]

Definitely not just LA...they've got them here in MN too I had the guy pull a few out one time just so I could laugh to myself at the epic fail.

Some good ones, aren't there?
I admit to not having any experience with plastic liner locks but I'm guessing they'd fail, eventually.

 

[Thalestin]

Wanted to let you all know that he received that Spyderco Resilience.
It's the best $40 knife I've run across.
It feels pretty nice, sits light in the pocket and has a 4.25" blade if you're looking for large.
The fit and finish are also pretty impressive for something in that price range.
I choose to buy American with my knives but those who don't mind Chinese-made should check it out.
This definitely isn't one of those $8 Chinese knives that you find in your neighborhood smoke shop (maybe that's just LA?).

Sounds like you made a great choice. Can't go wrong with any spyderco IMO