Ron, you are incredible! So many times, on these forums, I see you more than willing to service customers even though you didn't have to. Just simply amazing. Wish I had met you when I started collecting knives.
On to the point of the thread, there have been many purchases that I have been disappointed with. Blame it on youth, ignorance, etc. I have a box full of "survival" knives that I will never open to play with, let alone use. But the one of the knives I bought recently, even with the aid of years of wisdom on my side, which disappointed me, was the... well, actually, it's a toss-up between my Al Mar Shadow IV and Boker Orion.
For an AL Mar, the Shadow felt really cheap. The handle was so plasticky and the joint lines where the handle mould did not meet properly are so obvious. All in all, it looked and felt really cheap. Not at all like the Quicksilver which I picked up years ago when I didn't really know who the heck this "Al Mar" person was.
The Orion was also a fit and finish problem. The blade edge was not evenly done, the anodizing and surface finish on the blade were uneven and rough in some spots, you can see areas on the carbon fibre handle where the grind was not done evenly, most of the allen screws had their heads partially stripped and the opening and closing felt really rough.
