I want a Ki5414A1. Where can I get one?! These are schweet!
cutter17 - awesome. I'm just floored by the quality! The colors they got on that handle are dead sexay!
AntDog, is the Ki5404A1 the one you are looking for? It has a black G-10 scale, and the titanium framelock scale. If so then check with knifeworks.com, a BF dealer.
At the same time I am going to go ahead and give my first impressions of the Kizer Phantom Ki5401A2 that arrived earlier today.
First thing out of the box you know you have a heavy knife, and at 8.4 ounces it should be. But this weight does not bother me as I like a heavier knife for the solid feel it imparts. A cursory glance shows that the blade is centered in the closed position, something a lot of folks, me included, like to see. Screw heads are all even with one another, another good mark in my book. Scales are nicely anodized with a light violet/purple color bordering the center area which is sorta speckled with blue and brownish red marks against a grayish background. While very pretty, I would have been just as happy with the natural grey finish of bead blasted titanium.
Opening the blade with the flipper allows the blade to go all the way open and end with a nice crack as the lock moves over. Of course I can't just leave it at that so I begin to take it down. The screws are tight, but I make sure that the torx driver is fitting in the screw correctly and then slowly turn the screw until it snaps loose. Do that for the other three and then the clip screw. There is very little if any loctite on the screws and that is how I like it. But the pivot screw is a different animal as it does have loctite, plenty of loctite. With a little patience though I do get it out and clean it of the loctite then screw the pivot in and out with my fingers a few times to make sure everything is cleaned out. Now I begin the process of removing the top scale. The standoffs are made so that they fit into the scale,something that I think strengthens the frame, and this makes me have to work to remove it. It finally pops off so that I can get to the blade and the washers. The only thing I change from factory specs is to give the lockbar more bend. Something I do to most of my knives since it makes a tighter lock. Pivot, washers, inside scales, and blade pivot hole area get polished with polishing compound and my Dremel tool. Once all of this is done I put it back together with some Miltec lubricant. Putting the top scale back on, it just snaps into place like those old model cars I used to put together...no glue needed!
It is little things like this that impress me and speak to the quality that is there.:thumbup:
Once back together I begin to flip it and tighten the pivot a little, flip again, tighten a little more, and again, until I hit the sweet spot for me, which is pretty firm. Lockup is tight and this is what I wanted when I put more bend into the lockbar. It was not a lot of bend, but enough to give me that tight lockup. Lockbar is ~.170" thick while the blade is .177" thick at it's thickest point being the lock up spot on the blade tang. Lockbar comes over to cover about 1/3rd of the blade tang, so there is plenty of room for wear. The fit/finish is excellent, 'nuff said. The edge grinds are evenly done on both sides and out of the box it would slice newsprint into thin strips with no problem. The swedge grind is also even from one side to the other. One thing I like about Kizer is they do not mark up the blades with a lot of writing. Front side has KIZER with the stylized K, and found on the blade flat just ahead of the thumb stud. Also on the front down where the blade meets handle you find S35VN in small letters. Flip it over and in the same area that you find S35VN, there is the model number Ki5401A2, also in small print. All in all a very nicely done blade.:thumbup:
Overall I can find nothing wrong with this knife. There are things I wish it had different, but these are just personal tastes, and as it is, it is an excellently built knife. I will have no problem in putting this knife in my right front pocket. It may be a long heavy knife, but it is not an overly thick knife and should ride just fine.
I'm happy with the 2 bills I spent to get this knife, and feel I got more than my money's worth!:thumbup:
