I'll preface this by stating that I'm new at this and don't really have the knife bug yet. I carried one of those little aluminum scaled Swiss Army knives forever, then a Delica for a while, another one when I lost the first one, and a Para 2 the past 8 years. The Para 2 seemed pretty incredible with no other real knives to compare it to, it went in my pocket and other knives stopped being interesting.
Then I chipped it up pretty good cutting zip ties off wire fencing, made the mistake of watching knife touch up videos on youtube, which led to more knife videos, which led here again, and suddenly I've got two new knives on my desk and three more coming. Anyhow, on to this Advocate I just bought.
1. This knife is scary sharp. I thought the factory PM2 edge was scary sharp, and I could get maybe 75% of the way back there with a 1200 grit stone, but this showed up mirror polished and it's on an entirely different level. Is this a M4 thing or an expert sharpened it thing? I'll find out when I use it up enough to try and sharpen it myself.
2. This knife is really, really stiff. I can't flip it all the way open with one hand. It's not very rough, it doesn't feel gritty or have sticky spots, it's just stiff. Squeezing the frame lock out of the way to remove all tension it still doesn't swing freely. I read about the CQI bushing, this was listed as the improved model and I can see the edge of the bearing cage and it's bronze which makes me think that's correct. I washed it out with hot soapy water and oiled it and it didn't help much. Is this just the way they are or did I buy someone else's problem? Is there anything inside which a trained monkey can fix?
Then I chipped it up pretty good cutting zip ties off wire fencing, made the mistake of watching knife touch up videos on youtube, which led to more knife videos, which led here again, and suddenly I've got two new knives on my desk and three more coming. Anyhow, on to this Advocate I just bought.
1. This knife is scary sharp. I thought the factory PM2 edge was scary sharp, and I could get maybe 75% of the way back there with a 1200 grit stone, but this showed up mirror polished and it's on an entirely different level. Is this a M4 thing or an expert sharpened it thing? I'll find out when I use it up enough to try and sharpen it myself.
2. This knife is really, really stiff. I can't flip it all the way open with one hand. It's not very rough, it doesn't feel gritty or have sticky spots, it's just stiff. Squeezing the frame lock out of the way to remove all tension it still doesn't swing freely. I read about the CQI bushing, this was listed as the improved model and I can see the edge of the bearing cage and it's bronze which makes me think that's correct. I washed it out with hot soapy water and oiled it and it didn't help much. Is this just the way they are or did I buy someone else's problem? Is there anything inside which a trained monkey can fix?
