New ZT/Hinderer Flipper is Coming!!!0560/0561

I think too often on manufacturer's forums people forget that the manufacturer is a businessman trying to make a living at what they do. They confuse information for friendship and get bent out of shape when not apprised of every detail. Nothing against Kershaw or Kai it's the nature of the beast. If we were as chummy as some of us like to think then we would be hanging out with Thomas talking about all the nuts who post in this forum.
 
snyper1ad said:
I'm sure it wasn't out of spite but like bobnery said it was a business decision. I just think it is a poor decision which seems to be a new trend for Kershaw just like their new decision not to announce release dates anymore because to paraphrase Thomas we have a hard time being patient even though Items announced in Jan 2011 haven't been released by Feb 2012. I have been a loyal fan of Kershaw for many years but I question some of their recent decisions.
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It was an awesome decision, LET IT GO. Seriously !!! You guys have got to trust Kershaw and know that your best interests are being taken care of.
 
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I stopped by KAI today as I had the day off because my furnace went out, was able to get it fixed early in the morning. Stopped this afternoon and spoke with Thomas and heard lots of neat stuff about the knife world, how the tilt was named, a whole lot of stuff.. but Thomas also took me on a tour of the facility. I had my dog in my truck so couldn't hang out all night.. anyway, back story covered, on the topic of the 0561.. Thomas had 0561 #0002 that I got to flip and man is that thing nice! He had a Hinderer original to compare. If you want the custom, it's a great knife but the 0561 blows it away! The 3D sculpted handles are so much nicer than those on the custom and as I expected from handling a Tilt (which I' now have, again, THANKS THOMAS!) that the KVT was going to be awesome on this knife! It is! And the finish is just amazing. Thomas also walked me back and we watched the handles being run through their CNC mill. The amount of details that goes in to these is just incredible. Even at $400 these knives are a steal compared to what else is out there! Sure, they are production knives, but because they are mass produced they can be made with very expensive high tech machines to get all of those fine details. The mill I watched was more than just the single end mill bit job. These knives are sculpted by the equivalent of hyper intelligent robots but finished and assembled with all of the care and detail that can only be done with a trained set of human eyes and hands. Anyone that complains that these aren't worth the money needs to wait and actually handle one in person. You'll be blown away and you just can't talk smack about a knife if you've never seen or handled it in person.
 
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oregonknifenerd said:
I was there today. I'll post more about my tour and stuff later (lots to say.. first is THANKS THOMAS AND JIM AND SARAH!!). It's actually fairly interesting if you're a big nerd like me. The knives go down in a fixture that holds the blade level and sets the knife in position so all knives of a particular model sit in the same place under the laser. Then the thing just goes to work. They have multiple lasers. One of them you feed multiples in to a plate with several plates on a giant wheel and it spins and lasers several blades in a shot. The technology at KAI is absolutely amazing. If you are interested in this stuff, there is a short segment with some of this stuff on the Modern Marvels segment called "is that a _ in your pocket" or something of that sort.
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Thanks so much for the information, I'll see if I can't find it on YouTube...I love that sort of stuff.
Have a nice weekend.
-Kevin
 
KLJTech said:
Thanks so much for the information, I'll see if I can't find it on YouTube...I love that sort of stuff.
Have a nice weekend.
-Kevin
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They post all of their full episodes on their website once they have aired. Let me know if you can't find it and I'll get it to you.
 
kershawguy said:
It was an awesome decision, LET IT GO. Seriously !!! You guys have got to trust Kershaw and know that your best interests are being taken care of.
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How is that an awesome decision. I'm not trying to start a fight. I like Kershaw as a whole. Everyone makes mistakes, Ford made the Pinto, the 76ers signed Sean Bradley, I enlisted in the Army instead of taking a partial football scholarship. It's what we do with our mistakes that defines us.
 
oregonknifenerd said:
I stopped by KAI today as I had the day off because my furnace went out and had to meet someone about it. Stopped and spoke with Thomas and heard lots of neat stuff about the knife world, how the tilt was named, a whole lot of stuff.. but Thomas also took me on a tour of the facility. I had my dog in my truck so couldn't hang out all night.. anyway, back story covered, on the topic of the 0561.. Thomas had 0561 #0002 that I got to flip and man is that thing nice! He had a Hinderer original to compare. If you want the custom, it's a great knife but the 0561 blows it away! The 3D sculpted handles are so much nicer than those on the custom and as I expected from handling a Tilt (which I' now have, again, THANKS THOMAS!) that the KVT was going to be awesome on this knife! It is! And the finish is just amazing. Thomas also walked me back and we watched the handles being run through their CNC mill. The amount of details that goes in to these is just incredible. Even at $400 these knives are a steal compared to what else is out there! Sure, they are production knives, but because they are mass produced they can be made with very expensive high tech machines to get all of those fine details. The mill I watched was more than just the single end mill bit job. These knives are sculpted by the equivalent of hyper intelligent robots but finished and assembled with all of the care and detail that can only be done with a trained set of human eyes and hands. Anyone that complains that these aren't worth the money needs to wait and actually handle one in person. You'll be blown away and you just can't talk smack about a knife if you've never seen or handled it in person.
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Sounds like an awesome day! I have no doubts the 056X's will be worth the wait but your info really solidifies it for me. Little off topic, but How was the Tilt named anyway?
 
The only mistake here is that I didn't preorder more than two. Thank you Thomas for the latest pics....it still blows my mind how involved you are with us common folk.

snyper1ad said:
How is that an awesome decision. I'm not trying to start a fight. I like Kershaw as a whole. Everyone makes mistakes, Ford made the Pinto, the 76ers signed Sean Bradley, I enlisted in the Army instead of taking a partial football scholarship. It's what we do with our mistakes that defines us.
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snyper1ad said:
I'm sure it wasn't out of spite but like bobnery said it was a business decision.
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International business can be difficult as we have to ensure orders are filled complete (or close to it) prior to shipment. With our current back ordered situation, our International customers wait a very long time prior to shipments being filled to capacity. The 0560's were holding up some very large outstanding orders. Allocating them to these orders allowed us to finally get them out. We truly value their patience with us. It seemed only right we got the 0560's going to them considering the circumstance. Add the fact that additional 0560's are right around the corner...we didn't see an issue.

If this is a bad decision, then bad on us.




I just think it is a poor decision which seems to be a new trend for Kershaw just like their new decision not to announce release dates anymore because to paraphrase Thomas we have a hard time being patient even though Items announced in Jan 2011 haven't been released by Feb 2012. I have been a loyal fan of Kershaw for many years but I question some of their recent decisions.
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You make it seem like a year is a long time. I don't. Expectations vary from member to member, but a year is not out of line.

I've given very early release intel on new items here on the forums. These early views should not be considered official release dates. Please don't penalize us for being excited and wanting to share.

Oh there's that counterfeit situation as well...

If it's wrong to shut that down, well I guess we're wrong.
 
Okay jimmer-5. I'll know soon enough, can't wait! :thumbup:
 
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Guys, I would really rather not see this turn into an argument about the Zt 0560 vs. Rick Hinderer's custom knives. They're different animals, and that is a good thing.

There's nothing to be gained from arguing over which one is better, so let's get back to the original topic.
 
cziv said:
So you're saying that handling the ZT 0561 and a "custom" (doesn't matter as production will suffice) Hinderer XM-24 (or maybe he had an XM-18) has conivinced you that the ZT offering "blows away" the custom Hinderer XM-(whatever)? Just to be sure - "blows away" a custom or any Hinderer XM-24 or XM-18?

I know you sound a little bit in awe at the precision equipment and manufacturing process you saw, not to mention the personal tour by Thomas. Given that I'd have to say you're a little biased and full of baloney in your statements that I've referred to. Don't attack me personally and then have the audacity to PM me and ask me to remove my post clarifying what I meant and acting like you weren't a jerk! -Kyle

I suppose all of us Hinderer collectors will be selling our knives and replacing them with ZT 0560 & 0561s? That would be an interesting turn of events. I look forward to that day as I can use the money I'd free up. I can get a few of 'em with tiger stripe blades and maybe pimped scales too!

Carry on. :)
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I won't claim to be unbiased. Some people wear Rolexes. A Rolex doesn't keep anywhere near as accurate time as a digital watch you get out of a box of cereal. Rick's knife is really nice like a Rolex. The ZT is more like my Casio Pathfinder with a titanium bracelet and a compass, barometer, and thermometer and altimeter with syncing to the atomic clock in Colorado and has a solar panel around the face for charging. Both watches are really nice and have their place. But to say that the Casio isn't worth the money because it isn't a Rolex doesn't mean anything. I wasn't meaning to belittle Rick's work at all. I stand by that the ZT does blow away the custom but they are two different blades that people buy for two different purposes. If I had the money I'd own both.

I know you meant to imply that I'm biased because Thomas gave me a tour and that I was over there hanging around. That simply isn't the case. I'm probably biased though for different reasons. My day job is as a information systems engineer dealing with lots of technology and so I'm biased towards the stuff made with the ultimate in high tech steels and precision computer controlled equipment. I hope my comments weren't taken at all to mean that Rick's was quite nice and stands on it's own. It really was. It has a lot of work put in to it and is well designed. Without it the ZT 0560 wouldn't exist. I just was defending the 0560 in that it is a great knife and that people don't need to keep complaining about that they don't like the scales on it or the 0550s and that the 0560 is a heck of a deal for what you get.

I hope that clarifies things rather than muddying things more. I don't expect to change any of the minds of those that just came to troll. Trolls will be trolls. But hope my further explanation clarifies things and returns us to a more civil conversation.
 
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All I'm gonna say is that I'm really looking forward to getting my 0560 & 0561. If other countries get them first, that really has no bearing on my situation. I'm not a child and for something this good I am willing to wait.
 
Bottom line for me is that these are shipping now, and that is a good thing. Nice work KAI! I really don't mind carrying my 0551, or 0301 until my 0560 arrives.
 
Thomas W said:
International business can be difficult as we have to ensure orders are filled complete (or close to it) prior to shipment. With our current back ordered situation, our International customers wait a very long time prior to shipments being filled to capacity. The 0560's were holding up some very large outstanding orders. Allocating them to these orders allowed us to finally get them out. We truly value their patience with us. It seemed only right we got the 0560's going to them considering the circumstance. Add the fact that additional 0560's are right around the corner...we didn't see an issue.

If this is a bad decision, then bad on us.




You make it seem like a year is a long time. I don't. Expectations vary from member to member, but a year is not out of line.

I've given very early release intel on new items here on the forums. These early views should not be considered official release dates. Please don't penalize us for being excited and wanting to share.

Oh there's that counterfeit situation as well...

If it's wrong to shut that down, well I guess we're wrong.
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These are both very reasonable and logical answers. My question is, if the 0560 is black G-10 and the 0561 is Brown G-10, what will the model numbers be on the tiger stripe blade versions? I need to get some preorders in. :cool:
 
Just looking through the 2012 ZT catalog,.....Is the 0561 the only brown scaled knife from ZT this year??? I didnt see the 0300 in brown anymore.
 
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