Recommendation? Not a Good Year for Knives

Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
30
Hello,

In the past year, I've lost two knives important to me.

First, my Sypderco Wayne Goddard disappeared from my shop. I loved that thing; had it since 1994 or so. I have no idea what happened. Nobody stole it; I'm the only who goes in there. I was opening packages and the best I can figure is it somehow made its way into the trash.

I've bought a couple knives trying to replace it; Kershaw assisted openings. I've grown to like the assisted opening design, but these knives feel rather... fragile. One is Chinese and the other is USA.

I'm a lefty.

What are some good automatic folding knife recommendations for a left-handed feller like myself? If I'm going to spend the money, I require it to be made in the USA, or Japan, or Finland, or anyplace but China, Taiwan, etc.

The second knife was my Leatherman. I received one as a gift around 1998, and I carried it daily. It eventually got unserviceable so I sent it in. They replaced it with one of their new ones, which frankly didn't impress me. There were friggin' parting lines, man. Huh uh.

I left the thing on the truck's roof and drove off. Dangit.

I want a replacement for it, as well -- but not Leatherman. Turns out they are somewhat anti-gun. Additionally, the quality, as I explained above, is not what it was.

I'd like the replacement to be USA-made.

Any recommendations?

Thank you.

Regards,
Josh
 
In on leatherman replacement. Didn't realize they were anti-gun but doesn't surprise me.
 
I have looked around on the multi-tool front and well sadly for USA made it seems Leatherman is the company most everything else is Chinese made until look at the Swiss and maybe German made multi-tools.

I do have a Leatherman Supertool, original, that I debate selling though the small screw driver on it is a bit damaged but still functional. I mostly hesitate as I am not sure I can find a replacement that isn't giving up something I want to keep from it or isn't some cheap Chinese multi-tool.

I am curious about this anti-gun thing with Leatherman considering they make 1 or 2 tools that actually have gun specific purposed tools in them.
 
Leatherman are anti gun? Anyway, my choice isn't USA made but I'm yet to find a better built product: Victorinox Swisstool. Great ergos, carries great, it's a tank and backed by stellar warranty. Swiss Made.

As for the folder I'm not really into autos but maybe a Protech of some sort could fit your needs. Also there's microtech of course.
Böker has some that are really popular but I don't know if there are ones that aren't made overseas
 
Hello,

In the past year, I've lost two knives important to me.

First, my Sypderco Wayne Goddard disappeared from my shop. I loved that thing; had it since 1994 or so. I have no idea what happened. Nobody stole it; I'm the only who goes in there. I was opening packages and the best I can figure is it somehow made its way into the trash.

The second knife was my Leatherman. I received one as a gift around 1998, and I carried it daily. It eventually got unserviceable so I sent it in. They replaced it with one of their new ones, which frankly didn't impress me. There were friggin' parting lines, man. Huh uh.

I left the thing on the truck's roof and drove off. Dangit.

I hate to hear that, my condolences. I am very sentimental about a couple knives and would hate to lose them, and I haven't had them for nearly as long as 1994 or 1998.

I don't want to hijack this into a political thread, but I was curious and looked into your claim that Leatherman is anti-gun and among all the random forum posts saying Leatherman was anti-gun, the only evidence I saw was that the owner publicly supported Kerry/Edwards. The NRA has given away Leatherman knives and there is of course this: https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2014/8/22/leatherman-leap-multi-tool/ Is this just a case of people not liking the company because the president didn't support their party-of-choice or are there other examples of them being anti-gun?
 
I've had good luck with some of the gerber tools, the suspension is a nice budget option but the center drive is supposed to be good, tool made in US and sheath from china according to a sportsman retail website. I think SOG's powerplier deals get decent reviews but I've never seen or used one in real life.

I've started trying out the boker tech tools out of curiosity but I don't have much feedback to give other than the one I have is as nice as a SAK at a minimum. I think one of their models has pliers but not bigger ones like the leatherman or gerber options.

Which Kershaws have you tried? They have a lot of assisted openers. ZT I think has a few and are more over-built. Benchmade has a few assisted and auto's but are high priced. Protech and Hogue have some interesting autos and seem to have good build quality for the price.
 
Do you want an auto or an assisted knife? What's your price range?

Also an OTF is usually pretty ambi friendly, it's just not a folding knife.
 
I did some quick research on the anti-gun but Tim Leatherman is a democrat supporter, which would place the anti-gun stigma on him, and given he is the company's namesake what he does personally will often be viewed to reflect upon the company. From there everyone can make their own decision on their views of the company and I think we can leave this to the total of politics referenced in this thread.
 
Not to get too deep into politics but that slogan wasn't one made up by Leatherman but was an ATF slogan that happened to have been used on promotional products made by Leathernman for the ATF. Reading that article I suspect they were still producing them with that slogan either because no one told Leatherman to stop or due to timelines of production schedule vs when they were told to stop. So really I believe it goes back to Tim Leatherman donating to democrats and supporting Kerry and there has not been any official action or anything from the company however people can use the views and actions of Tim Leatherman to form their opinion of the Leatherman company.

Now back to our regularly scheduled knives... Joshua M. Smith Joshua M. Smith do you have any preference for Side Auto vs OTF? Are manual knives off the table or still something you might consider? Was your experience with your Goddard the experience you would like to get back to or are you looking for something different?
 
For a US made multitool you may have to check the secondary market. I still use one of my us made gerber multi’s, so someone must be selling them still.
 
Have to say, my wife has a Leatherman from the 90’s, and I wouldn’t say that it is better made than my Charge Ti, purchased a couple of years ago. Politics is not a suitable topic for GKD and the accusations flying about seem pretty spurious to me anyway.
 
For a left hand friendly auto, you might look at Benchmade's axis lock autos to see if there's a model that looks right for you.

On the multitool, it's not American made, but the Victorinox Swisstool or its smaller sibling the Spirit are both well made. Except for a few months I spent trying to like a Leatherman Charge TTI, I've carried either a Swisstool or Spirit on my belt for several years while working and have no complaints.
 
Considering LM makes a Multitool specifically for the AR shooter, I would think the anti-gun complaints might be similar in nature to the anti-gun complaints of Ruger in the 80's, and S&W in the 90's. If that was the case, that wouldn't stop me from purchasing more (I own 5 so far). I think that most of the Gerber and Sog multi-tools are made in the US. However, I generally prefer LM to those brands, even though my friend loved his Gerber Suspension, and he used it on everything from race cars, semi-trucks, and even for camping/bow hunting until he lost it (replaced by a different Gerber and now a LM). I had the Sog Paratool for 25 years, but only use it as a backup MT when traveling because of the size and weight for the tools included (and it's old and beat up)... but it's a pain to deploy the tools compared to my LM's and Vic Spirit X.

Personally, although the BM Axis lock Autos might work with the symmetry for a leftie, I find that their auto-only models (not Axis lock) are smoother to open and close. I would think that the buttery smooth release button would be easy enough to use with your pointer finger versus your thumb. Best to go into a store and try it. Also, for assisted BM's, I own the Boost and the Amicus/Arcane and like them both. The Boost's controls are symmetrical and I love the material and 99% of the handle design. However, I am in the minority with that opinion of the knife.
 
Strictly for bang to buck ratio, the best auto I have is easily the Kershaw Launch 1. It's perfect in almost every way, and I don't have issues operating it as a lefty myself. I'd you perfectly a strictly assaulte knife instead, there's the Kershaw Link and Dividend in S35VN from House of Blades, or the Kershaw Knockout in M390 from USAMadeBlade. All are US made, usable to a lefty, and have premium blade steels (with decent grinds too).

For the multi tool, only thing I'm familiar with aside from Leatherman is Gerber US made models. Little pricey, but they have a solid reputation.
 
Gerber does make a few models in the US. I actually splurged on one a couple weeks ago since I had some gift cards to burn at Academy.
It's a Gerber MP600 basic which is...well, basic. It's not as nice as my LM tools, but it reminds of my first multitool I bought in college. It was a very similar model of Gerber i bought at Walmart when i joined our college rowing crew. All of the guys had them because we were just a club sport and our cheap boat bolted together in the middle and the MT made quick work of emergency leaks:D

Like I said, its not the greatest tool. Kinda dated design, really. However, it works well enough, and I don't mind scuffing it up. I still much prefer the LM tools. I don't really care about politics of the founder. I mean, they are located in Oregon, how is that surprising. LM, to me, just makes the best bang for your buck tools. I prefer the Rebar or Super Tool 300.
 
For a US made multitool you may have to check the secondary market. I still use one of my us made gerber multi’s, so someone must be selling them still.

Several of the more expensive gerbers are "assembled in US with global materials" per their website. It looks like almost all of the ones in the "one-hand opening" genre are and the center-drive doesn't include the global materials part so may be fully US made. I may have to get one of those now that I've actually spent time looking into them. Could be a good comparison against the wave which is a bit of redundancy of tools, IMO (I don't see a point to SE and PE blades or the flat screwdriver when it has a bit driver, even if one is better for prying).
 
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