Opinions of the Sifu

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fight4right

Joined
Nov 9, 2000
Messages
99
I am considering buying a Sifu. I have never bought a Round Eye Knife & Tool product. I would like opinions on this knife and dealings with the company.

Thanks for the information.
 
It's the best production fighting folder made today, and probably the best fighting folder period.

It's 5.45" blade length was specifically chosen to allow TX legality.

The rest of what I have to say about it is here: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/blades.html

There's also a ton of older threads in this forum and on the main "General" forum, use the search function. But what you'll find is that the people who buy them as street defense pieces absolutely LOVE 'em..."utility buyers" are sometimes unwilling to pack something quite so huge.

The few times anyone has had a quality issue was in some of the early production pieces and REKAT always took very good care of the customers.

In short, it's the best combat folder made, and it's barely legal for the TX market. If that's what you want, you've found it.

I own (and carry daily) Sifu serial number 1 because I pressured REKAT into building a megafolder
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. But other than coming up with the 5.45" blade length for TX legality, it's all REKAT's design and a damn good one. Bob Taylor is a grip ergonomics wizard, he made those fingergrooves WORK far better than they look just from pictures.

Jim
 
I was in the same position as you, fight4right, when I purchsed my Sifu. I found one of the green handled, early production pieces and really like it. I must admit that there were a few problems initially. The blade was rubbing on the liner a bit and one of the standoffs was not allowing the small screw to stay in place. Anyway, I sent it to Round Eye and they were very, very pleasant to deal with and fixed the knife right away. I have it back now and love it! The most surprising thing is how well it rides in the front pocket of my jeans. I don't even know its there.
 
On Jay's piece, a few of the very early production run pieces had standoff barrels that weren't fully threaded, resulting in loose or missing screws. This is long since fixed on current production and Jay's piece was fully worked over by REKAT.

To give you an idea of how early Jay's piece is, the first 70 handground were available in black or green micarta. Green wasn't a listed option on the production pieces, but apparantly he got a leftover grip set from the initial 70 pre-production run series
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. It took us a while bouncing EMails back and forth to establish just what the heck he'd gotten ahold of.

He may have the only green production Sifu in captivity, making it the "rarest of the rare"
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. Very cool critter.

Jim
 
Hmm... Is Jay's a green micarta or G-10? I have what purports to be a production model in green G-10 (with pocket clip) that I got from Mike and Spark last month. They are out there.
 
Jim and Knave. Just so their is no confusion, my Sifu has green G-10 handles not micarta. It does have a pocket clip. Jim and I did correspond at length as I was unsure what I had. I did not know anything about the Sifu when I bought it except for it looked interesting and certainly got some interesting comments via BladeForum. It does seem to be one of the very early production pieces, but that is all I really know.

Jim was a big help in explaining to me the origin and background of the Sifu. The end result is I now have a great (and great big!) folder which I carry on a regular basis.

[This message has been edited by jayharley (edited 11-15-2000).]
 
My use of "micarta" above was a brainfart
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. REKAT has never used micarta, they've used G10 in black, green, red and in at least one case white, and Carbon Fiber layered over G10. I knew that.

Sorry for the confooosion
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.

Jim
 
Most interesting. So, what exactly do Jay and I have? Am I correct in assuming that they're new production models with old, surplus grips? Regardless, I really like the green handles. Nice knives.
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My Sifu has the same troubles as jayharley had after I fixed handle pin rattle. The blade rubs the liner, and one of the blade pins loosens while a month. I didn't know ALL can be fixed!
Even though I still love my Sifu as everyday carry, isn't it the best part of REKAT production? Can it be that better?
If disassembling it doesn't void the warranty, I'd want take the fixation.

Thank you guys for the invaluable information!

------------------
(T_T) ...crying
\(^o^)/ ...cheerful
(ToT) ...crying
Mizutani Satoshi
 
Wrongfriend, the blade-rubs-on-liner problem is very easy to fix. All you need to do is loosen the grip screws on ONE side only, just a bit, then flex the grip with the blade closed until everything lines up right, then tighten it back down while keeping it lined up
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.

It's not that hard.

The only tricky part for YOU might be scoring US non-metric hex key tools in Japan! I don't know if a particular size of metric hex-hey might fit well enough. Worst case, you could take a metric key that's a bit too big and gently file, grind or dremel-tool all six faces until it's small enough to fit.

Any US military base will have a store that sells US-type non-metric ("SAE") tools. I'd be willing to mail you some that fit the Sifu, drop me EMail on the subject if all else fails.

Jim
 
I liked mine for the short time I had it, but i sent it back when I noticed that the blade was slaping one of the pins near the but end, chipping the edge. I traded the dealer for a carny and am a very happy bow, but may get a finger grooveless one in d2 years from now when i can afford it.

E
 
I have a green G-10, but it is the BF model numbered 15/70.
I had the same problem with the blade hitting the last barrel pin also, but I took a triangle shaped EZ Lap diamond file, and filed a V in the barrel, and that solved the problem. Also Corduroy worked it over, and put bronze washers for the pivot, and polished the pivot pin, and put a titanium slip on the butt end to make it a tip up carry. Also the edges of the G-10 were sanded lightly to round them off for smoother handling.Works real smooth, and carries real well.
Now I'm waiting for the modified D-2's to come out.
Just my .02 cents.

Larry
 
Big time new Sifu fan here! Now I'd like to see a beefy, thick-spined, flat ground one, slowly tapering to a razor sharp edge. A nice "pointy", (not needle), tip coming off of that nice fat spine. That would be my idea of the perfect, big and strong, utility/defense folder.
 
I had a setback with my sifu as the spring broke disabling the knife. I also had a problem with the blade not being centered. REKAT told me to send it back and they WOULD address all my concerns and ship it back ASAP. For the record, the blade came off center but not hitting the liner. Somehow I ended up having it hit the liner. All that being said, I paid 125.00 bucks NEW for this knife in Black T, which is the birdsong black t, like benchmade used to use before going with their own coating. This knife is awesome. Its the only knife in its class and its slick. Its strong, and it carries great. Fits in my jeans as easy as a spyderco military. QC rough spots or not, nobody is doing a knife like this as well. Since Rekat pledges to stand behind it, and is working with me, what more can I ask. And the knife is just too damn awesome to pass up at 125.00 bucks. You really have to have it at the price it sells for. The scary part is after a week it doesn't seem that big anymore. But anyone seeing it for the first time will :-) -mike

 
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