Opinions on the Almite Walker?

Ritt

Ritt

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Joined
May 17, 2004
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I just became aware of this knife. I like the overall look, good materials, and it seems a good size for urban EDC, but I haven't seen anything here about it. Anyone with first-hand experience willing to share? It looks like it rides high in the pocket. Pics from some of you adept photographers would be most welcome :cool:
 
some pics I posted earlier on the spyderco.com forum

walker1.jpg


walker2.jpg


walker3.jpg


walker4.jpg


walker5.jpg


walker6.jpg
 
I had one briefly, traded it to a friend. As you observed, a nice little "gent's knife" type EDC piece, with excellent fit and finish. Action on mine was glassy smooth, as would be expected of a quality linerlock. On the other hand, it was quite right-handed, and I'm a lefty, so it did not really suit me well. I also have some very strong "tastes" when it comes to knives and there were several features of this one that go against them. Angular jogs in a blade, as in front of the Walker's thumb hole and swedge grinds are two things I do not care for. I would assume from your interest in it that none of those things would be "issues" for you. Do take a look at the Viele II. A bit more expensive, but a super nice urban EDC for anyone right handed.
 
love lee knife the new walker..super lite and extremely smooth action..good size, nice feel in the hand..i was actually contemplating getting another one..i am going to hold out on the new R
 
I was almost crazy about it, but I don't care for the cutout on the reverse side of the handle because then a part of the liner is floating out by itself. This just seems like a generally bad handle design. I can only think of two reasons for it:

1. Left-handed opening, but a linerlock is hardly a left-handed knife when you need to close it.

2. Some people like to pinch knives by the blade and flip the handle open, but I never do it and I don't see the benefit.
 
Thanks for the replys guys.

Ted. Wow. I mean really, Wow. Like Moon said, your pics pretty much tip the scales all the way toward me buying one of these. Thank you.

The cut-out on the clip side is curious, Carl. I hadn't seen that side of the knife before Ted's pictures. At the very least is seems unnecessary, and detracts from the otherwise streamlined design.

I know what you mean about the swedge grind and the hard transition above the thumb hole Deacon. Depending on one's tastes, those sorts of things will either muck up the design or add some visual interest. They work for me on this one. I carried a Viele II for a few weeks but I couldn't get happy with it due to some of those "personal taste" type things. Overall, I thought there was just too much going on with the knife: Micarta on one side and G10 on the other, with the Micarta side having a "bolster" as well. Didn't care for the blade shape either, I like a blade and handle that's more broad (spine to edge) than wide (side to side). One question, did it seem to you that the knife rode especially high in the pocket? Looks like quite a bit of it would be sticking out, but perhaps I'm just not realizing how small the knife is overall.

Are there any ridges on the thumb-ramp? I don't see any in the pictures. Seems like that would improve the grip substantially.
 
Awesome pics!!!!!!
I am curious too, what is reason for cutout on back scale (clip side) ?
 
Hear you on the "busyness" of the Viele design Ritt, that would probably turn me off eventually if I actually started to carry it. Then again, the linerlock Spydie I consider the most esthetically pleasing is the Lum Chinese Folder and the clip on would expose as much or more of the knife than the one on the Walker. Guess I'll just stick with my Kiwis for PC occasions.

It does ride higher than the Viele or FRN Calypso Jr., good inch or more of the knife exposed. Think a Calypso style clip, mounted in front of the pivot, would have been a better choice. I'm not a clip person myself, so I tend to ignore clip placement, as long as it can be neatly removed, I'm happy. No traction grooves on the ramp, and could not really figure out the "why" of the grooves in the lockbar.
 
Moon/Ritt/Martin - Thanks :D

There are no ridges on the thumbramp.

Sal said that the cut-out is to allow easier access to the hole when performing a 'spydie'-drop (you know, grab the hole between thumb and fore-finger, and flick it open)

Ted
 
This is a gr8 knife, one of my fav spyders, I have 2 so far, prob get more :D
1st thing I did was remove the clip, backside to purty to hide behind it,
that cut out on back makes it easy to open LH w/o the clip, I can open LH & RH equally well, if you squeeze LH hard w/ middle finger you can unlock it tho, but I don't see it as a problem if your aware of it
handle is min size for what I consider comfortable, good room for pinky
this is my "casual/formal wear" knife [clean jeans/dockers lol], I pair it w/ my se navigater (clip also removed)
made me a fan of liner locks, action is so smooth
tom
 
I just received mine, and this is definately a very high quality knife, at a terrific value. It exhibits extremely nice fit and finish, blade lock up is tight, operation is smooth, very sharp of course, a some neat details like the textured grip for your forefinger on the bottom of the knife near the handle, as well as adjustable pivot, and teflon washers. It's really pretty perfect in many ways as a gentleman's knife/office EDC.

Now.. my complaint. I don't know why Spyderco does this, maybe somebody will explain in this thread, and educate me as to why this is so.

If you look at the pic's that Ted has posted in this thread (very nice ones by the way), you can see that there are 3 different ways the screws on the handle of this knife show up on each side of the knife. Each screw shows up as either:
1. the top of a Torx screw (nice!)
2. a smooth rivet (fine to ok)
3. or the bottom of the Torx screw (not too pretty, nothing fancy.. it's functional..)

I wonder why it is executed in such an inconsistent fashion. I would expect @ worst, 2 different ways of each screw showing up (one way on one side, another way on the other side), or the best would be 1 single way each screw presents itself on each side of the handle.

If you look @ a similarly priced knife (maybe this one is a little bit higher), the Benchmade Benchmite, you can see both ends of the screw that show, are Torx screw heads. It's a very consistent look, on both sides of the knife.

Why design it such that you see a two torx screws on one side, one torx screw on the other, 1 side w/ a smooth rivet head, and the other w/ 2 screw bottoms? I just don't understand, why execution isn't completed to the perfection Spyderco was so close to achieving on this knife.

Another knife that shows this same kind of inconsistency is the stainlesss steel Cricket. It has on one side a smooth rivet head and 2 torx screw heads. And on the other side 1 torx screw head(going into the smooth rivet head on the other side), and 2 torx screw bottoms.

One last nit on the Almite Walker knife, is how when it is closed, you can see the beginning of the blade (the butt end?), protrude out of the top of the handle. It would have been nice, if this protrusion wasn't there (ie handle was shaped a little differently, or something.

I really do love this knife.. but am just voicing how I see a few details on this knife detract it from being my version of "perfect".

Thanks for reading.
 
Loved the old one and love the new one. Great knife for carry at the office.
 
I just got the chance to work a minor surgery on one of the Walkers the other day. A fellow forum member wanted the pocket clip reversed so I not only got to handle it but got to see it inside and take it apart and really look it over.

For the money it isn't a bad knife but it is rather on the small side. I was a bit surprised at how little of the lock is actually in contact with the blade but even still for a knife this size it is plenty strong I guess. I'm not sure if the lock is titanium or hardened steel. If steel that little bit of lock won't ever give anyone any trouble. I'd be a bit worried if it was ti though because ti doesn't wear as well. I should have stuck a magnet on the lock to see but didn't think of it. I'm pretty sure it is steel though.

It is a good looking knife and very smooth as far as the action.

Here it is after the clip was relocated. I also did the BM for the same friend. I think that one is a BM905. My David Boye folder is in the middle. I used it as a reference to get an idea of the clip positions for both knives.

The Walker is a precision machined knife. It came apart and went back together as easy as the highest dollar hand mades which is quite refreshing to see in a knife for under $75 these days. Trust me they aren't all that way.

Harrysknivesafter-copy.jpg
 
No it wasn't an auto. Just a thumb stud one hand opener and liner lock. I looked up what I named the pic of it before I touched it. It is a BM 905 BT. I'll tell you what. This little BM is a well built knife also. If you can't read the writing it says "Elishewitz" on the back. I may have spelled that wrong though. Sorry Alan.

BM905BTbefore-copy.jpg
 
STR,

It looks like in your picture, you flipped the direction of one of your torx screws, to match the other torx screw heads, on the front (non-clip) side of the knife, and you also flipped the pivot screw, from the other direction as well.

Is this indeed 2 other changes you did, besides the tapping of the handle for a tip-up carry?

If so, that would make at least one side of the handle w/ all matching torx screw heads, a cleaner look then it comes originally, in my opinion.

Any issues or precautions with making that one minor mod? Do you recommend loctite, when putting that back together?

Thanks.
 
Yes Calvin I see why you would ask me about that screw. I didn't flip anything around that I know of. I made note of the positions of all screws and only had it out for a brief time to drill and thread the holes for the new clip install for tip up carry. The whole time it was right in front of me on my bench. I just put it back together the way it was when it arrived here before I even touched it. If that is not the way it was originally I had no way of knowing. I do not know if that knife was new or bought used before it came to me.

It tightened up just fine though. I believe that is the correct way it is done on most knives. If you look at most knives that is the way they usually sit also. It is a simple matter to fix regardless though. It does appear that it sits reversed on the one I modified. I have found some pics of that knife new that show it the opposite. Truthfully though the head of the screw is the same size as the opposite end on both the pivot and the stop pin so it should not matter at all as far as function.

The only time I use locktite is if there was locktite in it before I took it apart. I did not see any signs that this was the case on the Walker so none was used. Most of the time if things are machined correctly you will not have an issue of a screw coming out. It is from things being off or the screw not sitting perfectly flat that usually causes problems. Rarely have I had to use LT on anything. When I did it was almost always a pivot pin though.

Hope that helps.
 
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