Paul Chen Starship

E

Excalibur

Joined
Jun 28, 1999
Messages
235
I was looking at a knife today called a "Starship", made by Paul Chen. It's a folding dagger with blue anodized aluminum handles with what appears to be some Mother of Pearl decorations on it. It has something called a "Nature Lock" mechanism on it that locks it in both the open and closed positions. Nice looking knife, just needing some more info on it before I chunk down a bunch of cash on it.

Maybe I've been in the dark lately, but I don't believe I've seen anything by this maker before. Does anyone know anything about the maker, or the type of steel used in this knife?

Thanks in advance for your help.

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Mark - AKA Excalibur
 
The knife has this novelty appearance to it IMHO and looks to me that it rates very low on the functional side but who the hell am I? Me, I would prefer something functional like a Sebenza, or a knife from Matt Lamey or Kit Carson or someone else I know and trust.

I don't know anything regarding the maker.

The poster in the rags looks cool, though.

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~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska

 
Thanks Greg.

yeah, they had a poster hanging up in the store too. Still wondering about the steel, I'd hate to buy it and find out that it's some kind of "butterknife" grade steel!
wink.gif
 
Blade is ATS-34.

One guy on rec.knives said his had the words "patent peeding" misspelled on the blade.

Paul Chen is a Taiwanese owner of a machine tool factory in China. They make all those Hanwei katanas sold through CASIberia.

[This message has been edited by tallwingedgoat (edited 02-17-2000).]
 
Originally posted by Excalibur:
I'd hate to buy it!
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Click to expand...

Yeah... so would I!

"Patent peeding" LMAO! What a POS!

Later,
John


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Absentem qui rodit amicum, qui non defendit alio culpante, solutos qui captat risus homimum famamque dicacis, fingere qui non visa potest, commissa tacere qui nequit: hic niger est, hung tu, lamnia lammina lamna forumites, caveto!
 
The good news is that the knife comes from Paul Chen who is well known for affordable, functional reproduction Japanese swords of high quality. Also the locking design which is called "nature lock" for some reason is unusual and innovative. In fact the overall design and shape of the knife is quite unique.

The bad news is quality and price. The sample I have here has fingerprints in the very uneven anodizing, an action that's as stiff as a board, and generally poor fit and finish throughout the knife. The knife does include a small tube of oil. Perhaps that will help loosen up the pivot.

In short, The Starship doesn't measure up to being a knife in the $100 price range when compared to competitive products. The method for unlocking the knife is a little fussy as well.

It is a very unique design, though, and even though I wouldn't part with my own money for one, I think it may sell reasonably well because it is unique shape. I'll have images up on our site as soon as I can recover from the worst hard drive crash in my personal history. The new computer won't be here until Tuesday. Take care.

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Fred
Knife Outlet
http://www.knifeoutlet.com
 
Thanks for the informative comments guys, I didn't notice any finger-prints in the handles, but the action was very stiff. It had the little bottle of oil with it also.

The ats-34 sounds good, but I think I'll pass on this one for now.

Thanks again Y'all!
wink.gif


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Mark - AKA Excalibur
 
The Starship did win Blade's Most Innovative Imported Design or something like that. But the Commander also won Knife of the Year and with the quality issues being reported for that model I don't think a Blade Award is an accurate measure of the quality one can expect in their knife purchase.

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It's only a mistake if you fail to learn from it!
 
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