Poll: Have you ever had a ZT knife fail on you?

Have you ever had a ZT knife fail on you?

  • Yes

  • No

Results are only viewable after voting.
No x 6 samples.

Overall, I’ve had fewer issues with ZT than with Spyderco, Benchmade, or even CRK. (For clarity, none of the issues have been lock failures.)
 
Nope. I've only owned three, two got used hard and performed admirably, one got traded withoutuse becausethe ergos didn't work for me. One of those is in current service with a Navy Corpsman (ZT 0500) who beats knives like government mules and has held up totally fine.

I'm not a big fan of ZT or of framelocks, but if it was what I had to use I would do so without trepidation.
 
Nope, but I don't normally put much force on the back of the blade. That being said, seeing them fail as easily as some videos show doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.
 
I’ve have owned eight Zt knives. Never had any safety concerns/issues. Now, QC is another story.
 
No turtle, no response. ;):D


I've never had one that would fail. I did have a 561 that had some up and down play, but the lock itself never failed. I was at least the second owner and it was pretty heavily customized by the previous, although I don't really think the changes affected the lock up.

I think my brother might have had one model where the lock would fail. I'll double check on that later. Even if i'm remembering correctly, that one instance did not dissuade him and ZT's make up one of, if not the most of anyone one brand of folders in his collection.
 
You gotta clarify for me. Fail as in A. "Closed while using" or fail as in B. "Tried to purposely get it to fail/close by spine whacking" there seems to be a difference floating around.
If:
A. Nope
B. I can get some of them to "fail/close" by spine whacking/tapping
 
I won't rehash my non -statistical significance of a test. 5 of 8 were easily defeated. I do not think this is real world use worthy, but in pure non fanatical disclosure, they did slip their locks. I still use them. I'll still buy more of them.

I'll read the poll as "fail during use" not "fail during test". If that is the case my 350 has slipped lock during a bump when I was going to use it at my work bench and caught the tip on the edge of the counter as I brought it up. It didnt close on my fingers, and actually the spring tension popped it back to locked. However, that little wiggle I'll call a failure. It's happened just one time in several years of use. Back pressure on the blade of this knife will sometimes cause it slip if I use "wrong".

That said, I've had very few knives fail on me during use to where work was impacted. I think the last one I can remember was some 15 years ago when a Leatherman Juice over traveled on the back spring so that it opened up backwards about 10 degrees.
 
No.
Under normal usage, none of the 5 that I use have ever been a problem. I have several more that haven’t been used and I’ve never had any issues with those either :D
I wouldn’t mind doing a spine whack test on any of my knives if I used them that way. In the same sense, I’m not driving my truck into a tree to see if the airbags deploy. Just saying
 
Last edited:
Steely_Gunz said:
I won't rehash my non -statistical significance of a test. 5 of 8 were easily defeated. I do not think this is real world use worthy, but in pure non fanatical disclosure, they did slip their locks. I still use them. I'll still buy more of them.

I'll read the poll as "fail during use" not "fail during test". If that is the case my 350 has slipped lock during a bump when I was going to use it at my work bench and caught the tip on the edge of the counter as I brought it up. It didnt close on my fingers, and actually the spring tension popped it back to locked. However, that little wiggle I'll call a failure. It's happened just one time in several years of use. Back pressure on the blade of this knife will sometimes cause it slip if I use "wrong".

That said, I've had very few knives fail on me during use to where work was impacted. I think the last one I can remember was some 15 years ago when a Leatherman Juice over traveled on the back spring so that it opened up backwards about 10 degrees.
Click to expand...

Yes, failing during normal operating conditions, normal cutting uses, etc. Thank you for sharing your personal experience with a ZT lock failure, which unlike others, who are just espousing what they see from someone else's experience. Like stated before, you have to experience the failure for yourself, in order to state something negative about it.
 
Yes but it's been a few years

-0200x2 failed under light chopping and hitting against my palm.

-0450 had bad lock slip.

The other 20 or so I handled were just fine

I've only been hurt by one failure. It was a buck .
 
I've never had a problem with my 50+, but I don't pound on the back of my blade either......
Most of the problems, I think come from oil on the locking surfaces. And people with an ax to grind. Any lock can be ruined and made to fail.
 
Nope never :thumbsup:
Do believe lock failures are vastly overstated
YouTube(itas)
 
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