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.
UPDATE: As of now, 11% of pollsters asserted that they have experienced lock failure from ZT knives.

This means 11 knives out of every 100 will experience failure. This should warrant a full recall of ZT knives.
 
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Still around 10% of people here have had a failure with a ZT knife. I wonder how this would compare with kershaw knives, or other brands entirely?
 
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Never had an issue with my ZT or the dozen or so I have checked out since first hearing of this problem months ago. the only event I ever witnessed was with a $7 dollar STIHL my son got at a hardware store. After sharpening it for him I gave it a firm whack and it failed and it continued to fail Every time I thumped it so I took it away and gave him Kershaw Kuro.
 
Horizon7 said:
UPDATE: As of now, 11% of pollsters asserted that they have experienced lock failure from ZT knives.

This means 11 knives out of every 100 will experience failure. This should warrant a full recall of ZT knives.
Click to expand...

Your math is off. A lot of those who answered the poll have a lot more than 1 ZT.
The percentage of knives that failed is a lot lower than 10%.

I don't have a dog in this race. I don't have a ZT and am unlikely to buy one. Not my cup of tea. But because of all the trolling, I have to keep an eye on the thread.
 
I voted off using. Sure you can make a lot of them fail by taps and some you can force closed with just holding the blade and pulling it closed but haven’t had one close on me. Only ZT I own currently is a 0561 sold every other one I’ve had and don’t plan on getting more unless a sweet design comes out. Saw one guy say his closed opening a bucket. A lot are hard use knives that aren’t really hard use
 
Never had a lock failure on any of my ZT's, including the 0909 I did the roll of tape spine whack test on when that thread was going.
 
I've never had any lock fail on me during use. I do have a no-name chinese liner lock that I have zero confidence in though. Lock rock for days.
 
The lock of my 0620 failed once. I was working sth. inside a cabinet. I was holding the 0620 loosely in my hand when suddenly one of the kids screamed. I moved up swiftly and by doing so the back of the blade hit a shelf very hard and the lock gave in. I cut myself in the finger, not badly though. Maybe the lock would not have failed if my grip around the handle had been tighter at that moment, who knows. I think the ZT framelocks work fine if you apply the right amount of pressure with you hand.

EDIT: That was the only lock fail of a ZT. The locks of my other ZTs (0562, 0350 and recently 0462) have not failed yet - never tried hard though ;-)
 
This also calls into question the use of the word "fail". Just how much force is the framelock on any particular knife intended to withstand?

My front door is designed to act as a portal into the house and keep people out when locked. If it opens when someone slams into it with a truck I wouldn't say it "failed."

Just because you can buy a door that will withstand a battering ram doesn't mean that all doors should be expected to do so. Likewise, not all knife locks should be expected to withstand the same impact.

In my mind, if you can place a bit of pressure on the spine without it closing the lock is fully functional. Any more than moderate force on the spine is a failure to use the knife properly rather than a potential failure of the lock. If you need something baton-worthy, get a tri-ad.
 
Horizon7 said:
UPDATE: As of now, 11% of pollsters asserted that they have experienced lock failure from ZT knives.

This means 11 knives out of every 100 will experience failure. This should warrant a full recall of ZT knives.
Click to expand...
As frank just said, your numbers don't add up. I voted yes I've had a failure but of the near 20 zt's I've had most were fine.

Your crusade against ZT is ugly and will go no where. Best to probably just drop it.

knarfeng said:
Your math is off. A lot of those who answered the poll have a lot more than 1 ZT.
The percentage of knives that failed is a lot lower than 10%.

I don't have a dog in this race. I don't have a ZT and am unlikely to buy one. Not my cup of tea. But because of all the trolling, I have to keep an eye on the thread.
Click to expand...
 
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knarfeng said:
Your math is off. A lot of those who answered the poll have a lot more than 1 ZT.
The percentage of knives that failed is a lot lower than 10%.

I don't have a dog in this race. I don't have a ZT and am unlikely to buy one. Not my cup of tea. But because of all the trolling, I have to keep an eye on the thread.
Click to expand...

Not only this, but I'm also sure that some are counting spine whack fails as "a ZT failed me". I have a pile of ZTs that flunked a light (hitting soft material on top of a wood tabletop) spine whack but I voted no, because none of them has ever failed in actual use.

Trying to project any real world failure rate from this poll would be totally absurd.
 
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This poll only covers the members here on BF. It is casual, started on a whim, and doesn't represent any substantial data in the grand scheme of all things ZT.

Just to clarify, I currently do not own anything ZT at the moment, although the full Ti 0562 has peaked my interest!
 
ZT is not my favorite brand by any means and currently I only own 2 of their knives (0180 and 0620CF). I have, however, owned around 15 and never experienced a lock issue. Some were used very little, some were used quite a bit. All that I tried would withstand moderate spine tapping. Maybe I'm just lucky.
 
I never had one fail during use per se, but I had two models that the lock would disengage when I pushed down hard on the spine of the knife while making hard cuts. No spine whack needed. That is out of probably 25 ZTs I've owned, maybe 30, which seems to be pretty close to in line with the poll results.
 
blades&wrenches said:
ZT is not my favorite brand by any means and currently I only own 2 of their knives (0180 and 0620CF). I have, however, owned around 15 and never experienced a lock issue. Some were used very little, some were used quite a bit. All that I tried would withstand moderate spine tapping. Maybe I'm just lucky.
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Incidentally, the 0180 is my all-time favorite ZT. I wish I hadn't sold mine. Also, you can spine whack that baby all day and it will never close on you!
 
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