Just curious to get the more experienced view on this - how much QC is done, and what types of flaws are considered "acceptable" when a knife goes out the door? Maybe it's easier to ask what is unacceptable, because I've purchased some 25 folding knives in the past few months and am astonished at the rate of obvious flaws that I am finding in the final product. I would estimate that only 60-70% of the knives I received were without some readily noticeable flaw in the blade finish, grind, bevel, handle material, or some aspect of mechanical functioning. This doesn't seem to be isolated to a particular brand, either - I've seen inconsistencies with Benchmade, Spyderco, SOG, Kershaw, and as of today Zero Tolerance. Look at this tool mark that was left in the choil on the 0560 that was just delivered!
Edit: Some responders have indicated that this groove on the back of the flipper may be put there on purpose on later productions of the 0560, to provide extra clearance with the stop bar and thus help the detent line up with the ball on closure. If true, I find this to be somewhat inelegant.
Again, I don't mean to pick on a particular brand (ZT in this case) because again, all of the brands I have dealt with seem to be susceptible to these issues on some level. It's just that in this day of CNC machining, ISO manufacturing standards, etc, etc, I would have thought these companies could do better. It's not as if a knife is an especially complicated device.
Edit: Some responders have indicated that this groove on the back of the flipper may be put there on purpose on later productions of the 0560, to provide extra clearance with the stop bar and thus help the detent line up with the ball on closure. If true, I find this to be somewhat inelegant.

Again, I don't mean to pick on a particular brand (ZT in this case) because again, all of the brands I have dealt with seem to be susceptible to these issues on some level. It's just that in this day of CNC machining, ISO manufacturing standards, etc, etc, I would have thought these companies could do better. It's not as if a knife is an especially complicated device.
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