QC Issues with Moki

PineChaos

PineChaos

Joined
Jan 23, 2015
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544
I'd like to start a friendly discussion on some issues there have been as of late with Spyderco knives coming out of the Moki factory in Japan. My goal here is to find out whether others have noticed a pretty extreme drop in the quality of knives such as the Caly, Kiwi, Double Bevel, and Starmate. I used to be a BIG fan of Moki Spydies, and own several from pre-2012 and they are the definition of perfection. Before Taichung came along, Moki was the very best Spyderco had to offer. Nowadays though, that is definitely not the case, and I've been seeing much nicer stuff coming out of G Sakai.

Some of the large-scale problems I have experienced lately include unevenly ground blades, knives with gaps in the scales and liners, extreme grittiness in the action even after cleaning, over exposed pins, and sticky, misaligned back locks. The majority of current production Moki knives I have seen have at least some of these issues.

I'd love to hear any experiences others have had with Moki models.
 
On by Double Bevel: The hollow grind is a bit uneven near the hole, and the bevel transition point is a bit too shallow (its a bit dull there). If I use just the full flat, I have no cutting issues, but if I use the hollow portion the edge like to hang in the cut. I'll have to fix it at some point.

Still like it though.
 
I haven't bought a Moki made Spyderco in a couple of years, but my older Caly 3 is perfection.
I have bought a couple of Moki's in the past two years.
Both were top notch all the way, and close to a custom in fit and finish. It really surprised me at how well they were made. Know some others that have bought them as well with great luck.

Hoping they're not slacking on their Spyderco Moki's. Sounds like they may be, or maybe you're just having some bad luck.
Sorry to hear you got some with problems.
 
Ken44 I agree with you 100%, my older Caly 3's and 3.5's are all perfect. I'm thinking this may be a very current issue though, as in a 2015 thing. I'm sitting here looking at my Caly 3.5 from 2014 next to one from 2015 thinking what the hell happened.

On a more positive note, I've seen nothing but improvement from GSakai models these past 2 years.
 
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I've experienced the issues you are talking about. The Caly 3.5 I just bought looks great though. I'll check when it was made.
 
This is slightly off topic, but I have some questions about Moki. A couple years ago someone gave me an old lockback labeled Moki, Japan. I didn't know anything about the brand, but it is the nicest lockback I have ever seen. The fit and finish is incredible. So has Moki always been related to Spyderco, or was it a separate company that merged with Spyderco? Or, is there a company called Moki that has no affiliation with Spyderco? Thanks! and sorry for going off topic!
 
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Jake-n-Bake said:
This is slightly off topic, but I have some questions about Moki. A couple years ago someone gave me an old lockback labeled Moki, Japan. I didn't know anything about the brand, but it is the nicest lockback I have ever seen. The fit and finish is incredible. So has Moki always been related to Spyderco, or was it a separate company that merged with Spyderco? Or, is there a company called Moki that has no affiliation with Spyderco? Thanks! and sorry for going off topic!
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Moki is one of the Japanese makers that Spyderco uses. They existed long before they started making knives for Spyderco and they also make, and have made, knives for a number of other companies including Al Mar, AG Russell, and Beretta. As you'v discovered, Moki also makes and sells knives under their own brand name. On the other side of the coin, back in the 90's Spyderco was a US agent for Moki, and several other Japanese brands and those knives appeared in Spyderco catalogs.
 
The Deacon said:
Moki is one of the Japanese makers that Spyderco uses. They existed long before they started making knives for Spyderco and they also make, and have made, knives for a number of other companies including Al Mar, AG Russell, and Beretta. As you'v discovered, Moki also makes and sells knives under their own brand name. On the other side of the coin, back in the 90's Spyderco was a US agent for Moki, and several other Japanese brands and those knives appeared in Spyderco catalogs.
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Awesome! Thanks for the information!
 
I have two Moki knives with the Moki brand. The fit and finish of a bone handled lockback is so good that I had to look carefully to see the joint between the blade and lock bar when open. The Glory, a less expensive model, is not nearly as nice.
 
So my new caly 3.5 which is very nicely built was made in October of 2014. Maybe they're on the ball again.
 
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To me, at least, it seems like Moki does an excellent job on knives that feature all pinned construction, and especially on those with bolsters. I have the entire Kopa series, and all show superb fit and finish. Same with my Schempp Persians and Small Persians although they did go overboard with the Boye dent depth on the large ones. Also have a boatload of "Kiwi 1's" and, with a few exceptions, they'r all top drawer as well with fit and finish in the same league as the C27 Jess Horn, which was another Moki product. They also do an excellent job on those with unlined Micarta and all stainless construction.

However, give them liners and G-10 to work with and things seem to go down hill on a regular basis. Tight but buttery smooth, a combination that I personally like, gives way in all too many cases to tight, rough, and gritty. I've seen it on Caly 3's, Caly 3.5's, large and small G-10 Persian 2's, and the Kiwi 4.
 
Spyderco Dude said:
So my new caly 3.5 which is very nicely built was made in octal of 2014. Maybe they're on the ball again.
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I too have a 2014 (Feb) Caly 3.5 and it is perfect. Problems I spoke of have mainly been the most recent 2015 models. Another thing I have noticed with the caly's is the grind on the laminated blades is uneven, where one side shows more ZDP than the other.
 
Howzabout showing some pic of these QC issues? Personally, I have never seen any Moki made knives with true QC issues. Maybe some signs it was made by hand... :)
 
In this pic, you may be able to just make out the bevel where the hollow grind and the flat grind meet, and then a little farther down the blade through the hollow grind, the bevel almost isn't there at all. I'm not sure what degree the bevel is, as I do not have a tool to measure it.



In this pic you may be able to make out a slight curvature of the hollow grind under the Spyder hole. Like the grind is allowing for the curve of the hole. This is not a trick of the light, the grind actually dips a bit, then up-sweeps at the end just enough to be noticeable. To be fair though, I've seen this same grind flaw on a few other pics of DBs.



I will say, with these slight imperfections/flaws, I still like the knife a lot. I will have to fix the bevel though at some point, but I'm going to wait and take care of that when I get a sharpmaker. I don't have the skill to fix it free hand and don't trust myself with this blade on my worksharp.
 
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