Question: What are Kit Knives and are they generally good or bad?

Cotherion

Cotherion

Joined
Aug 7, 2007
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Read a thread on the Good, Bad & the Ugly about a knife maker called Linville

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=430086

Someone mentioned that he and maybe another maker called Chudzinski are alleged to have been selling kit knives instead of customs.

To the point, I do not know what are kit knives (interested in finding out) and are they really bad?

Thanks.
 
Howdy,
Kit knives are like model airplane kits. They send you the pieces and you put them together. (except you end up with a knife.) There are different levels of kit available, some take more work from the builder than others, again, similar to model airplane kits. The kits all come with a finished, heat treated blade, the difference is mostly in how much work you put into the handles.

I've never built one, I understand the quality can vary. Depends on the kit.
Here is a link so you can see what I mean:
http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/product_info.php?cPath=119_141_842&products_id=664

But there is a difference between building a knife from a kit and designing the knife, shaping the steel yourself, heat treating the steel yourself, completely making and assembling the knife yourself. Takes a lot more work, a lot more skill. And the result is a custom knife.

The beef in that thread is that there was some fella that was building knives from kits and advertising that they were custom built knives. And charging prices as if they were custom built. This is not cricket.
 
I've also been thinking about this.BTW,great link knarfeng.

Is there anything wrong with putting together your own knife for personal use?

It seems that site has premium materials.
 
Nothing wrong with it at all. You can even sell them if don't claim that you are selling "custom knives". The complaint was that some (edit "person") was building kits and advertising them as custom knives. That would be false advertising in my book.
 
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This is actually quite interesting. Although i'm more into large sturdy folders I can see this becoming into quite a hobby for me.

(Anyone recommend links to 'tactical' (I dread to use the word) folders? I'm cheaking out the ones in the link now but anyone have good recommendations?)

I imagine one can progress from kits to customs gradually. Basically Kits are ok but when people charge customs for kits then it ain't cricket (or any other bugs of preference...)
 
Dan Koster has a kind of modular kit type thing going on with his bushcrafter in another thread as well. You can order as much or as little of a kit as you want...anywhere from the piece of steel(blade blank) all the way up to all the pieces preshaped/cut and ready to assemble.
 
I have a friend that had the same problem.He thinks the knives are $10.00 imports from China.He wanted to anodize the liners and of course that didn't work out too well being it wasn't even titanium.Got his money back,but not shipping or many hours of frustration.I work with blanks and kits a lot.There are great ones and junk.Texas Knifemaker has the good as do all the big supply co.Usually now i just buy a finished or near finished blade and go from there.If i sell them,i always say where it came from and how it started out.Many do not.
 
The DDR series, the GX6, and GPC models from Knifekits.com are all excellent quality kits. The DDR3-TC is their tactical version.

http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=1

ddr3_tc_a_550.jpg
 
Mick R. said:
The DDR series, the GX6, and GPC models from Knifekits.com are all excellent quality kits. The DDR3-TC is their tactical version.

http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=1
Click to expand...

It isn't clear to me what's what on the site. Take this DDR3 for example:

http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=1_180

Is that $46.95 product at the top of the list everything needed to build the knife, or do you need to pick and add other stuff on the list? Basically, is that $46.95 the complete product?
 
THG said:
It isn't clear to me what's what on the site. Take this DDR3 for example:

http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=1_180

Is that $46.95 product at the top of the list everything needed to build the knife, or do you need to pick and add other stuff on the list? Basically, is that $46.95 the complete product?
Click to expand...

The $46.95 includes all the parts to build the knife except the scales. You can buy the handle material on the same site or check out ebay for stabilized wood. I've found some great looking stuff on ebay at a reasonable price. (Not the best pics but here is some of the handle material I've found on ebay)

Macassar Ebony
fishingtrip036-1.jpg


Paduak, Cocobolo and Micarta
DSC00625.jpg


Maple Burl, Zebra Wood, Desert Ironwood,
DSC00598.jpg
 
I've seen the kits at Texas Knife Supply, KnifeKits.com. Hawkins Knife Making Supplies, Jantz, etc, but I never ordered one. I did, however, order a kit from Ben's Backwoods. It's an Enzo Trapper. O1 steel and curly birch scales, with red phenolic spacers and brass corbin (sp?) screws. It is very, very nice and high quality. I haven;t put it together yet, but I will soon. I plan on giving it to a guy who's retiring next month..
 
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