Received today: ZT 0566

kingston73 said:
I just got mine today! I have a couple comparison pictures between it and my 350. Biggest difference is it's skinnier and sits in the pocket deeper. Carrying my 350 was definitely noticeable, the 566 disappears. Seems like the blade will be easier to sharpen, but I've only had it for about an hour so I have barely used it.
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Thank you for the comparison pictures between the 566 and the 350. I was undecided between the two, but after looking at the side by side pictures, I much prefer the dimensions of the 566.
 
Ryu_GTX said:
Thank you for the comparison pictures between the 566 and the 350. I was undecided between the two, but after looking at the side by side pictures, I much prefer the dimensions of the 566.
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DITTO, many many thanks. I have a 0566 on the way now! (The 0350 will just have to wait.)
 
Finally decided to order one with some lovely Christmas money. I've had it for about a week now and to be honest, I'm unimpressed. I absolutely hated having the assist in, it was giving me a blister while repeatedly opening it. So I took out the torsion bar, and while it's better, it's still no where as smooth as the Ripple flipper I own, and that knife isn't a third of the price. Also, while removing The G10 scale, one screw fell out and I found out the hole was stripped.
However, in hand the knife feels absolutely awesome. That's the only thing preventing me from selling it. I'm hoping the flipper action smooths out but for right now, I believe the knife is overpriced. Just my 2 cents, and obviously most people love it so YMMV!
 
I don't understand, did you not know it was assisted when you bought it? I guess that's a good reason to check things out in a store first.
 
kingston73 said:
I don't understand, did you not know it was assisted when you bought it? I guess that's a good reason to check things out in a store first.
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Yeah I knew it was assisted but I guess my view of assisted openings was from my Benchmade auto axis lock. You're right though, definitely should have tried it out. Live and learn!
 
Remy said:
Finally decided to order one with some lovely Christmas money. I've had it for about a week now and to be honest, I'm unimpressed. I absolutely hated having the assist in, it was giving me a blister while repeatedly opening it. So I took out the torsion bar, and while it's better, it's still no where as smooth as the Ripple flipper I own, and that knife isn't a third of the price. Also, while removing The G10 scale, one screw fell out and I found out the hole was stripped.
However, in hand the knife feels absolutely awesome. That's the only thing preventing me from selling it. I'm hoping the flipper action smooths out but for right now, I believe the knife is overpriced. Just my 2 cents, and obviously most people love it so YMMV!
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So I just want to be clear.

You are unimpressed because a made in the USA knife that was designed to be an assisted opener first and a manual second is not as smooth and more expensive than your made in Taiwan knife that has IKBS in it?
 
Not really. After reading all these threads and watching all the online reviews, I couldn't really understand why most people would dislike an assisted opening feature so much. Well, now I know. And it seems odd to me when you have to modify a $100+ knife to make it "better". I am definitely unimpressed when a made in the USA knife comes with stripped screws though. That's a first for me out of all the knives I have ever had, no matter where they were made.

I'm glad people like the knife and I'm not attacking those that do. I'm just giving my thoughts.

Scurvy092 said:
So I just want to be clear.

You are unimpressed because a made in the USA knife that was designed to be an assisted opener first and a manual second is not as smooth and more expensive than your made in Taiwan knife that has IKBS in it?
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Modifying a knife and making it "better" is in the eyes of the beholder or perhaps "betterer maker" is more correct.
I'd guess the maker does so to meet a price point, offer a product that is different and/or unique, etc...they consider that product to be finished and offer it for sale...like many of us we just can't resist changing that product to make it unique to us.

Some of us also spend a lot of "time"...very expensive word in the manufacturing field...on that product...with a knife it is often the reprofiling of the blade, polishing the bushing/washer...I recently did this on my Kershaw Injection...an inexpensive knife I bought on a whim liking its' look and design only to find it is/was hard to open using one hand...I took it apart, cleaned all surfaces and sanded/polished the washers as well as carefully adjusting the blade screws...I works much better now but I spent an hour on it...not something the maker is going to do for a $25 knife.

I've done similar to my BM585, ZT350, BK14 and 16, etc. removing the coating, adding a patina, changing the scales, etc. all make these knives "better" in my opinion but the knife out of the box was just fine.
 
I was wholly unimpressed by my 0566. Bought it from a dealer, completely new. Low serial number, too - I think it was under 100. With the torsion bar in, it was centered and fired out super hard. Not really being one for assisted knives, I popped the torsion bar out... And it became an extremely mediocre and off-center flipper. I wish I had the luck that others had with theirs coming out just fine after removing the spring, as I quite liked the knife otherwise.

I've since just settled on keeping my CBCF and also scale-swapping an 0561 scale onto a 0560BW to make something ZT should have made in the first place - a 0561BW.
 
The 0566 was designed as an assisted flipper. The online community complained about not being able to take the torsion bar out kai decided to add a detent hole for them.

That doesn't mean it was designed to be a manual flipper first.

Listen to the gear geeks live podcast with Thomas and he exclaims this exact situation.

They try to appease the vocal minority and they just keep complaining....
 
Scurvy092 said:
The 0566 was designed as an assisted flipper. The online community complained about not being able to take the torsion bar out kai decided to add a detent hole for them.

That doesn't mean it was designed to be a manual flipper first.

Listen to the gear geeks live podcast with Thomas and he exclaims this exact situation.

They try to appease the vocal minority and they just keep complaining....
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Being disappointed ≠ complaining. I haven't read the entire thread, but has anyone actually lobbed insults or complaints at Kai about this? I, and many others, HOPED it would be a good unassisted flipper. That it didn't live up to our HOPES as a modified knife doesn't reflect poorly on Kai. Besides, for some, it WAS a good unassisted flipper.

Also, white-knighting is completely unnecessary. It's not like ZT needs defending around these parts.

Nobody is going to quit buying ZT because one knife, sold as an assisted knife, didn't always work well as a manual knife. Same story with the 0350 - some come out fine, some don't, but one can't really complain if it doesn't.

One can, however, be disappointed, especially given early reports of them working very well as manual knives. You might see any potentially negative statement as a complaint, but that simply isn't the case - it's just user experience with personal expectations/hopes factored in.
 
Scurvy092 said:
Remy was clearly complaining...
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Not really. But you're free to interpret it as you want. I know the knife was designed to be an assisted flipper. I was disappointed with it as an assisted flipper. I made it a manual flipper. I was disappointed with it as a manual flipper. If this thread is only for people who absolutely love everything about the knife, then I apologize and the mods can delete my posts. As was said previously, ZT is a great company and produce great knives, but this particular knife doesn't do it for me.
 
I bought a new 566 from kershaw guy and was initially disappointed in the assisted opening. Was very tough on the fingers. So I removed the torsion bar flipped ita couple hundred times till it was very smooth. Then I decided to try it again with the assisted opening. Now that's its broken in flipped it about 800 times or so and it is perfect. No blade play and locks up perfectly. I think it just has a break in period.
 
Man I'm sorry some of you are having issues with your 566. I waited for mine since it was announced and am perfectly happy with it. Solid lock-up, zero blade play, centered blade, easily deployed as intended with the flipper. I don't use the thumb-stud on flippers so the stiffness of the detent is a non-issue for me. I no longer have a yearning for super high-end folders so the 566 suits me just fine. I'm looking forward to the variations that come out for this model as it's by far my favorite Kershaw/ZT.
 
NaturalMystic said:
Man I'm sorry some of you are having issues with your 566. I waited for mine since it was announced and am perfectly happy with it. Solid lock-up, zero blade play, centered blade, easily deployed as intended with the flipper. I don't use the thumb-stud on flippers so the stiffness of the detent is a non-issue for me. I no longer have a yearning for super high-end folders so the 566 suits me just fine. I'm looking forward to the variations that come out for this model as it's by far my favorite Kershaw/ZT.
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I also feel bad for you guys, mine is absolutely perfect as a manual flipper. I really could not be happier. I can open with either the flipper or thumb stud with out issue.
 
I was one of the "minions" that wanted a smaller 560 that would be a manual flipper. I received mine (566) and de-assisted it and it is perfect.

Blade centering, manual flipping action, it is all absolutely perfect. Thank you Thomas and KAI! I will take more of them in different blade steels please.
 
Just updating my earlier post... I think the knife is fantastic. As it came, mine was a little iffy on opening completely. I flipped it a lot of times, still not quite satisfied with the action. Put the clip on for tip-down carry, fired GREAT! Carried it like that a while, always opened positively, great action. Put the clip back to clip-up carry, action degraded. So, I started tweaking the clip. After quite a few overshoots, I have I just right now, and about 98% of the time, the knife opens and locks up completely fine. If I put a little too much pressure on the clip/lock-bar when I open it, it will hang up without opening and locking completely. The thing needs a better clip, I think, and beyond that, they nailed it. Heck, it doesn't even need a better clip. The clip just needs to be angled so it doesn't ride completely on the lock bar. if I have to go tweaking my clip again, I'll probably try to angle it instead of just loosening it. Sould have thought of that earlier, but just now did, as I was typing.
 
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