Review: A.G. Russell Skorpion flipper

Thanks for the detailed report, this new Skorpion design looks great.

There was a short article mentioning A.G. Russell and his thoughts on the Skorpion line published late last year:

A.G. Russell expects Chinese-made Scorpions will shake up pocket knife market

The smaller 3" Skorpion weighs in at only 1.8 oz! That seems pretty great, I might have to try that one out.

Just read this quote on the Skorpion product page by A.G. Russell:

"I believe that the weight saving feature of the NEW Featherlite steel handles will be the most copied feature in the knife business this next year."

Bold words!
 
Blade and Flame said:
The smaller 3" Skorpion weighs in at only 1.8 oz! That seems pretty great, I might have to try that one out.
Click to expand...

Yep. Incredibly enough, that puts the 3" steel-handled Skorpion in the same weight category as similarly-sized William Henry knives made with Aluminum or Titanium handles. :eek: Whether Featherlite steel becomes "the most copied feature in the knife business this next year" remains to be seen. But it's certainly an accomplishment on A.G.'s part. :thumbup:
 
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bld522 said:
Yep. Incredibly enough, that puts the 3" steel-handled Skorpion in the same weight category as similarly-sized William Henry knives made with Aluminum or Titanium handles. :eek: Whether Featherlite steel becomes "the most copied feature in the knife business this next year" remains to be seen. But it's certainly an accomplishment on A.G.'s part. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

I'm carrying my Southard and the bigger Skorpion today, and they're almost exactly the same size. The Skorpion feels like it's half as thick, even though my Southard is slimmer than stock.

I really think the smaller Skorpion, if operates the same as the larger one, could be my go-to dress pants knife. The right weight, ultra-slim, and not so expensive that I'd worry about losing it carrying it clipless. The flipper tab is very small, and the detent is so strong that I can't see it ever opening in your pocket on its own.

I'll be ordering the small version shortly to test my theory . . .
 
Yes, excellent review Greg. I really like the design and will probably be picking one up soon.
 
A quick update: I ended up using the knife a bunch today, even putting it to work on a couple of whittling projects. After using it pretty hard for a couple of hours straight I'd add a few things I forgot in my original post:

1. It came very well sharpened out of the box
2. This is a thin knife, with a thin, hollow ground blade; as a result, it slices like a champ
3. The lock mechanism had me a little skeptical, with no obvious stop pin (I assume the pin near the pivot is actually an internal stop pin with a semi-circular channel cut in the blade tang for the pin to ride in, but since I stripped out the pivot screws I can't easily take it apart to verify as much) but even pushing it hard carving wood it felt solid

I like the knife even more now that I've spent more time with it . . .
 
Thanks for the update, Greg. Let us know what you think of the small when it arrives. :)
 
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Blade and Flame said:
Thanks for the detailed report, this new Skorpion design looks great.

There was a short article mentioning A.G. Russell and his thoughts on the Skorpion line published late last year:

A.G. Russell expects Chinese-made Scorpions will shake up pocket knife market

The smaller 3" Skorpion weighs in at only 1.8 oz! That seems pretty great, I might have to try that one out.

Just read this quote on the Skorpion product page by A.G. Russell:

"I believe that the weight saving feature of the NEW Featherlite steel handles will be the most copied feature in the knife business this next year."

Bold words!
Click to expand...

When you handle them and see how light ss can be you may not think it so bold

thanks much,

A. G.
 
Mr Russell,

The small Skorpion I purchased has now acquired a permanent spot in my front left pocket. It is a very lightweight, unobtrusive and slim pocketknife which has many fans of it and others of your designs at my workplace.

Hopefully there are going to be other patterns using your 'featherlite' steel concepts.

Regards,

Mark
 
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I expect excellent service from A.G.'s shop and usually get it.

My large and small Skorpions arrived today. I asked the store to hand-pick the knives and check for blade centering, blade play and make sure they open and close smoothly.

Both models are razor sharp out of the box!

The small Skorpion:
-- Is just a bit larger than a small Ripple and even lighter in weight.
-- The flipper requires more than a little wrist-flick to open.
-- Someone forgot to include the deep-pocket clip in the box. Darn, that is the one I wanted.
-- One side of the blade says "A.G. Russell" and the other "China" and "8Cr13MoV." Thank you for including the steel type; amazing how many knives don't.
-- The opening hole works well for my small-medium hands.

The large Skorpion:
-- Both clips were included.
-- The flipper was much easier to use, compared to the small model.
-- But out of the box, the blade was loose. I tightened the pivot and immediately stripped the screw.
-- Next, the lock failed and the blade closed, giving me quite a bloody cut, probably ruining the yellow shirt I wore.

I am returning the large Skorpion. I hope that no problems develop with the small. I would like to keep it and ask for the missing deep-pocket clip.

BTW, on both the large and small model, the clip partially obstructs one of the two pivot screws.

Except for that, I like the design of the Skorpion. But I am concerned about the execution, including a pivot screw that easily strips and a lock that fails, allowing an extremely sharp blade to close on my finger.

Perhaps these are teething problems for a new model. Sadly, the large Skorpion that I received gets an "F" for being too dangerous to use. You may have better results.
 
flash900 said:
I expect excellent service from A.G.'s shop and usually get it.

My large and small Skorpions arrived today. I asked the store to hand-pick the knives and check for blade centering, blade play and make sure they open and close smoothly.

Both models are razor sharp out of the box!

The small Skorpion:
-- Is just a bit larger than a small Ripple and even lighter in weight.
-- The flipper requires more than a little wrist-flick to open.
-- Someone forgot to include the deep-pocket clip in the box. Darn, that is the one I wanted.
-- One side of the blade says "A.G. Russell" and the other "China" and "8Cr13MoV." Thank you for including the steel type; amazing how many knives don't.
-- The opening hole works well for my small-medium hands.

The large Skorpion:
-- Both clips were included.
-- The flipper was much easier to use, compared to the small model.
-- But out of the box, the blade was loose. I tightened the pivot and immediately stripped the screw.
-- Next, the lock failed and the blade closed, giving me quite a bloody cut, probably ruining the yellow shirt I wore.

I am returning the large Skorpion. I hope that no problems develop with the small. I would like to keep it and ask for the missing deep-pocket clip.

BTW, on both the large and small model, the clip partially obstructs one of the two pivot screws.

Except for that, I like the design of the Skorpion. But I am concerned about the execution, including a pivot screw that easily strips and a lock that fails, allowing an extremely sharp blade to close on my finger.

Perhaps these are teething problems for a new model. Sadly, the large Skorpion that I received gets an "F" for being too dangerous to use. You may have better results.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on the soft pivot screw heads--I stripped both of mine.

I'm surprised to hear that you somehow had the lock slip, though. I've been flipping mine obsessively and it locks up very well. I whittled with it for a couple of hours the other day and it didn't budge. It has stopped sticking, though. When I got it I had minor issues with the lock sticking (e.g. if flipped particularly hard) but that seems to have worn in. Mine has loosened up with use, and while it's still tight enough, it does now have a touch of side to side blade play if you work at it. I'm happier with it having about a Benchmade's amount of really-not-noticeable motion in return for it now being easier to open with my thumb, though.

Does the large look like it locks up correctly, or does it have some flaw you can see now (e.g. is it too-early, or too-late, or does it not engage on some opening attempts at all due to weak lock bar bend tension?)
 
The large is early. Much earlier than the small. I would not have thought it early enough that it wouldn't lock at all, but perhaps that is the case. It now feels almost like a slipit.

Out of the box, my small Skorpion has no blade play. The fact that you are already getting blade play does not sound good.
 
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flash900 said:
The large is early. Much earlier than the small. I would not have thought it early enough that it wouldn't lock at all, but perhaps that is the case. It now feels almost like a slipit.

Out of the box, my small Skorpion has no blade play. The fact that you are already getting blade play does not sound good.
Click to expand...

Well, it had no play that I could detect, even wrenching on it, it was that tight. Now it has a smidge, about the same as on one of my carry benchmades when the pivot is tightened down to the sweet spot where you can still wrist flick them open, but they're pretty snug. It's not a level of wobble that I'd object to at all, you really have to work at it to see it at all. That said, I stripped out the pivot screws, so I can't tighten it.

After reading that your lock failed and closed, I was surprised enough to go abuse mine just now to see if I could do the same. So with two layers of heavy duty kevlar gloves on, I just went on a chopping and spine whacking expedition with mine to see if I could get it to close.

This piece of wood is kiln-dried maple, and it's hard as all get out:

Ppw2fM8.jpg


Too damn hard, if you ask me. Nothing feels sillier than chopping on a piece of really hard wood with a thin little gentleman's folder and having it make this sort of pinging sound. Nothing that is, until the sound makes your wife walk in and ask what the heck you're doing. The dents are from me spine whacking it.

I wasn't able to get it to fail, and twisting and levering at it couldn't get it to lock rock in any direction either.

After the chopping, it engaged deeper than usual (as you can see in the picture here), though, and it stuck a bit unlocking. Normally about three quarters of the lock bar engages, after the chopping it was all the way on there.

It's none the worse for wear, after my abuse, other than the edge being rolled all to heck (surprisingly, I only found a couple of tiny, I mean, can't see them with the naked eye small, chips).

Sorry to hear yours failed, though. If it's really early, maybe it came without enough lock bar tension to be sure it engaged properly each time.

I'm still loving mine. I do hate having stripped pivot screws, though.
 
One other quick note: when I say this thing is slim, I mean it's really slim. I usually carry my pimped Southard all the time, and I've always thought it had a great blade:handle ration for a Spyderco. Some spydies seem like a lot more handle than knife, but not the Southard. Anyway, the large Skorpion has about the same size blade, but it's almost a quarter inch shorter closed.

My Southard has been slimmed down, dressed up in LSCF by Barry H., but laying next to the similarly sized Skorpion it looks really thick:

p3SRC63.jpg


This is not a knife I expect people will be buying for hard use, but I've found mine surprisingly stout for the size and weight of the thing.
 
Mine came today--I got the large one. The handle is excellent. I'd have preferred he stuck with the front lock like on the Featherlite over the framelock. The grip of the original FRN featherlite is one of my favorites in knifedom and this has the same great grip. The scales are milled out on the back some what to lighten it up, that's the "featherlite steel". Lockup has been good. My sample seems to have been better tuned for the pivot tension than the one reviewed. The default clip was too tight to clip over my pants. But i swapped it out for the deep carry clip and that has been much better behaved.

AG's offering a tiny mid-lock version right now as the Gadsden Flag knife. That came today too. Be a good candidate for an Altoids tin project.

I'm looking forward to what else he might do with this design.
 
Sorry for the necro, but this is an interesting knife and I was wondering how these have held up to regular EDC duty, if anyone has any comments. There is not a lot out there in terms of reviews and feedback other than this thread and a blog or two. I'm quite taken with the slim, lightweight design and the deep carry clip on this knife, especially the smaller one as an office edc.
 
I returned both of my Skorpions, per my findings posted above.

I did not hear anything back on what A.G. found.

I hope A.G. has got the Q.C. back. I very much would like to try this interesting design again. The small Skorpion, in particular, would make a wonderful, superlight pocket-EDC.
 
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