Ridiculous budget blade-4 dollar Ozark Trails folders, good blade-pic heavy

ALLHSS said:
First, some work on the blade. I thought I'd do a harpoon style.:
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Rounded the butt for better ergonomics, since I have sausage fingers. Also removed the flipper tab.:
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Decided to keep going on the blade, went with a swoopy clip.:
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Put a nice thin mirror edge on it.:
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I'm pretty happy with it. It took some work to get an even edge, this thing is definitely not in the running for world's most even primary bevel. I've found this knife's bane though, at least for my carry: the stud sticks out enough, and sits below the end of the clip opening, so that it can catch on your pocket and open the blade slightly when you clip it into your pocket. Dang clip down carry. I will either grind down the stud on the clip side, or just take the clip off. I don't prefer tip down anyway.

Oh, and sorry for the bad pictures. Terrible lighting and terrible phone.
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I like the mods you have done, however you have now decreased the resale value tremendously!😄
 
Final Option said:
I like the mods you have done, however you have now decreased the resale value tremendously!😄
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I disagree; with the right mods you can improve resale value and I think that's what we have here. That thing has to be worth at least five bucks now . . . ;)
 
My wife bought me 3. They are all shaving sharp. Like most people have noted, the flippers don't fully open the knife. I got the pocket clip off one pretty easily. The other two - one of the screws was easy, one was tough and one each is still hanging on for dear life. I have the clipless one in my pocket now, haven't used them to cut anything yet.
 
These knives are actually surprising me how well they hold up.I've dove things I'd typically never do with a folder trying to break it, but it takes it like a champ. For the steel it's edge retention is also surprising, when batoning and carving wood its held a decent working edge for awhile, and easily strops back to razor sharp. The only thing I've found to dull it rather quick is double walled cardboard, but stropping it on the cardboard as you go maintains a decent working edge, and running it on a loaded strop afterwards brings it back to razor sharp...
 
Needed to get some odd sized car battery and went to Walmart. Normally I don't shop there since Costco and Safe way and a few others are located along the way to WM.

Checked more than 30 of these little gems and all(!) locks were engaged.
Some all the way to the middle but not crossing it and about 1 in 10 engaged at the beginning of the tang but still complete. I picked those. One of each of the 3 models at $3.87.
15 percent of the display was empty and another guy started looking at them after me.

Now driving home for the unboxing.

☺
 
I won't be buying one of these (I just truly have no need), but I have to say that I get a kick out of how excited folks are to snap these up as beaters. As we've already seen HSS doing, this knife seems like a fantastic guinea pig for folks learning folder modification. :thumbup:
 
The G10 one seems to be the best one so far.
It's perfectly centered and swings open 100 degrees without a flick. Probably due to the longer flipping lever.

The Tanto was the least centered but didn't touch any scales. It flips open a bit less than 45 degrees.
It's handles felt cheap. Painted metal which feels like it might flake off. Looked the best of all of them in its blister package though.

The Camouflage model was a small bit off center but flipped the least (30 degrees without flicking). There was hardly any flipper sticking out from the spine to begin with and the blade shape didn't make flipping any easier. The handle felt not bad but wasn't as good as the G10.

Are there better knives for just a bit more money? Sure some Mora for $11 for example but even thats 3 times the price and doesnt fold. I dont know any knives in the $4 price class. But compared to the wobbly and dangerous $1 Walmart folder from before this one is way better. Still, $1 at 4 times cheaper than the new flippers might have been an even greater value. :-p Nah not really.

Will see how they flip after getting the pivots dialed in. No idea how to test the steel. Pressing the edge into some soft copper maybe?

They won't be my edc but good enough to have one in every car for the super rare occasion that I don't have a better knife in me or my wife might need one.

The G10 version looks good enough to be gifted to some people not too close to me. The other two I wouldn't gift to anybody especially if I could just gift the G10 instead.
 
Jens Schuetz said:
The G10 one seems to be the best one so far.
It's perfectly centered and swings open 100 degrees without a flick. Probably due to the longer flipping lever.

The Tanto was the least centered but didn't touch any scales. It flips open a bit less than 45 degrees.
It's handles felt cheap. Painted metal which feels like it might flake off. Looked the best of all of them in its blister package though.

The Camouflage model was a small bit off center but flipped the least (30 degrees without flicking). There was hardly any flipper sticking out from the spine to begin with and the blade shape didn't make flipping any easier. The handle felt not bad but wasn't as good as the G10.

Are there better knives for just a bit more money? Sure some Mora for $11 for example but even thats 3 times the price and doesnt fold. I dont know any knives in the $4 price class. But compared to the wobbly and dangerous $1 Walmart folder from before this one is way better. Still, $1 at 4 times cheaper than the new flippers might have been an even greater value. :-p Nah not really.

Will see how they flip after getting the pivots dialed in. No idea how to test the steel. Pressing the edge into some soft copper maybe?

They won't be my edc but good enough to have one in every car for the super rare occasion that I don't have a better knife in me or my wife might need one.

The G10 version looks good enough to be gifted to some people not too close to me. The other two I wouldn't gift to anybody especially if I could just gift the G10 instead.
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I'm edcing my tan one, thou it's accompanied by my bk16, pm2, and wave.to many times at work I'm asked to borrow a knife, and typically they're not very respectful of how they're using it.... Need a piece of cove base cut? Sure take my carefully sharpened knife and run that edge across the concrete floor as you're cutting it...

No more ruining my good knives they'll be handed my tan beater.
 
Bobby3326 said:
I'm edcing my tan one, thou it's accompanied by my bk16, pm2, and wave.to many times at work I'm asked to borrow a knife, and typically they're not very respectful of how they're using it.... Need a piece of cove base cut? Sure take my carefully sharpened knife and run that edge across the concrete floor as you're cutting it...

No more ruining my good knives they'll be handed my tan beater.
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Lol I know this feeling... Take that sucka's, try out this tan oyster boy
 
kraash said:
Lol I know this feeling... Take that sucka's, try out this tan oyster boy
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I think the worst was a time a guy asked to use my knife while unpacking a shipment of fixtures we were to assemble that day. I assumed he needed to cut the shrink wrap off, so I hand my leatherman wave blade to him and keep on doing my inventory. A few minutes later he comes back and says this knife isn't working do you have anything sharper...well immediately confused as I know it was razor sharp I go over with him....here he is trying to saw his way thru steel banding with my knife. Needless to say my blade was all hacked up at this point.
 
Bobby3326 said:
I think the worst was a time a guy asked to use my knife while unpacking a shipment of fixtures we were to assemble that day. I assumed he needed to cut the shrink wrap off, so I hand my leatherman wave blade to him and keep on doing my inventory. A few minutes later he comes back and says this knife isn't working do you have anything sharper...well immediately confused as I know it was razor sharp I go over with him....here he is trying to saw his way thru steel banding with my knife. Needless to say my blade was all hacked up at this point.
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Dude that's unreal.. The tan boy is to good for people like this. Might want to keep some box cutter type utility knives around for the job site. They have no style but they ate easy to sharpen. (change blade)
 
kraash said:
Dude that's unreal.. The tan boy is to good for people like this. Might want to keep some box cutter type utility knives around for the job site. They have no style but they ate easy to sharpen. (change blade)
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I use to always keep spare box cutters in my tool bag, but have come to learn that they tend to walk away...When you let someone use a knife they're more likely to return it...those box cutters add pretty quick when your constantly replacing em...I did however pick up the black and gray camo one from Wal-Mart that'll be my designated idiot knife....Plus not to mention I carry tinsnips for that metal banding.
robgmn said:
Just more proof that we've all but eliminated Darwinism.
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My company unfortunately uses labor ready quite often, most of the guys I get are proof.
 
Ok for 3.87 I had to play. Didn't want to strip a screw so I didn't disassemble , but did remove the clip to cut it down. So time to reshape everything.........
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