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- Feb 4, 1999
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Ron Flaherty is a knifemaker I had never heard of until a couple months ago when he sold a folder on the Maker's for sale forum here @ BFC. He made quite an impression as the photos showed an awesome-looking folder with green canvas Micarta handle scales, stainless steel bolsters, titanium liners and an S30V blade heat treated by Paul Bos... for $125. Yes, $125. I was one of the early people to jump on the "I'll take one @ that same price" flood that followed, and I received my knife about a week ago. The toughest part was that Ron sent me photos of four knives that were ready! It was a tough decision!
First some preliminary photos:
Sorry about the weird angle on that last one.
My knife is about 5 1/8" long closed and a touch over 8.5" opened with a 3.5" blade (including the small choil). The blade is 1 3/8" wide at its widest point, and the handle is also wide, but only a little over 1/2" thick altogether. The size and feel of this knife reminds me somewhat of my old first generation Spyderco Chinook... a big but fairly trim package. The blade is a hair over 5/32" thick.
My knife has stainless steel bolsters, full titanium liners, a 1/4" hidden pivot (the pivot pin is beneath the bolsters) and according to the card that Ron included in the package, black linen Micarta handles, but based on my experience with Micarta and G-10, I'm positive these are G-10 (I prefer G-10, so that worked out fine!). I think the clip is titanium (a nice, sort of "washed" dark gray, so I wonder if Ron does something to give it a nice finish. I don't know what it is, but I really love the clip's finish for some reason!) and allows the knife to be carried in the tip-up position.
The knife arrived packaged in a little box with a sticker that read "R. Flaherty Knives. Knives made for mundane tasks." Hardly a catchy one-liner, but it does encapsulate Ron's knifemaking aesthetics and purpose.
The first thing that struck me when I held this knife is how big and heavy it is. This thing is a whopper! The thick Ti liners, the large bolsters and the thick blade all really add up. If you find yourself having trouble doing tough work with an ultra-light blade like the Spyderco Military, for example, then you'd love one of these folders from Ron. Again, the Chinook was probably similar in weight, as far as I can remember, but this is definitely the heaviest folder I own now.
The knife opens with a spine-mounted thumb disc, which is good for ambidextrous opening. The pivot was set quite loose out of the box, and the ball detent is not strong at all, so the knife almost fell open when I first opened it. This made for an extremely smooth-opening knife, but there was some blade play in the open position and without much of a detent to speak of (there is a ball in the lock and a detent notch in the tang of the blade, but it doesn't do much for some reason) it literally fell open when I'd pull it out of my pocket.
So, my first task was to take the bolster off and tighten up the pivot, which I did and also added some Loc-Tite. Weirdly, the bolster came off really easily, but I had a hell of a time getting the screws started to get it back on because the screws just didn't want to thread nicely. Eventually I worked it back together without stripping anything.
The blade is hollow ground with a tiny false edge to thin the point out a little. The knife seems very sharp, although I haven't had much excuse to use it. The grinds are about 1/16" of an inch off on both sides, with one side coming up toward the spine higher as well as being higher on the point. Other than being an aesthetic issue, I don't think this is a big deal for a working knife. Likewise, the choil is a little uneven on both sides and doesn't make a very smooth transition on one side into the tang, but again, this is more nitpicky than a real problem, in my opinion.
My criticisms with this knife are mainly aesthetic in nature and pretty easy to fix. Keep in mind, I want to make this a complete and honest review, so I hope it doesn't sound like I'm being overly critical of Ron. I like the knife and it's a steal for $125, so please keep that in mind!
Other than the loose pivot, weak detent and uneven grind lines I mentioned, there are some other issues with the knife. The backspacer is a little bleached out because of being scorched on the belt sander, and the pocket clip's screws are too long so that when you tighten the pocket clip on good it creates a noticeable gap in between the liner and backspacer, as seen below:
Also, Ron started to put a cutout into the handle of the knife for easier access to the thumb disc, but I don't know if he decided to not go further or forgot about it, but it's really small and the bolster and handle material cutouts don't match up, as seen below. This doesn't hamper opening the knife at all, but it is an important aesthetic issue.
Finally, there is a pretty sizable gap behind the tang of the blade (which is cut out to allow the blade to close against the stop pin) where material could easily get caught while cutting. This could cause the knife to close poorly, or not at all, or allow the blade to get hung up. The front of the knife needs to be about 1/4" longer to cover the area up. Of all my criticisms, this is probably the only one, in my opinion, that could cause a malfunction of the knife and be potentially hazardous to the user. I'll just have to exercise extra caution when cutting with this knife.
Bottom line is I think Ron has a very promising career in knifemaking. I think he needs to pay a little more attention to some of the fit and finish aspects of the knives, even though they are intended to be working knives. The things I pointed out are mostly minor considerations, and, again, for $125 this knife is a steal. We've seen plenty of $300+ production knives with quality issues discussed here! I'll update this review as I get a chance to use it more!
First some preliminary photos:
Sorry about the weird angle on that last one.
My knife is about 5 1/8" long closed and a touch over 8.5" opened with a 3.5" blade (including the small choil). The blade is 1 3/8" wide at its widest point, and the handle is also wide, but only a little over 1/2" thick altogether. The size and feel of this knife reminds me somewhat of my old first generation Spyderco Chinook... a big but fairly trim package. The blade is a hair over 5/32" thick.
My knife has stainless steel bolsters, full titanium liners, a 1/4" hidden pivot (the pivot pin is beneath the bolsters) and according to the card that Ron included in the package, black linen Micarta handles, but based on my experience with Micarta and G-10, I'm positive these are G-10 (I prefer G-10, so that worked out fine!). I think the clip is titanium (a nice, sort of "washed" dark gray, so I wonder if Ron does something to give it a nice finish. I don't know what it is, but I really love the clip's finish for some reason!) and allows the knife to be carried in the tip-up position.
The knife arrived packaged in a little box with a sticker that read "R. Flaherty Knives. Knives made for mundane tasks." Hardly a catchy one-liner, but it does encapsulate Ron's knifemaking aesthetics and purpose.
The first thing that struck me when I held this knife is how big and heavy it is. This thing is a whopper! The thick Ti liners, the large bolsters and the thick blade all really add up. If you find yourself having trouble doing tough work with an ultra-light blade like the Spyderco Military, for example, then you'd love one of these folders from Ron. Again, the Chinook was probably similar in weight, as far as I can remember, but this is definitely the heaviest folder I own now.
The knife opens with a spine-mounted thumb disc, which is good for ambidextrous opening. The pivot was set quite loose out of the box, and the ball detent is not strong at all, so the knife almost fell open when I first opened it. This made for an extremely smooth-opening knife, but there was some blade play in the open position and without much of a detent to speak of (there is a ball in the lock and a detent notch in the tang of the blade, but it doesn't do much for some reason) it literally fell open when I'd pull it out of my pocket.
So, my first task was to take the bolster off and tighten up the pivot, which I did and also added some Loc-Tite. Weirdly, the bolster came off really easily, but I had a hell of a time getting the screws started to get it back on because the screws just didn't want to thread nicely. Eventually I worked it back together without stripping anything.
The blade is hollow ground with a tiny false edge to thin the point out a little. The knife seems very sharp, although I haven't had much excuse to use it. The grinds are about 1/16" of an inch off on both sides, with one side coming up toward the spine higher as well as being higher on the point. Other than being an aesthetic issue, I don't think this is a big deal for a working knife. Likewise, the choil is a little uneven on both sides and doesn't make a very smooth transition on one side into the tang, but again, this is more nitpicky than a real problem, in my opinion.
My criticisms with this knife are mainly aesthetic in nature and pretty easy to fix. Keep in mind, I want to make this a complete and honest review, so I hope it doesn't sound like I'm being overly critical of Ron. I like the knife and it's a steal for $125, so please keep that in mind!
Other than the loose pivot, weak detent and uneven grind lines I mentioned, there are some other issues with the knife. The backspacer is a little bleached out because of being scorched on the belt sander, and the pocket clip's screws are too long so that when you tighten the pocket clip on good it creates a noticeable gap in between the liner and backspacer, as seen below:
Also, Ron started to put a cutout into the handle of the knife for easier access to the thumb disc, but I don't know if he decided to not go further or forgot about it, but it's really small and the bolster and handle material cutouts don't match up, as seen below. This doesn't hamper opening the knife at all, but it is an important aesthetic issue.
Finally, there is a pretty sizable gap behind the tang of the blade (which is cut out to allow the blade to close against the stop pin) where material could easily get caught while cutting. This could cause the knife to close poorly, or not at all, or allow the blade to get hung up. The front of the knife needs to be about 1/4" longer to cover the area up. Of all my criticisms, this is probably the only one, in my opinion, that could cause a malfunction of the knife and be potentially hazardous to the user. I'll just have to exercise extra caution when cutting with this knife.
Bottom line is I think Ron has a very promising career in knifemaking. I think he needs to pay a little more attention to some of the fit and finish aspects of the knives, even though they are intended to be working knives. The things I pointed out are mostly minor considerations, and, again, for $125 this knife is a steal. We've seen plenty of $300+ production knives with quality issues discussed here! I'll update this review as I get a chance to use it more!
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