King Grinch -- I would pay a lot of attention to ArtSig. He apparently had a very good experience with the SERE 2000. And, as he pointed out, Jeff Randall wrote a strong endorsement of the knife. If you got one as good as Jeff's, it probably would last a lifetime, if cared for somewhat. But, certainly some have been unable to pass the spine whack test.
Given that, I think that unless there are no more problems being reported with the Al Mar, that it might be a good idea to check out the knife before buying, or be certain that you have the right to return it until you get a good one. Some forumites are selling their S2Ks that flunk the test to other forumites, apparently figuring that the fingers of others are not so valuable as their own.
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Asi es la vida
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