Show off your (trad) Bear & Son Pride!

SharpBits said:
In what I consider to be good news, the president of Bear & Sons responded personally to my inquiry, letting me know all Bear & Sons and Bear Ops are always made in the US! Apparently the new website was missing the Made in USA tags, but that should be fixed soon. Now I'm going to save up and grab a couple more.
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I’m not convinced this is the case for all Bear Ops as I also picked up a small Bear Ops Moneyclip lockback with packaging clearly stating the knife was made in China.
 
Shmo723 said:
I’m not convinced this is the case for all Bear Ops as I also picked up a small Bear Ops Moneyclip lockback with packaging clearly stating the knife was made in China.
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I'm only passing on what I was told. Here is the contact page. https://bearandsoncutlery.com/contact-us/. Ask them about the knife and see what they say.

Edit: Never mind. I see the knife is a Bear Edge and is marked as an import on their site.
 
Pardon me - you’re correct the money clip knife is branded Bear Edge, not Bear Ops. Likely that Bear Ops and Bear & Son are exclusively US made.
 
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Here’s the Farm Hand and the 524. Removed clips from both. The 524 is incredibly thin.
 
My experience (with my single Traditional example) has been less than stellar. The large stockman in carbon steel is a nice design, and feels good in the hand and pocket, but is very poorly executed. There is pitting on the blades, particularly the sheepsfoot, all of the blades have recurves ground into the edges, the spey blade has zero snap on opening, the blade stamps are shoddy, and there was a burr on one of the BOLSTERS, fer cryin’ out loud in a bucket. Even Frost could make a better knife for half the price.
07gl7Ah.jpeg

BnKFRGh.jpeg

(Excuse the hasty pics…)

I really want to support Bear & Son in their efforts to produce things domestically, and their new sheepsfoot Barlows look really nice, but I’m not quite ready to take another chance on them just yet.

I do actually like the modern USA-made “Sideliner” (terrible name, but whatever) knife I got from them. It seems decent enough for the $25 bucks I paid for it, though I don’t own any quality moderns to compare it to, really. I had a Bear :rolleyes: of a time getting rid of the burr on the mystery-440 blade after I set the edge angle to my liking, but that may be lack of skill on my part. At any rate, I like the size and weight and it’s nice and sharp now :thumbsup:.
 
Hickory n steel said:
I got this from my mom this past Christmas and was really impressed with it.

I have not carried it a ton , but it's a great knife.
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Nice to see a 'Sharpfinger' still in production, very useful pattern. Can't say I'm very struck with the aesthetics of their Traditional folding knives however, just not my taste. Good to see enthusiasm from others though :thumbsup:
 
Will Power said:
Nice to see a 'Sharpfinger' still in production, very useful pattern. Can't say I'm very struck with the aesthetics of their Traditional folding knives however, just not my taste. Good to see enthusiasm from others though :thumbsup:
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I saw one of these for sale at Buc-ee's of all places here in Florida and the knife actually had a decent level of fit and finish!

I have been looking at some of their barlows. The ones recently produced have had several slipjoint knife guy Youtubers saying some fairly decent things about them. For an inexpensive, American made knife that you could just put in a pocket or throw into a daybag just in case you needed a sharp edge that day and forgot yours at home, I am considering ordering one to try out.

That said, I have a weirdo Bear and Son knife I'll be posting up today when it arrives. Most folks will probably shake their heads at it, I'm just here hoping it'll be decent! :D
 
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Will Power said:
Nice to see a 'Sharpfinger' still in production, very useful pattern. Can't say I'm very struck with the aesthetics of their Traditional folding knives however, just not my taste. Good to see enthusiasm from others though :thumbsup:
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The aesthetics on most of their folders don't don't do much for me either.
They tend to have slightly unconventional blade profiles and covers, like you'd see with Frost cutlery folders.

I do quite like the shape of the clip blade on their regular Barlow, but from what I've seen the end of the frame / handle is never ground symmetrical and even on them.
They seem to be doing a pretty great job keeping their large barlows even and symmetrical, sadly just not the smaller ones.
I think they're really trying lately but they're not quite there yet, especially when it comes to the deeply recurved edges.

This Sharpfinger I never would have bought in a million years because aesthetically the pattern doesn't appeal to me and I'd never have chosen the imitation stag, but putting all that aside I know why the pattern was so popular.
The ergonomics are perfection.
 




Well.... The new Barlow was nice enough to push me to pick up a Congress. These Congress knives seem to be around 20 years old and I've been eyeing them up for ages. This one says ivory on the box, I'm guessing it's plastic but will do the pin test just to be sure. I can't imagine it's actually ivory

Like the other one I posted, fit and finish is great. It has half stops. The spring is flush when closed and open. The blades both sit well and don't do the case rub a dub.

The nail nicks... I don't know how to describe it but they just look... cheap. Functionally they're great.

Overall it's nice. Nothing screams "WOW" but it's definitely better than some other companies making traditional knives around the millennium.
 
Just Tom. said:
My experience (with my single Traditional example) has been less than stellar. The large stockman in carbon steel is a nice design, and feels good in the hand and pocket, but is very poorly executed. There is pitting on the blades, particularly the sheepsfoot, all of the blades have recurves ground into the edges, the spey blade has zero snap on opening, the blade stamps are shoddy, and there was a burr on one of the BOLSTERS, fer cryin’ out loud in a bucket. Even Frost could make a better knife for half the price.
07gl7Ah.jpeg

BnKFRGh.jpeg

(Excuse the hasty pics…)

I really want to support Bear & Son in their efforts to produce things domestically, and their new sheepsfoot Barlows look really nice, but I’m not quite ready to take another chance on them just yet.

I do actually like the modern USA-made “Sideliner” (terrible name, but whatever) knife I got from them. It seems decent enough for the $25 bucks I paid for it, though I don’t own any quality moderns to compare it to, really. I had a Bear :rolleyes: of a time getting rid of the burr on the mystery-440 blade after I set the edge angle to my liking, but that may be lack of skill on my part. At any rate, I like the size and weight and it’s nice and sharp now :thumbsup:.
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They seem hit or miss with the stockmans. I have a green bone one that is one of my favorite knives and then 3 stockmans that came with some interesting issues like pepper spots and staining brand new. One even had a pin sticking out far too much. Which is a shame, because I love the sawcut handles. I've got 4 of their 4" Barlow's, they're all really well done.
 
I picked up the Beer-Tender barlow. It actually excels as a bottle opener.
A cosmetic issue, on the top of the bolsters, there are gouge marks in the metal. Looks like someone fisted it and used it as a hammer to bash something in. For the price it is acceptable.
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