SNG rant

Goldistheanswer said:
Sorry dude, but get youself a Blackberry and respond to Customers! I'm an attorney, and if I blow people off like this I get sued for malpractice. It's just bad business in this day and age. *shrugs*
Click to expand...

I just recently had a problem with a product (I'm going to leave names out of this, they are a stand up gear company), I emailed CS asking what their warranty is an describing the problem, in a very short response a few hours later I was asked for a pic of the item. I took the pic, attached it and sent it, I waited 5 days with no response, I sent a response asking if they ever received the pic, the next day the lady replied sorry she was at SHOT show and wouldn't be able to look into it until she gets back in a week.
 
lava_lamp said:
Not trolling, just curious - have you owned anything remarkable?
Click to expand...

ZT 0200
ZT 0300
Busse - NMFBM, FFBM, ASH1, NMSFNO

Remarkable to me is the performance fitting the price. Striders, atleast IMO don't. This is coming from someone who just isn't into spending over 500 dollars for a folding knife. I think they're great 250-300 dollar knives, just not for what they sell for.

In fact, i'd be hard pressed to find any folder worth that much if the basis of the purchase is simply performance. I'd love to try a Hinderer as well, but once again, just because of the price, unless it can push cut an anvil, i'll consider it over priced.
 
230grains said:
ZT 0200
ZT 0300
Busse - NMFBM, FFBM, ASH1, NMSFNO

Remarkable to me is the performance fitting the price. Striders, atleast IMO don't. This is coming from someone who just isn't into spending over 500 dollars for a folding knife. I think they're great 250-300 dollar knives, just not for what they sell for.

In fact, i'd be hard pressed to find any folder worth that much if the basis of the purchase is simply performance. I'd love to try a Hinderer as well, but once again, just because of the price, unless it can push cut an anvil, i'll consider it over priced.
Click to expand...

I dunno dude. I think if they just fixed some QC issues, the Sng would be worth $500, IMO. The handle is fantastic. The lockup is super tight. The Sng's rigidity reminds me of a tuning fork. It's freaking amazing, IMO. It makes the umnum feel like a pig in the way it handles. And yes I'm not a knife fighter but even a klutz like me can wield the knife with skill and utter confidence. Reverse grip is amazingly comfortable. The knife just feels lightening quick.

I'm sorry but Strider could be doing so much better as a business if their knives functioned like an elite combat knife should out of the box. I just don't get it.
 
maybe i've missed something but all & i mean all of my quality purchases were silky smooth out of the box.break in is something i've never had to experience. even 50 & 60$ knives were silky. something is very wrong if you have to cycle a knife hundreds of times to get it smooth. have you ever had a gun or electric razors that had to be cycled hundreds of times before it was smooth?
 
Goldistheanswer said:
I dunno dude. I think if they just fixed some QC issues, the Sng would be worth $500, IMO. The handle is fantastic. The lockup is super tight. The Sng's rigidity reminds me of a tuning fork. It's freaking amazing, IMO. It makes the umnum feel like a pig in the way it handles. And yes I'm not a knife fighter but even a klutz like me can wield the knife with skill and utter confidence. Reverse grip is amazingly comfortable. The knife just feels lightening quick.

I'm sorry but Strider could be doing so much better as a business if their knives functioned like an elite combat knife should out of the box. I just don't get it.
Click to expand...

for me, it's the one thing keeping me from owning one. I've also sent them an email regarding something unrelated several months ago, and I still haven't received a response.
 
230grains said:
ZT 0200
ZT 0300
Busse - NMFBM, FFBM, ASH1, NMSFNO

Remarkable to me is the performance fitting the price. Striders, atleast IMO don't.
Click to expand...

I would tend to agree with you to some degree. I have an SMF that I bought used. I like it a lot. It had already been broken in and the buying used brought the price down 30 or 40%. Even at that "discount" it's pretty overpriced.

I have several CRK knives and feel the same way. The quality is more evident than in Striders, but I still find it hard to justify the price vs. a good Benchmade or Spyderco.

I had a ZT 0200 and found it to be as robust as the SMF, but without the charm -- at least for me. Gotta try a Busse.
 
Is it possible that repeatedly opening and closing the knife ratchets the pivot tighter? I could swear the spanner tool side of the pivot has rotated based on the location of the notches for the tool.
 
Goldistheanswer said:
Put me in the camp that thinks when you pay $500+, the folding action should be smooth from the factory. There is simply no excuse for anything less IMO. I own a Sebenza 21 and an Umnum and they were buttery smooth from the factory. Further, the SNG is a tactical knife, and yet deployment speed is far far far worse than my Sebenza two weeks into this hellish break in process. Suppose I was being sent to Afghanistan, should the Army give me a month or two to break in my $500 tactical knife? To make matters worse, you are not supposed to field strip the knife ( I learned this supposed fact on and unofficial internet FAQ). what the hell?
Click to expand...

Totally understand your position. When I pay premium I want to be happy with the product, otherwise it is a waste of money, no matter if it is $20, $100 or $500.

I agree, Strider SNG is not the fastest opening knife, but I don't think that it was meant to be opened super fast. If term "tactical" means just speed in your understanding, then you might as well put SNG in the "classic" category. Mentioning Army and Afganistan, I understand what you have in mind, but I don't think that soldiers actually need a fast opening folding knife. As a matter of fact, when it comes to folders, SAK is much more useful for most.

As far as field stripping, I think it is just a "tactical" legend that you actually need to do this. Cleaning knife with water or WD in most cases is more than enough. If you do want to take it apart, SNG is not the only knife that needs a special tool. Umnum that you have is one of them.
As far as I understand, Strider never actually denied service based on the fact that knife was disassembled by the user. People who cannot do it right is whom they are afraid of.

Back to the topic... There is a difference between smooth and fast. Sebenza for example usually comes smooth, but isn't fast and it takes many cycles to "make it" fast and be able to flick it open with a thumb. That's just my experience though, some might disagree.

With SNG there are several things that affect the speed of deployment (if this is what you're still after). First, overall design. As I said earlier, I think SNG was never meant to be a fast opening (flick) knife.

Second is the pivot tension. If the problem is in here, I totally agree that such an expensive knife should come with pivot perfectly adjusted. When asking $500 for a knife, such service should be required. If it is not done, it is only right to blame Strider for this. I also think that reseller should do their quality control on any expensive knife before shipping it to customer and communicate with the manufacturer to resolve any issues.
Now keep in mind that there some resellers that actually tighten the pivot before shipping to avoid any complications with the law.

Third thing to address is the tension of the Lockbar. I have owned and handled a lot of knives and I can say that many Striders have some stiffest lockbars out there. Pull and hold the Lockbar with your fingers and try to move the blade. See how smooth it is. If blade moves easily while you holding the bar, then the deal is not in the pivot area, but in the tension of the bar. Now, it is up to you to decide what is better. Many Strider lovers prefer the stiffness, because knife locks up like a super vault and cannot be accidentally disengaged. It takes quite some force to move it. This on the other hand puts a lot of pressure on the blade while opening and prevents the fast opening.
 
Dude I don't even care about thumb flicking it open. I can't even open it slowly with one hand it is that stiff. Hell, it's hard using *two* hands. In it's current state it is the antithesis of tactical. It might actually result in your death lol. The sebenza is like usain bolt compared to my sng.
 
Last edited:
Goldistheanswer said:
Dude I don't even care about thumb flicking it open. I can't even open it slowly with one hand it is that stiff. Hell, it's hard using *two* hands.
Click to expand...

Holy cow. Definitely a problem where none should be there, when it comes to $500 knife. I don't think your problem is a common thing though.
 
Goldistheanswer said:
Dude I don't even care about thumb flicking it open. I can't even open it slowly with one hand it is that stiff. Hell, it's hard using *two* hands. In it's current state it is the antithesis of tactical. It might actually result in your death lol. The sebenza is like usain bolt compared to my sng.
Click to expand...

You have a defective SnG. That's not normal
 
I recently owned a DGG stonewashed SNG for a short while and it wasn't anything like you described. Sounds to me like you have a lemon.

In which case you should return it to the dealer where it was purchased. Given the price, I assume you bought it new? They can then deal with Strider CS.
 
I don't see why anyone especially a soldier or someone already fatigued would want a knife that's as hard to open as Striders were. You can have solid lockup without having a knife that requires so much force to open.
 
You should never see a lemon with a $500 knife, I,ve never had any problems like that with any of my militarys and my CF S90V model continues to be one of the finest folders I've ever seen. If you want a tougher blade buy a ZT, I just can't justify the cost for a product that seems to have so many factory problems and is no better than a lot of "cheaper" production knives. Sure its nice to say you own something like that but what does it really get you?
 
If it is that hard to open the pivot is too tight. You don't have a tool to loosen it? Does it not use an allen or Torx wrench? Just about every knife needs some type of pivot adjustment to get it where the user likes it.
 
Goldistheanswer said:
I dunno dude. I think if they just fixed some QC issues, the Sng would be worth $500, IMO. The handle is fantastic. The lockup is super tight. The Sng's rigidity reminds me of a tuning fork. It's freaking amazing, IMO. It makes the umnum feel like a pig in the way it handles. And yes I'm not a knife fighter but even a klutz like me can wield the knife with skill and utter confidence. Reverse grip is amazingly comfortable. The knife just feels lightening quick.

I'm sorry but Strider could be doing so much better as a business if their knives functioned like an elite combat knife should out of the box. I just don't get it.
Click to expand...

I feel for you dude. When you spend $500 for a knife, it should be as close to perfect as possible. You can read my prior post, out of the 3 I had, only 1 was good, so in my experience, their QC is horrible. Strider obviously does not care because this has been an issue for years and they do not seem to fix it. A $40 BUCK 110 will blow Strider QC out of the water. I guess if people keep spending $500 for their overrated knife, they are going to keep making them the way they are. I had to laugh when I bought mine and it was all scuffed. But according to Strider, this is normal ???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top