- Joined
- Sep 12, 2007
- Messages
- 346
Hi folks,
yesterday my FFG Endura arrived, being an Endura fan, I was really looking forward to it. Before I bought it, I was looking at the price and thinking "Gee, 110$, that's quite an increase from regular Endura", but then I thought "hey, so it's going to be as good as Manix!" and I finally went for it. Some reviews I read here were favorable too, so I was expecting something big.
Well, now I'm holding it and... I'm not exactly impressed.
What I like
What I don't like
Like I said in the beginning - I'm not exactly impressed. This FFG Endura is still perfectly usable knife, but I thought it will be a stunner in fit&finish. Fro over a 100$ I've seen nicer knives (like both Manix), but also some that weren't that good either, so, I guess the lesson is that 100$ still might not be enough for a perfect f&f. Then again, since the US dollar is very low these days, it wasn't that expensive to me
It's a shame, this thing is VERY close to my perfect knife, we'll see how good the new Police 3 is, I ordered it and looking forward to it - although now I'm a bit scared that it will have similar issues.
Thanks for reading folks, pardon my poor english, now let's see some pictures
Pavel
My Endura family (except for E4 Wave, where the heck have I put it?)
Closed with MiniManix, my current favorite EDC (it would be SOG Vulcan, but I snapped its clip
)
Open...
I tried to take picture of the worst-done corner of the scales - I hope you can see something there, on end of handle.
Assymetrical grind, on the left it's done more
With my regular Manix, oh-so-cool knife!
yesterday my FFG Endura arrived, being an Endura fan, I was really looking forward to it. Before I bought it, I was looking at the price and thinking "Gee, 110$, that's quite an increase from regular Endura", but then I thought "hey, so it's going to be as good as Manix!" and I finally went for it. Some reviews I read here were favorable too, so I was expecting something big.
Well, now I'm holding it and... I'm not exactly impressed.
What I like
Flat grind
That is a HUGE improvement and in fact the main reason I bought this knife. I tried cutting few things, cardboard mainly, and I'd say YES this grind should be on all Endura and Delica models. Very nice.G-10 Scales
I like the feel of FRN scales, while the G-10 usually leaves me cold. But on this Endura, it has the right feel, color is also nice - I'd say it's a pleasant surprise.What I don't like
Blade play
I read here that this model doesn't have blade play as the older ednuras have. Well, I must have been unlucky, because my knife has it, and maybe even worse than my other Enduras. When I open the blade, everything seem fine except the end of the lockbar (the one close to the blade) is a tad higher than liners and scales. Then, when I try to push the blade down, the lockbar moves down and is flush with liners. And then when I push more, the blade moves a bit, just like in all my regular Endura 4 knives. This is a big dissapointment. Irregularities in manufacturing
As you can see from pictures, the scales are ground on their edge to 45 angle. There are some flaws, the scales differ in details, like in corners of the scale, one is ground a lot and the other has the corner unfinished - overall I'm not impressed with the manufacturing. I tried comparing to both my MiniManix and regular Manix, but their scales are much much better in these details - symmetrical, clean. Then the blade grind is done more on one side - when you look at the blade from top, you can clearly see that a hair of thickness is missing on one side where the grind starts. Also the Boye dent is ground at a little angle to the lockbar, it's not a big deal, but it's noticable. I will try to take some pictures for your consideration, but I'm not very good at it.Like I said in the beginning - I'm not exactly impressed. This FFG Endura is still perfectly usable knife, but I thought it will be a stunner in fit&finish. Fro over a 100$ I've seen nicer knives (like both Manix), but also some that weren't that good either, so, I guess the lesson is that 100$ still might not be enough for a perfect f&f. Then again, since the US dollar is very low these days, it wasn't that expensive to me
It's a shame, this thing is VERY close to my perfect knife, we'll see how good the new Police 3 is, I ordered it and looking forward to it - although now I'm a bit scared that it will have similar issues.Thanks for reading folks, pardon my poor english, now let's see some pictures
Pavel
My Endura family (except for E4 Wave, where the heck have I put it?)
Closed with MiniManix, my current favorite EDC (it would be SOG Vulcan, but I snapped its clip
)
Open...
I tried to take picture of the worst-done corner of the scales - I hope you can see something there, on end of handle.
Assymetrical grind, on the left it's done more
With my regular Manix, oh-so-cool knife!
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