I thought that under 5 1/2" rule seemed strange too and as a former NYC LEO. I had to see why they put that in there. The answer is the state law says anything over 5 1/2 " is an illegal knife in the entire state, so they added the locking under 5 1/2" to ban all locking knives in their city! I thought you guys in Texas were pro weapon!!!! Here is the link to the state law:
I can tell you that as a weapon carrying Texan, you only have to do a few things to be able to walk around with just about any weapon you can imagine.
- Don't wave it around
- Don't take it to school
- Don't threaten anyone with it
- Don't give them to kids ( although technically a Buck knife falls into the weapon category, I cannot imagine a father not being able to give his son a 110 - never happen(ed) )
- No switchblades. Period. Underline.
I have never, ever heard of anyone getting in trouble for the singular reason of having a lock blade knife. As as posted above, the ordinance is a joke, not even a concern. There are plenty of large lockbacks on belts around here anywhere you go except probably the dinner theater.
Back onto the soddie topic.
In agreement with an earlier post about "EYE" brand knives, I had a large EYE soddie for years. That thing had some kind of quick rusting carbon steel blade, but it was a cutting machine. I carried it around for years off and on, and finally the handle broke off. I was tired of the knife at the time and I traded it off. It was kind of a crude work knife compared to my CASE knives, but it never failed until the wood handle cracked and went to pieces.
I have seen the newest offerings from them at a local dealer in the last couple of months. I can understand the fact that they are selling the idea that these are poorly finished knives made to be used and not looked at, etc.
But the ones the dealer had were
really rough. We looked at several he had, and they were all the same. To me, they almost looked like the old Pakistani knives. He assured me the blade quality was just fine (I have no reason to doubt this guy - he's a straight shooter) but he didn't care for the F/F himself. It is slimmer than my Queen soddie, so I was interested in it for a different kind of fit in the pocket.
But the soddies he had in black were wood handled only. Been there, done that. Worse, they were $35. I paid $22 plus shipping with another order to get my yellow Queen
in D2, and I can get a CASE at Bass Pro shops for $33 all day long.
Before I bought my Queen, I looked at a LOT of soddies. The first thing I noticed that the quality of the assembly was all over the place on every brand.
In my personal opinion, these are the order in which I would buy these brands of soddie knives. Not a scientific test, just my opinion. As always, your mileage may vary.
First picks: CASE or QUEEN. Overall, F/F good to pretty good. Queen got me with the D2 blade and it is ground to be a slicer. The finish on the yellow handled knife I got was great. However, I will probably get the CASE in black pretty soon. I would put the Bulldog soddie in this group, and I am suspecting that the Bulldog is made by Queen.
Second picks: EYE brand (pick through to get a good one). I will put Kissing Crane in here, and if I recall correctly, they are made in China. The fit and finish was great (overall better than the EYEs I looked at), they are very inexpensive, and locked up tight. The only downside was that no one had a clue what steel it was or how hard it was. But the ones I looked at were only $8 - $12.
Rough Rider has their model of sodbuster as well, and I have to say the knife was VERY WELL finished, ground, and assembled. Better than than the QUEENS and CASES. Still haven't taken to the Rough Riders yet, though. Maybe soon.
Third picks: Boker. The F/F was all over the place. They are made in Argentina, and these are obviously considered an afforable work knife. The blades wobbles on some, tight on others, grinds all over the place, not much lined up after assembly and the examples I looked at were dirty (probably polish/buff compound) right out of the box. Selling point would be they are cheap.
I know there are other brands out there and the quality of this pattern of knives seem to be all over the place. But there are some real winners, too. Since I just finished this process, I thought I would tap this quick opinion out.
Robert