SRM 9201 D2 Folder
Where to start ?
A) The very first thing you notice is just how much this knife hurts to hold . It's almost like some one designed the knife to be uncomfortable to hold . It irritates the hand seriously . Only after I chamfered ( rolled ) every edge , corner , did the knife not irk me ! All the edges are sharp and pointy .. One has to wonder what the QC guy was thinking ?
B) The knife runs on bushes , so is not quite as smooth as a knife on Ball bearings . Not bad , but not great either .
C) Factory edge was FUBAR !
One hour of grinding and there was still plenty of FUBAR left . The grind is off center , each side of the bevel is at a different angle . There are dips or hollows in the grind . Making cleaning up the edge almost impossible without removing a lot of metal .
The rubbish factory grind returned a 150 slice fail ..
Yes there is a fresh wet stone grinder edge now , but lots of FUBAR left . The entire 1/3 of the blade on one side toward the handle / grip is FUBAR on one side .
Near the tip there is a hollow I could not correct ...
At the rope again soon I guess ...
Yeah , we had some horrendous rain yesterday afternoon , actually had a river flowing down both sides of the house .. And ponds in the front yard !
Soooo ! ( Wet stone grinder edge )
I sliced some rope . .....
And the knife returned a 100 slice fail ..
I think this is a first , loosing slices with the wet stone grinder edge ...
Yeah , 100 slices and the edge was gone ...... Bye bye !
On the guided knife sharpener , the SRM D2 offered little resistance to the diamond cutter / sharpener ..
The diamond ate the steel easily ..
Maybe not the softest steel ever , but I cant say it was hard either .
So next will be a 22deg 180 grit diamond cut edge off the guided knife sharpener . ( ? ) Will it do better ...
In a nutshell !
SRM has produced another ( I own a few ) disappointing knife .
D2 Tool steel blade ? ( I would really have to question that )
I put some effort into the edge , and it hard failed @ 120 slices ... ( only 330 slices short of decent D2 )
120 slices for D2 is abysmal ... ( This sample - the knife I own / tested )
If this is par for the coarse .... Then I recommend you don't waste your money as I have .
For me ( speaking for myself and the SRM I own ) , SRM has been a disappointing brand for blade performance .
And as this sample is showing , for me , continues the tradition of being disappointing .
So in my humblest opinion , this knife might be best avoided . ( maybe / possibly all SRM knives - if built to this standard )