TAD gear Dauntless Mk4 - carbon fibre scale quality

M

monkeyboy_marcus

Joined
Jul 16, 2016
Messages
15
Just looking for opinions on the carbon fibre scale of this TAD gear Dauntless mk 4 SE. The cf is obviously pitted and I'm being told that: "the voids you've observed occur naturally in Carbon Fiber". That's incorrect in my opinion, the cf is poor quality and the scale is therefore flawed. Whilst TAD gear have offered to accept the knife as a return, I've just paid international postage and customs duty of circa $250.00 (plus postage back), which would obviously not be refunded, so this isn't really an option. So, I've requested that TAD gear send a replacement scale and they've not responded. So, my questions is whether in other people's opinion the cf/scale is acceptable in terms of quality and whether TAD gear should replace the scale. Thanks.

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Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but TAD doesn't stock spare parts at all so they won't replace the scale. Search for "TAD warranty" on here and you'll find a thread where a member needed a screw and TAD told him they don't have any spare parts in between runs. I'm pretty flabbergasted by this policy and if it were more public, than I doubt people would be willing to invest $350+ on one of their knives.

It is definitely possible to get CF with very low to nonexistent voids, so I would agree that they probably bought an industrial grade of it in bulk that has more voids than the more boutique CF.
 
I've only owned two knives with CF scales, but neither of them had voids like that one, and both of them cost less.
 
I had a $675 Carbon Fiber Kwaiback that had voids like that. And I've owned $240 ZT's that didn't. It's just luck of the draw those voids can be found in CF even when the maker uses Low Void CF.

I think that's a killer knife you have and wouldn't have a problem using and enjoying that knife as is.
 
You won;t ever find any void in high quality CF like Blacksite or the one that Spyderco use on some of their Taichung model. Sad to hear that pricier knife like TAD or even a $675 mid tech use lower quality cf.
 
Misanthropia said:
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but TAD doesn't stock spare parts at all so they won't replace the scale. Search for "TAD warranty" on here and you'll find a thread where a member needed a screw and TAD told him they don't have any spare parts in between runs. I'm pretty flabbergasted by this policy and if it were more public, than I doubt people would be willing to invest $350+ on one of their knives.

It is definitely possible to get CF with very low to nonexistent voids, so I would agree that they probably bought an industrial grade of it in bulk that has more voids than the more boutique CF.
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That is bad news but thanks for the info anyway! I'll see what they come back, if they return my email at all... Guess this is to be expected from a mail order/web company though.
 
Biginboca said:
I had a $675 Carbon Fiber Kwaiback that had voids like that. And I've owned $240 ZT's that didn't. It's just luck of the draw those voids can be found in CF even when the maker uses Low Void CF.

I think that's a killer knife you have and wouldn't have a problem using and enjoying that knife as is.
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That's it right there, I'm comparing it to a £200 ZT562CF that is perfect and less than half the price. First flicker I've had (not counting the hinderer MP-1 or protech TR5 - which is awesome by the way) and it is a good one...
 
That's the crap part about Tad gear, they don't make any of it, therefore cannot provide any meaningful warranty help. While I've always dug the design and the look of that knife, I've steered clear because of that. They have always been all secretive about who makes it too. I remember a guy who needed a new clip. His got caught on a seatbelt or something and he had no luck with getting one from TAD.

Good luck, and please advise how this works out.
 
Well, feedback as follows: "Thank you for your reply. We understand your request, however, we don't manufacture or sell replacement scales for our knives. If it's still a deal breaker, let us know if you want to proceed with a return." So spot on with the advice there fellas. If this was a UK company I'd return the knife but in this case I'd write off £200 and get about the same back, so totally not worth it. Fortunately, despite the pitting, its still a fantastic knife.
 
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