Taylor/China LB7: Suck

C

Carl64

Joined
Apr 3, 2005
Messages
1,830
I paid $18 for it, and I guess maybe it is worth that.

The wood looks very nice. It is larger grained than the old real LB7 I have, but is finished nicely.

The wood is about a hair too small all around, not tightly fit to the bolsters.

The seam between the bolsters and liners is visible. The real LB7 I have it looks almost like it is one piece.

The spring is integrated with the spacer, not a seperate spring bar set into the spacer piece like on a real LB7.

IT IS BLOODY IMPOSSIBLE TO UNLOCK THE BLADE USING ONLY THE APPENDAGES I WAS BORN WITH. I have to push it against the edge of my desk to unlock it.

On the plus side, the lock bar, handle, and blade line up perfectly when opened. But that's easy, all you do is open the knife after assembly and grind down the back. Not so good when closed, but not worse than I have seen a few real Schrades and a lot of Bucks.

I will try to do some tapping on the spring to weaken it and see if it can be made useable.

No testing yet for sharpening and edge retention. If I can't make this piece of junk work, I will still be able to test the Chinese sharpfinger I also grabbed.
 
They are supposed to carry a manufacturer's limited lifetime warranty. Send it back. I mean, the address for warranty repairs is in the box, right? So send it in to the factory service department for a warranty repair or replacement.

Codger
 
Mike is right, Carl. Instead of testing your patience and fix-it ability, let's see how Taylor does in the public service department.

But do give us a report on the edge holding, sharpening of he Chinee Sharpfinger when you can.

Phil
 
Well that was a new one, so perhapes you might want to tinker with it after all the next one could be worse that is if it is also new. Usually a guarantee is for an item that breaks after it is used looks like Tennessee Taylor is one step ahead again just buy them new needing repair and cut out the step in between when they are used before needing to be fixed or exchanged. Then again perhapes you could send it to Colonial since they were going to repair the old Schrades but somehow that did not work out.

Still it is a kind of advanced notion. The old Uncle henrys used to be replaced if you lost them. Perhapes with these it should be that when you get one you just lose it on purpose let them send you another and between the two you can assemble a usuable version your self. I guess 18 bucks is a pretty good price for a kit knife.

There I go again being sarcastic sorry. Send it back I am sure the Chinese slave laborer who built it will be correctly chastised. AHHH SOOO LT
 
Well, after a brief try with the sharpfinger, it doesn't stay sharp so good. But I will take it home tonight and give it a good thorough sharpening. Sometimes a knife can have a weak edge from the factory and just needs a proper sharpening.

If that doesn't work out, I don't think I will waste any money sending the LB7 in for "repair" because even if they can "fix" what is wrong with it I don't want a useless blade.

The real Schrades were not miraculous when it came to edge holding, but they were darn well good enough to be considered a usefull knife. Right now the chinese sharpfinger's edge has a burr that won't go away, it just keeps flipping back and forth. It's possible it was just sharpened carelessly at the camp it was made in, so I will reserve judgement until I take the edge down a little on a diamond stone.

The chinese sharpfinger sheath is very flexible and not tightly fit to the blade. The old schrade sheaths I have will hold the blade without the snap closure (I even cut the snap parts off of one for convenience). This one the blade just flops around in it.

Edit:
One nice improvement to the sharpfinger. The handle slabs go just a hair further towards the blade, making it feel a little better in that area. They countered that with a crappier "sawcut" pattern (not as deep).
 
I had heard from a dealer that the sheaths were junk and he suggested to the Taylors that they make good sheaths from full thickness leather. I don't know if they got that to the owners of the company properly translated to manderin (or is it cantonese?) correctly or not, or if they can spare the disciplinary leather.

Codger
 
The important thing is that they will really care. Yup you bet. When the competition is gone just send any thing to silly round eye mellicans after all what alternative they got if they want to have a knife HAA HAA HAA. Silly mellicans. AaaH SooooO. LT
 
Codger_64 said:
I had heard from a dealer that the sheaths were junk and he suggested to the Taylors that they make good sheaths from full thickness leather. I don't know if they got that to the owners of the company properly translated to manderin (or is it cantonese?) correctly or not, or if they can spare the disciplinary leather.

Codger
Click to expand...

It's a reddish brown ugly color. Not like regular leather brown of any sort. I suppose some people might like this color. It is flexible but not in a "soft" leather kind of way. It's not quite like plastic leather but in that direction.

They aren't terrible. You could still use it (the sheath) assuming the knife turns out to be worth carrying.
 
Can you tell if it is just thin leather splits, or reconstituted leather?

Codger
 
Codger_64 said:
Can you tell if it is just thin leather splits, or reconstituted leather?

Codger
Click to expand...

I had not previously known this was an option. I know roughly jack about leather, other than some of it seems nice and some of it sucks. If it means what I think, I am still not sure.

It's not extremely thin, just thinner than my good sheaths. About 3/32".
 
Sheathmaker can 'splain much better than I can, but cowhide is pretty thick. It is split down to a usable thickness according to the use it is intended for. Many, many more sheaths can be gotten from a thinly split hide. Schrade, at one time , was using reconstituted leather for sheaths in the late 50's - early sixties, I think. That is where leather scrap is pounded and schredded, then pressed back into a sheet with a binder added. Sheathmaker? You tell us more?

Codger
 
Hi guys; Without seeing the sheath it's hard for me to tell, but even money says it could be reconstituted. Recon leather quite often is finished with an embossed pebble grain to make it look better. Split leather on the other hand is just that, split, but there is only one top grain piece no matter how many times you split. In other words, the split fall off pieces will be "suede" on both sides. the top grain split will still have the one grain or "good" side. One pretty good tip off on recon is the "Hand", the feel is more like thin cardboard, or if you really bend it severely it will often crack and it always feels very dry compaired to the real stuff. I suppose really poorly tanned leather, then split, and the split residue went on into even cheaper goods, that the cost of the top grain could be reduced to a point where import costs would fit, but it would be thin, sh**tty leather.
The very best scenerio for the sheaths in question is they are made of what we call "import" tanned leather and from the hides of young cattle, which would be lighter weight and would not oil and finish very nicely, hence the use of dyes to produce the reddish color you referred to. This is some mighty cheap leather.

Codger, you remember that sheath you sent for pattern work? Well that's what recon leather feels like>


Paul
 
Er, let me see if I understand this.... The LB7 was the American made knockoff of the real deal (Buck 110). Now that particular company went bankrupt so the design stealing fell into Oriental hands (natually) and we now have IMPORTED knockoffs coming in under the old trade name.

And you're rating the quality of these?

Hmmmmm.... Why not just buy an ORIGINAL AMERICAN MADE PIECE by the folks that actually INVENTED the model?

No. Don't do that. That would MAKE SENSE. Sheesh. :rolleyes:
 
I get stuck buying a lot of China products, simply because that's all there is at times, such as with most electronics gear, but it will be a Cold Day in Hell before I purchase a Chinese made knife. A person has to draw the line somewhere, and that's where mine is. I don't care what brand is stamped on the knife, how good it's finished or what materials are in it, if it's Chinese made it doesn't enter my property. Ever time I see a Chinese "Schrade" I nearly puke. I'll buy German, Italian, Japanese, etc, but NO Communist made knife from my enemies will soil my pockets. :mad:
 
Harry Callahan said:
Hmmmmm.... Why not just buy an ORIGINAL AMERICAN MADE PIECE by the folks that actually INVENTED the model?
Click to expand...

I doubt there is a single person here, except possibly you, who is happy with only a single knife model. That makes it kind of a silly question in general, but I'll answer anyway.

Schrade still made a good knife. In fact, I like their lock design better than the Buck 110. It's just a little better. I also like the handle shape better and how the sharp back corner of the tang doesn't stick out when the knife is closed. It would be pretty boring to never buy another lockback. That said, the 110 sure does look good in its current high polish and rounded edges.

I bought the Chinese model out of curiosity. Would it have better steel? Would it be made just as good? After all, Taylor had all of the information needed to do it right. But so far it looks like junk.
 
I admit that my post sounded like I was happy with the Buck 110 and didn't see the need for any "variety". But I assure you that's not the case. Schrade, even while they were manufacturing in America, had no right to swipe the 110 model from Buck. They simply "got away" with it for years. Now it's being knocked off by the new ownership and being manufactured in China for pennies apiece, thus making the original EVEN MORE endangered than before. The playing field is SERIOUSLY uneven now. How can Buck compete and keep manufacturing the real thing you ask? Well, mathmatically, they can't for long. Hopefully they'll think of something quickly.

But hey, enjoy your twelve dollar 110. It does, after all, have a more ergonomic handle. :rolleyes:
 
This whole China thing is one of many reasons I'm such a Spyderco fan. For one thing, Spyderco uses their own designs and doesn't rip other folks off. For another thing, when they started outsourcing to China for their Byrd lineup, they demanded quality (and they seem to be getting it) from these guys. I'm very impressed with my Crossbill which doesn't owe ANYTHING to any other manufacturer. It is laughable that someone would actually use the argument that the LB7 is "kinda" different from the Buck 110. That's hilarious!

Anyhoo, the Byrd Crossbill is totally designed and QC'd by Spyderco. It can be owned for less than twenty bux brand new. And quite possibly has the safest lock I've ever seen on a Chinese knife.

A bang up job. And honorably done. An example to the industry.
 
Harry Callahan said:
It is laughable that someone would actually use the argument that the LB7 is "kinda" different from the Buck 110. That's hilarious!
Click to expand...

You are obviously referring to me, but also mis-quoting me. I'm not going to bother arguing with you any more if you are going to try to change the intent of my words so you can then make pointless statements of disapproval. Your first post in this thread was off topic anyway, trying to change it from a discussion about the chinese LB7 to your decades-old grudge about the 110 vs other similar knives.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top