Terrible Knives

E

EnerDireCutt

Joined
Apr 6, 2009
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I find it pretty rare to hear anyone come out and say "Hey, this knife is terrible." It's not often you see a bad review, and when someone does say something bad about a knife, a dozen people usually pile in to clobber him for disrespecting a fantastic blade.

So: what knives have you used that were just awful? I don't mean department store knives or Chinese knock offs, I mean knives from big name brands like Spyderco and Benchmade.
 
Personally, I don't have a knife that I would characterize as such.

By "terrible", it would mean a knife that's so badly designed and looks so damn ugly that almost anyone who bought one regretted doing so. In that case, IMHO I doubt that you'll get any knives of that sort from the top manufacturers. The reason why those brands are where they are on the market is due to their skill at designing and making knives. They'd have to have made the ultimate mistake of throwing out all their knowledge, skill and experience and made a knife that violated their design and aesthetic principles. I'm sure they've made some knives that had some flaws and questionable qualities, but they'd hardly be something that everyone universally loathes and despises.
 
The big name makers send out a defective product every now and again. It happens, and they take care of it properly 99% of the time. All of them are going to make mistakes. What matters is how they correct those mistakes.
 
I have a compact current run Leatherman Expanse E33T knife (with 2 screwdrivers and a bottle opener), and it's perhaps not terrible, but definitely mediocre at best. The basic idea isn't bad, in principle the blade steel is OK but the execution of it all is sloppy. They are not at all in the same league as Victorinox (most similar products).

A similar feeling of mediocrity permeates a Boker Toplock of mine. I usually a quite happy with the brand, but this is only so so. It feels so much cheaper than it is!

I also have one Magnum knife with an undependable liner lock. Otherwise it's not too bad but this is unforgivable. I don't have this issue with my 2 other Magnum knives.

Furthermore, while the French Le Camarguais knives are pretty, I think that mine could have been made better. The blade needs retightening too often.

I also have a German Otter knife, the guys who hand-make the classic Mercator knife. This one is an affordable folder with 440C steel, and it feels as polished as an agricultural tool. It's not really bad, but I expect something more smooth.

Contrary to what you might expect, I have a cheap damascus laguiole-style knife made in... Pakistan that is quite ok, really.
 
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I suspect that you're not going to get many nominations for two reasons:

1. Once you get up to well-respected brands, the likelihood of a "terrible knife" is pretty small. Some may not care for the style of blade, choice of steel, colors, etc., and others may not care to pay as much money as is being asked for a knife. But they probably wouldn't have bought such a knife in the first place. And all those things are a matter of taste and pocketbook. No reason to bad mouth a Mercedes you never bought simply because you think it's overpriced or a Toyota you didn't like because you picked the wrong color.

As the first response said, the name brands got to be name brands by making good knives.

2.
when someone does say something bad about a knife, a dozen people usually pile in to clobber him for disrespecting a fantastic blade.
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Gee, thanks for the opportunity to get clobbered while you sit from the sidelines enjoying the show! :D

If you really want to get the show going, just ask people to post what they think are overpriced knives, not worth the money. :eek:
 
Swedge said:
If you really want to get the show going, just ask people to post what they think are overpriced knives, not worth the money. :eek:
Click to expand...

Yes! DO THIS!:D

Seriously, I've rarely been disappointed when it comes to price/worth. I own several knives that I would've paid MORE for. There have, however, been a couple of times when I ordered a knife only to send it back/exchange it due to my PERCEIVED worth of said knives.
 
i got a boker hunter a few years ago. 4 inch drop point blade, stag slabs. the slabs were very uncomfortable. the lanyard hole was too small to accept paracord. the blade was 440a and was about as soft as 410. the edge from the factory was very off center especially near the tip and were also dull as imaginable. however i like boker and i just happened to get this knife for free so i gave it away at a scout function.
 
I like my spyderco, dont get me wrong - but I really thought that for $60 my salt 1 would have a better edge out of box. My expectations were high and so when I got the knife I was dissatisfied and thought edge was terrible at that price point.

I wouldnt say the overall knife was terrible, but I was shocked that it wasnt very sharp -kind of turned me off of spiderco. My tenacious even came sharper -and it was $30.
 
I think the French laguiole knives are over priced. Some have some really nice craftsmanship, but the materials don't seem to justify the cost and that silly blade to spring contact in most models is too much.

Haven't bought any truely terrible knives since the early '80s. Case stainless three-bladed serpent stockman with leather punch - yeah, left an impression - comes to mind. I suspect that my experiences in knives over time have resulted in me not buying "crap" knives, so no terrible knives are bought.

I think the higher up one goes in relative cost, the less truely terrible knives one runs into. Dissappoints, yes; terrible, no.
 
mission ti folder.

nice fixed blades, i think the folder is very poorly designed.

the clip is attached to the pivot screw, so either the blade is loose or the clip is loose. thumbstud felt like the sharp end of a nail.
 
Of all the things I can find wrong with a new knife, a poor edge is the one I hope for. Nine times out of ten, I sharpen my new knives before I use them anyway. I see a lot about out-of-the-box sharpness, but to me it is the least important aspect of the knife. If the steel is good and the knife will take an edge for me, I don't care if the guy doing the final sharpening at the factory was having an off day. I've had them too.

There are a number of knives I've held and thought, "What were they thinking?" Other people have held the same knife and thought "This is perfect!" Different strokes for different folks. I have a few that really are terrible, in that they won't take a decent edge or hold it long enough to be useful as a cutting tool, but most of them fall into the cheap junk category.
 
I've only ever returned one knife I've bought online. It was a KaBar Fin. I really had high hopes because it was a framelock and it had a blade hole opener--two features I really like. I was so disappointed when I got it because it was the most uncomfortable thing I've ever handled. THe quality was OK but the ergonomics were just terrible.

I've never heard anyone make a positive comment about the Fin, and KaBar is a respected company.
 
My last 2 Spyderco's (Manix2 and D2Para) came with substandard edges. Certainly not what I would expect based on prior experiences with Spyderco. Otherwise great knives though.

I would say the only knife that stands out in recent memory as terrible for me was the ZT0350, and not due to QC issues. It just didn't meet my expectations of a ZT branded knife based on their other models. It was too wimpy!
 
I think the French laguiole knives are over priced. Some have some really nice craftsmanship, but the materials don't seem to justify the cost and that silly blade to spring contact in most models is too much.
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Well, the nice ones are handmade, and that costs rather a lot in Europe. These are not exactly custom knives, but clearly more involved to make than an industrial knife.
There are cheaper industrial ones, which can be reasonably ok, but in some way most of these lack charm.
I agree about your remark about blade to spring contact. Respect for tradition is one thing, but not fixing an obvious error is something else. Now at least the locking Fontenille-Pataud knives don't have that issue, don't know about their other models.
 
A few years back I bought a Benchmade Apparition and while I love my 555 , Pika , etc I think the Apparition is a bad design. The liner lock is 'soft' and does not give me lock confidence , the AO is snappy as all get out but the thumbstud opening method always makes me think I'm gonna ventilate my thumb , the black pastic faux Buffalo horn are horrid...

To criticize a knife without offering ideas on improvment though.. far be it from me ! :D
The knife would have been much better off as a framelock , or at least a thicker, more positive liner... hell my M-21 has more solid lockup ! Instead of that horrid fake horn , regular 'ol G10 would have been nicer looking , a flipper instead of the thumbstud... The knife itself is meant to look custom right out of the box but the 'fileworked' back spacer was unpolished and rough looking , the liners of the knife had little scratches on the edges , overall a pretty rough looking knife for the price I paid.

My FlatByrd.... what a pos ! The lock gives me zero confidence , the blade was not sharp and I had a heck of a time making it so , almost as if the HT was off.. overall a big disappointment compared to the Cara cara I have.

Those are the ones off the top of my head.
 
I don't know anything about these first hand. They may be very functional, but I just hate the designs:

WSKs & Smatchets
 
For me, a "terrible knife" is a knife that is flat out unusable.

I've never had a "terrible knife" from a major maker.
 
The only knife that has disappointed recently was my RAT RC-4. It is far from terrible, in fact it is a very solid little knife, but the slabs on the handle feel bad in my hand.

They are very "square" and feel to me like I'm gripping a block. My daughter however really likes it.

It is not a terrible knife, but certainly one I'll never be fond of.

Kevin
 
I don't think the major manufacturers will have anything that would be
considered "terrible." If they did they probably wouldn't be where they
are today (ie Spyderco, Benchmade, SOG, etc). The only thing I'd mark
as terrible would be flea market and knock off knives which isn't really
part of this discussion.
 
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