The “Can’t leave anything alone” Thread

[Wowbagger]

Kershaw Emerson 6044. I don’t like tanto blades and don’t like chisel ground blades so i turned this into a rgei knife with a modified sheepsfoot or wharncliffe blade.
It took about an hour with a dremel. I removed about an inch of the tip, removed the thumb disk, ground the spine fairly straight, and switched the clip to the opposite side.
The blade is just under 3 inches now. It waves open with authority and is IMHO a better knife (besides the cosmetics.)
This knife would have sat in a box and probably been forgotten about and now it is in my pocket.

That's the spirit !
(I've corrupted another one )

 

[Wowbagger]

View attachment 3170750
Midnight blue ritdye on the natural g10 came out a bit darker than I anticipated. I like it though.

Don't leave that one laying around out of your eye sight .
I WILL STEAL IT .
I won't be able to stop myself .

 

[Chris*33]

Thank you.

@DA170 actually figured out that the Shaman blade was a direct swap into the Edgeratti frame. My Shaman blade did swap without any mods, however, I cannot guarantee that every blade would. (There is a good chance they will all swap.)

Go for it!

Thank you both, then!
I do have a small home-made belt grinder for small projects like making modifying blade shapes, making scales/backspacers and such, but i thought that the swap required milling to some extend. Good to know that it doesn't.
This is what i have in mind. The white line on the blade is supposed to be a swedge. Not experienced at all at swedges but hey....it's only wasted money if it goes bad (me to myself: )

https://imgur.com/a/Q3yBgUO

 

[Chuck_Nunface]

Don't leave that one laying around out of your eye sight .
I WILL STEAL IT .
I won't be able to stop myself .

I'll try to remember that

 

[Leo Greer]

I've had a ton of Bestechs over the years, and also some of their OEM stuff for other brands. I still remember when their knives came with permanent thead-locker. Some of their budget stuff has been hit or miss but has mostly been decent and has only really improved over the years. I've had a few of their premium knives in recent years that have just been fantastic. The Lito, designed by Ostap Hel, is a great example.

I've had far fewer examples from Reate but mostly because the few models that interested me had stupidly thick spines for what they were or some other issue that kept me away. I've had more experience with their OEM stuff. I don't remember the issue but I remember having to return one they did for Giant Mouse. I also had a Pena X-Series with dangerously early/light lockup. So while my experience is admittedly limited, I sometimes get the idea that Reate's superior reputation has a lot to do with their early emergence as a quality name in Chinese manufacturing. Now, a bunch of other Chinese companies have really upped their game.

Reate definitely used to be the gold standard. When David Deng started up shop, they were working with 10-12 machinists, on relatively small projects. Very limited runs and models.

They were hailed as producing American midtech quality with Chinese production prices.

The Hills (a rare model now) came out and just blew people away. Same with models like the District 9, Valkyrie, and Torrent.

I still have an original Torrent in M390 from the 2015 era. Everything on it is perfect, and it still locks up like a bank vault.



I did the ano work on this, so it fits the thread!

It’s very unfortunate to hear that Reate’s work has been slacking in recent years. Without hearing from y’all, I would’ve called Reate the king of Chinese production, followed by Bestech, and then Kunwu and Tuya as more niche options right behind. WE and Kizer never cut it for me.

On the other hand, Bestech has also been good for a long time. Though I don’t own anything of theirs from recent years, I had some bangers from them 4-5 years back.





All that being said, I’ve moved almost completely away from the mid range Chinese production knives and now almost exclusively go after top end American production/semi customs.

Most of what’s coming out of Chinese production nowadays seems… lifeless to me for some reason. Who knows, maybe I’ll snag a good deal on the exchange and love them again.

 

[Chronovore]

Reate definitely used to be the gold standard. When David Deng started up shop, they were working with 10-12 machinists, on relatively small projects. Very limited runs and models.

They were hailed as producing American midtech quality with Chinese production prices.

The Hills (a rare model now) came out and just blew people away. Same with models like the District 9, Valkyrie, and Torrent.

I still have an original Torrent in M390 from the 2015 era. Everything on it is perfect, and it still locks up like a bank vault.

View attachment 3178315

I did the ano work on this, so it fits the thread!

It’s very unfortunate to hear that Reate’s work has been slacking in recent years. Without hearing from y’all, I would’ve called Reate the king of Chinese production, followed by Bestech, and then Kunwu and Tuya as more niche options right behind. WE and Kizer never cut it for me.

On the other hand, Bestech has also been good for a long time. Though I don’t own anything of theirs from recent years, I had some bangers from them 4-5 years back.

View attachment 3178322

View attachment 3178324

All that being said, I’ve moved almost completely away from the mid range Chinese production knives and now almost exclusively go after top end American production/semi customs.

Most of what’s coming out of Chinese production nowadays seems… lifeless to me for some reason. Who knows, maybe I’ll snag a good deal on the exchange and love them again.

So much depends on the individual model or design regardless of where it comes from. One thing I like is that a lot of designers can get their stuff out there, either getting a design made under one of the better Chinese brands or as OEM. As someone who does a lot of mods, even just rounding over scale edges or dyeing stuff, I've really come to appreciate the ease of taking them apart and putting them back together again. Just fiddling around with my Spyderco Bodacious last night, it was a pain to get things centered and the balance between solid lock-up and blade play is atrocious.

Some of the most impressive "premium" Chinese knives I've picked up over the last year were from Kubey's KB line. The KB Steelhead (not pictured) was designed by a guy I follow on Instagram and YouTube and have actually chatted with here and there. The Steelhead is a titanium-bodied liner lock, which I don't see all that often. Here is a pic I have of the other two, the Mantra and the Taurus from left to right. Just titanium frame locks in M390 but very nicely executed and I like their flame ano. These two were designed by guys I might never have heard of had it not been for these releases.