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I have two 111s. One has a 3mm blade and one has a 3.5mm blade. When I bought the second, I had no idea that they came in different blade thicknesses. Blew my mind. They are totally different knives IMO.
Beauties for sure. Thanks for this, a 111 is actually high on my list. Curious, can these be finger/spydie flicked or flipper only?
I've admired the Starship on these pages before but never noticed that it's an all-metal version of the 111. Your pic of the three knives together really brought that home to me as their profiles, from blade tip to handle butt, couldn't be any more similar if not exactly the same. What's also striking is that, while the all-Ti slabs would lend themselves to frame lock construction, the Starship employs the Shiro tab lock which not only echoes the 111's single-side-liner lock, but presents an almost identical appearance and function from the knife's exterior.
Does that older 111 have a 4mm blade? I'm wondering if the older Shiros all had thick blades.I've admired the Starship on these pages before but never noticed that it's an all-metal version of the 111. Your pic of the three knives together really brought that home to me as their profiles, from blade tip to handle butt, couldn't be any more similar if not exactly the same. What's also striking is that, while the all-Ti slabs would lend themselves to frame lock construction, the Starship employs the Shiro tab lock which not only echoes the 111's single-side-liner lock, but presents an almost identical appearance and function from knife's exterior.
If you go back to my post in this thread--#974 on page 49--and look at my 111 breakdown pics you'll see a number of internal similarities that carry over from that knife to the Starship. You mentioned the stop pin in your knife's blade and you'll see that feature and an almost identical track for it milled into the CF of the 111. My 111 is a fairly early version and lacks the additional skeletonizing that came later, so the outstanding interior milling of you Starship is unmatched, but of course the all-CF construction of the 111 doesn't beg for weight reduction like an all Ti piece would.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your most interesting breakdown pics. Very cool knife.
View attachment 3172157
That Starship is a beauty.
I can't speak for everyone, but I can use the flipper, flick it open with my middle finger (reverse flick?), and roll it open with my thumb (like a CRK). Both of mine have holes in the blades though. My favorite is the middle finger flick.
It does indeed. 4mm was the standard Shiro blade thickness back in the day.
Thanks for the insight. I'm going to pay more attention to older Shiros when they pop up. I'm starting to think that Shiros are supposed to have 4mm blades. That's what made him so popular afterall.
You are welcome! I don't have the knowledge that you do, but I like to take my stuff apart, and seeing the milling that shiro does is insane! I love the early models and want the original ti 111 so bad.I've admired the Starship on these pages before but never noticed that it's an all-metal version of the 111. Your pic of the three knives together really brought that home to me as their profiles, from blade tip to handle butt, couldn't be any more similar if not exactly the same. What's also striking is that, while the all-Ti slabs would lend themselves to frame lock construction, the Starship employs the Shiro tab lock which not only echoes the 111's single-side-liner lock, but presents an almost identical appearance and function from the knife's exterior.
If you go back to my post in this thread--#974 on page 49--and look at my 111 breakdown pics you'll see a number of internal similarities that carry over from that knife to the Starship. You mentioned the stop pin in your knife's blade and you'll see that feature and an almost identical track for it milled into the CF of the 111. My 111 is a fairly early version and lacks the additional skeletonizing that came later, so the outstanding interior milling of you Starship is unmatched, but of course the all-CF construction of the 111 doesn't beg for weight reduction like an all Ti piece would.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your most interesting breakdown pics. Very cool knife.
View attachment 3172157
I forgot to ask earlier--as I have a 4mm bladed 111, does that make me rich and successful?
I'm not a CRK guy, I think I love the action on shiro so much that when I got my first CRK I decided I hated them. But after getting a Braces and then trying to flip it open 100 times, I sold it. I couldn't get down with the action. I have had the regular, blue, and bronze, and back to the regular one again. I'm still torn if I love it or not, but it's definitely a keeper
I've been sitting around playing with the Braces today and it's really growing on me. There was a tiny bit of blade play out of the box. Once I figured out how to use the set screw on the pivot I tightened the pivot a teensy bit. Wow. Now it has that "CRK" feeling when opening. "Bank vault" is what they call it, I think.
Great post. I thought I was the only crazy person here. Haha.This guy cares about the sound his knives make.
I loved my 111 from day one, but new, it made this sort of whooshing sound when flipping open. It was always a good, not great, flipper, and was nowhere near drop shut when closing. It broke in to a noticeable extent with the noise lessening to some degree, but it wasn't where I wanted it, especially compared to the action an old friend from here and the old USN's Shiro pages had achieved with his. I do think the MRBS contributed to that sonic effect with more blade to ball contacts and the somewhat hollow CF shell of the knife serving to amplify it.
Two years into that knife I followed my friend's lead in the take-down I linked in my post above. I got all the grease out, as has long been my habit with any knives that are so lubed, de-burred the bearing cages, polished the single underlay washer and blade tang that the bearings ride on, and re-lubed with W10 NanoOil. The action was quicker and snappier and the knife became instantly drop shut. It took a little while for it to settle in, but that noise is now completely absent.
I do like MRBS and think knives thusly set up are a bit smoother ((and likely more laterally stable) but my SRBS Turtle is definitely snappier and freer than my F95R MRBS version. As an aside, my original NeOn UL, which is also SRBS, benefitted from the same treatment as the 111 and now is also much freer and drops shut amazingly for such a small knife.
