The Strider AR Passaround Review and Questions Thread

Ok, this knife looks really cool. It feels super solid and I can't make the blade move more then a fraction by hand pressure. Its real solid but I haven't carried the knife for anytime at all yet because I can't find a way to do so comfortably. This knife is too big, it will fit in a tool pocket on my carharts and that would probahbgly be ok assuming I wear a belt but in straightleg levis this knife is like having a brick in your pocket and in khakis or lighter pants then jeans it drags seriously. Also I am afraid of the amount of attention the knife will attract, it looks like something designed for stallone or shwarzenegger to use in a film. I think this knife needs a kydex sheath and get rid of the pocket clip, that said maybe if I was 6.3 and weighed over 200 it would bother me as much. I like the wide blade and the choil but I can't get the kife very sharp, I have run it over the sharpmaker a little but it certainly won't shave nor has it done that well on cardboard. Its a neat piece but doesn't do anything especially well as far as I can tell I will take a spydie para military and a Atwood bug out bar and feel better equipped. and less weighed down.

After playing with the R I am really interested to see one of the other strider folders cuz this one is cool but totally impractical for my civilian needs and honestly I am not sure what advantage the handle thickness and blade tlength provide.
 
So in my last few minutes with the Strider I noticed something that concerns me. The detent holding the blade closed is not very strong and the point of this heavy blade is barely enclosed by the end of the scales. It seems like it would be very easy for the point to snag on fabric and pull the blade open giving the user a nasty surprise when they reached into there pocket. Again this would probably only be an issue for pocket carry and I really don't think this knife is that good for pocket carry anyway. Put it in kydex and ditch the clip and that would probably solve the problem.
I don't know if in reality this does occur or not, it just looks like it might.

Thanks for letting me check this out and the rest of ya'll enjoy.
 
I'm looking forward to receiving it, but I forget where I am on the list. Oh well, it'll be a nice surprise when I get it! :D
 
just a few initial pics of a strider family.

WARNING: PIC INTENSIVE!@!!!


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ar, sng, ebt, sa, b/s 882t
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ar, sng, ebt
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ar, sa, ebt
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ar, b/s 882t, sng
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b/s 882t, ar, sng
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b/s 882t, ar, sng
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ar, sng
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sng, ar, ebt
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sng, ar, ebt

models shown were "our" strider AR, strider EB, sng, SA, buck/strider 882T
 
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knives shown are:

buck 112 (ranger)
spyderco centofante
spyderco dragonfly
 
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sa, sng, ebt
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b/s 882t, sng, sa, ar, ebt
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sng, ar
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b/s 882t, sng, ebt, ar
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sludge attack!!!


ok guys. when i got this knife the adhesive around the washers was pretty nasty. at first i didn't know what it was and tried to give this baby a cleaning (sprayed with a bit of brake cleaner, soaked in soapy water, rinsed, blow dried). it turns out this stuff is the adhesive strider used to apply on the older AR/GB lineup. trying to clean up the pivot didn't help.

when opening/closing this thing i can see a slight amount of play in the washers. this is due to the lateral pressure spinning against the washers-which in turn also tries to rotate, thus pulling on the adhesive. i loosened the pivot about a quarter turn to put less pressure on the washers.

the lockup is still tight and solid, but the more this adhesive gets worked, the more it will loosen up, and eventually the washers will begin to move freely. i predict that this will become a problem sooner rather than later. if the washer moves freely upon blade opening, it may rotate in such a way that the lip catches the liner--holding it back so the lock does not engage.

this was a big problem for strider way back when, and since then they have moved to "adhesiveless washers." i know that if you have any problems with a strider product, you can send it back and they will make it right.

i feel terrible about this, cause i certainly did not want to be the one responsible for messing up this whole passaround. i'm going to try to call daveh today and see what he wants me to do. bear in mind that this knife is still working and functional, but it just bugs me to pass on a knife that, in my mind, is on the verge of failure. :(

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some very initial thoughts:


*this lockup is one of the most solid and reassuring lockups i have ever felt. this includes my both my SNGs and my buck strider 882. in fact, both my sngs are now on their way to the strider shop to get looked at. strider did it right on their AR/GB lineup. this is honesty one linerlock i might trust.

*after several hundred open/closing cycles + flicks + whatever the previous testers did with it, the liner did NOT start to move across the blade. i am impressed. i have seen the liner start to wear across the blade tang on my buck strider, crkt m16, crkt model seven, emerson minicommander (just to name a few), and strider sng. in some cases i saw the liner start to wear across the blade tang in less than a day.

*the finish on this blade was mighty rusty when i got it. which is ok.

*i remember a while back there was big contraversy over the adhesive that was applied to the washers on the old AR/GB lineup. this AR still has the adhesived washers. the green goop was sludging out of the washers when i got this thing. i can't believe strider thought of putting glue in these things...

*this knife deserves dual thumbstuds.

*the ball detent/hole pretty much does zero to hold the knife in the closed position. the hole + ball should be a lot bigger.

*i never understood strider's concept of ergonomics. that is, why do they always have two choils in the handle? i feel like one choil is perfect, and having that other choil in the blade ruins the blade/handle ratio. i am overall peeved about the idea of hauling around a 6" handle for a <4" blade. this goes for my sngs as well.




on the plus side, it seems that this is an older model of AR, and that in the recent years strider has made most of the improvements to my discrepancies listed above (thumbstuds, detent, adhesive). i bet the owners of the older ARs are crying in their beards now that the "updated" version of their 350.00 knife is out.

then again, i'll probably be crying when the generation 7 sng hits the market...





now y'all, i'm not a strider fanatic or anything like that, despite the fact that i own multiple striders. i'm more stuck in the middle. while i DO have lots of quams with their designs/ideas/price/followers, i have been sticking with strider because:
A) i can't find a more solid knife. (their fixed blades moreso than the folders)
B) their warrantee has made me a believer.

these two things have outweighed all of my more minor discrepancies with the product.


more later.
 
where to start my review of the strider AR. this has to be one of the largest in size and bulk of any of the knives that i have handled. i thought it handles very well for it weight. which made carring interesting, i tried useing the kydex sheath that was sent with it. but due to the round belly i have i dont wear a belt,and the waistband of some of the sweatpants i wear were not strong enough to support the AR. carrying it in my right hand pocket did not allow for anything else in the pocket but the knife. i did enjoy opening the AR. snapping it open though different ways was often rewarded with a solid clank!!! :D one of the things i didn't like was there was only the one thumbstud on this knife. i know that was changed on the newer versions. i was impressed by the thickness of the blade and of the liners. nice sharp point for stabbing objects. the edge was shaving sharp. if you like big knives i would say this was a great knife to get. well worth the money in my opinion. :)
 
I'm not part of the pass around for the AR, but as an AR owner I thought I might make a suggestion about the carry of an AR. For the longest time I would not buy a Strider folder because of the clip being situated at a place that would allow too much handle to stick out. But I finally took the plunge and got an AR-CB a couple of days prior to the Blade Show with the intention of selling or trading it at Blade if I did not like it. Well, I liked it. It took me ten minutes of having the knife to realize that all I needed to do to make it deep carry was to remove the clip from the original location and move it back to the last screw, on the bottom of the handle, that holds the frame together and mount it there. PERFECT! required a longer screw but I had some on hand, and it required some Dremel work to make the mounting point square up and look good. Now only 1/4" of the handle sticks out.

I also have just gotten another AR with black G-10 and the old style 3 screw clip. Here again you can do the same. I Dremeled it down to the middle hole being the only hole and then curved it to fit the contour of the hsandle. Enlarged the hole slightly and replaced the screw, loctited it and then snugged it down. Neither one has offered to come loose or have any type of movement at all.

Again, just a way to make the knife ride better (IMHO), and deeper. :D :D :D
 
Thanks for the reviews. When it gets to me as I'm last on this passaround, I'll send it in to adress the washer problem and probably get the blade cleaned up and sharpened.
 
Just got the knife in the mail today from Jack Lowe. I will take tons of pics and develop a full review, but as I was posting this I noticed Edgetrip's review of the knife and all I can say is that something has happened to this thing since he had it. MAJOR play in all directions with this thing and I can get the lock to shift under hand pressure a little, but it passes initial spine whacking efforts. The pivot is pretty loose, so I'm going to play with it. I wanted to pull it apart to have a look, anyway, so it'll get the full treatment.

My initial impression, if I can sum it up into one sentence, is that I would consider this to be a big handle with a midsize blade, not a big knife. More on that later! :D
 
I spent about 20 minutes stripping the AR and cleaning it up and it made a big difference. Here''s what I did, although it did not help the ultra-weak detent (but did remedy all of the blade play and the grittiness/gunky opening and closing action):
1) Pulled entire knife apart
2) Cleaned in Finish Line citrus degreaser
3) Re-superglued the lock side washer down using a few dabs of gel super glue.
4) Once it cured, I lubed pivot and washers and blade with a synthetic bike lube I got years and years ago that was sold by Real (who knows who made it?). It's light, synthetic oil. Just a couple dabs.
5) Reassmbled the knife. Found out why one scale doesn't fit flush with the liner: the stop pin is too long!
6) Tightened up the pivot.

Now the knife opens and closes very smoothly without any play. The detent is scary weak, though, so I'm uncomfortable carrying it, honestly. I cut some copper wire for a light installation (installed the light yesterday and cut it with one of my own knives, which did great, so I compared by cutting the wire with the AR). It did fine!
 
Speaking of the detent, I did have it try to open in my pocket a time or two as I was drawing it. Never ripped my pants, but I feel like if I'd done it enough times, it probably would have. Sorry I never thought to mention that earlier.
 
wow chiro sounds like you did some good work on that sucker.


the play/issues were probably my fault. sorry guys. :'( i dont think there was ever a problem until it started sludging, and it started sludging when i had it.

the reason why we had the pivot so loose was cause if it was too tight there would be enough friction to pull on those washers, which just made the sludging worse.



its kind of a shame that we've got ourselves the old model of the AR. as i understand it, strider has long since remedied all the quams we're having (detent/sludge/washers). that thing will be full speed when daveh gets it back from the strider spa.
 
Midget said:
wow chiro sounds like you did some good work on that sucker.
Click to expand...

Well, it only took about 15 minutes (helps that I know folder anatomy/physiology in and out and that I have the right tools!). This thing is slick, now! My thumb is all worn out from opening/closing so many times, though. :grumpy:

I did some preliminary cutting with it on cardboard and it was better than I thought, but the deal killer is the notch for the closing stop pin. Catches on the cardboard more often than not. That kills me.
 
Something that Steve and some others have mentioned, the medium sized blade in the enormous handle. That is probably my biggest complaint with this knifes design. You just don't seem to get enough blade for what you hhave to pack around. Somebody commmented on the choil on the blade and I would agree with them, if that choil wasnt there you could get a lot more sharp on it and that might make me reconsider this knifes usefulness.
Great pass around though, lots of good comments and it was great to get to play with a knife that I couldn't afford to buy and really don't have any use for.

Thanks for good reveiws ya'll
 
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