Thoughts and questions on my new Strider SMF CC

Striders are good knives. TNK is disappointing me if they don't treat a $550 knife purchase as a "special" knife purchase. Buying an SMF CC is not a typical knife purchase. TNK, along with the other well known Strider dealers are always where I go first when I'm looking at Striders so I'll be watching the results of this situation closely because I'm sure I'll be buying another Strider in the next year or less. I intend to buy from a dealer who responds to my honest and legitimate problem.

I will be watching this one too closely to see what happens. ;)

And no an SmF CC isn't a normal purchase at all as you said, they are high end knives.

I agree! They would not sell many knives if they all looked like that. You know the old saying You get what you pay for, well being a $500 knife You Didnt. Good Luck. Kevin

We Strider owners know that nothing is perfect, but man I just don't know about this one.
 
I'm kind of on the fence about sending it back....i really don't want to go thru all this bullshit about calling him back, checking over the new one, $25 more shipping, insurance to Canada etc...blah blah blah.

I even told him that i live in the Atlanta suburbs, and i'll be at the blade show. I'd bring the knife and my receipt, and we can both look it over there and see what we can do, and his response was, "he didn't want to drag this out for a month, and that he wouldn't have a table there....he was a "sponsor"....

And the worst part about this was that the money i spent on the Strider was the money for my Sebenza i ordered from CRK!!! Shit! Now i have to reestablish some sense of why i need the Sebenza to my wife when it comes in :eek:
 
I'm kind of on the fence about sending it back....i really don't want to go thru all this bullshit about calling him back, checking over the new one, $25 more shipping, insurance to Canada etc...blah blah blah.

I even told him that i live in the Atlanta suburbs, and i'll be at the blade show. I'd bring the knife and my receipt, and we can both look it over there and see what we can do, and his response was, "he didn't want to drag this out for a month, and that he wouldn't have a table there....he was a "sponsor"....

And the worst part about this was that the money i spent on the Strider was the money for my Sebenza i ordered from CRK!!! Shit! Now i have to reestablish some sense of why i need the Sebenza to my wife when it comes in :eek:

It should be free shipping as in they should be paying the shipping both ways IMO because you never should have gotten a knife that looked like that one in the 1st place.

That is if TNK really cares about customer service.
 
I'm kind of on the fence about sending it back....i really don't want to go thru all this bullshit about calling him back, checking over the new one, $25 more shipping, insurance to Canada etc...blah blah blah.

I even told him that i live in the Atlanta suburbs, and i'll be at the blade show. I'd bring the knife and my receipt, and we can both look it over there and see what we can do, and his response was, "he didn't want to drag this out for a month, and that he wouldn't have a table there....he was a "sponsor"....

And the worst part about this was that the money i spent on the Strider was the money for my Sebenza i ordered from CRK!!! Shit! Now i have to reestablish some sense of why i need the Sebenza to my wife when it comes in :eek:

Domestic justifications on you spent so much on a knife, that isfor a whole'nother thread and in a different subforum. ;) Just tell her that you are going to have 2-3 higher end knives and not mes with the production knives.
Why be on the fence? You've already dropped the money, what is $25 more? Just get it done and over with.
 
I'm kind of on the fence about sending it back....i really don't want to go thru all this bullshit about calling him back, checking over the new one, $25 more shipping, insurance to Canada etc...blah blah blah.

I even told him that i live in the Atlanta suburbs, and i'll be at the blade show. I'd bring the knife and my receipt, and we can both look it over there and see what we can do, and his response was, "he didn't want to drag this out for a month, and that he wouldn't have a table there....he was a "sponsor"....

And the worst part about this was that the money i spent on the Strider was the money for my Sebenza i ordered from CRK!!! Shit! Now i have to reestablish some sense of why i need the Sebenza to my wife when it comes in :eek:

I can't help you with your wife, it took me 23 years to train mine :)

You shouldn't have to pay for shippng.... I can't blame you for not wanting to ship it back to Canada, contact Strider I'm sure they'll fix the knife.
 
For what it's worth, here (from the Blue Line Gear Strider FAQ) is what Mick has to say about blade centering:

Mick Strider said:
41. What is the cause for off center blades on some folders?

Per Mick Strider: “The way our pivot works is this:
Our folders pivot on an “open pivot”, a shaft made of hardened 416 stainless steel that is .390”. Our pivot is designed to slide through the G10/Ti and index into the Ti on the other side. The pivot is then held captive using a bolt that threads directly into the center of the pivot shaft. The smallest part in the pivot assembly is this bolt. Its diameter measures .303”.

The second strongest pivot I have seen uses a 6-32 screw to hold the pivot shaft. A 6-32 screw has a diameter of .134”.
The Blade pivots around the shaft and between two bronze bearings that are .020” thick each. We don’t use anything but Bronze bearings because these folders are made for very hard use, and we learned a long time ago that bearings made of lesser material don’t hold up well in surf zone or dessert environments.

For our discussion, let’s use an AR as a test piece.

An AR has a pivot shaft that is .390” +0/-.001.
It has two bronze bearings that are .02”+/- .0002 thick.
Blade thickness is .190” +0/-.002
For those of you who don’t understand the measurements, +/- stands for plus or minus and represents the degree of variance we are willing to except in our parts. A measurement of .001 is one, one thousandth of an inch.

Now let’s do some math.
In order for a blade to pivot around a shaft that is .390”, the hole has to be at least .391”/.392”. Or it will not pivot, but act as a press fit part.
We ream our pivots to .3915” using a Mori Seiki NV5000 Vertical milling center. This machine is considered to be one of the most accurate made. Our holes have a variance of .3915”/.392, or one tenth of one thousandth of an inch. Give or take…
Our blade length on an AR from pivot center to tip is 4.685”

So……

We have a blade and pivot assembly. The pivot is .390 +0/-.01 let’s just say it is .389”…missed it by .001.
And our Blade has a hole that is .392”. I rounded these off because I hate math.

Okay we missed on the pivot by .001 and on the blade hole by .0005.
That is a stack of .0015 of missed tolerance at the pivot.

BUT…..we also need to add the scales. In order for the pivot to slide through the scales (sides of the knife) it has to have some clearance. We like it to be tighter than the blade, but not a press fit. So we ream them with the same reamer .3915. They are made of Ti and G10, therefore they don’t cut as cleanly as the steel, They just come out a little more tight by nature.

Let’s add that now.

So we have a stack of:
Pivot .001
Blade hole .0005
Scale side one .001
Scale side two .001

Total .0035

Or three and five tenth of a thousandth total missed tolerance.
Now let's call that blade play.

If we have roughly .0035 of blade play at the pivot, and we compound that by the length of the blade, what will our total amount of blade play be at the tip?
Sure we can pull some of that out by tightening the pivot….but then your knife will be stiff……couldn’t have that….
So what you get is a blend of taking all of those parts and making the very best knife we can.
IF it turns out that the knife functions better when the blade is not perfectly centered……then we don’t make it perfectly centered. Centered doesn’t mean good. Good means good. If the person that gets the knife isn’t happy with how the blade centering looks, they can send it in and we’ll make them happy. Even if in the end, the knife looks better than it works.

Our goal is to make you guys happy. BUT remember, there is an ass for every seat, some people like a loose pivot, some tight.
We’ll never make EVERYONE happy on the first try.”
 
At Neuron^

I had read that last night, and it made me understand the centering issue a little better.

What type of "spa treatment" (warranty) does Strider offer? I'm thinking of using the SMF for a good while, and then have it shipped off to them to maybe get it sharpened, centered a little better.

If anything else happens with this, i'll post something, but i'm not going to beat a dead horse anymore.

Thanks for everyone's input....helped me know what's acceptable and what's not
 
What type of "spa treatment" (warranty) does Strider offer? I'm thinking of using the SMF for a good while, and then have it shipped off to them to maybe get it sharpened, centered a little better.
Their warranty service is very well-regarded, although it's a little different from most other companies in that their modus operandi is "just send it in". They'd rather you just send the knife in with a note describing the issue and let them have a look at it than spend a bunch of time calling or emailing them to discuss the issue. If you want a centered blade, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to do that for you (even if, as noted in the post from the FAQ, it means that the knife opens a bit less smoothly).
 
*UPDATE*

Trying to be fair here..just got an email from TNK, saying to send it to Josh at Strider knives, and upon confirnmation, TNK will issue a refund.
 
*UPDATE*

Trying to be fair here..just got an email from TNK, saying to send it to Josh at Strider knives, and upon confirnmation, TNK will issue a refund.

Cool. :) :thumbup:

Josh will take care of you. :thumbup::cool:
 
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*UPDATE*

Trying to be fair here..just got an email from TNK, saying to send it to Josh at Strider knives, and upon confirnmation, TNK will issue a refund.

So.... You are getting your money back? You don't want the knife?:confused:
 
I'm going to call Josh today, and ask him to honestly look at the knife, and if there's something they can do, awesome. If not, i'll tell them to keep it, and TNK will refund the money. I don't want to get my money back or any of that crap unless i'm forced...i absolutely love the knife, and really am impressed with it. Just want it to be right.
 
I'm going to call Josh today, and ask him to honestly look at the knife, and if there's something they can do, awesome. If not, i'll tell them to keep it, and TNK will refund the money. I don't want to get my money back or any of that crap unless i'm forced...i absolutely love the knife, and really am impressed with it. Just want it to be right.

Josh will treat you right, you can bet on that one. :thumbup:
 
I recently got into Strider Knives and love them. The fit and finish are excellent. I own three SNGs and one SMF. I did purchase one with an off center blade but wasn't a big deal to me. I'll take it apart and re-center it myself. That being said a scratch on the handle from a distributor is unacceptable. I would definitely send it back on their dime and ask for a replacement or refund. Striders being hard use knives are NOT an excuse for a scratch on the handle on a $500+ knife. I have purchased a few knives from TNK and have not had any problems but they should take care of you.
 
Just looked over my well used SNG CC very closely, and there is not one scratch on the G10. I have a few scratches and polished edges on the Ti, but nothing on the G10. I've put the knife through a lot so I'd say it took something serious to scratch the G10 that way. Just my two cents...

Good luck with sending it in.
 
To make a long story short- I already apologized to the OP and will do so here as well.

I behaved badly on the phone with him when he called regarding his knife and I jumped to a conclusion that was incorrect and I acted unprofessionally.

No big story or excuse- just my bad judgment to the situation.

We will look after this and get the OP a new knife, or whatever he wants- including a refund.

Neil Ostroff
 
Peace :thumbup:

To make a long story short- I already apologized to the OP and will do so here as well.

I behaved badly on the phone with him when he called regarding his knife and I jumped to a conclusion that was incorrect and I acted unprofessionally.

No big story or excuse- just my bad judgment to the situation.

We will look after this and get the OP a new knife, or whatever he wants- including a refund.

Neil Ostroff
 
To make a long story short- I already apologized to the OP and will do so here as well.

I behaved badly on the phone with him when he called regarding his knife and I jumped to a conclusion that was incorrect and I acted unprofessionally.

No big story or excuse- just my bad judgment to the situation.

We will look after this and get the OP a new knife, or whatever he wants- including a refund.

Neil Ostroff


Very nice indeed. :)
 
To make a long story short- I already apologized to the OP and will do so here as well.

I behaved badly on the phone with him when he called regarding his knife and I jumped to a conclusion that was incorrect and I acted unprofessionally.

No big story or excuse- just my bad judgment to the situation.

We will look after this and get the OP a new knife, or whatever he wants- including a refund.

Neil Ostroff

That's what customer service is all about and why I will continue to purchase knives from TNK.
 
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