UKPK Price

M

MichaelScarn

Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
1,387
Why is the UKPK so expensive? Its like $80 new right????

I mean, I know its G10 and has S30V, but I dunno... its just a slipjoint.

You can get a native for around 50 that locks and also has S30V (albeit with FRN).

Is it because the market is limited?

Thanks.
 
MichaelScarn said:
Is it because the market is limited?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

That's possibly one element. I also don't think the MFG of these Slipits is not that much cheaper or easier to make than a liner lock or back lock.
 
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From what Sal Glesser has posted on the subject, G-10 has to be machined. The labor cost to put the stock into the milling machine and remove a finished scale is more than the cost of injection molding an entire FRN handle. A G-10 handle is seven times as expensive to make as an FRN handle. It probably doesn't help any that Spyderco's G-10 is custom made to Sal's specifications, with extra layers of fiberglass for strength.
 
No one else makes anything quite like it. (Ambidextrous one hand opening, with a pocket clip, and without a "locking" mechanism.)
The only reasonably comparable knife is also made by Spyderco - the Urban.

And it's made in the USA of expensive, top of the line materials.

So IMO, 79 bucks or so sounds about right.
 
I own a UKPK and find the fit and finish is exceptional.
Tolerances like that don't come cheap.
 
Esav is onto the reason for the price, as is yablanowitz.

Add in that the UKPK uses a ground blade of a premium steel compared to the common slip joint blade of a cheap steel being forged.

I also note that the UKPK and its brethren are not simple "slipjoints". A regular slip joint requires less machining than the mildly locking UKPK mechanism does.

Price simply reflects what was required to make the constituent parts.
 
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