Did someone ask for a Starmate/Wegner comparison? I've been toting a Starmate since about as soon as the plain-edge became available (#538, plain-edges starting at 500) but that's only been a month or so. I acquired a Wegner on my recent trip to Golden. So this will be largely impressions of shape and construction, as neither knife has seen hard use.
The most striking thing about the two knives is that when you put the handles and fittings aside, the blades are nearly identical. Both are essentially hollow-ground drop-points with a long straight section, substantial belly, and a tough, centered tip - not a needle, but still effective for starting a cut. The Starmate blade is slightly longer and has a
very shallow false edge that is purely cosmetic. The Starmate is in the 5/32" stock that it inherits from its Military cousin (perhaps more justified in the Military's full flat grind), versus the Wegner's 1/8" stock. Given the thinner stock and a slightly higher grind, blade geometry on the Wegner is expected to be slightly better, but not on any practical scale. One difference that should be quite noticeable in use is the steel; the Wegner is in the quite good ATS-34, while the Starmate boasts the fantastic particle-formed 440V.
It's worth noting that the blades differ around the hole - the Starmate has a "normal" sized hole, a sort of artistic flair on the hump, and fairly inneffectual grooving of the spine only down where it rests between the scales. The Wegner has a slightly smaller hole (so far no problem for me) and a long, effective area of grooving all along the backside of the hump.
After the blade, nearly all similarities end. Both knives are liner-locks, but the Starmate uses a nested liner with its lock set by an eccentric pivot. The Wegner has a full single liner with a standard pivot, so its locking position is set by the eyes of the craftsmen who build it (I examined several in order to find one with a lockup that allowed for wear; many Japanese-made linerlocks seem to have a locking bar which travels clear to the opposite scale before lockup
).
The Starmate blade locks against a steel stop-pin held by pressure in its scales, while the Wegner uses a system I've been eager to see more of, and instead locks against the front face of a full-length steel spacer. This gives the knife a closed back, good weight, and a very sturdy feel. While the Starmate is certainly sturdy, it has a lighter handle and only a partial spacer. A matter of personal preference, but I like the Wegner's approach, aside from the ugliness of its single full liner.
The construction of the Starmate is by Torx screws countersunk in both scales and threading into steel inserts in its spacer. This allows naughty customers to disassemble the knife for cleaning or modification. The Wegner, in contrast, has steel pins that pass through its spacer and liner and are domed against each scale. It also has a pin from the clip-side scale that holds the liner at the base of the lock. Disassembling this knife would require driving or drilling out the pins and replacing them - yuck! I can't say which construction method is ultimately stronger, but both knives are definitely tough enough for any reasonable use.
The Starmate uses its own unique clip, which is straight and surrounds the pivot in a manner similar to the Military. It screws into the nested liner with three 2-56 screws. The Wegner uses a standard Spydie clip, but I have two gripes with its attachment. The first is that it uses three 3-56 screws that only thread into the G-10 scale, despite the availability of the steel liner to hold threads. The second is that it is at the butt-end, which I am definitely against on a knife this size. This draw places the knife in the hand, but on a knife this large my thumb is far from the hole and I must "scoot" my grip awkwardly forward to open the knife. I have nothing against tip-up carry in a small knife, where a natural draw places it in the hand and ready to open, but if the knife is too large to allow this (and my hands are a bit small) I find it the slowest possible deployment, unless I open the knife with a very unfriendly wrist-flick. I'll be moving the clip on mine to allow tip-down carry and a "drop" opening.
The bad news is that I don't care for the grip on either knife; the good news is that both are easily fixed.
The Starmate only has a cutout for lock access on one side of the handle. This obstructs the hole from the clip side (important for fast access in "drop opening"), makes indexing sketchy, and leaves your finger to wrap around the rather sharp edge of the locking bar. I modified mine by putting this groove on both sides and increasing its width forward, which clears the hole, provides a solid finger-groove for indexing, and is more comfortable for me. This "locks" my grip in very comfortably, but it would not work well for someone with very large hands. The Starmate handle is also quite straight, a real departure from the curved handles of most Spydercos. This lets it support a hammer-grip much better, though it saber-grips well, and is just a nice change from the usual knives I carry (Military, Police, AFCK, etc.)
The grip on the Wegner puzzles me greatly. At the front is an enormous finger-groove, its entire length notched for better purchase on the lock. This groove is much too long and too shallow for one finger, but too short and too deeply curved for two (and, again, I have small hands!) Gripping the handle naturally, I find my first finger in the groove and my second on the hump that separates it from the rest of the handle. I don't get it! Despite this, the handle is very comfortable overall, with curves everywhere and excellent radiusing of the scales (the Starmate is chamfered). Quite opposite the Starmate, the handle is steeply curved, which I think I prefer overall, though it forces a saber-grip. My intention is to shorten the finger-groove area by removing some material to extend forward the curve on which the other fingers rest. This should be ideal for me, though I'm already shocked at how good the knife feels despite my clearly having the "wrong" grip. I would appreciate if Tim Wegner could explain the enormouse finger-groove area and whether it is intended for one huge finger or two tiny ones (it's 1 5/8" long).
Hmmm... this got quite long, didn't it. Well, new knife, ya know
To sum up:
I like both knives. Blades very similar, handles quite different. Starmate can be taken apart, Wegner can't. Starmate handle light and high-tech, Wegner handle heavy and brick-solid. Would prefer tip-down carry on the Wegner. Suggest modifying both handles, and am genuinely baffled at by the Wegner's finger groove despite liking it very much overall.
That's my $0.17 (at least!)
-Drew
