What brands WON'T you own?

Cold Steel. So many dissappointments, gimmicky and cheap designs, repulsive company ethics and mall-ninjaish.
 
WongKonPow said:
If you stay away from an entire brand of knives you could end up missing out on something you will genuinely like and enjoy.
Why cramp your horizons, when you can broaden them?

Not saying buy a knife you don't like, just saying that it's wiser to keep your options open.
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perfectly phrased! why would you stop yourself from buying knifes just because of a name?
 
Will not buy anymore SOG folding knives for the above mentioned quality issues, except their multitool line. I own one Tops knife (Wolfpup) that I suspect is one of their better products. (sharpest knife out of the box I ever owned.) I also own a CRKT My Tigh and a M21 that for the price are pretty good knives, though I probably will not get any more CRKT stuff. It's unlikely that I wouldnt buy any knife based on a company name with a few exceptions. I believe they all have something they do well at, though customer service image would be paramount in any choice I make.
 
My husband had a Gerber fall apart and has broken Buck blades cutting baler twine. He avoids those brands. Me, I'll carry anything as long as it's free.
 
Hmmm...I don't know that I have an absolute prohibition against buying any particular brand. I do try to avoid anything made by Chinese slave labor, but I won't rule out an interesting design from almost anyone.

I would find it difficult to buy from TOPS, Strider or Chris Reeve because they ask custom prices for production knives. This is just my opinion, I know others feel much differently. I doubt I'll buy any new Gerbers--QC has fallen apart. I might buy a CRKT or two for light duty--the Pazoodle (sp?) comes to mind. Dark Ops and Mantis are very unlikely because I don't feel the need to channel Gecko45.

Benchmade is falling more and more out of favor because they seem to be going out of their way to aggravate their customers. Buying the new Schrade or new Camillus is highly unlikely. My one experience owning a SOG has been a very good one, so they aren't as out of favor with me as they seem to be with others--but I'm not a big fan of any of their current offerings. Cold Steel? I have some of their older cheap models, but I hate to finance the hype these days.

I would like to own an Emerson CQC 10 and convert it to framelock, but the rest of the Emerson line seems overpriced to me. I do appreciate that his invention of the wave opener is worth something, though. I'm not a big Case fan mostly because I don't need any slip joints, but also because their QC has slipped as well.

Knives I will buy without hesitation:
Spyderco--every day of the week baby! My #1 brand!
Fallkniven-nicely designed and built
Buck-good value for the US made products
Mora/Frosts/Eriksson- best value there is
A.G. Russell-unique and practical designs
Kershaw-good value, some nice designs

Any brand not mentioned can be assumed to be in the "if they make something interesting I'll consider it" category.
 
the one time i needed a knife in an emergency (hurricane) and it failed me. KERSHAW. just can't bring myself to trust them again, sucks too... :grumpy:
 
pittsteele said:
the one time i needed a knife in an emergency (hurricane) and it failed me. KERSHAW. just can't bring myself to trust them again, sucks too... :grumpy:
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I would like to hear the details on this. What knife, how did it fail, etc?
 
probably Bark River and Strider. Other brands I generally avoid are MT, Kershaw, RAT, TOPS, a few others, but I don't exclude them totally. More along the lines of just try to find some other brand that makes something similar to whatever they have that interests me.
 
Dekz-
BOA, loved the knife, that's why it was my 'go-to' in that situation. when the chaos was going down i had to cut some rope/tarps and tie some doors closed and the lock failed and almost cut my fingers off. not a good time to be bleeding.
 
With all these people complaining of blade play and QC issue with SOG, and even with one of their men on the forum, SOG still isn't doing anything about all this? Especially in these times, customer service is what keeps a company making knives to going under. I don't see how long SOG can keep this up. :thumbdn:
 
My Dad has tried a lot of different brands over the years, out of curiosity mostly.
So I've seen a lot and there's still a lot of odds and ends around.
Dark Ops, he had a folder made by them and it had good fit and finish but it's gone now and I know he'd never buy another, nor would I. They are over-priced and over hyped.
SOG, I still have a couple of those he gave me. Haven't had any problems with them, but for the money I'd never buy one.
CRKT, I have a few of the older models he gave me and after using one to chop small limbs off hiking trails (and seeing the edge fold) I'd never buy one. I just keep a few that are discontinued and regard them as nice designs with inferior blade steel.
Gerber, there's a few older ones around the house and they are far better than the new off shore knives they sell now.
Cold Steel, a few are still around from way back and they are decent users. But, I'd never buy another. Anything they have now that appeals to me at all is way over priced.
Not much gets my cash now, besides Spyderco and a occasional model I like from Benchmade and Kershaw. I am thinking about a Chris Reeve folder, but that's as far as I've gone. Probably will try one in the near future.
 
KA-BAR KA-BAR Becker

I am disenchanted with their quality control and lackadaisical attitude about correcting the problem as every knife I purchased from them is blemished. I returned two and they sent me two others with different blemishes. Unacceptable quality control!

So until I hear some earth shattering news of the KA-BAR quality control department corrected methods, I will buy no more KA-BAR knives of any kind.
 
I am curious as to what Benchmade has done to get on peoples Bad List? I have had nothing but good experience with the knives, so what has there CS dept done to mess people over?

I wont buy anything Gerber anymore. I own some SOGS and like what i have from them but dont see myself buying anymore due to price and what you get.
I dont see myself getting anything from Ontario. I can spend a little more and get better QC.

sytletoy that is disheartening to hear about your KaBar Beckers. Have you brought this up over in the Becker forum? They seem to be pretty active over there and Ethan seems to respond alot.
 
Hmmm.... I don't think I could exclude a whole brand. There is at least 1 model that I like from most major brands. Even Gerber has the S30V Freeman that has piqued my interest. Well, Cold steel still might not have anything I like, but then again, I haven't looked through their entire line just yet. SOG has their Twitches - I have the Twitch II but I would not pick up another Flash II. SOG's stuff is mainly overpriced for what you get. But all the other have many models that I would at least consider buying.

If anything, I'd have to say that makers like Strider, Chris Reeves and the like would not get any of my business unless they drastically reduced their prices or I won the lottery. It is hard for me to even consider any of the upper echelon makers when I can get all the functionality I need at a fraction of the cost with other makers. The most I've spent on a knife was on a Zero Tolerance ZT0300 and I can't imagine that I'd need any more than that. It just seems absurd to me to spend $400+ on a knife that I use as a tool. I am not a collector, but a user so I don't feel the need to "have the best". So if a maker only offers expensive knives, it is a good bet that I will not buy from them.
 
Knives are tools, first and foremost. If they fit the job and the hand, it's a successful choice, regardless of the maker. A knife is much more the intent to balance materials, blade steel, ergonomics, features, and construction techniques to create something that in whole does a better job than another tool, however similar. The result is influenced by synergism, the creation of superiority in function beyond the simple addition of it's parts.

BUT - choosing to eliminate not only a knife, but a whole brand because of metaphysical concerns - like politics or the reputation of the maker, things that can't be scientifically evaluated or tested - is an emotional reaction. In that, everyone has the right - but as is pointed out, in America, you have the right to be wrong. And the more vociferous the opposition, especially when the products are useful, even superior, just drives others to investigate and ask why.

Some of the time it's discovered it's just a clique-ish thing of community identity to disparage a manufacturer. Other times, reasons have substance. Most of us agree that price influences our choices, and that the reputation of the customer service department could affect our decision, even though some complainers have what might be perceived as unrealistic expectations.

All that, however, is just a smokescreen for the real issue - does the purchaser actually understand the maker's intent - why they designed the knife for what job under what conditions? Those that do, and choose not to buy it are making a good decision. Those that don't understand and buy, or not buy, based on emotional assessement, just seem to dig themselves in deeper attempting to explain.

Buy on features and tasks, let them take you to the knife that can fill the need. That way a grossly mismatched tool for the job doesn't make the owner look like one too.
 
Strider - Probably great knives, I'm just not a fan of big heavy folders.

Bark River - Again, seem to be great knives. A friend has several and I really like some of the designs. However, they just don't have adequate size handles on them.

Cold Steel and Dark Ops - just because.
 
  • Leatherman - I had one of the knives and the screwdriver blade snapped into two sharp pieces. You could see the die-cast metal inside looking like foamcore. They fixed it, but I'm done. I have a Surge that I like, but it is prone to rust - more so than any other tool or knife I own.
  • Cold Steel - Love the videos - they make me feel like I'm 13 again - but I'm on my third try with knives. The first two were very overpriced crap - probably the worst knives I've gotten from a (somewhat) reputable manufacturer. The third, a MD Voyager is a fine knife, but overpriced and suffers by comparison to a Spyderco or Benchmade at the price.
  • Gerber - I had a coated Ridge that started to lose it's coating when I looked at it too hard. After light use, it wouldn't stay shut in my pocket.
 
Gerber, Dark Ops, and Mantis for me. None of Kershaw's designs have ever grabbed me enough to buy them yet (not a huge fan of spring assists, flipper folders, liner or frame locks, or recurved blades so that excludes most of their lineup) and CRKT needs to upgrade their steel and heat treatment before I'll consider them for anything more than novelty blades. SOG also doesn't do much for me. Most of their knives seem half-baked.

However I view companies on a knife-by-knife and ethical basis, so that's not to say that I'll ever completely exclude a company...Just some may either be too unscrupulous at the moment for me, or simply not produce anything that grabs my attention. :)
 
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