WedgeAntilles
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- Jan 25, 2020
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The guillotine bounce back is a tuning issue. My Norseman (#5432) doesn't really have that issue. I believe it is more common on earlier ones than more recent ones.
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What high end flipper knife to buy next
- Thread starter scorp38
- Start date
personally i cant stand the norseman, i think its ugly. very very ugly. and i never understood the appeal, it's just not very interesting across the board. ugliest blade ive ever seen, and just a mspaint texturing slapped across the plain slab scales. boring, uninspired. okay boring might be a bit disingenuous but regardless, i really dont like it lol
the arius is an amazing knife, and so is the shiro. you really cannot go wrong with either. personally, i am partial to shiro. the shiros feel like a state of the art modern supercar, and the arius feels like a 1966 mustang. choose which one appeals to you more. if warranty is a concern, go with koenig. if you want a knife that feels like a space ship, get the shiro. another thing about shiro is they are the absolute kings of fitting the absolutely biggest blade they can into the smallest handle they can. so while it might be an almost 4 inch long blade, it carries more like a normal 3.5in knife. the f3 is my favorite model, f95 second. shiros also have all sorts of little easter eggs and treats integrated into them. little logos for the bearing style inside the handle, texturing in areas you would never look at. i love the arius, but shiros are just on another level of detail. to be honest nothing else comes close to a shiro, it feels truly special. arius has more of a drop shut free moving action, shiros are infamous for glassy smooth hydraulic action. i dont even like detent ramps but shiros have them, executed better than anything else on the market. so smooth you cant even feel the transition to the detent ball. i know koenig does good heat treat but no one does better than shiro on a production knives. shiro is doing custom individual blade heat treats on all their production knives. not 5-10 at a time, not 20, not 50. one. at. a. time. they never fall outside the optimal range. ever.
note how much more edge the shiros have yet how much more sleek and easier carrying than the arius. the handles are all of similar or equal length, yet the shiro fits a significantly longer blade inside. its more slender overall so it carries much better.
these are all keepers in my collection. i will never not have an arius, f3, and f95 of some kind. amazing knives all three. i just think shiro's are better if i had to choose.
the arius is an amazing knife, and so is the shiro. you really cannot go wrong with either. personally, i am partial to shiro. the shiros feel like a state of the art modern supercar, and the arius feels like a 1966 mustang. choose which one appeals to you more. if warranty is a concern, go with koenig. if you want a knife that feels like a space ship, get the shiro. another thing about shiro is they are the absolute kings of fitting the absolutely biggest blade they can into the smallest handle they can. so while it might be an almost 4 inch long blade, it carries more like a normal 3.5in knife. the f3 is my favorite model, f95 second. shiros also have all sorts of little easter eggs and treats integrated into them. little logos for the bearing style inside the handle, texturing in areas you would never look at. i love the arius, but shiros are just on another level of detail. to be honest nothing else comes close to a shiro, it feels truly special. arius has more of a drop shut free moving action, shiros are infamous for glassy smooth hydraulic action. i dont even like detent ramps but shiros have them, executed better than anything else on the market. so smooth you cant even feel the transition to the detent ball. i know koenig does good heat treat but no one does better than shiro on a production knives. shiro is doing custom individual blade heat treats on all their production knives. not 5-10 at a time, not 20, not 50. one. at. a. time. they never fall outside the optimal range. ever.
note how much more edge the shiros have yet how much more sleek and easier carrying than the arius. the handles are all of similar or equal length, yet the shiro fits a significantly longer blade inside. its more slender overall so it carries much better.
these are all keepers in my collection. i will never not have an arius, f3, and f95 of some kind. amazing knives all three. i just think shiro's are better if i had to choose.
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I think the attention to detail and mill work on Grimsmo is superb, the fitment looks from what I can tell to be above and beyond especially for not using wire edm. I also like the blade shape it is very utilitarian and I can think of 100 uses for that tanto recurve. Yes im a fan of the shiro handle blade ratios just like Brian Nadeau designs they are very esthetically appealing. Im more of a fan of the shiro design out of the 3 for sure. Like I mentioned before im getting all 3 just a matter of order and wanted to see what the community thought. I've decided im getting an f95nl or HaTi i cant find a new f3 and what I thought was the stellar is the HaTi I want the full size 95mm. Again not well versed on shiro models yet im trying to learn.
I agree the norseman blade is probably very nice to use, i just cant get over the way that it looks. i can imagine if it appeals to you, that it does so very much. the quintessential love it or hate it type of knife.
Personally I like the f95 more than the hati, I've owned both. they are basically the same knife, one is just a titanium scale and the other is cf. i like a little more weight, so i prefer the f95, but many prefer the hati. you cannot go wrong with either. as i stated previous, the f3 is my favorite of the bunch, but yes they are hard to find. i like that they are contoured more than the f series flippers, and i appreciate the liner lock aspect since there is no lockbar for your grip to interfere with. the slightest amount of pressure on a f95/hati lockbar will lock you out of deployment, but this is not unique to shiro. i would have no qualms about buying a used one from the right seller, recon1 comes to mind. arizona custom knives too. you can find like new condition shiros on the secondary and here on the exchange regularly, as most dont use them and tend to take very good care of their pieces. i actually got all of my shiros from members here, except the hati i owned which i bought new from r1. if you want to buy from someone here, you will need the $10 or $30 per year membership to unlock the ability to dm. Considering the quality and condition and prices of knives that get posted here, it's well worth it, and will pay for itself and then some with one purchase.
Yeah im buying new from recon they have a white carbon hati that im going to pull the trigger on i think.
Jacques Mi
Gold Member
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- Jan 27, 2021
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- 1,537
Warrenty and general customer service from Arno Bernard is top notch too.
Their Turaco with mammuth molar inlays is just a pinch below what OP is searching for. Worth checking out...
Jsega51
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2015
- Messages
- 9,415
Those Gen3 Hati’s are awesome, I have the Halloween special edition and it’s one of my favorite Shiro’s.
(UPDATE) Going to be long winded. So in my research on these knives from a market research standpoint and yalls help Ive come to these conclusions. I'll be purchasing a Shirogorov F95 platform of some sort, not sure if I want a HaTi, F95nl, or F95 full ti yet. I might get a stellar cf due to the inset liner lock being preferable.
Koenig Arius: there seem to be alot on the secondary at pretty low prices and lots of them sitting on websites with exceptions being carbon, dlc and limited editions. Not knowing production numbers they could just be pumping these things out like crazy and thats why the market is over saturated. This leads me to believe this is 100% a hype knife and not what most people arr expecting when they get it or its over produced. It may be well made I love that its USA made in Idaho but not worthy of being a first $1000+ knife cause it would have to be a limited run or full dlc which doesn't add anything to the build quality. I will buy one eventually but it will be a non flipper low end model probably just milled handle for around $800.
Grimsmo Norseman: too polarizing to be a hype knife in my opinion. There are very few on the market and the ones that are, are at or above box price for the most part. The people who have them seem to love them and keep onto them with around 8500 being produced over 12ish years I think they are very low production knife. Worthy of a $1000+ knife based on everything ive seen from them machining is top notch. Quality control and CQI seem to be important to them. But I dont care for the guillotine drop shut action very much and reports of bounce back from being too fast closing turn me away. I love the design of the knife which alot of people hate lol but I'll be picking one of these up eventually if I can get it in a config I like. I will probably purchase this on the secondary though.
Shirogorov F95: is the clear cut winner here without question. Based on 1st hand reviews they are a far more consistantly well made. They have been on the market over 15 years they still hold their value extremely well and few are on the secondary market and the ones that are are at or above box. Again I dont know production numbers but they seem to be low. Still hard to obtain new they do not sit around long. The smooth controlled action is harder to achieve from a mechanical standpoint than a drop shut guillotine action. I feel they are better machined with better tolerances and tuned better than koenig or Grimsmo. I think the overall esthetic is more appealing as well. The handle to blade ratio is perfect and the NL models are absolutely beautiful the way they do the carbon inlays.
Koenig Arius: there seem to be alot on the secondary at pretty low prices and lots of them sitting on websites with exceptions being carbon, dlc and limited editions. Not knowing production numbers they could just be pumping these things out like crazy and thats why the market is over saturated. This leads me to believe this is 100% a hype knife and not what most people arr expecting when they get it or its over produced. It may be well made I love that its USA made in Idaho but not worthy of being a first $1000+ knife cause it would have to be a limited run or full dlc which doesn't add anything to the build quality. I will buy one eventually but it will be a non flipper low end model probably just milled handle for around $800.
Grimsmo Norseman: too polarizing to be a hype knife in my opinion. There are very few on the market and the ones that are, are at or above box price for the most part. The people who have them seem to love them and keep onto them with around 8500 being produced over 12ish years I think they are very low production knife. Worthy of a $1000+ knife based on everything ive seen from them machining is top notch. Quality control and CQI seem to be important to them. But I dont care for the guillotine drop shut action very much and reports of bounce back from being too fast closing turn me away. I love the design of the knife which alot of people hate lol but I'll be picking one of these up eventually if I can get it in a config I like. I will probably purchase this on the secondary though.
Shirogorov F95: is the clear cut winner here without question. Based on 1st hand reviews they are a far more consistantly well made. They have been on the market over 15 years they still hold their value extremely well and few are on the secondary market and the ones that are are at or above box. Again I dont know production numbers but they seem to be low. Still hard to obtain new they do not sit around long. The smooth controlled action is harder to achieve from a mechanical standpoint than a drop shut guillotine action. I feel they are better machined with better tolerances and tuned better than koenig or Grimsmo. I think the overall esthetic is more appealing as well. The handle to blade ratio is perfect and the NL models are absolutely beautiful the way they do the carbon inlays.
I agree. I received my Turaco about two months ago and I love it. I think the OP is not fond of M390 and that is the steel. It is a great knife.
I won't not buy something cause its m390 I just dont prefer it. Its the modern day s30v everything uses it. Not that its "bad" just not my preference. Much better steels out there considering the price range were talking about.
WedgeAntilles
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2020
- Messages
- 995
Which steel(s) would you prefer?
Depends on the purpose of the knife. For high end knives that won't be used hard I prefer s90v or magnacut heat treated on the high end. For useres I like cruwear, 3v, m4 I still find s35vn to be my favorite overall steel it holds an edge well never have it chip and it strops back easily.
The way Shiro does the inlays is very interesting indeed, that most people are not aware of. I bet that even most owners don't realize the intricacies of how the inlays are done, you have to intentionally look at them very closely. They sit proud of the handle, obviously, but the height is taller at the spine than it is at the blade opening, and they appear to taper off toward the front and rear. This makes the handle feel like you have more purchase, locking it into your grip. It also has subtle texturing and a bit of relief for the contact patch of the pocket clip. I've tried to capture some of the detail with my trash phone but it might not come across well
Yup, I realized this doing research. I didnt know they had micro milling on em though. I have an ckf rotten that has carbon inlays and they are done the same way just proud of the suface with noticeable micro milling just no taper contoured though. Love em
this is another example of why i love shiro so much and am constantly brown nosing them on the internet LOL it's the little tiny details that most people do not see and they get no recognition for, yet they still do them. stuff like texturing in areas inside the knife that only are visible if you disassemble. or heat treating the blades one at a time. sure it adds cost, some people might say needlessly, but i think it all adds up to a ultimately superior product and just goes to show how much effort and care they put into their knives.
I will say that now that i've looked more closely at some of the grimsmo pieces, they appear to do alot of small detail touches in a similar manner. ive yet to handle one physically though so i cant give a truly fair assessment, but a friend traded for a rask and sent me some videos and it was quite impressive. they havent stole my heart like shiro but i would like to try one some day and see what all the fuss is about. i still hate the norseman! but a rask i could perhaps be into.
Yes grimsmo does the same sort of stuff they anodize all their interior hardware that you cant see. They do beautiful milling patterns on the inside that you won't see their lockbar inserts alone are insane. Logo milled in beautifully chamfered. Watch some of their videos they have around hour long videos on every aspect of making their knives. Very cool work.
yeah here is some detail shots of an Astrum
this is inside the pocket clip, all that detail and texturing
and here is inside the lockbar. so you have to disassemble the knife, AND remove the inset lock mechanism, then you unlock the details on this
Beautiful knife, I really do like that.
Hello friends! I received a Koenig Mini Arius last week. My humble opinion after having gone through artisans, Crk, Trevor Burger, etc., is that Koenig are first level. What happens is that there was a time when they were really undisputed number 1, but now there are many options on the market, and it becomes increasingly difficult to opt for a Koenig and not an Oz for example, I think that when you buy Koenig, Shiro, Oz, Grimsmo, Holt.... you are buying the highest quality, and I think what influences the most is the design, in that price range you have to buy the one we like best, the quality is assured, greetings friends