What knife has left the biggest impression - good and bad?

Comeuppance

Comeuppance

Fixed Blade EDC Emisssary
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
4,765
Bad - Will Moon Mk 6. I bought it directly from the guy, paid full price up front, he said he was going to refit the blue twill inlay and re-anodize the knife to sunset gold. It was already built, mind you.

I send him messages every two weeks asking about the knife. “Just about to ship it”, “Just need to do X and it’ll be on its way”, “You’ll have it by the end of the week.”

Four months pass.

The knife finally arrives. He shipped a $1200 knife uninsured in a flatrate box with no signature confirmation or anything, nor did he send me tracking info. None of the work he said was going to be done has been done. The blade was off-center and had play. The detent is nonexistent and the flipping action is very poor, with a gritty pivot. The inlay is shoddily set and the finish looked awful.

I sent it back for a full refund. I could not believe how full of it that guy was. Everyone had such nice things to say about him and his knives, but… I certainly did not get that experience.

Good - Large Sebenza 21 Insingo with Carbon Fiber inlays.

The only knife I miss.

 
Kershaw Blur; despite the "odd" looks I thought to myself, I wanted to try the sandvik steel and it was the right size for what I like to carry, between 3"-3.5".

I now own 10...

(Also my cold steel code4 is getting much appreciation for the amount of knife you get for the price, and cts-xhp is earning more respect whenever I use it... And my $10 Kilimanjaro Vertice reaffirmed for me that you can't always judge a knife entirely on its price).
 
I would say my BK9. Never had such a large knife that was good for pretty much everything.
As for bad, I don't have one for you. I do deep research into every blade I buy, and buy exactly what I want. Nothing I have has disappointed me, honestly.
 
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Good: Everything I ever bought from Justin King was so perfect it hurt my eyes. I sold two of his knives and regretted it for years, so badly that I hunted down people who had some record of possessing them and nearly pleaded to buy them. I have two now, and the regret has finally subsided after nearly six years.

Bad: No comment.
 
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Good- Spyderco Manx 2 XL. Surprisingly easy to carry, rock solid lock, lots of jumping.

Bad-Emerson CQC 7 Waved. They are well built and strong, but the chisel grind and wave made it a catch and release for me.
 
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Hmm. Good question.

Good: for a long time, I have been enjoying the Spyderco Centofante 3 as much as any knife I own. I can't really articulate why that is, except that I love the thinness, the feel in the hand, the small Spydie hole, and even the riveted pivot. I just dig it as an EDC knife.

Bad: I honestly can't come up with one. From Sanrenmu to Sebenza, I love every one of them.

20150628_143202_zpsmumuxv9l.jpg

Spyderco Centofante 3.
 
Do they just go over like that or do you have to push the lockbar significantly to get it to go there? Im only asking because every knife I have with a lockbar insert and a non curved lockface will do that if you try hard enough.
 
Blues Bender said:
This should sum it up pretty well...

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Is that an 0562CF? That sucks... How's the 0454 holding up? Just came across a resurrected thread where you mentioned it as one you liked. I hope that one didn't fail completely too, because I still want one. The 0452CF isn't the same... the 0454 is the closest I can get to a custom Sinkevich.
 
PURPLEDC said:
Do they just go over like that or do you have to push the lockbar significantly to get it to go there? Im only asking because every knife I have with a lockbar insert and a non curved lockface will do that if you try hard enough.
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I have to push it, but it doesn't take much force at all. I can do something as simple as cut wood lath and the lock will need to be undone with 2 hands. They're the only knives I have had this problem with.
 
Good - Spyderco Southard. It excels in every way that I need it to, and that steel is amazing.

Bad - Benchmade. I was a HUGE Benchmade fan until they enforced their MAPP pricing while their QC went down the toilet. I consistently received new knives with tons of blade play, bad grinds, and my #1 pet peeve, off-centered blades. It got so bad that I sent 3 consecutive knives back to Benchmade for repair immediately after receiving them from online dealers (1 of them came back with the same problems that I sent it in to have fixed). I have not purchased a single Benchmade since then, although I still own quite a few older Benchmades and probably will never part with them.

Honorable Mention for Bad Impression - ZT knives. I've owned 0350's, 0550's, 0560's, 0200, and an 0566. I didn't keep a single one. Either too big, too bulky, problems with blade steel, sticky lockbars, extremely late lock-up, or overall just too tacticool for me. As a side note, I despise their limited edition release policies and especially the secondary market prices of those limited editions. How is it that you can get a NIB Eklipse for less than a used 0392???

Edited to add - The only times that I was ever P.O.'d at someone here on bladeforums, it was always an overzealous ZT fanboy attacking someone for having anything negative to say about ZT. I would say that that behavior did more to turn me off to ZT than any of the experiences that I've had with their products, obviously some good and some bad. Remember, this is just my impression, YMMV.
 
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Sikael said:
Is that an 0562CF? That sucks... How's the 0454 holding up? Just came across a resurrected thread where you mentioned it as one you liked. I hope that one didn't fail completely too, because I still want one. The 0452CF isn't the same... the 0454 is the closest I can get to a custom Sinkevich.
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Yes, it's an 0562 and an 0452 in the pic.

0454 is the same way. It's a damn cool design though, so I like to carry it from time to time.

I edited out the pics in hope that I wouldn't get asked a bunch of questions:o but yea, I hate ZT...

Fun story: I was push-cutting lengths of rope at work one time and the 0452's lock got stuck and I was wearing gloves. I couldn't get it unstuck, so I had to take my gloves off. It happened a 2nd time, so I got pissed and threw the knife into a pile of drywall scraps:D I went and got my Spyderco gayle Bradley out of my car to finish the job "properly". I almost left the ZT there as "junk" but I couldnt waste my $ like that.
 
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@Blues Bender, Yikes. Hope you got your money back.

Best: Spyderco Manix 2. My first upscale Spyderco and it's been a love affair ever since.

Worst: Cold Steel Voyager Vaquero XL. It quite literally made the BIGGEST impression. :p

It was the knife that made me realize I like folders to be in the <9" OAL size range. And also that I hate tacticool stuff. Sold it.
 
Bad would be an Emerson CQC-15. I fell in love with the wave due to a friend, so I picked that knife up and it was truly awful. Lock stick, lock rock, horribly gritty pivot, pivot screw backed entirely out in a matter of days, just every bad stereotype about Emerson knives you hear. I have a Super CQC-8 that doesn't have nearly as many issues, but that one really put me off.

Good is probably the Kizer Ki5404A2. Not my favorite knife or the best knife I own, but I managed to snag it for around $100 and I was absolutely blown away by how much knife I got for the money. Build quality and materials are absolutely amazing for the price.
 
Blues Bender said:
Yes, it's an 0562 and an 0452 in the pic.

0454 is the same way. It's a damn cool design though, so I like to carry it from time to time.

I edited out the pics in hope that I wouldn't get asked a bunch of questions:o but yea, I hate ZT...

Fun story: I was push-cutting lengths of rope at work one time and the 0452's lock got stuck and I was wearing gloves. I couldn't get it unstuck, so I had to take my gloves off. It happened a 2nd time, so I got pissed and threw the knife into a pile of drywall scraps:D I went and got my Spyderco gayle Bradley out of my car to finish the job "properly". I almost left the ZT there as "junk" but I couldnt waste my $ like that.
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That's... really disappointing. But what can you do? A fail is a fail. I hear you about the questions, but it's good to know... I like getting first-hand info, even if it's bad, about knives I like (I can delete the photos if you want.)
 
Sikael said:
That's... really disappointing. But what can you do? A fail is a fail. I hear you about the questions, but it's good to know... I like getting first-hand info, even if it's bad, about knives I like (I can delete the photos if you want.)
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I would leave the photo's if I were you. If you remove the pics, someone will come in here and call BS on a ZT ever having been flawed. At least, this has been my experience in the past.
 
Accelerator said:
I would leave the photo's if I were you. If you remove the pics, someone will come in here and call BS on a ZT ever having been flawed. At least, this has been my experience in the past.
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I like ZT, but pretending an obviously flawed model is fine when it isn't doesn't do ZT any favors. Back to the OP...
 
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