What knife surprised you the most?

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Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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As the title states, "What knife surprised you the most?" for me it is those times when a certain knife was just never on my radar due to style, size, make, steel, scales etc etc...and recently my friend @DocJekl had sent along this Case Muskrat as a gift, not a knife that I ever gave a second glance at when perusing those places that carry sharp steely items ;) but when I got it I took and sharpened it up, as I am want to do with most knives that arrive, and was very pleased with how well it performed, Case notorious for softer heat treatment of their knives this one took a nice toothy edge and seems to keep it longer than most that I've owned. That's a good thing ;) and the blades are very handy with they're slim hollow ground pointy narrowness and are able to reach in and cut when you don't have much room to wield a blade any larger. Thanks again Doc, it rides daily in my watch pocket!

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

So, what knife surprised you guys/gals the most?
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fieryimp fieryimp wow, I never would have guessed that they would use aluminum lock bar! quite not good in my opinion too.

Back to Civivi, looking back boy I have had a lot of them and none of them were bad at all, just moved on to something else, one that I have bought over and over again, have one in my small collection now and she's stayin' put.

The Rustic Gent, a small gem of a folder, here's some that I recall that were once mine, should have kept them all, it would make a great collection IF I were a collector :(
I am sure there are a few that I did not keep images of, so, take that into consideration ;)

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

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IMG_7425 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

IMG_7426 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

and the only one that I recently bought that is still with me, has a small stainless steel bead of Odin, very detailed;

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2
 
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I have to second the rustic gent. I actually think I bought the one you sold Gary! I passed mine to a new father as a congrats present and I still miss it. Very well made with a solid handle that felt feather light with thin hollow ground blade. It’s everything you could need in a lock back without being overbuilt.

I have to add the full JE Made line as this Gunstock made my jaw drop. It has every bit of the build quality of a Reate/Pena at half the price. Materials are reasonably equivalent as well.

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DMG said:
I am always surprised by how confidently wrong people are about Benchmades politics
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If a company contributes to a political party I am 100% opposed to, then - yeah - I don't care to give them my money.
WTF is wrong with that?

I suppose you erroneously assumed I was referring to the gun-cutting issue a few years after the $$ contributed to a party I equate with lies and hate. That didn't set well with me either, but, I had given up on them long before that happened.
 
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Hal said:
If a company contributes to a political party I am 100% opposed to, then - yeah - I don't care to give them my money.
WTF is wrong with that?

I suppose you erroneously assumed I was referring to the gun-cutting issue a few years after the $$ contributed to a party I equate with lies and hate. That didn't set well with me either, but, I had given up on them long before that happened.
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Problem is, nowadays you’re describing both major parties lol. The challenge is, unless you’re doing a big comprehensive moral and ethical investigation into all the major employees at said company prior to purchase, it’s really just arbitrarily ‘cancelling’ a manufacturer or dealer based on information (which may or may not be correct) that happened to come to light. I bet you could find both really positive and really reprehensible facts about people at any of these companies. Personally, I’ve given up on the notion that we shouldn’t buy things from people just because they’re of a different political group (or any other group). If it’s a great product, that speaks for itself. If not, move along. No sense in getting flustered over it. I’ve got friends, family, and coworkers in all different political parties, and I actually like that mixture. The world would be a lot worse if we were all of the same mindset, and sometimes we agree to disagree. I just can’t imagine that getting in the way of a knife purchase. That’s my take, anyway.
 
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"Most" is tricky but this recent Kubey Thalia was pretty surprising. My synthetic interests have largely moved from G10 to Micarta. I hadn't been big on front flippers. I'd also moved past Chinese D2 (for a variety of reasons that have been discussed to death elsewhere on the forum). Still, I saw this on sale and I think I had a coupon that was going to expire. I liked the lines and said "what the heck".

Well, it turned out to be pretty good. The shape was indeed fantastic in my hand. The blade is very nice. Probably due to the geometry relative to my hand, it also had some of the best front-flipping action I've encountered. There was a tiny bit of blade play and tightening it impeded the action, so I solved it with Skiff bearings. The proud lock-bar jimping caused a minor hot spot so I ground it down a little. Now it's great!

So aside from enjoying the results here, this knife has inspired me both to try more front flippers and to try more deletion mods. :)

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Another Shepherd said:
That Manly City is very tempting, especially since it comes in orange, my favorite knife color. But Amazon refuses to ship it to me. I guess "Unisex-Adult" things are banned in Florida.

I guess I should not post the link, but here is how it is listed:

Manly Unisex - Adult City CPM-S90V Orange Pocket Knife, 175 cm​

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No joy plugging that into Amazon.
 
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I probably sound like a broken record, but the knife that surprised me most was the Kuzan Oda tanto I had before it burned up in a house fire. I bought it as protection for where I couldn't carry a gun; I'd gone back to college where by then (the late 80's) they werebanning firearms, and there were quite a few incidents of armed attacks at night in the areas I had to walk to get to class (why the hell do they put parking so far away from classes, especially at night?), which was when many of my classes were taught - I was in a hurry and on a tight budget to get my BBA, so I took classes whenever I could get them, most of those night classes that were mandatory shit you'll never use in the real world. Anyway, that knife turned out to be incredibly easy to conceal with a thin jacket or long-tailed shirt worn un-tucked, and it was an overall handy knife for general day to day knife tasks if you're familiar in using a 4" knnife for small jobs (and I was). I never thought I'd get attached to what's essentially a fighter and a fixed blade, but it turned out that was good for a lot of ordinary knife tasks as well - in fact, it was good at about any job I used a knife for. Makes no sense, but the shape of blade, handle, tsuba, sheath etc. just lent itself to anything that required cutting. The sheath was a simple thin leather thing but, in Japanese tradition, was just perfectly balanced for the knife. I had to watch myself that I didn't whip it out on campus for opening a box, etc., but it was simply so good at almost everything that it was in my hand almost before I knew it. I had to remind myself to carry a swayback or other small knife so no one knew I was carrying such a blade.

I've got a standing alert in at Atlanta Cutlery because they get a used one now and then, I just hope I can get one at a price I can afford. I really hope one of you knife collectors don't have it on your list, as I'd really like to have one to use and I can't afford to outbid you guys. Pick another knife please, guys, and let an old man have the blade he loves. It'll be back on the market in ten years or so by my heirs, and I promise not to misuse it in the meantime.
 
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A friend sent me his Benchmade CLA to sharpen and as soon as I took out of the package, I of course hit the button. It fired so hard that I lost my grip on it. It bounced off a table and landed on my foot. Good thing it is about as sharp as a marble right now. That was a surprise.
 
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