What should I look for, re: QC?

  • Thread starter Thread starter GC
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G

GC

Joined
Sep 17, 1999
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190
Gentlemen,
I'm kinda new to knives, but I was wondering, when selecting an individual knife from others of the same model (as from a dealers display) what quality control indicators are there to look for? In other words, if I have six of the same model to choose from, what should I look for in order to select one as the best of the lot? I'm guessing a tight lock up, liner not rubbing the blade, what is a spine test? Are there indications the steel may be faulty? Your help is appreciated.
 
A spine test is when you whack the spine of the blade really hard on something in an effort to get the knife to close itself. MOst knife shops will frown upon this practice. Faulty steel is pretty uncommon in production knives. The blades are ground and heat treated in large lots, so generally they are all pretty much the same. In the rare event that one had a bad heat treat or was faulty in some other way you'd get a quick warranty. Make sure you look at the types of steel (I'm into VG-10 eight now, although it is rare to see on knives), and make sure you know what companies have certain trends. For example, Benchmade tends to overharden their blades and the ATS-34 seems a little on the brittle side.

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