What would you guys do?

sixfeetdeep

sixfeetdeep

Joined
Feb 1, 2004
Messages
817
Ok, so I purchased a knife from JD Cutlery. He does anodizing on knives & sells them. I purchased a Reate Crossroads from him. My problem with the knife is this....
It was $375. The blade is slightly off center. The lock on it locks up very early. If you don't flip it open hard enough, the lock won't engage. On the one side of the blade at the tip, the grind is slightly wider. This is my 1st Chinese knife. For $375, you'd expect perfection, or better than this. I haven't had any of these issues with my Spyderco's, Benchmade's, Microtech's, Southern Grind & so on.
I emailed Jeff of JD Cutlery & Reate. Reate said to send it back to Jeff. Jeff's response was like he could see if he could center it better & work on the lock, but he said these knives usually have early lock up & some had slightly off centered blades & that he was surprised that Reate even wanted me to send it back to him. When I sent him the email that I wanted to send it back, he hasn't responded in days. I don't think it will be any better, but am I nit picking or should I expect better from a knife that costs that much? I mean it is absolutely beautiful, but the little things are bugging me.
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You can zoom in on the tip. I'm even contemplating returning the thing all together.
 
If I was in your position, I’d return that mangy dog of a knife and demand a refund immediately. An off-center blade on a $375 knife is absolutely unacceptable, so is a lock that barely engages or doesn’t engage at all, and so is an uneven grind. I have a Reate Hills that cost me less than half of what you paid and it has no problems or issues of any kind. IMO you got stuck with the Lemon Of The Year. My suggestion is that you refuse to accept anything other than a full refund and never deal with that vendor again. Good luck with your problem.
 
Its not really off center that bad. That wouldn’t bother me. Maybe a pivot adjustment could take care of that. Can it be returned once anodized? Is he authorized by the company to anodize it?
 
He is an authorized dealer. He does alot of anodizing so I'm guessing it's cool. I can return it, but there is a 5% restocking fee.
 
sixfeetdeep said:
He is an authorized dealer. He does alot of anodizing so I'm guessing it's cool. I can return it, but there is a 5% restocking fee.
Click to expand...
If I was in your position, I’d bite the bullet and swallow the restocking fee. I’d hate to have to do so, but I’d do it to get away from a lemon knife that my guess is there’ll likely be no way to bring up to par. A ~$20 hit hurts when it has to be swallowed to get away from a terminally flawed, inferior product but if that was what I had to endure to get rid of that knife, I’d take the hit.
 
I understand completely these things bother people. One little thing (bad part, scratch, poor centering) can kill the value of a nice watch, car, gun, etc. and knives are no different.

If this was to be nice collection piece, than of course return it and get the piece that adds to the collection nicely.
If you're going to use it, that blade is barely off center and that lock will break in from opening and closing.
 
Send it back and if you ever buy from him again remind him of the issue and he may give you a deal on the next buy to compensate the 5%
 
Imho its issues like these which makes buying online a 50/50 game of chance.
I dunno but imho owning a knife that isn't meeting up to ones expectations, is always going to be be just that... a dissapointment.
Eventually even if you should decide to keep it, you'll come to realize that your peace of mind matters more especially if its no fault of yours. Its no fun when the joke's on you. There are times when one should stop being mr nice guy and demand what which is rightfully yours and that the matter should be met by the relavant parties with the understanding of their obligation towards fullilling customer satisfaction.
 
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If it wasn't for the lock issue, I would probably keep it, as the other issues are very minor (to me). But the lock is a deal breaker (to me).
 
The lock up is a concern, the centering most likely can be remedied by tweaking it. It's a finnicky construction (well done but lots of parts) I had to tweak mine after diassembly until I had it back properly again.
 
the lock does look to only have about 5% contact... is the Ti just too stiff or can you tell if the other side where it separates from the handle is blocked in some way?

could you just push it over to bend it in place a bit?
 
The lock looks dangerous. I would definitely ask for a refund.

But to be honest, even if everything was perfect, I would not pay $375 for that knife. Doesn't look like a good slicer, and seems thick and overbuilt. For $375, you could do a lot better.
 
Personally, i would return it, because money doesn't grow on trees and you deserve what you paid for, a fully functionally piece with no defects.
 
There should NOT be a restocking fee on a defective knife!!! If it is defective it should not be restocked in any case. Restocking fees - if used properly - are for returns due to customer capriciousness not customer complaining about a defective product. Just sayin'.

Ray
 
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