Which folder has the most respected construction and action?

vanadium said:
When your heat treat is sub-par, it helps keep the edge from rolling.
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The heat treat on my last few CRKs actually seems a bit improved over my older ones. IIRC, a few years ago, CRK bumped it up a point or two.

Jim
 
ZTFan said:
Is there a knife out there that just consistently knocks it out of the park with its QC?

Excellent lockbar tension?
Solid lockup?
Perfect centering?
Arrives razor sharp?
Buttery smooth opening?
Godlike detent?
Consistent grind?
Rugged clip?
Ready for abuse?
Actually usable blade shape?
Components that will last a lifetime?
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Forced to pick a knife from my own experience that best matches those criteria I'd choose the Andrew Demko AD15. It's very, very close to what you are asking for.
 
CRK meets most of those, I suppose. Then again, my Umnumzaan came with a horrible edge, and I detested the clip. The detent was also all wrong IMO.

Personally I think a lot of US-made knives by respected OEMs do pretty well by your stated criteria. I'd argue that an XM-18 does most of these too, and gets the detent better for thumbstud+PB washer use (though both of my Gen 6s still flipped poorly).
 
There's such a massive lack of consensus in these comments, I feel like I'm no closer to reaching a conclusion than when we started lol! But there are some good names that have been said pretty regularly here, so at least that's a start.
 
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Sounds like the Koenig Arius.
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"Folders" in this thread seem to be confined to lock-blade knives and exclude the traditional slip-joint knives. The criteria set out in the initial post pretty much tips the table toward the larger locking blade style knives.

Call me old fashioned, but if you're looking at a rugged knife for heavy duty use you should opt for a fixed blade. Personally I'm partial to D2 steel, drop point, and stag grips. That said, the synthetic materials like G-10 are more durable. (That said, I don't abuse my knives and prefer the aesthetics of stag and bone scales.) I prefer a leather sheath, although the synthetics like Kydex are more durable and stand up to water as in marine applications.

Yeah sure, you can buy a Mercedes, but you're not going to want to drive it off-road. Same, same with knives. There's a price point where they're no longer practical/desirable for utility use.

For utility application, it's hard to beat the Buck 110. They're available most anywhere knives are sold, and don't take an arm and leg to purchase. These days Buck has shipped some production offshore to China, but the reputable brands that manufacture in China have good quality control standards.

Folders, as in the traditional slip-joint folder -- AKA "pocket knife" . . . It's hard to beat Case. Made in the USA, in business since 1889 and an icon of quality knives. Case is a classic and they don't cost an arm & leg.

For utility use, I'd go with a Black & Decker box cutter, replaceable blades. We use these in the fire department and they do everything a knife need to do -- short of close-quarters combat. We've been known to snap the tip off the blade because we need a sort of screw-driver.

Or you can spend a fortune on a knife you're afraid to use, afraid to lose.
 
Bobchicken1201 said:
I haven't seen anyone who mention the PM2 or the BM 275 Adamas.
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Because both of those are not 'consistent'. Both Benchmade and Spyderco have been known to not be 100% perfect with QC. Sure there's a couple out there with all those things, but I doubt most are perfect, and there are certainly some duds with every run.
 
My vote for amazing consistency, build quality, and holding up to use, is Brian Nadeau's mini Typhoons (or any of his other knives, though the mini Typhoons are, in my estimation, the most suitable for general work and use).
 
Lance Leon said:
Because both of those are not 'consistent'. Both Benchmade and Spyderco have been known to not be 100% perfect with QC. Sure there's a couple out there with all those things, but I doubt most are perfect, and there are certainly some duds with every run.
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At least he's recommending folders and not fixed blades and box cutters.
 
ZTFan said:
Is there a knife out there that just consistently knocks it out of the park with its QC?

Excellent lockbar tension?
Solid lockup?
Perfect centering?
Arrives razor sharp?
Buttery smooth opening?
Godlike detent?
Consistent grind?
Rugged clip?
Ready for abuse?
Actually usable blade shape?
Components that will last a lifetime?

I was just reading a thread about someone’s $1,000 DireWare that had a frame lock failure. Is there anything out there that doesn’t suffer from any sort of inherent reliability issue? What has the longest track record of consistent performance?

Curtiss Knives seem like they may be up there. My Ed Cope is killer as well and does it all.
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Mostly CRK. They even use hardened screws that won’t likely strip and can survive continual disassembly. Actually the biggest threat to a Sebenza’s health is user error from pinching a washer with the bushing. There are crk models with no bushing that don’t suffer from this.

Only thing is in my experience crks tend to come not that sharp out of the box. Also their action is no ball bearing flipper action. It is a good action for what it is supposed to be, “hydraulic” as it is often called.
 
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