Which knives/styles do you plain dislike? For no real reason, rubs ya wrong, design, steel, handle, blade-shapes, brands. Judgement-free opinions.

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Quiet said:
Except that's not what you said. You said:



So, are they just "slightly boring" or is it because (as you claim) they break All. The. Time, "from nothing!"? That's patently and objectively false, by the way. I'm just curious at how you seemed to backtrack when someone posted a pic of some well loved Benchmades.

Also, who does the AXIS lock better? I'd love to know so I can have a look at their knives, so I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

Benchmade knives are excellent knives, and the AXIS lock is a great lock, especially if you enjoy fidgiting. Those of us who actually own Benchmades, all of us have at least two or three knives that have been "flipped" open and closed fifty thousand times or more, and the knife still locks up just fine.
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My main dislike of Benchmades, is they are thick behind the edge! You pay a premium price for plastic scales and a 3" blade ground like a Busse "Tankbuster"!
 
Quiet said:
Well, that's what I'm talking about. "Shouldn't" is certainly great, but if wishes were horses, we'd all ride. Unlocking and closing a crossbar lock (AXIS) knife is objectively easier, safer, and quicker than closing a framelock because at no time are your fingers in the path of the blade's travel, unlike a framelock. Bear in mind that I say this as someone who A. has many more framelock equipped knives than crossbar lock knives, and B. who is has a framelock knife in my pocket as I type this. Your thumb is in the blade path, and many people here have been bit (or have had people they allowed to look at one of their knives) when a blade on a framelock they weren't familiar with, swung closed more quickly than they were ready for before they could get their thumb (which had to reach across the blade path of closure, to depress the lockbar) out of the way. I have never had a cross bar lock knife present this issue. 🤷
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A well designed frame or liner lock will allow you to close it, 'till it hits your thumb with the choil then move and close.
I find this one of the safest designs, but I have a lot of practice too..
 
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I’m not a Benchmade cheerleader, I do like Benchmade knives though. I’ve carried Benchmades since I was in high school in 90’s, haven’t stopped. When they make a good one it’s hard to beat. Occasionally Benchmade makes a terrible, awful, horrific monstrosity though - even from a designer with a great track record ( RIP by the way ). This particular Benchmade has made me angry since the day I first saw it, even more angry the first time I handled one. This thing appears as an attempt to be like a Strider ( might be better than a strider in terms of functionality though ). Comes complete with sticky action, uneven blade to handle ratio, too much wasted blade compared to usable edge, 2.5 choils, and a horrible steel for a “combat/tacticool” knife - 20CV, late lock up on the few I’ve held / used. I hate that knife. It’s got potential, but the potential was wasted.

Thank you for letting me share my rant - been bottling that up for some years now 😂

Imagine for a minute. If the edge was brought all the way back to the plunge line ( for sharpening smiles ), the choil gone, the flipper gone and steel was something a little more tolerant of rough use ( S35VN, CMP154, PSF27). That would be a decent knife ( put a liner on the scale side too please ).
 
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luethge luethge , the pictures in your post #265 post actually reveal what I hate most and why I do not have any knifes with clips. As a left-handed person, I would put the clip on the side of blade's etching. Imagine how much work I have to do for every picture for the forum to move the clip back and forth! Actually how do the left-handed folks solve the problem?
 
vinprom said:
luethge luethge , the pictures in your post #265 post actually reveal what I hate most and why I do not have any knifes with clips. As a left-handed person, I would put the clip on the side of blade's etching. Imagine how much work I have to do for every picture for the forum to move the clip back and forth! Actually how do the left-handed folks solve the problem?
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I was blessed / cursed with the lefty condition. The catholic school didn’t approve. Spiral notebooks, fountain pens, scissors and knives with clips are a pain in the __. I’ve gotten use to carrying right hand knives backwards in my left pocket, or back left pocket. The 4 or 5 custom lefty’s I’ve had felt weird closing them, I’ve grown to prefer right hand locks with left side clip drilling. A right hand frame lock actually feels safer closing ( to me anyway ) - plenty of clearance if the knife is drop shut ish or sharp.

The Benchmade axis lock - not my favorite lock, but the best for ambidextrous carry. Benchmade gets a nod from me with their left hand friendly approach to sell, sell, sell.

I’ve never been able to appreciate the “wave” on an emerson ( all good - I don’t like Emerson’s ).

I’m on the coffee - sorry for the rant
 
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elasmonut said:
A well designed frame or liner lock will allow you to close it, 'till it hits your thumb with the choil then move and close.
I find this one of the safest designs, but I have a lot of practice too..
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I'm not sure I understand this "logic".

Why would you need to wait for any knife to close far enough to contact your thumb before you move it out of the way? By that time, you could have eaten a sandwich and had a cup of coffee. It has nothing to do with if a knife is "well designed" or not.

I prefer well designed users/operators that have enough sense to move their fingers as soon as the lock is disengaged.....which is literally a few thousandths of an inch of rotation.

For the record, I like and have had no issues with any axis lock.
 
J. Doyle said:
I'm not sure I understand this "logic".

Why would you need to wait for any knife to close far enough to contact your thumb before you move it out of the way? By that time, you could have eaten a sandwich and had a cup of coffee. It has nothing to do with if a knife is "well designed" or not.

I prefer well designed users/operators that have enough sense to move their fingers as soon as the lock is disengaged.....which is literally a few thousandths of an inch of rotation.

For the record, I like and have had no issues with any axis lock.
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Rushing, distraction, poor motor skills when cold or tired, or just flat out stupid!,I have lots of reasons to appreciate a tactile indicator to provide a little more feedback and safety, I see it like a half stop on a slipjoint.
I am not and never have been a well designed "operator" and my ability to use "common sense" and precise motor skills comes and goes depending on the situation.
An Axis lock is indeed great and one of the few designs that does keep your fingers out of the blade path. I like button locks for the same reason, but they are a bit less ambidextrous.
 
luethge said:
The Benchmade axis lock - not my favorite lock, but the best for ambidextrous carry.
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Personally, I prefer Demko’s shark lock for an ambidextrous design.

I made the mistake of showing my 20.5 to one of my closest friends, who is a lefty and has been carrying an old 440C Griptillian I gave him 2 decades ago. He’s been doing his best to talk me out of my 20.5 for a couple months now. lol That’s what you get when you’ve made it a habit of gifting knives to people. 🙄😂

Him: That knife just sits in your dresser drawer, why don’t you let me give it a try?
Me: “F” off dude, buy your own! lol
 
elasmonut said:
My main dislike of Benchmades, is they are thick behind the edge! You pay a premium price for plastic scales and a 3" blade ground like a Busse "Tankbuster"!
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On some of the models, this is very true. On others, less so. In any case, I'm not here to defend Benchmade. People are free to hate them, but there's no denying all of the reasons why the AXIS crossbar lock was a great design (and why other companies jumped on it as soon as they were legally able).
 
elasmonut said:
A well designed frame or liner lock will allow you to close it, 'till it hits your thumb with the choil then move and close.
I find this one of the safest designs, but I have a lot of practice too..
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Sure, but many framelocks don't have that feature. Every AXIS equipped BM (or a crossbar lock equipped knife from another knife) is going to be objectively safer from a closing standpoint.
 
I see quite a bit debating over Benchmade and Axis lock. My only gripe with Axis lock is that it requires careful and patient tweaking in order to achieve smooth (drop-shutty) action while eliminating side to side blade play. Other than that, Axis lock is a brilliant design: its operation is simpler, safer, and faster as Quiet Quiet already explained. I also think it is less prone to lock slip during hard/unusual use than framelock and liner lock, hence arguably stronger than the latter two. Some people are concerned with the omega springs breakage. IME with about 20 Benchmade folders, only one had an omega spring broken (Bugout 535-3). Also, the spring breaks not because excessive force can be applied during use. In fact, even if the knife is hard used, there is actually very little force being applied to the omega springs, which is contrary to framelock and linerlock (think about pressure on the blade spine).

As for the subject of this thread, the things I dislike include complicated grindings, excessive decorations / use of multiple colors, hawkbills, and folding knives with cleaver-shaped blades.
 
Anything that looks like this. These look like pure crap. Big hole for nothing. Cheap liner locks. Any of these just look like garbage to me. They may be good knives but they look like crap.
Tonto blades look like the most useless knives ever seen, to me. There's lots of knives out there that are expensive that are being pushed to millennials and then you have to see it on every knife forum on the internet.
Junk.

Behold! The worlds ugliest knives!
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Not a dislike as such, but I do find the Spydercos that have a big hump on the blade a bit unattractive. I am fine with their more fluid designs
 
IXLR8 said:
Anything that looks like this. These look like pure crap. Big hole for nothing. Cheap liner locks. Any of these just look like garbage to me. They may be good knives but they look like crap.
Tonto blades look like the most useless knives ever seen, to me. There's lots of knives out there that are expensive that are being pushed to millennials and then you have to see it on every knife forum on the internet.
Junk.

Behold! The worlds ugliest knives!
Header.jpg
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Yep, whole bunch of "cheap liner locks" pictured here 🤣.. and d@mn those holes for making them all so easy to open! 🤪
 
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