Which Mass-Produced Folder EDC's Have Best Fit and Finish?

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Artisan. I think they have everyone beat in all three categories, although, I have always been an owner of Cold Steel and they have great value.
 
Mora, great utilitarian at good value
Victorinox, given the amount that they produced, they have probably the best QC and F&F in the business.
Civivi, whatever WE is doing right, it trickles down to Civivi which is cool
Spyderco, pretty consistent over the years, love it.
GEC, best for traditional, pretty amazing for hand made
WE, the handful I owned, they all drop shut, no blade play and center perfectly.
CRK, this needs no explanation
 
WE/Civivi make great quality knives at every part of the budget spectrum.
I don't think you can find a knife with better production quality and finishing in the $40 range than the Civivi Praxis and Baklash. The liners on the Praxis are skeletonized, fully polished, then gold-colored (I think it's a gold-chrome coat, but not sure); on the Baklash, they're a bright blue. Everything I've seen from Civivi has had the same high quality that WE is known for, just in budget materials.
 
I switched over to Buck 112s simply because I got tired of sitting on the bigger 110 case. However in learning that, I felt the Buck 112s bolsters were a superior design. I now have several automatic 112s, and one manual 112 in red I bought through Blue Ridge. The bolster might be a small improvement, but that tang is going to keep your hand from slipping onto the edge.
 
I: Victorinox, Buck, Spyderco
II: Twosun
III: William Henry, LionSteel, Fantoni, WE, Chris Reeve
 
Buck 110 and 112 for the first category.
(I'm presuming you are only interested in single blade folders, not those with more than one blade.)

I've never had anything in categories two and three, so I have no idea there.

If you're only interested in one hand openers only, The Ontario RAT 1 (Walmart edition with green covers and AUS 8 blade) I had was pretty good for fit finish, and flipping action.
The clip did fail somewhere while I was riding my bike though. I never did find the knife. :(
 
EDC production folders $0 - $75 Cold Steel - Buck
EDC production folders $76 - $150 ZT
EDC production folders $150+ CRK

There are other criteria that makes a great knife but based upon only F&F ...
 
Today I bought a 5.11 vest, and the clerk said it came with a free knife.

I thought, this is going to be a crappy knife. But the fit and finish are excellent. Screwed on scales. Nice texture on the scales. Screw-in pivot. Blade perfectly centered. Zero blade play. Deep-carry pocket clip with no scratches. Liner lock that easily passes the spine whack test. Sharp as anything I've gotten from Spyderco. And in the center of the off-clip scale there is a tiny jewel or sparkle thingy.

Who knows what the steel is -- and it's made in China -- but for just fit and finish, it's very good. And very free.
 
< $75

Victorinox
Kershaw
Buck
Byrd

$75 - $150

GEC
Spyderco
Cold Steel

> $150

Benchmade
CRK
Al Mar
ZT
Lion Steel
JE Made
 
Twindog said:
Today I bought a 5.11 vest, and the clerk said it came with a free knife.

I thought, this is going to be a crappy knife. But the fit and finish are excellent. Screwed on scales. Nice texture on the scales. Screw-in pivot. Blade perfectly centered. Zero blade play. Deep-carry pocket clip with no scratches. Liner lock that easily passes the spine whack test. Sharp as anything I've gotten from Spyderco. And in the center of the off-clip scale there is a tiny jewel or sparkle thingy.

Who knows what the steel is -- and it's made in China -- but for just fit and finish, it's very good. And very free.
Click to expand...

Where's the picture?
 
Alberta Ed said:
With CNC production these days, mass production is better than ever. Spyderco, Buck, CS, Manly, all produce top quality knives.
Click to expand...

I think CNC is the real key here. I read about 20 years ago that Taiwan was investing huge sums of money, time and effort into developing their CNC capabilities to address the future of fine manufacturing. The spokesman for the Taiwanese manufacturing group wanted to get ahead of the mass manufacturing trends to assure their place in the market. I noticed about a decade ago that there were a lot of knives coming from Taiwan (that after carrying traditional patterns with hand assembly for decades) that looked like a pile of screwed together pieces. It really became apparent to me after seeing a video of some guy in a Taiwanese factory assembling some kind of widget. The better the CNC product, the less hand finishing needed, and the cheaper they can manufacture the product.

Following that production model, I bought and carried a lot of Kershaw knives for years. Then got a few knives that manufacturers that produce almost solely in Taiwan, my favorite now for quality control success is Cold Steel. And yep, when closely examined, they are a pile of screwed together pieces. But the fit, finish and utility of the Cold Steel knives keep me going back.

Robert
 
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