William Henry Knives (High End): Worth It?

VorpelSword said:
Eating some personal crow now . . .I found a nice looking, pre-owned WHK on E-Bay. It is one of their plain handled models with a mess dramatic Damascus blade, and the asking price was "reasonable" compard with the CRK Sebenza 31 I bought last year.

The "new" knife comes in a week or so. wife doesn't know yet. Got her a nice bracelet for Valentine's day, so . . .

So ther it is. . . having posted severl less than enthusiastic responses on tis thread . . ..now I am a William Henry knife owner.
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Nice man, can't wait to see it!
 
I have a William Henry folder I bought many years ago. Carried it seldom until I accidently put a big scratch on the blade. It then became my regular office wear knife until my wife decided she liked it. I haven't seen it since. I buy knives I like and don't worry too much about them as investments. Way back when Scott Cook introduced his Loscha folder, I thought it was the most elegant looking folder I ever saw and i wanted one. The $$$ kept me from buying one though. I wish I had bought one back then. I also wish I had gone ahead and had him build the two fixed blades we had discussed... oh well.
 
VorpelSword said:
Eating some personal crow now . . .I found a nice looking, pre-owned WHK on E-Bay. It is one of their plain handled models with a mess dramatic Damascus blade, and the asking price was "reasonable" compard with the CRK Sebenza 31 I bought last year.

The "new" knife comes in a week or so. wife doesn't know yet. Got her a nice bracelet for Valentine's day, so . . .

So ther it is. . . having posted severl less than enthusiastic responses on tis thread . . ..now I am a William Henry knife owner.
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Got it today and here is my review:

I bought a "B30 Gentec Outback." I got it off of e-Bay at what seems to be several hundred dollars below MSRP. OK . . it is pre owned and just the knife, no box etc. The e-Bay photos do show that it was pocket carried often . . .no matter, my eyes were open to all that.

The knife is exquisite in appearance, even with the evidence of gentle usage. The engraved serial numbers seem crisply done. Fit and finish seems to be great. The Damascus blade is tight and deploys smoothly with a solid lock up. . . .it may never have been re-sharpened. The layers are subtle and it shows no surface scratches. The wooden handle inserts show a few marks on one side where perhaps a set of keys made two shallow indents in the "ironwood". Overall, it looks good to great.

Yet, I am disappointed. The knife looks smooth in profile but has square edges everywhere. Moreover, it is much smaller than I imagined (OK . .that IS on me.) It does not fit well in my hand. I cannot open it in one hand with my thumb due to its small size.

This knife will be held as a nice thing to own and may become part of my rarely used gala-wedding-and-funeral-suit wear accents along with tux studs, cufflinks, and Grandpa's pocket watch with chain.
 
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I know that the CRK shop will do a "spa treatment" on their products.

A similar service is available from Randall Made.

Can I get WHK to refurbish this little folder?
 
Thanks guys.^^^

You may be right about this being a knock-off, but . . .

While I have no previous experience with knives from WH, if this is a fake . . .its a pretty good one. Holding the knife in my hand, it seems to have the same quality of materials and construction described by others.

My disappointment with it is mostly with the size of the knife (too small) and how it feels in my hand (somewhat awkward), not with its fit, finish or anything else really. If it were the size of their E series, I might like it more. Last year, I bought our son a CRK Sebenza 31 (large) for his 45th birthday. That is a hand filling cutting tool. Somehow, from the photos, I had the impression that this was nearly that size . . .and that is on me.
 
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JOELSM said:
This is my one and only WH. There’s a story behind it. My wife and I were married in 1997. Starting out we didn’t have a pot to piss in, and things were financially hard. We used to do some “window shopping” back then. I’ve always been a knife nut, and WH always caught my eye. I couldn’t imagine being able to afford a WH - ever. Well fast forward 25 years, and for our “silver” anniversary my wife picked this one up for me as a gift. She wrote me a note that I value even more than the knife:

I remember in our early years of marriage looking at WH knives in little shops. They were so beautiful we couldn’t imagine ever being able to afford one. When I found out that WH also started their journey in 1997, I knew I needed to get you one. It’s #10 out of “25” made. I chose #10 because we got engaged in October, the 10th month. It has a blue topaz which is supposed to symbolize strength, love affection, truth and forgiveness - all thins a good marriage has. The handle has sapphires which symbolize love, sincerity, faithfulness and commitment - also things a good marriage has.

She’s got my number ;). Anyway, if you’ve read all this, thanks for indulging me.

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It’s an older picture from the holidays. It gets carried on special occasions - last one being Christmas Eve.
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beautiful knife and awesome story , congrats
 
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