Worst knife you've ever spent money on. How much was it?

jmh33 said:
$190.00 Spyderco Southard.. 2nd worst.. $130.00 Spyderco GB2.. John
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Others share your feelings about the Southard, but what didn't you like about the GB2? I have one and it's pretty impressive for a production model. The main complaint I hear about it is the fanboys don't think it can hold a candle to the original GB1. To each his own I guess.
 
Strider SMF. Lock issues the first week of ownership. Sent it back to get it fixed and then sold it. Helped push me out of tacticals for good.
 
Boker Epicenter.
I was feeling nostalgic so I just picked up a gen 3 Epicenter with the lockbar insert. Several years ago I had a gen 2 with lock slip.
Lockup seems stable but it has detent play that's pretty bad. You can feel and hear it click upon opening. Overall poor quality for around $130. You'd think by the third generation that maybe the knife would be decent. Nope.
 
DARRYL Ralph custom batch thru BF or the other in S90v YEARS BACK: delayed and problems then a knife i would not have bought for $50. I still have it. Never used it but made me forever
very negative on HTM.
 
Gerber Mini Paraframe. In the same rough ballpark in price as a Victorinox SAK, but it's like a toy compared to a SAK, and from someone who isn't fond of SAKs in general, that's saying something!

(Yes, it's a cheap knife, thankfully all of my big purchases have been great. I buy all my knives at physical shops, but my Mini Paraframe came in a blister pack so I couldn't actually inspect it, and I was still new to knives then so I didn't know any better. The vast majority of my knives since then have come in boxes so I could handle and inspect them before buying.)
 
My goodness... I had completely forgotten (maybe intentionally) about the famous Gerber Paraframe. I bought one when they came out as I had heard that Gerber, after years of poor quality and design "were back in the game". Hah!

Got the knife at a local sporting goods store with leftover cash on a gift card for ~$10. Lifetime warranty the package proclaimed, so I thought I had a chance at least at something decent. 10 - 12 years ago that wasn't bad for a tool box tool bag knife.

It is the only knife I have ever owned that earned two distinctions: 1) literally came apart into pieces in my pocket, and 2) the only knife I have ever thrown in the trash.

Gerber's warranty extended to me sending the $10 knife back to them insured at $8 for evaluation. If they decided the knife had been "abused or improperly used" they would bill me to fix it. If it seemed a failure on parts and pieces they would send it back to me repaired at no charge. Really? A text book example of how to make a bad situation worse, and piss of a customer for life.

Robert
 
eugenechia1989 said:
Gerber Mini Paraframe. In the same rough ballpark in price as a Victorinox SAK, but it's like a toy compared to a SAK, and from someone who isn't fond of SAKs in general, that's saying something!

(Yes, it's a cheap knife, thankfully all of my big purchases have been great. I buy all my knives at physical shops, but my Mini Paraframe came in a blister pack so I couldn't actually inspect it, and I was still new to knives then so I didn't know any better. The vast majority of my knives since then have come in boxes so I could handle and inspect them before buying.)
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Yeah those Gerber paraframes are a freaking joke. When I didn’t know anything about knives I got one and thought it was cool until the lock completely stopped working the blade scrapes on the scale, the thumb stud fell off.

Just a terrible knife. Too bad it is actually kind of a neat lightweight design.

They’ve had the powerframe and now the paralite as well.

Paralite looks kinda cool actually. Everyone is jumping on the blue thumbstuds.
172e45be-839d-4cda-9352-b30d72b21d9f

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Lol 5cr13 steel. They did the blue stud but not the steel
 
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Smith and Wesson Extreme Ops from Tractor Supply - years back was on sale for next to nothing and that was more than what it was worth. I think they go for about $20 normally. Pivot broke after a couple uses of cutting the plastic sheath off telco cables using relatively light force. Even for a cheap knife I was kind of surprised when I heard the click of the pivot screw breaking considering how easy it was being used. Went into file 13.
 
mr2blue said:
DARRYL Ralph custom batch thru BF or the other in S90v YEARS BACK: delayed and problems then a knife i would not have bought for $50. I still have it. Never used it but made me forever
very negative on HTM.
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What model see was It? Was it htm or a custom from his shop?
 
Boker Kwaiken, VG10, CF scales. Love the overall shape of blade and handle, but the design and execution is one of the worst I've experienced in a knife in this price range. Granted this isn't a high end knife, but with all it's flaws it isn't even worth $145. Reasons:

1. Blade can still slice your finger open in the closed position. With the knife closed, press your finger and run it against the side of the handle on the flipper side and it will cut you. Clip the knife into your right front pocket and it can slice the side of your little finger as you put your hand in your pocket. The cutting edge sits far too close to the handle opening. This flaw alone makes the knife an absolute FAIL in my book.
2. Too many different screws - clip screws, scale screws, liner screws, pivot screws, each requiring a different torx bit. Inefficient design.
3. IKBS bearing system - 40 something uncased micro BB’s all waiting to spill out all over the place if you aren’t careful. Pain in the neck to service this thing while traveling or in the field.
4. Too heavy for a slender 3.5” blade knife. Almost the same weight as the large 4” ZT0452, a superior engineered knife.
5. Flipper tab is designed backwards, plus execution of jimping is very poor from sample to sample. I had to buy and return three Boker Kwaikens because each had poorly executed jimping.
6. Weak tensioned, high riding clip. Too much of the knife sticks out of the pocket, and the clip tension is too weak given the weight of the knife. Very few after market alternatives.
7. Long break in period. I went thru four of these to find the one with the best action. It flips great now, but it took a long time and a lot of flippin' to get there.

Too bad the Boker Kwaiken is so poorly engineered. Really wanted to like this knife.
 
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Kershaw Dimension. Don't buy one. There's a very good reason they are discontinued (they're crap). The centering is terrible (bottom of the blade favors the clip side, top of the blade favors the display side), the assisted opening doesn't work correctly (I've yet to get it to lock on it's own), it has a bunch of gunk stuck in the grooves of the scales, and it smells horrible for some reason... And what's up with the stupid thumb stud? About the only nice things I can say is that it was very sharp out of the box. What can you expect when you pick up a knife that retailed for $100 and flopped so hard it regularly goes for $30 (I only paid $32 after tax, thank goodness).

The Dimension is just not good. Compared to my Blurs and Leeks, the difference in build quality is kind of shocking.

Is this the kind of build quality differences I can come to expect between an American Kershaw and a Chinese Kershaw? I was thinking about picking up a Copper Natrix when they come out, but this has me rethinking that idea.


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Emerson. What a pos. Frame of mind when I purchased it..."I must be missing out on something?" Nope..I wasn't.
With a brand with so many followers I still think Im missing something...I just dont get it. But I dont get the Tide Pod eating thing either..
 
Fixall said:
Kershaw Dimension. Don't buy one. . . .

The Dimension is just not good. Compared to my Blurs and Leeks, the difference in build quality is kind of shocking.
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Interesting and unfortunate. I have it's American made brother - the Dividend - and it succeeds in all the areas you said your Dimension fails. It's a good knife, especially in the price range they are selling them.
 
Some Tracker copy (I know, I know) from Amazon, chopped a little twig with it and it immediately had a hairline crack extending from the edge to the middle of the blade, no idea how that’s possible, but Amazon knives right?
 
AF said:
Boker Epicenter.
I was feeling nostalgic so I just picked up a gen 3 Epicenter with the lockbar insert. Several years ago I had a gen 2 with lock slip.
Lockup seems stable but it has detent play that's pretty bad. You can feel and hear it click upon opening. Overall poor quality for around $130. You'd think by the third generation that maybe the knife would be decent. Nope.
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I was hoping they fixed the problems with the Epicenter by now. I really like Rexford designs but it was questionable whether the new versions were any better

Fixall said:
Kershaw Dimension. Don't buy one. There's a very good reason they are discontinued (they're crap). The centering is terrible (bottom of the blade favors the clip side, top of the blade favors the display side), the assisted opening doesn't work correctly (I've yet to get it to lock on it's own), it has a bunch of gunk stuck in the grooves of the scales, and it smells horrible for some reason... And what's up with the stupid thumb stud? About the only nice things I can say is that it was very sharp out of the box. What can you expect when you pick up a knife that retailed for $100 and flopped so hard it regularly goes for $30 (I only paid $32 after tax, thank goodness).

The Dimension is just not good. Compared to my Blurs and Leeks, the difference in build quality is kind of shocking.

Is this the kind of build quality differences I can come to expect between an American Kershaw and a Chinese Kershaw? I was thinking about picking up a Copper Natrix when they come out, but this has me rethinking that idea.


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Actually I never had any problem with the Dimension. I thought it was a solid knife at the discounted $30. Budget steel but a nice thick titanium frame. Plunge lock was a nice touch
 
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GoPappy said:
Interesting and unfortunate. I have it's American made brother - the Dividend - and it succeeds in all the areas you said your Dimension fails. It's a good knife, especially in the price range they are selling them.
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Dfunk1210 said:
Actually I never had any problem with the Dimension. I thought it was a solid knife at the discounted $30. Budget steel but a nice thick titanium frame. Plunge lock was a nice touch
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Maybe mine is just a bad egg... It's definitely left me less than impressed though. I can't comment on the push button lock as the darn thing never opens, lol.

The first picture is of how far the assisted opening takes the blade before it comes to a stop.
The second picture is my attempt at showing you the centering... I'm just using an iPhone camera though, so it didn't turn out too well. It looks much worse in person.

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My first ever CRK purchase and most expensive knife by almost double was a Large Sebenza 21. Purchased new 01/2016. Had horrible lock stick after just a couple days of ownership. CRK took several months to repair and return it to me. Left a bad taste in my mouth, so I sold it. Came back perfect, but I paid $410 for a knife that I had in my hands for a handful of days in the first three months of ownership. Other brands get warranty repairs back to you in days not months... first and last CRK for me! Based on personal experience, I choose not to "believe the hype."
 
Fixall said:
Maybe mine is just a bad egg... It's definitely left me less than impressed though. I can't comment on the push button lock as the darn thing never opens, lol.

The first picture is of how far the assisted opening takes the blade before it comes to a stop.
The second picture is my attempt at showing you the centering... I'm just using an iPhone camera though, so it didn't turn out too well. It looks much worse in person.

View attachment 881474 View attachment 881475
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I have definitely had some hit or misses with Kershaw's China models. From how you have described yours, it was definitely a bad egg and is not indicative of the design itself. I actually have suggested it as a budget knife in the past because at $30 you get some nice features. I mean those are some monster slabs of titanium on this 3" knife. They are nearly as thick as the slab on the zt 0550.
 
Dfunk1210 said:
I have definitely had some hit or misses with Kershaw's China models. From how you have described yours, it was definitely a bad egg and is not indicative of the design itself. I actually have suggested it as a budget knife in the past because at $30 you get some nice features. I mean those are some monster slabs of titanium on this 3" knife. They are nearly as thick as the slab on the zt 0550.
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You're absolutely right about the scales. They're massive! Normally that would be kind of bad (the sucker is HEAVY), but I figure on a budget piece like this... You're kind of buying it almost solely because of the titanium, so the bigger the better! Other than the gunk that was in the grooves, the scales are pretty freaking awesome too. Excellent construction and the machine work was very well done. I also think the deep carry clip is excellent. It's just the moving parts that were the big let down.

Maybe I'll give Kershaw China another chance. That darn Copper Natrix looks gorgeous.
 
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