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

Chris Reeve Professional Soldier. Can't believe I spent 200 for that knife.
The guncoat whatever coating it had was so coarse it was nightmare to cut anything with it.
The steel was so soft it lost it's edge in one pass of cutting cardboard, let alone if you could get it sharp in the first place.
Three finger grip was pretty bad too.
I liked the sheath though.

Edit: fixed the name
 
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Cold steel tokyo spike.
20 or so bucks and not sharp out of the box. Had cold steels "Zero grind' basically a full flat to 0 for an edge. Not sharp. Soft 420 series stainless. And wouldnt sharpen woth a damn. Not to mention the non existent finger guard. These were notorious for cutting poeples fingers.

Cold steel rajah 3.
Now i did like this knife it was comfortable and had a stong lock. The full flat grind and kukri style blade was awesome. The thing that wasnt awesome....the AUS-8a. Sharp out of the box, didnt hold an edge too great, and it was bead blasted .... so you bet your lunch money it started spotting withing like 2 weeks. I gave it a regrind with a 400 grit belt, still rusted and spotted in a slightly longer amount of time. I thinned the sharpening angle it cut great till the edge rolled over like a trained dog. This is why i HATE AUS-8a. Crap steel.
Also the pocked clip sucked. For 65 bucks i regretted it soon after. Sold it to a friend, who doesnt use it anymore. ( rolled edge)

Now if they used a good steel (CPM 154, CPM S35VN, CPM 3V) i would be singing a diferent tune. And if they made the clip not suck. I really did love the egros of the handle though.
 
I've bought tons of stinkers over the years. Stand outs include (all bought new):
  • An Emerson CQC-7B whose lock worked so poorly that it was essentially a slip joint knife
  • A custom from a respected maker that cost over a thousand dollars that had three major issues (no I won't say who--I had to threaten to post pictures of the issues all over the Internet if he didn't take it back to get the results I wanted, and part of our resolution of the incident is that I agreed not to do so)
  • A recently purchased Sebenza with a very uneven grind (on another knife I would have ignored it, but with the Sebenza's thing being "a basic, simple knife done perfectly" I felt like it was unacceptable)
None of them were a huge deal to resolve, beyond the custom maker's initial push back about the issues. Usually if you get a lemon and you bought from a reliable vendor they'll make it right for you without much fuss (e.g. the knife store took the Sebenza listed above back with no questions). Still, it's a huge bummer to get your hands on a knife you wanted enough to order in the first place only to be immediately disappointed with it.
 
Probably either a Kershaw Launch 1,3 or 6...all examples of which I have had that routinely failed to lock up when fired. Had multiple examples of both the 1 and 3 as well.
 
The absolute worst knife I ever bought was a "Hen & Rooster" pen knife made in Spain. When closing the main blade, the cutting edge would come to rest on top of the secondary blade. I don't recall the exact price. Somewhere in the mid to high thirties. I was so disgusted I tossed it in the trash.
 
I've had a few but the one that comes to mind was my Benchmade 810 Contego, this is the knife that kept me from buying anymore Benchmades online. Terribly off center, rubbing the scales causing the black coating on the blade to already show wear. I didn't even mess with it, packed it up and sent it back, the next one they sent me still off center (not as bad though) and had massive side to side play. Tightening the pivot helped with the play but made the axis lock not as fun so I ended up trading it to a coworker who didn't mind the tighter pivot.
 
Direware tailwhip 2...cant believe I forgot about this abomination. Detent so incredibly hard it was next to Impossible to flip. About a 30lbs pull (no joke) Detent ball not seated all the way, rough sharp edges/burrs everywhere, over-travel pin was literally a cut off nail. Detent hole looked to be accidentally drilled all the way through the blade, uneven lines...I could go on and on. Not what I was expecting for $1300ish

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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
Click to expand...

TBH, the centering looks not bad. I have seen knives of four times its price with worse centering.

Even though I no longer buy any kershaw, the two I had - brawler and thermite - were pretty good given their prices.
 
A.L. said:
Chris Reeve Silent Soldier. Can't believe I spent 200 for that knife.
The guncoat whatever coating it had was so coarse it was nightmare to cut anything with it.
The steel was so soft it lost it's edge in one pass of cutting cardboard, let alone if you could get it sharp in the first place.
Three finger grip was pretty bad too.
I liked the sheath though.
Click to expand...

Do you mean the Jason Brous Silent Soldier?
 
sharp_edge said:
TBH, the centering looks not bad. I have seen knives of four times its price with worse centering.

Even though I no longer buy any kershaw, the two I had - brawler and thermite - were pretty good given their prices.
Click to expand...

It's hard to tell in the picture because I couldn't get the angle right (mad photography skills over here), but the blade actually rubs a decent amount on the top left (when looking at the knife closed like in the picture). I think that friction is a big part of why it doesn't open all the way on it's own. I'm sure there are much worse clunkers out there, but I've purchased less than a dozen knives in my lifetime so it's just the first I've come across.
 
Well, I didn't buy it luckily. It was a gift from my brother. It was an Emerson CQC, with the wave deployment. It was directly from the site. Here is what happened.
1-Would not hold an edge, worthless as a cutter. Tried multiple angles on my "Wicked Edge", would lose its edge after cutting up a single box.
2-The tip snapped off. I dropped it in my basement, ON THE CARPET. "Snap".
3- The liner lock failed. Yes, I cut my finger badly, I needed to get stitches 3 to be exact.

The cut was nasty as it rarely held any type of edge.
I called the company, hung up,on. I sent an email, no response. My brother felt horrible, tried to get me another. I told him " that's ok, I gave him the money back he paid for it and said it's not your fault, qc seems to have gone out the window since the company has become fanboy-ish/ cultish." In other words, ppl will defend Emerson and the (fill in blank) company it's become even to the point of absurdity.

We ended up replacing it later with a Fox Karambit, excellent btw. Threw the Emerson in the trash, literally.
 
11BB4 said:
Well, I didn't buy it luckily. It was a gift from my brother. It was an Emerson CQC, with the wave deployment. It was directly from the site. Here is what happened.
1-Would not hold an edge, worthless as a cutter. Tried multiple angles on my "Wicked Edge", would lose its edge after cutting up a single box.
2-The tip snapped off. I dropped it in my basement, ON THE CARPET. "Snap".
3- The liner lock failed. Yes, I cut my finger badly, I needed to get stitches 3 to be exact.

The cut was nasty as it rarely held any type of edge.
I called the company, hung up,on. I sent an email, no response. My brother felt horrible, tried to get me another. I told him " that's ok, I gave him the money back he paid for it and said it's not your fault, qc seems to have gone out the window since the company has become fanboy-ish/ cultish." In other words, ppl will defend Emerson and the (fill in blank) company it's become even to the point of absurdity.

We ended up replacing it later with a Fox Karambit, excellent btw. Threw the Emerson in the trash, literally.
Click to expand...

Hard to believe you had such a hard time with customer service considering I've had over 100+ Emersons and only one had and issue and they sent me a new one (and a free t-shirt) and paid for the shipping on the faulty one.

My 3 worst knives have been a Boker Scoundrel ($155 new) I really wanted to try a Steven Kelly designed knife (without paying for a $1000 custom) and loved the way it looks but it was such a bad blade, lock-rock, uneven grind, and the clip would come loose after a few times in and out of the pocket.

And the 2nd was a brand new Umnumzaan, really love the looks and blade shape on the zaan but man that thing was horrendous on so many levels......I don't even know where to start. I like to think that I got a bad one......hey, at least I got my money back!

And the 3rd was a S30v PM2, tip broke easily, wouldn't hold an edge, loose pivot, lockup was shit, I was almost starting to think it was a fake!

Unfortunately most knives are mass produced and its hard to get every single one of them perfect and we all buy so many knives that your bound to get a bad one here and there.
 
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