Would you expect perfect blade centering on a 120- $130 knife?

I expect it to be reasonably centered at that price point. Not perfect but close.
 
There's sort of a luck of the draw aspect to it. I'm not going to pull out a digital micrometer to see if it's truly perfect, but to the naked eye these folders of mine seem to be plenty well centered: Kershaw 1 ton, buck vantage select, manix 2, cold steel mini recon, buck 110.

My knives that were not were my svord peasant, and kershaw tremor.

These aren't all the knives I own but the ones that readily come to mind when thinking about centering. I was impressed that the buck vantage select and kershaw 1 ton are as good as they are for around $30
 
Also like Dragget and eb1118 said
1. in some cases it's pretty fixable when messing with screws
2. My Svord centering was off due to an off grind on the knife, reprofiling it helped with the centering. Though I will say, a lot of folks swear by the svord peasant and though I don't hate it and don't mind putting elbow grease into a knife, the svord peasant felt more like a knife kit than a completed knife to me.
 
In that price range, no I would not expect it. I would hope for it, but these are mass produced knives, they are not handmade/assembled and/or limited run knives where tolerances are tighter.
 
Yes I expect it every time and will consider returning my purchase if it is possible. I question my brand loyalties when I am forced to jump through hoops to correct a mistake that should never have happened.
 
eschwebach said:
At that price point I would expect good (not perfect) centering, whether it was a modern or single blade traditional knife.
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I guess when I spend more than a $100, which isn't alot for some people and knives but is for me, I would like to see the blade centered and not do a double take. I don't own a ton of knives so the dozen or so I do own I tend to be very picky.
 
Meh, I personally couldn't care less if my blade is centered or not. Like others have said, as long as the performance isn't suffering from it, or if I can adjust it out, then I'm usually pretty darn happy. I don't have safe queens. I use the living hell out of my knives. They're going to get scratched, scuffed and beaten. That being said, If it happens to be way off center, to the point of almost rubbing AND its a pretty pricey blade, it would probably bother me. I just haven't had such an issue as of yet.
 
At over $100 it better be pretty damn close to centered. If I can get a Taiwanese knife for $40 with perfect centering, the other guy in a higher price range has to do it too.
 
At the very least, close. Companies should take pride in their products, or move over.
 
I can overlook it if the rest if the build quality is commensurate with the price point.
 
draggat said:
I had a Benchmade that was almost rubbing that I sent back. All they did was tighten it up so that it was really stiff and sent it back to me, blade still way off center. I ended up selling the knife. Most production companies don't see off centered blades as a problem unless they rub.
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This is what happened to me with my Mini-Grip, considering selling it
 
In this price range I expect the blade to be generally centered and certainly not rubbing the liners and affecting performance.
 
Let's suppose I placed an order for a brand new car and when it was delivered I discovered that the steering wheel was off relative to the direction the wheels were pointed. Say, maybe 20 degrees or so, not enough to affect the steering itself but enough to be noticeable. I would find that unacceptable.

Likewise, I would not accept a knife, within your price range, with a blade that was not centered.

If enough of us get into the habit of tolerating poor quality in the knives we spend our hard earned money on then manufacturers will continue to produce poor quality knives.
 
ellipticus said:
If enough of us get into the habit of tolerating poor quality in the knives we spend our hard earned money on then manufacturers will continue to produce poor quality knives.
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I agree with this 100%. If you're not happy with something, say something instead of going along with the crowd, otherwise mediocrity will be accepted as good quality.
 
At $100-$150 I would expect the blade to be relatively centered, +/- 25%. So long as it's not rubbing the liners it's not a huge deal. At around $200 I expect good centering, +/- 10%. Above that I expect near-perfect centering within 5% or so.

That's not to say there aren't plenty of companies at these price points that aren't sloppy with their centering (I'm looking at you, Emerson), but I would return the knife if I purchased one that didn't fit my criteria for the price.
 
Yes. I expect it to be centered if it comes from a name brand company.

The finished product should reflect the CAD model as closely as possible. With modern manufacturing technologies I don't think thats too much to ask for, especially at that price point. If my Spyderco Tenacious can have perfect centering at $35 bucks, I'd certainly expect it from any other knife of greater value.
 
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