Zac Brown

bobobama

bobobama

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Did a search on Zac Brown and only came across an older thread from 2012, when I guess he was just starting out in the knife business, and there were some fairly negative comments about both his knives and his music. I guess he's upped his game since then, because his knives seem to get pretty good reviews now (not sure about the music; I'm not really familiar with it).

What I find interesting is that not only is he into music and knives, but now has a branded wine that he's brought to market (Z. Alexander Brown Uncaged; Alexander being his middle name). Not sure how intimately he's involved with the brand, but he's apparently hooked up with a Northern California winemaker to produce it. Seems to be a pretty ambitious fellow.

Maybe this thread should be in Wine and Cheese:rolleyes:?
 
Not sure what your angle is.

I could care less what Zac decides to invest his time/money in outside of knives, which is what this forum is oriented around.

Again, not sure what it is you're looking for here but I'll bite -

I don't like his knives. I think that he charges a premium price for what are mostly average, at best, products.

The majority of his knives utilize an average steel and are liner locks, my personal LEAST favorite locking mechanism. His framelock, the Penguin, is...undesirable to me. To put it nicely.

With that being said, take my opinion for what it is - I have owned one of his knives. Two years ago. The 4" Bad Monkey.

I can buy a WHOLE LOT more for my money elsewhere and that's what I will/have do/done.
 
Not presenting any angle- just information for those who might be interested.

You pretty much echo the kind of response he got back in 2012, which is interesting since most of the recent discussions about his knives have been pretty positive. I don't really care much either way, since I don't have any of his knives and have never heard any of his music.

And for what it's worth, everyone on this forum is involved with other pursuits besides knives, and I think we all enjoy hearing about them.
 
bobobama said:
Not presenting any angle- just information for those who might be interested.

You pretty much echo the kind of response he got back in 2012, which is interesting since most of the recent discussions about his knives have been pretty positive. I don't really care much either way, since I don't have any of his knives and have never heard any of his music.

And for what it's worth, everyone on this forum is involved with other pursuits besides knives, and I think we all enjoy hearing about them.
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No doubt. There's an off topic portion of the forums that would likely be better suited for discussions about business and wine.

I guess what I was asking for is a little bit of direction - Why is the information you presented relevant to the General Knife Discussion portion of the forums and what are you trying to extract from the populace here?
 
Lapedog said:
The only thing that I really like about his knives are that the Bad monkey has a wave feature.
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That's something I didn't mention. I LOVE THE WAVE.

I seriously wish that more companies would pay homage to the man himself, Emerson, and utilize this ingenious feature on their knives.

I can immediately think of a dozen knives I would enjoy with a wave attached.
 
I actually liked the initial Southern Grind knives in Sandvik 14 - just not the asking price.
 
I don’t know Zac Brown’s music.
I do know that I love my SpyderMonkey.
My sample is dead on with fit and finish.
It was a bit on the expensive side, but otherwise I don’t find it lacking in the least.
According to his website, he does a lot for charity.
 
SeppukuSamurai said:
That's something I didn't mention. I LOVE THE WAVE.

I seriously wish that more companies would pay homage to the man himself, Emerson, and utilize this ingenious feature on their knives.

I can immediately think of a dozen knives I would enjoy with a wave attached.
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Even if they aren’t going to use an actual wave, I even love knives with wave substitutes like the thumb plate on the Viper Italo or some “dagger” style folders that have dual guards where you can use one as a flipper and one as a wave.

Actually the best wave I have ever used is the peg wave on the Spyderco P’kal. I have always been upset that more knives didn’t adopt it. First of all it is the most reliable wave of any I have tried. Secondly it seems to destroy pants the least and finally it is removable!

How can this perfected wave be limited to only one knife!? It’s not even patented or trademarked and all it requires to make is tapping a hole and a little bar of steel with threads on it! Probably way cheaper to manufacture than the contoured thumb plate on the viper italo! For cutting a normal wave I imagine a fair ammount of steel has to be cutaway from the bar stock.

Rant over.
 
Dig the look of some of his stuff, but wouldn't pay that price for any knife, ever. I'm not knocking his stuff, I wouldn't pay what CRK charges for their stuff either, etc. These niche knives are all overpriced tools to me. And no, handling one would not at all change my mind. There's nothing amazing or intricate about these. I always use guns as a comparison, or even watches, where the best materials do matter, because of so many moving parts and internal explosions being present. Nope these are knives - they must cut, do so well, have a design that lends to doing it, while not hurting the user when I'm use. Knives have done all this for centuries, nary an issue. Of course there's some margin of value in better handles and superior designs/materials, but nowhere near what they charge for these ridiculous things I'm seeing all over the place. $300-3000... Pffft

Nope, I'll stick with good quality bang 4 buck products that will do everything just as well as any other out there, of which it only has to do maybe once a week typically, to once a day at most.
 
BeyondTheBox said:
Dig the look of some of his stuff, but wouldn't pay that price for any knife, ever. I'm not knocking his stuff, I wouldn't pay what CRK charges for their stuff either, etc. These niche knives are all overpriced tools to me. And no, handling one would not at all change my mind. There's nothing amazing or intricate about these. I always use guns as a comparison, or even watches, where the best materials do matter, because of so many moving parts and internal explosions being present. Nope these are knives - they must cut, do so well, have a design that lends to doing it, while not hurting the user when I'm use. Knives have done all this for centuries, nary an issue. Of course there's some margin of value in better handles and superior designs/materials, but nowhere near what they charge for these ridiculous things I'm seeing all over the place. $300-3000... Pffft

Nope, I'll stick with good quality bang 4 buck products that will do everything just as well as any other out there, of which it only has to do maybe once a week typically, to once a day at most.
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If you are using guns as a comparison, then you should understand why CRK knives cost what they do and why they are looked favorably upon by many in the knife community. Can you buy a gun for $350? Of course you can. Is it going to have have the same precision fit and tolerances that a custom shop will produce? Definitely not. Same thing with CRK, precision and tolerances cost money.
 
I'll address the "knives" portion for you.

I've owned the Spider Monkey. I found it very strong, very sharp, incredibly light and easy to carry, superbly ergonomic, and very sharply dressed in beautiful carbon fiber.

I had zero issue with the price charged for this piece.

I would have kept it, but somebody was willing to trade me for a piece I wanted much more. I'll own another soon.
 
Thanks to those that offered knife feedback in this thread. I was looking at them online (Spider Monkey) and watched a couple youtube videos last week. Don't see myself getting one. I can say that Zac Brown Band are excellent - fortunate enough to be seeing them again in a couple weeks. If you like ZBB, highly recommend seeing them live.
 
unwisefool said:
If you are using guns as a comparison, then you should understand why CRK knives cost what they do and why they are looked favorably upon by many in the knife community. Can you buy a gun for $350? Of course you can. Is it going to have have the same precision fit and tolerances that a custom shop will produce? Definitely not. Same thing with CRK, precision and tolerances cost money.
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Nah, fantastic tolerances, fits and finished from knives for $30. Precision isn't valuable, in the least, in a knife, but even then it's achieved by almost all out there. It's just a knife blade, a couple slabs of something for handle and a locking and opening system of choice.
 
SeppukuSamurai said:
Not sure what your angle is.

I could care less what Zac decides to invest his time/money in outside of knives, which is what this forum is oriented around.

Again, not sure what it is you're looking for here but I'll bite -

I don't like his knives. I think that he charges a premium price for what are mostly average, at best, products.

The majority of his knives utilize an average steel and are liner locks, my personal LEAST favorite locking mechanism. His framelock, the Penguin, is...undesirable to me. To put it nicely.

With that being said, take my opinion for what it is - I have owned one of his knives. Two years ago. The 4" Bad Monkey.

I can buy a WHOLE LOT more for my money elsewhere and that's what I will/have do/done.
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His opinions man, geez your quick to jump.
 
BeyondTheBox said:
Nah, fantastic tolerances, fits and finished from knives for $30. Precision isn't valuable, in the least, in a knife, but even then it's achieved by almost all out there. It's just a knife blade, a couple slabs of something for handle and a locking and opening system of choice.
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This is silly. Precision IS valuable. You even mentioned watches as an example. You wouldn't buy an imprecise watch would you? Knives are just like guns, watches, flashlights, cars, etc. There's something for everyone out there and just because someone chooses something that costs more than yours doesn't mean it's any less inferior. It will probably be better.
 
BeyondTheBox said:
Nah, fantastic tolerances, fits and finished from knives for $30. Precision isn't valuable, in the least, in a knife, but even then it's achieved by almost all out there. It's just a knife blade, a couple slabs of something for handle and a locking and opening system of choice.
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Agree to disagree then. A $30 knife will have nowhere near the tolerances of a higher-end precision-made knife. And it's really not achieved by almost all out there or else there wouldn't be a market for the higher-end knives.
 
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