Zt 0560 flaw!

I just saw one of these misprints at Smoky Mountain Knife Works. The serial number started with a 4.

I told the kid behind the counter it was a misprint. Not sure what they'll do with it.
 
Mine is the same. #4573
I kinda like it.
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Interesting. I am assuming that American made Kershaws and ZT's are made in the same factories sometimes, or at least using the same equipment? I have a labeling flawed Kershaw too, except this is a double stamp. Different problem, different cause, but same general thing, who ever is doing the type setting and the stamping, apparently there is room for error(scary in a weapons manufacturing facility), along with with the fact that QA either definitely doesn't look at every knife, or they do and don't care about the stamps? In my Kershaw, almost impossible to miss, but for a $75 mass produced blade I don't guess I would expect every one to be looked at. For the 560's though, I would, and after looking at so many with the curved ELMAX stamp with no space, it should stick out like a sore thumb I would think! And how/why would someone change the "stamper"... maybe because they were running the new Carbon Fiber 560's through and they have a straight stamp???!?!!, If so, SWEEEET, been waaaaaaiting for that bad boy, no one even taking pre-orders yet though :/. Cannot think of another explanation except for maint or breakdown and and someone screwing up putting it back together(doubtful, or I pray doubtful!). Anyone have a 560 with a higher number than the ones posted here that is the old way again again? Or perhaps this is just the new way instead of an error?

Below is my error, and here is the same exact blade being reviewed so you can see it from other angles (got it from from eBay, who got it from a guy here in the Exchange, who got it from Nutn I guess): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpJ1UmeveFY, I have never seen another double stamped like it, and i have looked, most of them(all the new ones) don't even have the stamp anymore, the few I found that did weren't double stamped. My dad has been a numismatist for like 40 years, and double strikes and other minting errors on currency makes it worth a hell of a lot more, dunno if that translates to blades, but considering how mach some of the mint errors released are worth relative to their face value (even errors produced in the hundreds of thousands are 10,000 times or more than their face value), I would assume that there is collectibility factor for released factory errors NOT marked as blems for blades? Same thing when I collected baseball cards, ERROR cards(misspellings, wrong pictures, stats, etc.), were ALSO worth a fortune if corrected early, or the corrected ones valuable if corrected late. According to Google same thing with stamps, this one is worth almost a million, and 100 of them were made!!!

Point is, it seems that everything else i know of that is collectible where some relatively small subset is released with errors is much more valuable, I don't see why it shouldn't be the same with blades, but I couldn't find any evidence of that in Google, I guess blade collecting isn't main stream enough?

Is there any precedence for factory errors not blemed in production knives making them more collectible that anyone knows of? I couldn't find any, but if there is, good excuse for me to buy another 560 :). My current one is serial# 2897, and is the curved, no space ELMAX stamp.

Fun Side note that may bring back good memories if anyone used to collect cards: here is my fav Error baseball card of all time, I just bought one from ebay for old times sake, don't click the link or thumbnail if you are offended by THE four letter word :):



The doublestruck Kershaw:

Rake_DoubleStamp.jpg
 
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The ZT560 I got a couple of weeks ago also has this flaw. Also has serial# starting with 4.
 
ZT and Kershaw are both made in the same factory. The markings are not stamped they are laser engraved. They have a number of lasers. One that has a number of fixtures and spins to engrave several in a batch. The knife is fully assembled when it goes to the laser and sits in a fixture. [Thanks Jimmer for showing me this stuff! Hope it is okay to post some very general details about it!] The lasers are all run by computers and have a configuration template file that specifies how they should be marked.

My guess is that they set up a laser that didn't have that template yet and the font was missing and in a high volume production setting you just roll with another one. The space may have been a mistyped space or may be bad kerning in that font that didn't appear with other words/combinations of letters. The double marked maybe got left in accidentally and partially remarked before the person running the laser caught this and it was packaged by mistake. Sometimes that stuff happens... have you ever typed up 100 pages and not hit a single wrong key? Little mistakes happen in any industry. I'd rather see the occasional minor error go out than each knife cost $1200 due to the costs involved to catch every tiny tiny error. KAI has the best customer service in the industry and they far more than make up for any issues with their willingness to go above and beyond for the customer. That is not only a better investment for them, it is far better for the consumer in the long run.

Since little things like this don't inhibit use nobody cares on a regular production model. With limited production models that people are collecting people generally don't want any noticeable issues and the value is usually decreased slightly. The only time I've seen an error increase the value is with the 0550 run that had Elmax blades but that was more than just a cosmetic change. I don't know how much that has increased value since I've been unable to find one for sale and Jimw451 is the only one that has said so publicly. Typically value is not changed.

Errors with stamps and money impact their use. There is the problem of automation with image scanning for stamps and money in vending machines but I think the bigger concern is that any sort of blemishes potentially indicate counterfeits and that is quite important so they are careful to make sure even tiny errors aren't ciruclated. For baseball cards and the like you aren't really using them and they are designed to be looked at and collected. Without that, they are just a piece of paper. Knives are primarily designed for use and as tools so those sorts of things don't have a lot of impact on the value. Even limited edition models are often not seen as collectible by everyone and we all cry a bit inside when we see someone laser engrave a biohazard symbol on a limited model knife or someone that thinks their super rare knife is improved by grinding an Emerson wave in to the blade.
 
oregonknifenerd said:
Even limited edition models are often not seen as collectible by everyone and we all cry a bit inside when we see someone laser engrave a biohazard symbol on a limited model knife or someone that thinks their super rare knife is improved by grinding an Emerson wave in to the blade.
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That all makes sense, and yeah, I don't guess in that case the engraving vs. other construction would reflect on one another. I agree via experience they are the best w/ customer service, I wasn't worried about them not fixing a mechanical defect with a knife, I was more worried about my not catching it and cutting my fingers off when a lock gave out or something, but then that should never happen given if one is using any blade that hard, one should be taking safety precautions so that cannot happen anyway since even a perfectly good knive's lock can fail if you push it too far... although I don't know what too far for ZTs would be, probably ALOT further than I would ever push one ;).

Double dang on the no value for cpsmetic factory errors, but what you are saying is supported by what I found when looking for any knives marketed at increased price due to cosmetic factory error, ah well.

550's with Elmax? News to me, wouldn't THAT be sweet to open up and find, although S35VN is sweet to open and find too, even though you know it is there :).

Thanks, interesting stuff!!! AND LOL on that last part I quoted, ain't that the truth, I may even have cried a little on the outside on some of the blades I have seen on eBay where someone used a bench grinder (or course file?!?) to try to turn their drop point into a tanto, etc. on a knife I was looking for (like what I just saw on an OOP Benchmade I have been looking for a few weeks ago :/). I will carry expensive blades (expensive to me is any Sebenza for sure, pretty much anything that would sell for more than $200), but I will be extremely careful with them so I tend to not do that instead vs. a $50 endura, OR with a well used (but not abused) expensive blade I bought that way for a bargain if I know it cannot be refurbished. If it weren't for the free spa treatments, I wouldn't carry the Sebbie's at all given how easily they wear :/.

Back to the point of the thread, that is why I LOVE these ZTs, they may be expensive but I don't mind carrying them, I carried the ZT0200 for MONTHS and it still looked brand new and only required a strop touch-up once, and it really didn't need it, it was still crazy sharp, just not ZT out of the box sharp, and the 560 is so far just as good at being wear resistant. Unfortunately the only one I have is autographed so I baby when I carry and I hate that so getting another, and now I don't have to worry about using it and ruining a "collectible error" if I get a kerned one (which was why I was so very interested in this thread, cannot afford to have to buy THREE 560's while maintaining funds for CF 560 whenever that is available, the 0777, and the 0888), so thanks oreganknifenerd... and thanks for the laughs from your previous link on kerning disasters :)!
 
I have the same flaw serial# 4126. I was thinking of sending it back but now that I know other have the same flaw I might keep it. I kinda like the look of the EL MAX sound more like a Spanish knife. I just wonder if will affect the resell value?
 
Johnnygon510 said:
I have the same flaw serial# 4126. I was thinking of sending it back but now that I know other have the same flaw I might keep it. I kinda like the look of the EL MAX sound more like a Spanish knife. I just wonder if will affect the resell value?
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Nope, I have a few of these now from eBay, paid a little under $200 each new, 1 with EL MAX, the other two the old way. I have a daily search alert for 560's on eBay, and watch a lot of them to wait for the ones that will go cheap to snipe, and I have seen no difference in what people are getting between the two versions. I doubt 99% of the peeps out there even KNOW there are two versions...
 
I'm wondering if the value would go up on the misprints like they do with misprinted stamps or currency?
 
MDQBox said:
I'm wondering if the value would go up on the misprints like they do with misprinted stamps or currency?
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In this case it doesn't look like it, maybe if it were something different, but not this. I asked the same question earlier in the thread, and then did some research, and could find no evidence of any "error" type knives for sale ANYWHERE, past or present tense, unlike baseball cards, currency, stamps, etc. By the time I came back to this thread to answer my own question, people here already confirmed what I found, not the same in the blade world. In this case there were quite a few made too, so it isn't that rare compared to the total number of 560/1s made.
 
Mine had the proper spacing but was not curved to followed the blade line. It is on its way back to ZT for something else will report if the new/fixed one has the same issue
 
I just got my new 0560 today. Ser# 4147 with El Max straight across. Must have been a pretty large run like that. Love the knife either way.
 
I would have panicked and depressed wondering if I got a fake and then real anxious and nervous until Kershaw CS responded back :D
 
I have the same misprint on my 560 serial# 4126. Has anyone sold their EL MAX for more than usual? By the serial# it looks like there is about 200 of them out there.
 
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One is on eBay, straight no space. Gives a somewhat clearer idea of how many are like this.
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