Emerson Knives CQC7

12/01/2011 by WM

-Price Paid: $130.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 6 months

Comments:

These comments will basically be the same for any Emerson brand knife, but the CQC-7 happens to the model I spend the most time with on a day to day basis. I'm a custom maker and work around knives on a day to day basis and have done my fair share of "pimp" or customization jobs on Emerson knives to know where they skimp on quality. I've had nearly every problem in the book with Emerson knives, from late liners out of the box to fatigued screws that caused the thumb disk to fly across the room during opening. I find the fit and finish to be subpar even to Chinese produced knives, to the degree where it's often hard to tell what's a genuine Emerson and what's a Chinese knock off. The materials for the price are vastly substandard, for 175$ you would expect better blade steel than 154CM and Emerson has cheapened the CQC-7 over the years, along with all their knives, to the point where only one liner is titanium anymore, and the other is just stainless steel. Beyond that I've hard problems with annealed blade tangs causing lockup problems, their G10 rips your pockets up, the wave causes the blade to deploy when you don't want it and it's not ambi friendly. I also find thumb plates difficult and slow to use. About the only good thing I can say about Emerson knives is they do hold their value, so when you eventually decide to get rid of the knife and get something better, you can do so without loosing a ton of money. Rule of thumb tho, never buy an Emerson new, they're just not worth it for the price and there are a ton of other better options. Given the money and the need for a hard use knife, I'd buy a Zero Tolerance, far superior quality and materials and still US made.

Benchmade 3800 NTK

12/01/2011 by WMoon

-Price Paid: $128.00
-Used for Other
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

I owned a pre-production sample of the 3800 which I considered to be a collectable. It's even more collectable now since the 3800 was never produced and will likely never be produced. The knife is an exact copy of the Lone Wolf D2 double action automatic, since Benchmade now owns Lone Wolf, except for the blade markings and steel. My pre-production sample was in S30V and the regular production knives were meant to be made in D2, both of which are fine steels. The reason I've marked 6 on the build quality is for the liners and scales, which just seemed a little flimsey, but they're hold overs from when the knife was produced by Lone Wolf. Overall if you can come by one, you'll be lucky, I don't know if more than a handful were ever made, let alone made available to the public, but they're a fine knife and a shame Benchmade never put them into production.

Benchmade 10402-1 Pika II TI

12/01/2011 by WMoon

-Price Paid: $48.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

I'm a custom maker and do a lot of customization of knives, work with knives every day, and have owned literally thousands of knives. The Pika 2 Ti is the best of the Pika series of knives, but I still only think it's an 8/10. The biggest problems are with the quality of materials... Chinese produced knives are advertised as using Ti handles but instead of using 6Al4V (Grade 5) like all American produced knives use, they use CP (commercially pure) or occasionally grade 2, and it's cast not milled so there are a lot of impurities in the Ti. Titanium is strong, but if it's cast improperly in can flex and as such some of these knives can have a bit more wiggle in the blade than you'd want. I also have found that the Chinese do not use heat treated screws, so expect a screw or two to strip out on you if you ever try and take the knife down or change the pocket clip from one side to the other. Other than that it's a fine knife, shoudl give you plenty of service life.

Spyderco Chaparral

11/30/2011 by Jdizzle

-Price Paid: $120.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

The Spyderco chaparral is in my opinion, about as good as it gets for an EDC knife. It is lightweight and has a fairly deep carry pocket clip that helps it completley disappear clipped to your pocket all day. The spyder wire pocket clip is quickly becoming my favorite. The only gripe I have with the knife is that the liners are so close together, there is so little clearance between the blade and liners that unless you use two hands and pull the blade strait out, it rubs the liner your thumb is pushing towards. Not a big deal to me, and it has been getting better as the knife breaks in. The knife has a pretty good lock up, and is the first lock back ive gotten from spyderco without any blade play forward and back. Lock up is superb. I am curious as to how spyderco can charge the same amount as the sage 1 for this knife, using the same materials, and less of them at that. Ergonomics are good, it is pretty much just a smaller sage 1 with a lockback. The lockback has a pretty deep engagement too, the lock must be pushed pretty far to dis-engage it, so I think the lock should be very strong. If spyderco could get the price down, this would be the PERFECT edc knife. I am excited to see the handle material variations they will come out with once a year. Highly reccomended.

CRKT M16-01KZ

11/30/2011 by Bob Grigg

-Price Paid: $25.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

This Knife is perfect as EDC knife! It is Light and handy and opens in a flash! I just broke the tip off the blade and that why I am on here looking for the reviews! I have had this knife for over a year now and haven't had to sharpen the blade. I have read that this knife will not hold an edge long or maybe I don't use mine as much as everyone else. Until I find something better I'm gonna buy me another one!

RAT Cutlery HEST

11/29/2011 by Pat

-Price Paid: $110.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

This is awell made survival knife and as I am writing this, the HEST folder II is also available.I purchased this knife because I wanted a good small survival knife to take with me on any hiking or kayaking trip, and this one served the purpose. The handle is solid and it fits my hand perfectly. The blade coating is top of theline and it came very sharp indeed!The overall construction is well thought of, and it is small enough to hang on a neck chain. I am considering buying the HEST folder if the price will drop a little, now they are around $175!

SOG Arcitech

11/29/2011 by Pat

-Price Paid: $250.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

This is one of the expensive knife for SOG. Very well made and it is a "Pretty Knife" indeed! The fitting is perfect and the colors matches great!The blade steel is top of the line and if you are looking for a smooth action, sharp and pretty blade, this will be it!!I gave the value an "8" because I think it is a little too expensive!

ESEE Izula

11/27/2011 by Matt

-Price Paid: $60.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

So far, I think the Izula is awesome. I got one in venom green, which looks awesome. The knife is smaller than I thought, in fact quite a bit so. The handle is only a three finger handle, my pinky hangs off the back. The blade is a little over two inches long. The knife is made out of 1095 steel. I have an old RAT Cutlery(who has since become ESEE) RC4 which is made out of the same steel, and I've used it hard with no complaints. I haven't thrashed my Izula yet, but ESEE/RAT do 1095 very well. The sheath is great. Injection molded plastic, and it rewards you with a positive and satisfying *click* every time you snap the knife in. The tolerancing on it is great; the knife fits like a glove.At first I was going to do a paracord wrap on the handle, but I've come to like it plain. Because the handle on the Izula is skeletonized, I actually get a pretty solid grip without the paracord so I don't think I need it.The only ding I can give to the Izula is on ergonomics, but because it's only a 3 finger knife, it will never be as comfortable as a knife with a full size handle. That said, compared to other knives this size, it is pretty comfortable.I think this knife is a great deal, looks great(you can find them in something like ten different colors), and performs well. I recommend it.

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Buck Minibuck

11/26/2011 by DG

-Price Paid: $8.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

Great to carry all day at office. Too small for much more than light use. I did completely field dress a small deer with one 5 years ago.Not the best edge retention but easily resharpened.I have the black handle one. My only complaint is it's easy to loose because of it's small size.

Leatherman Charge

11/24/2011 by

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

This is amazing tool but it's not perfect. Initially I had Leatherman Charge Ti but it was impossible to open the serrated blade with one hand so I returned it, but I had to take Charge AL instead of Ti, cause Ti was discontinued (I wasn't very happy about that as obviously titanium is more expensive than aluminum and I paid for titanium, but what could I do).The pliers are not closing perfectly, there is a small gap between them, but when I checked few others they had similar or bigger gaps. Also I had left the tool few weeks in the drawer and after that I spotted some rust on several places. Tool wasn't even used before I left it there. I understand that it's made of higher carbon steel to make the pliers harder, but you can imagine how "easy" is it to get rid of the rust spots on such complicated tool. I paid about 160 euros for it in Europe. I think it's much better value in US than in Europe.

SOG Aegis

11/24/2011 by Blade

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

I liked the blade shape of this knife and the weight as well. This is good knife as light EDC blade, but that's it. You can open packages and boxes with it and so on, but it's not intended for any harder jobs. S.A.T. works great, but there is always some side to side blade play. You can get rid of it (only for some time) by tightening the pivot screw, but that will slow down the blade deployment. I loved the weight of this knife, you didn't know you have it on you and the pocket clip is amazing (probably the best pocket clip on a folding knife), but I just didn't trust the mechanism (too many small and weak parts which can break) so I sold it. Also one of the kraton inserts in the handle fell off, so I used glue to get it back and it was ok, but I didn't expect it from such a knife. It's a good light EDC, but I wouldn't put my life or safety on this knife. If you like the design, buy it, it's very good looking knife, but if you're looking for a bit harder jobs knife, look somewhere else.

Kershaw Whirlwind

11/23/2011 by Gregg

-Price Paid: $25.99
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

I found this Whirlwind online for $25.99 about two weeks ago, at this price I had to give it a try. The price was due to this knife lying on the shelf for quite some time with no box. The blade is marked as being made "Jan 05", found above the liner lock if the blade is half opened. The knife came with a stained blade, scuff marks on the black pocket clip and a stiff action from no lubrication. I cleaned it up and eased the action with a little gun oil and time working the SpeedSafe action. The edge was still fairly sharp, but not hair popping sharp like the majority of new Kershaw knives out of the box. The glass filled nylon or polymide handle is the same as that found on the Blackout I've been eyeing at the local Walmart. The jimping on top of the blade for thumb perch is set so low as to be almost non-existent. One more millimeter would probably work wonders here. I have big hands and find the 4 1/2" handle large enough to fill my hand comfortably with about 1/4" sticking out beyond my pinky finger. With lubrication the SpeedSafe assisted opening is very fast and has been working fine, no complaints there. So far I haven't had a real chance to put the Whirlwind to good use, only cutting some tape here and there. In my opinion the Whirlwind is not the best choice for self defense EDC as the handle is too thick (over 1/2" at the widest point) if the knife is kept in your front pant pocket making it difficult to reach into or pulling your hand out of your pocket. For security I prefer to keep my EDC in my front pant pocket. Measuring in at about 3/8" wide my Kershaw Skyline is better in this regard. If only the Skyline also had a black pocket clip! Bottom-line, I like the Whirlwind at the price I bought it but find it better suited for light duty/general work and not EDC due to the thick handle. YMMV.