I haven't bought my first Kizer yet and I was watching a review by Nick Shabazz, whom I always enjoy, and he talked about feeling sketched disassembling the Vanguard Dukes because the pivot screw was soft. I've had this experience of stripping a pivot that's not hardened and I was wondering if this was an issue across different models or whether folks feel confident taking their Kizers apart.
Kizer Pivots
- Thread starter boze
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2014
- Messages
- 3,646
I have not disassembled a Vanguard. But have had no issues with the three Ki3452's that I have. Their bearing pivot is among the absolute smoothest I have. Although only disassembled one of them. Durability and threading do not seem to be an issue of any kind. The other two for my kids do not see a lot of use as they are still younger.
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2014
- Messages
- 6,190
I have a Vanguard Gemini, Dukes, Begleiter, V3 Vigor and a Dorado. Probably a couple more that I'm forgetting atm. I'm ashamed to say that some of these knives have been abused. I blame the wife 
. I've never encountered problems with hardware or pivots, in fact I consider the Kizer Vanguards to be one of the best values in the sub-$100 knife world. My real life experience doesn't mesh with Nick's bench top experience.YMMV.
Now, my head isn't in the sand. All knives, especially production knives can have issues. To date Kizer has done a great job standing behind their product. I buy them with confidence.
. I've never encountered problems with hardware or pivots, in fact I consider the Kizer Vanguards to be one of the best values in the sub-$100 knife world. My real life experience doesn't mesh with Nick's bench top experience.YMMV.Now, my head isn't in the sand. All knives, especially production knives can have issues. To date Kizer has done a great job standing behind their product. I buy them with confidence.
Thanks for the votes of confidence. Kizer certainly seems to offer some great values. I've had a pivot strip on initial disassembly on a Boker not long ago and after that comment from Shabazz about the Dukes (which he said was a "gem" anyway) I was wary.
It's also nice to know that Kizer has good and improving customer support in the US. Boker were responsive but tried to charge me $10 for a replacement pivot. Their CS contact said they had to order all parts from Germany like that was going to make me more comfortable paying ten bucks for another soft screw.
Does the BF community have any favorite Kizer models? I'm not a hard user and just do very casual EDC. I'm more a knife owner as an extension of fiddling with slipjoint knives in the top of my grandfather's dresser when I was a little kid I think.
It's also nice to know that Kizer has good and improving customer support in the US. Boker were responsive but tried to charge me $10 for a replacement pivot. Their CS contact said they had to order all parts from Germany like that was going to make me more comfortable paying ten bucks for another soft screw.
Does the BF community have any favorite Kizer models? I'm not a hard user and just do very casual EDC. I'm more a knife owner as an extension of fiddling with slipjoint knives in the top of my grandfather's dresser when I was a little kid I think.