MSRP $600 for the 4-Max?
For that price, it needs to kill the deer, track it down, gut and quarter it - all before I even get out of bed.
Nobody sells knives at MSRP. Knifecenter's pre-order price is $360. In all honesty, for a knife that's US made(totally US made) 4 inch blade with with CPM-20V steel, you're not likely to find something similar much cheaper, you're basically getting the closest you can get to a Demko custom without paying several hundred dollars more and actually GETTING a Demko custom.
Compare it both cost, and performance wise to a Hinderer or Stryder (both of which it blows out of the water) and the cost is more than fair.I understand that. Let me rephrase then....I'm a fairly simple man, with very simple ways of thinking about things....
http://cdna.terasrenki.com/ds/CPM-20CV_DuraTech-20CV_Datasheet_1.pdf
There's no way I'm spending that kind of money [even half of the MSRP] on a 4" pocket knife that has resin impregnated, woven fiberglass scales [aka G-10] and some hyped up tool-steel - a 'perceived' super-steel - that has to be made twice as thick to do what any good carbon steel that's got better spring and is easier to sharpen.
....IMO, it's just a hyped up 440C on perhaps steroids.
Now, I'm no metallurgist and I'm certainly not a knife-snob....but I just don't buy in to all these "super steels" because I just don't see a need for it. Other [carbon] steels do better at less than quarter - to - half the cost. The only real benefit to any kind of stainless is the lack of needed maintenance and to me, that just translates to laziness. Stainless is also harder to sharpen in the field.
Don't get me wrong....I do love CS knives and have for many years but at half the asking price for this blade, I can purchase three Trail Master Bowie's; four SRK's; 4 recon Tanto's; three Recon Scouts; three Recon 1 Tanto's; TWELVE Trail Hawks....right off Amazon.
....the asking price, even at half the MSRP...is just ridiculous to me.
Compare it both cost, and performance wise to a Hinderer or Stryder (both of which it blows out of the water) and the cost is more than fair.
With that, I normally dont go in for knives in this price range (you can buy a gun for that kind of money) I am going to pick this one up...
I just have a suspicion that next year Cold Steel is going to make a production AD10 and I am going to have to buy that one as well.
Its a full run. And no, there is no hard use knife or there that can begin to approach Demko's designs in terms of strength. And even the Hinderer ZT's were preorder early on.Well we're also talking mass production knives versus a custom. A Hinderer? Basically a custom 3.5" knife....$500 + and pens for $200 +.......and Cold Steel? Mass produced and a good portion from overseas.....
At least for US made customs [not that I agree with it but] I can at least understand why they cost so much - but mass produced and imported? The price is not reasonable...not to the brain in this body. Even though the 4-MAX is 100% US made, it's still no "bargain" even at the "pre-order" price.
...and that brings me to another personal peeve....."pre-order"........
To me, "pre-order" means "We can do it but didn't have any plans to make it - but hey, we'll make a "limited" run if there's enough interest."......ah.....bunk. It's like trying to sell a Honus Wagner, 1909 baseball card for $2.8 million. It's a piece of freaking paper with some ink on it. What makes it "worth" $2.8 million? The fact some moron might actually pay that for it. Otherwise, it's just old paper with ink on it.
I mean for collectors, it's great - and more power to them....but I'm more about common-man stuff; reasonable costs for a reasonable product with a reasonable return [meaning the ability to serve a useful purpose]. This 4-MAX may very well be an awesome blade to have and own.....but someone's gonna' cry a river the moment they chip that edge, snap off that tip or don't get what they want for it when they try and sell it in 15 years.
I have no idea why I'm so cynical about this topic...for the life of me, I just can't justify the cost of this knife when like you said - I could buy a Glock for $100 more than the knifecenter's pre-order price.
I d like a 3.5 inch version at 5 oz.Can't we also have a 3Max?
I mean, a 3" version of it?
Its a full run. And no, there is no hard use knife or there that can begin to approach Demko's designs in terms of strength. And even the Hinderer ZT's were preorder early on.
Its funny, the argument against this knives can not be about the knife itself, but other inconsequential things. Because the knife itself...well it beasts everything else out there in it class-hard use folder.
Ok. But Cold Steel has an expansive line, with knives in basically every price range, speaking to a myriad of buyers. They have other knives than the 4-Max that fall into the area you are discussing. A Recon-1, American Lawman, or Code 4 would be knives more along those lines.Pre-order or not, full run or not...it's still just a knife....a tool....and tools break. It's got an edge and edged tools will dull. Unless Hephaestus himself forged this knife, it's still just a knife and it's only the "latest, greatest beast-mode-on" game-stopper until the next generation of "latest greatest beast-mode-on" game-stopper knives come out. Price is inconsequential? I think not.
I think I'll bow out of this conversation now...neither one of us will change our minds. Have a great evening.
Now, I'm no metallurgist and I'm certainly not a knife-snob....but I just don't buy in to all these "super steels" because I just don't see a need for it. Other [carbon] steels do better at less than quarter - to - half the cost. The only real benefit to any kind of stainless is the lack of needed maintenance and to me, that just translates to laziness. Stainless is also harder to sharpen in the field.
I live in an environment that can get miserably humid, and I tend to swear when I'm outside, so I will not carry a carbon steel folder, period.
Well we're also talking mass production knives versus a custom. A Hinderer? Basically a custom 3.5" knife....$500 + and pens for $200 +.......and Cold Steel? Mass produced and a good portion from overseas.....
At least for US made customs [not that I agree with it but] I can at least understand why they cost so much - but mass produced and imported? The price is not reasonable...not to the brain in this body. Even though the 4-MAX is 100% US made, it's still no "bargain" even at the "pre-order" price.
...and that brings me to another personal peeve....."pre-order"........
To me, "pre-order" means "We can do it but didn't have any plans to make it - but hey, we'll make a "limited" run if there's enough interest."......ah.....bunk. It's like trying to sell a Honus Wagner, 1909 baseball card for $2.8 million. It's a piece of freaking paper with some ink on it. What makes it "worth" $2.8 million? The fact some moron might actually pay that for it. Otherwise, it's just old paper with ink on it.
I mean for collectors, it's great - and more power to them....but I'm more about common-man stuff; reasonable costs for a reasonable product with a reasonable return [meaning the ability to serve a useful purpose]. This 4-MAX may very well be an awesome blade to have and own.....but someone's gonna' cry a river the moment they chip that edge, snap off that tip or don't get what they want for it when they try and sell it in 15 years.
I have no idea why I'm so cynical about this topic...for the life of me, I just can't justify the cost of this knife when like you said - I could buy a Glock for $100 more than the knifecenter's pre-order price.