Best and Worst purchases of 2016

RayseM said:
BEST - In part of the trade for the L-19 I ended up with a Chris Quayism Kwaiken -

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This knife needs some work :) as it came pretty crude. Maybe one of his firsts customs - BUT - I can send it in for a spa treatment and in the meantime I have carried it every day as my EDC. Rugged work knife, OK flipper, easy in the hand, and I don't hesitate to use it for nearly any task. Never felt more confident with any EDC I have carried. 4" blade which makes this bigger than I prefer but surprisingly this one carries well. Far cry from a Thorburn but it is a knife worthy of note nonetheless :thumbup:

Thanks for asking :D

Ray
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I was the first owner of that Kwaik. Loved it. Glad to see it making the rounds and getting Chris's name out there. That's why I let it go once I got on his books haha. Not to mention his HT on 52100 is fantastic.

As for my best and worst of last year, I'd say my best(s) were the few FFKWs I picked up last year. There's just something about their knives I've fallen in love with. Worst would be the few times I ventured back into some budget knives. There were a handful of unmemorable ones that made me realize I'm done with that market section.


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Best AO of 2016, from my favorite brand. Still flickin in 2017!

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gmorel1916 said:
I was the first owner of that Kwaik. Loved it. Glad to see it making the rounds and getting Chris's name out there. That's why I let it go once I got on his books haha. Not to mention his HT on 52100 is fantastic.
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Hey - fun to know :thumbup: His folders that I have seen need BIG pockets :). I'm anxious to get this one tuned up. Could be a in a class of its own but right now it has the look and feel of an early attempt - right on the verge of perfection though :cool:. Glad you passed it on.

Ray
 
The Best- Would have to be my Brous Silent Soldier Flipper. I got this knife via trade on this forum and have carried it every day since. It is one of his very early versions in CF and at the moment my favorite knife.

The Worst-Would have to be my Lionsteel SR1A. The knife is beautiful to look at and seems to have great build quality, but it is too big for my hand and the blade shape is kinda useless IMO.

The Best Runner Up- I have to give honorable mention to my Carothers Performance Knives EDC. The build quality and design of this knife is absolutely amazing and it would have got my #1 pick other than the fact that I just don't carry a fixed blade all that much. I do plan on getting a horizontal sheath for this knife however and I believe that will change.
 
Best - Skookum Bush Tool. Well thought out and useful. Lives up to the hype.

Worst - no duds in 2016 thankfully.
 
Best:
Reate Horizon CF - (soon to be outdone by the Reate Epoch but technically I purchased the Epoch in January 2017)
Reate is very very impressive. Incredible flipping action, solid lock up, perfect craftsmanship and the M390 is the best part of it!! Crazily enough I've got it up for sale in the production folder thread because the Epoch has trumped it for pocket time and I have enough >$300 blades currently. I'm trying to fund a trip to Vegas for my 40th birthday in May.

Worst:
Lionsteel TRE in OD green g-10. I wanted to like this knife because I truly love my Lionsteel TM-1 but the flipping action just wasn't there no matter how I tried to flip it open. I like knives of all sizes but this small flipper just missed its mark for me. It won a top award at Blade Show so it got my attention, maybe I needed to buy the titanium or CF version with the true 3 options for opening. It went back for a refund in less than 2 weeks.
 
Best- Trc k1s fixed blade perfection , everything about this knife was better than I thought it would be !
Worst- Lionsteel m5 , not at all what I was looking for in a fixed blade , oh well live and learn
 
Best: Benchmade triage 9160. Excellent fit and finish, feels great in hand perfect for any first responder.
No bad purchases thanks to this forum and YouTube.
 
PURPLEDC said:
my best purchase: 2016 Violet purple microtech ultratech. My only gripe is I hate the cerakote type black finish. I would much prefer DLC. But aside from that it is my baby. But not in the sense that I baby it. I finally got over my obsession of keeping knives in mint condition and I have been carrying and using it like crazy. I finally live up to my forum name.

Worst purchase: I didn't purchase it but rather was a gift for Christmas I asked for. It was a combative edge legacy balisong. Without a doubt the biggest hunk of crap to have the word balisong attached to it. The S90V blade while sounding appealing at first let me down when I discovered that 1/4 of the blade was never even sharpened. And the parts that were sharpened had a rolled edge and wouldn't cut anything. And I mean NOTHING. I literally could not get any portion of what they call an edge to grab my fingernail. Then I noticed the titanium liners had a gap between the G10 overlay but only on one scale. And that was because they had machined "first production run" on the wrong side of the liner. The liners have one side that is chamfered for comfort and the other is flat to butt up against the G10. But instead of making a new liner or machining first production run on the side it should have been on the geniuses simply reversed that single liner. That leaves the chamfered edge up against the g10 and gives the impression of a gap. Blade grind was wonky and the action was piss poor. Easily the most laughable balisong I have ever owned and I owned a mil-tac breeden pry bar abomination.
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i bought 3 combative edge balisongs and was happy with them . the problems others have stated didn't exist on mine. the problem was ,i had questions about the construction of the pivot pins. if they were allen screws or riveted . there was no way to contact combative edge or email. i think they are in Pennsylvania . but nothing came up.
 
PURPLEDC said:
my best purchase: 2016 Violet purple microtech ultratech. My only gripe is I hate the cerakote type black finish. I would much prefer DLC. But aside from that it is my baby. But not in the sense that I baby it. I finally got over my obsession of keeping knives in mint condition and I have been carrying and using it like crazy. I finally live up to my forum name.

Worst purchase: I didn't purchase it but rather was a gift for Christmas I asked for. It was a combative edge legacy balisong. Without a doubt the biggest hunk of crap to have the word balisong attached to it. The S90V blade while sounding appealing at first let me down when I discovered that 1/4 of the blade was never even sharpened. And the parts that were sharpened had a rolled edge and wouldn't cut anything. And I mean NOTHING. I literally could not get any portion of what they call an edge to grab my fingernail. Then I noticed the titanium liners had a gap between the G10 overlay but only on one scale. And that was because they had machined "first production run" on the wrong side of the liner. The liners have one side that is chamfered for comfort and the other is flat to butt up against the G10. But instead of making a new liner or machining first production run on the side it should have been on the geniuses simply reversed that single liner. That leaves the chamfered edge up against the g10 and gives the impression of a gap. Blade grind was wonky and the action was piss poor. Easily the most laughable balisong I have ever owned and I owned a mil-tac breeden pry bar abomination.
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regarding the combative edge legacy balisong,,, i bought them in2017,, but didnt know the company existed untill i saw them advertised on blade hq. the worst about the knife was the first production printing on safe handle was faded on all 3 knives everything else was very good. its my edc.
 
wolverinejeep said:
i bought 3 combative edge balisongs and was happy with them . the problems others have stated didn't exist on mine. the problem was ,i had questions about the construction of the pivot pins. if they were allen screws or riveted . there was no way to contact combative edge or email. i think they are in Pennsylvania . but nothing came up.
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I hated mine. Worst I really have nothing but disdain for those knives even if I found a perfect one. But I do know on mine the screws were neither rivets nor allen screws but rather torx screws.
 
Just realized I posted in a necro thread...sorry for waking the dead.
 
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