Koenig Knives

cashville

cashville

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Apr 12, 2017
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I've been really eyeing a Koenig Arius lately. I usually like plain jane ti models, but the Storm Trooper white hand with DLC blade has caught my eye for some reason. Probably a little cheesy, but I have a lot of plain ti, so I might go for it. The blade is a little thicker than I usually prefer, but the hallow grind probably makes it pretty useable.

They offer a "lifetime warranty" but I've had a hard time finding the specifics on it. I sent them an email asking a lot of specifics on it. I rarely have to use warranty service, and I've only done a single blade replacement that I can remember, but I like having the peace of mind, especially at this price. I just sent my email this morning, but I would expect it to take them a little longer to get back due to the holidays.

Anyways, anybody had any experience with their customer service/warranty? Feel free to chime in on experiences with their products as well. I would expect a lot of people to talk about great fit and finish and so forth, but I'd be more interested in performance and usability I guess. Thanks in advance!
 
I'm expecting to go over there next week sometime. Was scheduled to get together with Bill yesterday, but he is pretty busy so he postponed it.
Not sure of the warranty yet as I don't have any but am expecting to get the Arius myself after handling 2 of them at CRK recently.
 
Just don't buy one from a reseller with the initials F. E. AKA Andrew. He will most definitely ruin it with improperly sharpening or anno. The value will drop considerably.

The Aries is nice. Great action and tolerances. Tho it's really heavy and bulky. Not a big slicer. They have recently teased milled ti scales and some other changes Nick Shabazz noted in his review. They also have a show side of carbon fiber in a few weave options. It's a good product for the money. It also looks great. And the action is sweet.
 
Here is Koenig's "warranty agreement" meant to be signed by dealers:

https://koenigknives.com/src/koenigwarrantyinfo.pdf

The following is the warranty policy of Koenig Knives, LLC: Koenig Knives are designed for supreme durability and longevity. That being said, they are composed of earthly materials that are subject to wear and tear. All of our knives are covered by a lifetime repair/replacement warranty and are guaranteed to be free of manufacturer defects. Any Koenig Knife can be returned at any point in its life for repair or sharpening, the customer, however, will be liable for shipping and return postage. This warranty does not apply to knives that are subject to uses beyond our design intent and/or excessive abuse (i.e. prying or pounding). All replacements/repairs will be issued at our discretion. Disassembly of any Koenig Knife will void the lifetime warranty. Should a problem arise which requires disassembly for repair, Koenig Knives will execute the necessary maintenance, free of charge.​

This is pretty vague and obviously wasn't written by a (competent) lawyer, but my reading is that Koenig will fix its mistakes for the life of the product. If you have any questions, you should just ask them. They're a small shop and will write back to you.
 
I just received my Koenig Arius this morning
Wow ! It's a serious precision piece , as solid as I think is possible

Emailed Bill Koenig and worked a few details , great service .
I would review warranty if you have concerns.
I don't think you will get any better customer service. (Olamic was similar experience)
 
bhyde bhyde I'm looking forward to hearing back from you after you meet with Bill if you wouldn't mind reporting back after.

Mo2 Mo2 Have you had or handle an Arius?

vanadium vanadium This is really helpful. I was kind of under the impression that this could be really broad statements to help cover their asses legal. Worst case scenario, this might end up saving me $500-600 on another purchase.

Bill ended up emailing me back last night. He didn't really answer a few of my specific question, so I'm going to email him back but will probably wait until after Christmas. I kind of feel like a douche trying to dissect a warranty policy on Christmas Eve over email. I really look forward to hearing bhyde's experiences in the near future.
 
Anyways, I don't have a copy of my original email because it went through a website server or whatever, but I pretty much just told him that I"m really interested in the Storm Trooper edition. I asked if they'd be able to refinish the knife and the handle and stuff, how much this would cost, how much a potential blade replacement would cost, if there is anything not clearly stated that would void the warranty of the knife other than just blatant abuse.
Here is what I got back:

Hi [My name]-

Yes sir we can refinish anything and we can do spa treatments on all of our knives. The warranty is only voided if there has been modifications done to the knife that could have potentially contributed or did directly contribute to the knife failing. I haven't ever had any issues with that being a problem, normal wear and tear and even abuse wont void the warranty.

Thank you,
Bill

This makes me extremely hopeful going forward. I don't mind paying for work to an extent, but I just can't bring myself to spending that kind of money without knowing that it's a company that really backs their products. I have been really happy with the warranty policies of CRK, Olamic, Benchmade just to name a few. I feel like CRK is a good example because warranty work will probably not be as cheap as something like Benchmade just because return shipping from CRK is about the price of a BM blade replacement, but CRK clearly lays out their warranty and the pricing of repairs that don't fall under warranty. But I've heard nothing but great things about Olamic, where they've gone as far as to straight up replace a blade that had been poorly sharpened by the original owner for a 2nd hand owner for free. That's just going above and beyond. Even though I haven't used their warranty, I've heard nothing but great things so I'm really not worried about it.

I plan to email Bill back in a few days to see if I can get some more specifics on the warranty. One of the things I usually try to ask is what a blade replacement would cost. I've only done one blade replacement that I can remember, but this is usually one of the most expensive repairs, so I guess I kind of like it as a point of comparison. I'll update when I have more info. Thanks everyone for getting back to me.
 
Wanted to thank you guys for starting this thread and posting in it. This thread started my research on Koenig knives. I got one in hand shortly after seeing this and was blown away by the fit, finish and feel in the hand. I am excited to say we are now the newest Koenig knives dealer. We should have our first batch coming in to the shop in 2-3 weeks.
 
whitty said:
Wanted to thank you guys for starting this thread and posting in it. This thread started my research on Koenig knives. I got one in hand shortly after seeing this and was blown away by the fit, finish and feel in the hand. I am excited to say we are now the newest Koenig knives dealer. We should have our first batch coming in to the shop in 2-3 weeks.
Click to expand...

So stoked that you guys are gonna deal Koenig Knives. On my first now, and it’s fantastic.
 
I never updated but I ended up ordering one right after Christmas. It ended up being 1 of the 2 knives I’ve ever returned. I felt really bad because it was such a high price piece, but with no way to really try one out before hand, I guess it is what is it.

I really disliked the pocket clip. It had really bad retention and I pretty much had to two-hand the clip to get it in my pocket no matter what pants I was wearing (back pocket). Honestly probably my least favorite pocket clip I’ve ever used in terms of functionality. Also, I found it to be really sensitive to light pressure on the lock bar when opening.

Other than that, I was really impressed by how well the knife was constructed. I guess it just didn’t take a lot to talk myself out of a $560 knife while it was still returnable. I will probably pick up a used one in the future to give it another shot. I was really tempted to buy the one you bought at the price halden.doerge halden.doerge
 
I'd have to agree on the clip issue although it gets a bit better with use
Lock bar pressure issue wasn't pronounced for me -see the ckf SSE for pressure issue!

Overall it still is about the finest for the money.

I'm hoping they come out with a smaller / slimmer knife soon ;)
 
Yes, I was in the process of specing out a build I wanted with Bill, who was fantastic to work with, when I found one done almost exactly to my specs pop up on the exchange. I couldn't turn down the savings, and I sheepishly emailed Bill telling him exactly what had happened. He was above and beyond understanding about it, and definitely secured me as a direct customer sometime in the future. I'm definitely eyeing the milled out Arius's that he's working on. And I'm also very keen to see what new model(s) they will introduce later this year. Koenig is in the top tier and worth every penny.

Anyways, here's the new king of my pocket:

njrtIDv.jpg
 
These have caught my eye as well and I think 2018 will be a year that I’ll give one a try.
 
How do y’all like the cutting performance? They feel nice and thin behind the edge. I do wonder if they get hung up when slicing cardboard and stuff like that.
 
cashville said:
How do y’all like the cutting performance? They feel nice and thin behind the edge. I do wonder if they get hung up when slicing cardboard and stuff like that.
Click to expand...

I was going to say that I hadn't really tested it out much yet, but then I thought "Ah, hell I have three uncut-up cardboard boxes, just sitting there!" So I cut em' all down into pretty small bits, and I must say the Arius cuts as well as anything I've used, certainly better than other knives with the same stock thickness. The grind comes to a very thin profile behind the edge, and the swedge/hole is positioned such that it doesn't hang up at all when cutting through cardboard.

When I was done the blade was still plenty worksharp, but not really phone book paper sharp. A few sequences through some strops and it was back to hair-shaving. I definitely will be putting a pretty acute Wicked Edge on this one soon, which I'll look forward to. But for now I'm gonna get some use out of the factory edge, since it can be maintained for a good while. Great performance so far, as one would/should expect.
 
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So we got our first batch in yesterday and I gotta say I am very impressed. This is the first batch he has done with the new lightening pockets. The ti is milled out and it lightens up the knife a solid ounce on the full ti versions. I recently posted a thread about the definition of smooth in reference to a knife. I now think if you look up smooth in the dictionary you will see a picture of a Koenig. So far very impressed!

https://flic.kr/p/GsEyx1 https://www.flickr.com/photos/57703464@N02/
 
Really bummed I never got my hands on the Zenaida. I wander the exchange looking for one but they never mosey by.
 
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