Lionsteel ROK - New M390 Blade Lionsteel Solid Knife

You are right. The TRE is a great knife but this was somewhat of a design flaw that it was often criticized for: It was either poor to open with the disc or poor to open with the flipper and too easy to open as a legal two hand knife.

The reason for this is simple in my eyes: A smooth and easy opening thumb disc knife will have a rather weak detent whereas a good flipper or a legal (hard to open) two hand knife will have a strong detent. You cannot have these two things at the same time. A knife is either a good thumb disc opening knife or a good flipper.
Early TREs had a medium strong detent. That way you could use all opening methods but nothing was exactly easy to use. It was relatively hard to open with your thumb, too easy to open with a finger on the blade and didn't provide enough resistance to flip it easily. If you look at the older threads here there were a lot of people that were disappointed because it was too hard to flip. In some German boards you could read that it wouldn't be a legal two hand opening knife because it was too easy to open with one hand even without thumb disc or flipper installed.
IMO this was the major reason for the TRE never taking the place on the market that it really deserved. Lionsteels solution was to offer detent modifications for everyone. I know hand full of people that made use of their offer and had their TRE's detent either weakened so that it became good thumb disc knives or strengthened so that they became good (fool proof) flippers and legal two hand opening knives.
Later TREs were equipped with a stronger detent from the factory. If you want to open one of these with the thumb disc you will have a hard time. IMO a new TRE with thumb disc is one of the hardest opening knives and certainly the hardest opening knife of this size.

I think Lionsteel /Molletta were just consequent this time. It will be a great flipper and a great two hand opening knife.
 
NicoColt1911 said:
You are right. The TRE is a great knife but this was somewhat of a design flaw that it was often criticized for: It was either poor to open with the disc or poor to open with the flipper and too easy to open as a legal two hand knife.

The reason for this is simple in my eyes: A smooth and easy opening thumb disc knife will have a rather weak detent whereas a good flipper or a legal (hard to open) two hand knife will have a strong detent. You cannot have these two things at the same time. A knife is either a good thumb disc opening knife or a good flipper.
Click to expand...

Too, the TRE was such a small knife (with a correspondingly small thumb 'disc') that it was difficult to position your hand to open it manually without putting pressure on the lock bar, and you just don't have the real estate on the handle to get around that.
 
I am interested in this one, carry the tre frequently, finding myself wishing it ws a bit larger.
Nice looking knife...


Russ
 
I've had a TRE for about a year and it has become my favorite carry for the office environment or anytime I'm in lighter weight pants/shorts. A good indicator of a quality knife for me is when I find myself carrying it more often as time goes by rather than the other way around. Out of the box I found the action of both the flipper and thumb disc consistent with many reviews...pretty average. For $200-$300 dollars you kind of expect more than average action. Given the multi-option opening methods, flawless fit and finish and art gallery worthy aesthetics, I still found it more than adequate for my collection. After a couple months of use and a little DLP on the bearings the flipper action may not be at the level of my ZT 0456, but rivals that of my 0562CF despite a tab a 1/4 of the size. Opening with the thumb disc is now consistently crisp and clean. Although not quite up to the thumb stud opening standards set by my Benchmade Nakamura, it offers zero blade play when in place unlike the axis lock. This knife is my optimal functional fidget companion and I seem to utilize both opening methods nearly even in frequency. Those who have handled the TRE may find it hard to believe how I'm describing the action, and to be honest I never expected it to improve to level it has. Mine is not from the first production batch and Moletta seems to be really keen seeking and acting on customer feedback, so the detent may not be the same they were originally shipping. I've owned a few high-end production knives, have handled several and nothing has come close to the machining quality; subtle yet complex sculpturing, milled out liners, perfectly symmetrical edge grind that Lionsteel puts out. Something as simple as the laser etching on the blade, rather than stamped marking says a lot about the detail going into their products producing truly refined results. The only thing the TRE is missing is a bit of jimping and the clip should not have been set resting on top of the lock bar. I'm a sucker for the look and durability of carbon fiber scales, so am a bit disappointed with the Rok not having a CF show side option, but will still be saving up in anticipation of its release.
 
I ordered the black aluminum version today directly from Lionsteel.it.
With a 90 day wait time it's going to be a long wait...
 
I asked Lionsteel about their delivery times via FB, and they confirmed the 90 day delivery time for ordering on their website is still standing. I did not ask about retailer deliveries. I should get my ROK in October. I also cheekily asked if I could skip the queue and get mine a bit faster, but they did not answer on that.
 
The website says 20 day's now. And I am waiting for it to be available at a retailer. So hopefully somewhere in november?
 
This better drop soon or the Reate lambert crossroads will be my annual christmas gift to me.

Russ
 
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