My Experience With Kizer

AF

AF

Joined
Jan 14, 2000
Messages
6,016
Pinkerton Rogue. First generation. Pretty solid knife. Thickly saber ground. Clip design not good. Second gen got a new clip and a thinner hollow grind.

Gemini. Great flipper. Great ergos. Thin flat grind.

SLT. Lock bar pressure too light to engage fully creating lock rock. Returned to dealer.

Mini Dorado Skully. Lock rock. Emailed company regarding issue and was asked to make a video. (Company does not publish address for warranty work. Instead they ask you to email first.)
Chose to sell knife as-is instead.

Mini Flashbang Vanguard. Great flipper. Lightweight, great EDC.

Dukes Titanium. Pivot slop. Had never experienced this before on a knife. Essentially it feels like lock rock because there's up/down play but actually the lock isn't slipping. The play comes from the pivot. I tested this by disengaging the lock and moving the blade and handle. No side to side play.
Sold knife as-is.

Flashbang Titanium. Pivot slop. I bought this before the Dukes but the play was minor and I thought it was lock rock initially.

These knives were all purchased new from dealers except for Mini Dorado which I bought on BF from original owner. It seems to me that Kizer has a problem. I'm putting this out there to warn people and hopefully to get Kizer to improve.
 
only one i have is a nomad. no issues on mine so far. although the pocket clip and framelock cutout tend to make it get hung up sliding into pocket. makes it a two handed task sometimes.
 
jbmonkey said:
only one i have is a nomad. no issues on mine so far. although the pocket clip and framelock cutout tend to make it get hung up sliding into pocket. makes it a two handed task sometimes.
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That seems all too common with framelocks. If the lockbar cutout is on the inside there's no problem. But it's usually on the outside and snagging isn't an unusual occurrence. I actually sold a few framelocks that snagged. I liked everything else about them but if you can't easily pocket your knife...
It was a good excuse to thin out the collection.
 
AF said:
That seems all too common with framelocks. If the lockbar cutout is on the inside there's no problem. But it's usually on the outside and snagging isn't an unusual occurrence. I actually sold a few framelocks that snagged. I liked everything else about them but if you can't easily pocket your knife...
It was a good excuse to thin out the collection.
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I have had this problem. I feel it is something that can be remedied with a better designed clip. Or at least better positioned as to not have the clip clamp down at the edges of the cutout
 
jbmonkey said:
only one i have is a nomad. no issues on mine so far. although the pocket clip and framelock cutout tend to make it get hung up sliding into pocket. makes it a two handed task sometimes.
Click to expand...

I have this issue with a ton of Kizer knives and I have no idea how they do it so consistently. I own 50+ knives, the majority of which are frame locks, and it's only Kizer that I have such a problem with.
 
I won't buy keizer because of the issues I've seen others have. not to mention they don't scream "I gotta have it".

glad to see others are finding major and consistent issues and bringing it to light.

keizer feist was really revealing, how does something like that even get passed QC on nearly the whole batch.?

they have a lot of growing to do.
 
Mo2 said:
I won't buy keizer because of the issues I've seen others have. not to mention they don't scream "I gotta have it".

glad to see others are finding major and consistent issues and bringing it to light.

keizer feist was really revealing, how does something like that even get passed QC on nearly the whole batch.?

they have a lot of growing to do.
Click to expand...
I must have missed this, what went wrong with the feist? Other than the hollow grind i was rather interested in that knife.
 
I have only owned one Kizer, the Vanguard Gemini. So far so good, my only complaint is the frame seems kind of flimsy. I read several complaints about the pocket clip being too tight, but I never experienced the issue, Kizer must have addressed the issue.
 
Pomsbz said:
I must have missed this, what went wrong with the feist? Other than the hollow grind i was rather interested in that knife.
Click to expand...

Gritty action caused by rough machining in slot for internal blade stop according to someone who took theirs apart.
 
AF said:
Gritty action caused by rough machining in slot for internal blade stop according to someone who took theirs apart.
Click to expand...
Are there numerous complaints of the problem or was it a anomaly?
 
AF said:
Numerous reports. Kizer is addressing the issue.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your experience, AF. You might want to copy this thread over to the Kizer sub-forum. They're fairly active there.

For those interested, here's a couple of threads that'll give you more info on the Feist problems.
http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/kizer-feist-and-the-gritty-action.1496435/
http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/front-flippers-feist-wakulla-changing-the-game.1451802/

I have a lot of Kizer (30something at last count) knives, although I haven't bought a new Kizer since the Guru. I might just be the OKFB (Original Kizer Fan Boy) on Blade Forums. For the most part all the knives have been OK in terms of QC out of the factory. The one recurring problem I've had with Kizer is "weakish" detent. Kizer really struggles with getting a good, hard detent, limiting deployment method on many of their flippers. I've also had them show up with all the body hardware very loose, but that's not too big a deal with me; tighten it up and any slop goes away. I don't know how so many knives ship with loose screws and pivots, but it seems to happen way too much of late.

I think the current problems that are cropping up in many of their production knives are symptomatic of too rapid growth. Kizer has come a long way in just a short time, now on the verge of opening some kind of custom shop. I think pursuit of growth and their drive to collaborate with more designers has caused them to allow factory QC to slip. The Feist is a perfect example of this. Not noticing burrs in the channel that houses the race of bearings is simply being asleep at the wheel.

One good thing that can be said; Kizer appears to be making these knives right when brought to their attention. The designers that collaborate with Kizer are engaged too. They're reading these fora and responding to their customer's problems. Hopefully this QC lapse can be corrected quickly before it damages the brand identity.

In the meantime, if I saw a Kizer I liked, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. I'm fully on board to pick up a Diskin Toro when available. If my Toro has a problem I'll either fix it myself or depend on Kizer to make it right. That's not an ideal outcome, I know. We all expect new knives to be "right" but a manufacturer needs to hear from their customer's, especially when a knife isn't right. Accountability and effective support will only help to cement them as a go-to brand. The ball is in their court.
 
Hackenslash said:
I appreciate your experience, AF. You might want to copy this thread over to the Kizer sub-forum. They're fairly active there.

For those interested, here's a couple of threads that'll give you more info on the Feist problems.
http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/kizer-feist-and-the-gritty-action.1496435/
http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/front-flippers-feist-wakulla-changing-the-game.1451802/

I have a lot of Kizer (30something at last count) knives, although I haven't bought a new Kizer since the Guru. I might just be the OKFB (Original Kizer Fan Boy) on Blade Forums. For the most part all the knives have been OK in terms of QC out of the factory. The one recurring problem I've had with Kizer is "weakish" detent. Kizer really struggles with getting a good, hard detent, limiting deployment method on many of their flippers. I've also had them show up with all the body hardware very loose, but that's not too big a deal with me; tighten it up and any slop goes away. I don't know how so many knives ship with loose screws and pivots, but it seems to happen way too much of late.

I think the current problems that are cropping up in many of their production knives are symptomatic of too rapid growth. Kizer has come a long way in just a short time, now on the verge of opening some kind of custom shop. I think pursuit of growth and their drive to collaborate with more designers has caused them to allow factory QC to slip. The Feist is a perfect example of this. Not noticing burrs in the channel that houses the race of bearings is simply being asleep at the wheel.

One good thing that can be said; Kizer appears to be making these knives right when brought to their attention. The designers that collaborate with Kizer are engaged too. They're reading these fora and responding to their customer's problems. Hopefully this QC lapse can be corrected quickly before it damages the brand identity.

In the meantime, if I saw a Kizer I liked, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it. I'm fully on board to pick up a Diskin Toro when available. If my Toro has a problem I'll either fix it myself or depend on Kizer to make it right. That's not an ideal outcome, I know. We all expect new knives to be "right" but a manufacturer needs to hear from their customer's, especially when a knife isn't right. Accountability and effective support will only help to cement them as a go-to brand. The ball is in their court.
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I'll say that a brand which addresses problems in this relatively short space of time rather than the usual 'ignore, deny then fix with new model' strategy that we are so familiar with (not knife specific) is rather impressive. Kizer are going places and a care for CS is a very good sign. I've had terrible QC (on par with this) from Western manufacturers which is denied to the point where even mentioning it on forums can lead to attack.
 
I have 2 Kizers and haven't noticed any problems with either.
I have a Nomad, only issue is a detent on the light side. Also have a Corto, no problems with that one.
Spoke with Dirk P, designer of the Nomad, he said they were making some changes on the 2.0.
Joe
 
One of the very early models I bought a few years ago ended up with lock-rock (pre stainless steel lock insert), but that was the only one. Since then, any issue I've had was easily rectified with blue loctite.
 
I've got several Kizer models and I totally agree with the OP on the SLT, major lock rock. Which is a bummer because it is otherwise a beautiful knife.
 
I am still interested in the Vanguard Sovereign Tang of theirs I kinda like the Feist but honestly it is just a hair on the small side for me. The issues is concerning but if they have the CS to fix it then I probably will still keep them on my radar.
 
Owned 2 a k401b and a Gemini, they both sucked as the k401b was gritty as all get out and the Gemini had an almost non exisistant
Detent.

Haven't bought one since.
 
I have a pile of Kizers and haven't had an issue with any of them. I do wish they used less loctite, and I've had to stiffen up the detent on a half dozen of them by bending a hair more bend into the lock bars, but I've never had one with any kind of lock issue and I've bought more than a dozen of them.
 
evilgreg said:
I have a pile of Kizers and haven't had an issue with any of them. I do wish they used less loctite, and I've had to stiffen up the detent on a half dozen of them by bending a hair more bend into the lock bars, but I've never had one with any kind of lock issue and I've bought more than a dozen of them.
Click to expand...
please dont say you wish they would use loctite.... at least specify you wish they used blue or purple loctite. cause RED loctite will make it worse for everyone.
 
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