New Doug Ritter folder

Klutz

Klutz

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2011
Messages
568
Does anyone know who is making the new KW exclusive Doug Ritter knife? It’s m390 steel and confirmed not to be Benchmade.
 
The announcement thread was closed and this thread is the first hit for a search with “Ritter”. I would like to see a few user shots of the new MK2
 
DrRollinstein said:
A benchmade version would be about 50 dollars more just for the insect.
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They have some of the best customer service and warranty work in the industry. They will ship out hardware, on their dime, and itll be to your door within a week, including pocket clips. They do reblades for reasonable prices, and they will warranty work even if its your fault and not theirs. Their pricing annoys me sometimes but they stand behind their product and I respect that.
 
According to the previous thread on this the ABLE lock is supposed to add some improvements over the axis based on Ritter's experience. Hogue is also a great company to deal with so I don't think you're losing anything by it not being a BM, IMO at least. More importantly, Hogue will actually make the knife for Ritter whereas BM disco'ed it and didn't want to make it anymore and the knife's sales support Ritter's efforts for Knife Rights. Ritter had to go elsewhere to have the knife made and hogue makes a fine product. Personally, I think I would rather have seen a button lock because that's what hogue is good at but I am curious to see how the ABLE compares to the axis as it's the first design improvement since the axis was patented, to my knowledge at least. I believe they tried to address lock stick for when the lock bar gets cruddy and the spring breakages with the ABLE.

Here's a pretty good writeup about it.
https://www.ammoland.com/2018/10/ne...-lock-folding-knife-introduced/#axzz5TFrChexs

Personally I don't care for the design over the knives I have but I'll probably get one just to support Doug Ritter's Knife Rights efforts. Helped get switchblades in MI legalized and other sensible laws would allow us to travel with a blade that is legal where we're from but illegal when we pass through random towns because every suburb in D-Town has a different knife ordinance.
 
stonproject said:
They have some of the best customer service and warranty work in the industry. They will ship out hardware, on their dime, and itll be to your door within a week, including pocket clips. They do reblades for reasonable prices, and they will warranty work even if its your fault and not theirs. Their pricing annoys me sometimes but they stand behind their product and I respect that.
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That's great and all but I rather they just fix their quality control in the first place. Look in the Benchmade sub-forum here and there's a sticky at the top of the page on how to fix common problems. How about they just fix those things in the first place before shipping it out. I'm far more excited about Hogue taking over.
 
Even with all the "BM quality issues" talk, & the blah blah blah "it's not a BM" gibber gabber, I was excited to see ol' Doug get his knife design up and running again.

I've had a mini Ritter & still have a full size Ritter, what can I say? The three most favorite blade shapes IMO are the BM sheepsfoot, CRK Inkosi & the MK1. I'm just simple like that.

BTW...I've got an order in for the new MK1. YAAAA!!! This hobby is a sickness...*sigh*
 
No Benchmade hate here, I have several of their knives and I've never experienced any QC issues. My Benchmade 970 I bought in '95 still locks up tight and the stripped clip issue was fixed promptly by customer service.

That said their decision to drop the Ritter Grip was puzzling to me. I sorta understood dropping the H&K line. The H&K Axis lock was a screaming deal - D2 steel, G10 scales, and a price under $100. The Ritter Grip though was just a standard Griptillian with a different blade with a upgraded steel. Price was a bit more than the standard Griptillian, but that was easy to accept with the upgraded steel. Maybe some of the profit from the knife going to Mr. Ritter and the Knife Rights organization was no longer acceptable. Maybe they wanted to up the sales of their standard Griptillians. Who knows?

That said, I hope the new Hogue Ritter Grip is just as good as the old one. Being even better would be great. Wolff Gunsprings making the Omega style springs for the ABLE/Axis lock hopefully addresses peoples concerns over Omega springs breaking. G10 scales over the polymer will be a nice upgrade. Stand-offs for a more open back construction will please some buyers. The potential is there.

I will be holding off to see how the initial reviews are. With 2 teen boys my money is too tight to blindly buy stuff anymore. I'm very optimistic though. Personally I like the looks of the slimmer/flatter grips. I always found the large Griptillian grips kind of bulky for pocket carry. Sure I could get aftermarket, but that's another extra expense. I also always found the large Grip bigger than I like to carry, with the small Grip just a bit too small. Always hoped they'd come out with a medium Grip. One of the reasons I liked the H&K Axis lock was it fell into that between size.
 
I met Doug at Blade West on Friday and he was carrying one of the new MK1s. I ordered mine from my phone at the convention center. the G10 handles gives it an excellent feel improvement over the FRN handles of the former Benchmade iteration. The ABLE lock feels smooth and solid maybe even a bit more so than the original Benchmade Axis lock. Overall pivot action was excellent as well. I would say Doug and Hogue knocked this one out of the park.
 
... I also always found the large Grip bigger than I like to carry said:
My feelings exactly. I like the Grip, but rarely carry mine. That said, I'll get one of these anyway.

And the Mini Grip is aaalllmost just right, but a tad short. I hope when/if they come out with a Mini Ritter it's a bit bigger in the handle. The just under 3" blade length works very well for legal carry most places in New England.
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Knife_Geek said:
I met Doug at Blade West on Friday and he was carrying one of the new MK1s. I ordered mine from my phone at the convention center. the G10 handles gives it an excellent feel improvement over the FRN handles of the former Benchmade iteration. The ABLE lock feels smooth and solid maybe even a bit more so than the original Benchmade Axis lock. Overall pivot action was excellent as well. I would say Doug and Hogue knocked this one out of the park.
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How long did they say till it would be ready to ship?
 
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