Reate Knives

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Gideons

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Hey BF,

What is your opinion on Reate knives? I like a few of their designs, particularly the Mini Horizon - D and Liong Mah Design Warrior One V2. Their designs are very nice, good ergonomics from the looks at seem to be tough, capable knives. Would these be comparable to Chris Reeve or Hinderer in a way (IK they're chinese made sadly). Just curious because I haven't seen any practical use videos or reviews (I don't mean batoning) on Reate knives so I'm don't know how they actually function. Curious to know your thoughts on Reate?
 
I think they are like WE, Kizer and other high end Asian brands: catchy designs, seems beautifully crafted but not “history” or soul.
 
I regard any given Reate knife as no more prone to problems or issues as anything put out by Chris Reeve Knives, Hinderer, Zero Tolerance or WE. I consider the obvious things any buyer of a high-end production knife would immediately scrutinize, namely blade centering, symmetry of plunge grinds, blade lockup and flipping action (if applicable).

Every production manufacturer will release a defective product at some point; that is to be expected if you assume a statistical basis for quality control as pioneered by William Deming. And indeed, over the years I've had reason to return specific examples from all the makers mentioned above. But that said, I have to give WE a special dispensation, the reason being the sheer size of their product line relative to the others. Frankly, it amazes me that beginning with their 601model a few years ago, I've only had cause to reject one knife, and that was for a purely cosmetic reason.

I'd say go ahead and assume any Reate knife (including any in the Todd Begg Steelcraft series) will be well made and of good ergonomic design unless proven otherwise after inspection. If you're concerned about intangibles such as "soul" then best to look to a full custom blade made to your specifications.
 
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Incredible knives. I currently own 15 knives produced by Reate, but I've owned probably 30+ different models. I have not had a single issue that required warranty work to date. They honestly have to turn away knife makers and designers because they cannot handle all the requests for work.
 
There is really no single reason not to buy Reate knife - all I have ( future, epoch, K1, horizon d, torrent) have perfect centering, f&F are among best in industry. Top steel and materials.
According warranty - they supply it via local distributor - I'm from europe so when I asked them to send me spare steel insert and washer it arrived to germany dealer which is nearest to my country.
 
On par or better than similar offerings in the price range, given the materials and details IMO. Ceramic washers and detent ball. Amazing action.

My only product from Reate is their Torrent. It's a larger and heavier piece. The details, milling, and overall construction are very good. The Torrent flips and falls shut like a dream for me. The ZT sounds more like a "click" while the Reate is more of a "knock".

As far as design, that's obviously subjective. The Torrent's cutting edge shape, harpoon, finger choil, and handle ergos check all the boxes for me personally.

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Have one Reate (Bodega) and rather like it. I really don't like how hard the pivot is to work on.

I am glad that Reate, We, and Kizer are taking pride in what they make and hope to see more Chinese companies doing the same.
 
I have only one: Horizon D TI/CF and I can concur the above poster that it is absolutely a high quality knife that rivals Hinderer and maybe better than ZT. Kizer is not at the same level as Reate IMO (the price difference reflects that) although my sample is small.

Too bad I stripped the pivot screw of it recently (my fault) but Reate USA office is sending me replacement screws.
 
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Reate knives is the best manufactures in China and rivals mfgs around the world.
Far better than we knives.

If we knives starts to make premium high end knives like Reate we can then directly compare. But for now we doesn't have anything as premium as Reate.

Kizer knives are not in the league as either.
 
I have had several Reate knives and began with the Torrent. It fired like a shotgun blast and was impeccable quality. I simply did not like the design and his work has evolved with each new production knife. I have since had upwards of 7 to 8 different kinds that range from Deng's own concept to that of the Steelcraft series. I have finally landed with the K-3 Tanto. Though there are others that i fell in love with as well, the K-3 has so many details and features (multi row bearing, groove in blade to create a detent ramp, and wicked angles).

Bottom line is that every knife I had literally had zero quality control issues and i considered them perfect. Contrast this with some other makers (such as ZT) i always felt like i had a lesser quality knife in my hand.

I also have an original Begg Bodega and it is an exceptional knife but had to pay dearly for it. My Hinderer XM-18 was on teflon washers, so it wasnt a fair fight action wise, but for what they are you almost reach a point of perfection with every major manufacturer now. My Reates all had consistent early lock up and when i disassembled them for maintenance, i never had the positions change (lockup/centering). I always had to tweak my XM-18 to get proper blade centering.

The Reate Starboy for edc is wicked fast and well made. Its the first Reate that i had which had single side scale screws go directly into titanium. I worried about the threads wearing. My Kwaiken was awesome but it didnt have a steel washer on the inside where the ikbs bearings were running. (My Begg field grade does have bearing washers).

K-2 and wow..the Mah GSD are both awesome. The GSD i would have kept with the exception of the exterior screws on the scales were unsightly.
 
Reate is the best Chinese maker imo. I have owned kizer, we, and reate. They would push any production company and are one of the companies that are pushing the entire industry in the proper direction. They make some smooth flippers and my reate flippers are smoother than some custom knives that I have owned. I was against purchasing any Chinese made knives but got some through the secondary market to check them out and alleviate my preconceptions. I was blown away and that says a lot being I went in with a negative mindset. Quality is found with reate and I recommend them which is saying a lot based on my prior mindset regarding Chinese products.
 
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I've only owned two Reate knives - the Begg Steelcraft Kwaiken and Field Marshal. While they were technically flawless, I really just did not like them when I had them in-hand.

I think the only Reate offering that really catches my interest right now is the Reate Future, but even the most inexpensive model lands firmly in that price range where I can sort of afford to have it, but, I never really want to risk damaging it, and so it just sits there, and then I sell it because I have $500 just sitting there. I would love to see a more budget-friendly version of this knife. Also, a sharpening choil, and an edge that actually went to the bottom of the grind. Wait. Maybe I don't actually like this knife either?

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'Made in china sady' he says while typing on his Chinese made phone or computer.

It's time to get over this instand hating on knives made in china just because they also make cheap crap.

If you spend 4$ yea it's going to be bad, but if you're spending 400$ i bet your ass it's going to as good or better than something 400$ made in the USA.
 
basmca said:
'Made in china sady' he says while typing on his Chinese made phone or computer.

It's time to get over this instand hating on knives made in china just because they also make cheap crap.

If you spend 4$ yea it's going to be bad, but if you're spending 400$ i bet your ass it's going to as good or better than something 400$ made in the USA.
Click to expand...
Please don't bet my rump.
 
I was one of those who bashed Chinese knives because of their poor quality in the past. But once I got ahold of some high quality Chinese knives, my views have changed. They still make some junk knives, but they also make some quality knives every bit as good as anywhere in the world IMHO.
 
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