Review WE Knife 2001H Kitefin

R

Ruudr

Joined
Jul 1, 2010
Messages
644
Here is a quick review about the WE Kitefin.
I make this review because I think this knife deserves it.

WE Knife makes some good folding knives and for a relatively young company they do a damn good job.

The Kitefin is a mid-sized folder whit a thin profile. (A Kitefin is a type of shark which has a lot of resemblance to this knife)
The blade is a drop point CPM-S35VN steel with a very thin edge and is hollow ground. This makes it a really good slicer. The blade has a false edge on top. The tip is really thin so be careful with cutting hard things with the tip.
The knife has a finger choil which is ok for me. Would be better without a choil imo.
The flipper tab is nicely rounded of with some practical jimping on top.
Coming to the handle. It’s made of titanium with a lot of chamfered edges so there are no hot spots whatsoever. It’s a comfortable knife. The screws are all gold anodized and they have some really good deep torx hardware. Good job WE! The clip is also made of titanium and they did a really good job with the heat anodization on it. Check the pictures! It looks really good! The clip also has 3 holes in it with gold anodized edges.
Like most framelocks this also has a hardened steel insert so there will be little or no wear on the lockbar. Detent and centering is something where all WE knives stand out. This one has a ceramic detent ball and bearings. When I got the knife I disassembled it and got rid of some gunk on the pivot. I cleaned it and put some Nano oil on the pivot and bearings. Finally I put some blue Locktite on the screws for a snug fit. Now it is glass smooth and is free dropping.

I finally sharpened the blade on the Wicked Edge up to .5 micron.

All in all a very nice knife with a lot of potential!

Check the pictures below!
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rpttrsn said:
Nice looking knife. Thanks for the review and VG photo's. Now to look up the blade length.
Just checked the blade length:3 1/4"
Cutting edge:2 3/4"
Click to expand...

Of cource the lenght.. thanks!
 
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I hate the fact that clip placement is secondary to drilling out a lanyard hole...
 
Just got one myself...like it was dropped off at my desk 5mins ago, the shredded carbon fiber version. Initial thoughts:

It's very light, and smaller than it looks in photos (which is a good thing as it's right at my preferred size)
Action and centering are good
The blade!! So nice! Soooooo thin behind the edge, this thing should cut like a dream. The finger choil works well for me, really letting me choke up on the blade.

Downside, I do not like the clip. They should have ditched the lanyard hole and mounted the clip higher. I'm not wild about the coloring (just plain ti is better IMO), and most importantly there's not enough room below the clip - particularly right where it passes over the bottom edge of the flat bit bolted to the knife. It tends to hang up on my jeans instead of dropping all the way into place. Sometime tonight I'm going to see if the clip on my TRM Atom will fit it...pretty sure it will, and it'll offer a bit deeper carry, so win win all around hopefully.

EDIT - the Atom clip does not fit...at least not out of the box. The We knife uses larger diameter screws, and they don't fit through the slot in the Atom clip. And the Atom's hardware, obviously, doesn't fit the threads in the We knife. BUT, the color matches PERFECTLY, and it makes it a true deep carry. If the screws fit. I'm gonna see what I can do to make it work out...
 
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Update. I ordered 2 versions of these.. the plain ti and the bronze milled ti/stonewashed version. The bronze version actually has a diffrent handle shape then the plain one. Its more flat less rounded so ergos are better on the plain one. Second the stonewashed side of the bronze one was way darker then in pictures.. almost black didnt like it alot. And perhaps the most important thing the bronze one had far worse action.. detend was so stiff i littarly almost coulnd flip it and im a strong guy... The gray one was perfect on the detend. Not sure if this is on all versions but i can recommend the gray one alot more! Knife itself is incredible... Super light, ALL titanium incl hardware and clip and the blade is just fantastic! 2.6mm stock with a hollow is gonna be incredible no doubt. Overall i love this one. Send the bronze one back ofc! Get the plain one you will thank me!
 
A few pics.

Taken down. COOL - there's a steel insert in the carbon fiber side for the bearings to ride on, and a steel washer on the titanium side so the bearings only roll on steel.
NOT COOL - none of the hardware is keyed, it's all free spinning, so you may need two tools to loosen a screw.
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Size comparision. Bugout, Kitefin, Atom. The Atom looks huge in this pic but it's really not all that big.
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The Kitefin is essentially the same size as a Bugout.
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