stabman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2007
- Messages
- 21,321
On Friday, a wonderful surprise arrived by courier...a ZT 0561 from Thomas. 
Truly one of the most generous individuals affiliated with the greater knife world.
Here it is with the G-10 side, posing around some others (near the top of the picture):
And next to a Spyderco Tuff:
Showing a different view, where one can see lock-bar cut-out thickness fairly well:
And relative tip size, between the ZT 0561, the Spyderco Tuff, and a Strider SmF (it's the middle one):
This is an initial impressions review; updates will come as it sees more use.
The phrase which springs to mind when checking out this knife is pure machined perfection.
It is a tour de force of knife manufacturing excellence. There is great attention to little details...it is difficult to find anything which would qualify as a flaw.
The blade is perfectly centered; the action is ball-bearing smooth; the detent is strong, as it should be.
The flipper gets it into place with smooth authority, and the lock-up is absolutely perfect.
The flipper acts as a guard against the hand slipping forward, and also would prevent the blade from folding on one's hand in the extremely unlikely event of lock failure. I had wondered how the flipper would feel against the index finger when gripping the knife, but it doesn't seem to be an issue. I'll find out in extended use how it feels, but it seems fine thus far.
The lock-bar cut-out is 0.050" thick, which gives a good amount of locking pressure, while being not too bad for unlocking.
This knife has the steel lock=-bar insert, which also acts as an over-travel stop. This knife has two over-travel stops.
The handle scales are nicely contoured, and it won't eat up your pocket seams either.
The blade comes sharp, and does all the initial paracord/paper/food cutting tasks one tends to do as soon as they get a new knife just fine.
The tip is stout enough, while not being quite as overly stout as the Tuff. If you need to get a sliver out, you can.
Ergonomically it is as good as the Tuff, perhaps slightly better; hard to say at this point.
It is more ergonomic than the SmF...it feels better when pushing hard into material with the blade edge.
It is right up there for handle comfort, and just locks into the hand very nicely.
The box it comes into says "Built Like a Tank", "A Real Beast", and "Proudly Overbuilt in the USA"...and it lives up to all that.
It is overbuilt without being clunky, which is a nice touch. It fits in the pocket just fine. :thumbup:
This knife has bumped its way into my rotation ahead of knives costing far more, and I think it'll retain a place of honour.
Truly one of the most generous individuals affiliated with the greater knife world.
Here it is with the G-10 side, posing around some others (near the top of the picture):
And next to a Spyderco Tuff:
Showing a different view, where one can see lock-bar cut-out thickness fairly well:
And relative tip size, between the ZT 0561, the Spyderco Tuff, and a Strider SmF (it's the middle one):
This is an initial impressions review; updates will come as it sees more use.
The phrase which springs to mind when checking out this knife is pure machined perfection.
It is a tour de force of knife manufacturing excellence. There is great attention to little details...it is difficult to find anything which would qualify as a flaw.
The blade is perfectly centered; the action is ball-bearing smooth; the detent is strong, as it should be.
The flipper gets it into place with smooth authority, and the lock-up is absolutely perfect.
The flipper acts as a guard against the hand slipping forward, and also would prevent the blade from folding on one's hand in the extremely unlikely event of lock failure. I had wondered how the flipper would feel against the index finger when gripping the knife, but it doesn't seem to be an issue. I'll find out in extended use how it feels, but it seems fine thus far.
The lock-bar cut-out is 0.050" thick, which gives a good amount of locking pressure, while being not too bad for unlocking.
This knife has the steel lock=-bar insert, which also acts as an over-travel stop. This knife has two over-travel stops.
The handle scales are nicely contoured, and it won't eat up your pocket seams either.
The blade comes sharp, and does all the initial paracord/paper/food cutting tasks one tends to do as soon as they get a new knife just fine.
The tip is stout enough, while not being quite as overly stout as the Tuff. If you need to get a sliver out, you can.
Ergonomically it is as good as the Tuff, perhaps slightly better; hard to say at this point.
It is more ergonomic than the SmF...it feels better when pushing hard into material with the blade edge.
It is right up there for handle comfort, and just locks into the hand very nicely.
The box it comes into says "Built Like a Tank", "A Real Beast", and "Proudly Overbuilt in the USA"...and it lives up to all that.
It is overbuilt without being clunky, which is a nice touch. It fits in the pocket just fine. :thumbup:
This knife has bumped its way into my rotation ahead of knives costing far more, and I think it'll retain a place of honour.
