This is a short review of 3 (very) different knives from priceangels.com [PA] which arrived just before Easter after about 4 weeks shipping time. I can't comment about how the blades hold their edges because I haven't really used any of them, so this is just a first-impressions review.
The first one is a Gerber Fast Draw knock-off. At least I think it's a knock-off because it's way to cheap for a real one. The box it came in looks very authentic, though.
First thing I noticed was its size. The PA-site claims it is 185 mm long but as you can see it's clearly shorter. I can hold it comfortably with three fingers and the build quality is very good, but had I known the actual size I wouldn't have ordered it.
Just like the real one (which I don't have) it's an assisted opening knife. A spring is accelerating the blade once you move it more than approx. 20°. There is no blade play when in the locked position and the blade came sharp without any marks or chips. The blade is perfectly centered in the handle.
The „Bolt Action“ lock is working flawlessly locking the blade in the opened and the closed postion. When the knife is closed the slider works like a safety switch, when the knife is opened push the slider forward against the spring's resistance to unlock. In the opened postion you can also pull the slider backwards into the „safe“ position to make it more unlikely that you accidently unlock the blade when using the knife.
The scales appear to be nylon or Zytel, the clip (tip-up) has a good tension and features a hole for a lanyard/keyring.
I wrote PA about the wrong size and they replied that they will contact the supplier to ask if I got a wrong, smaller version, or if this knife is supposed to be that tiny.
All in all the sample I got a very good knife for the keyring with a high play factor.
The second one is a knock-off (or so I believe) of the the Kasper Combat Folder by Pat Crawford made by CRKT. It came in the brown CRKT-labelled box together with a CRKT „minicatalog“ which looks very authentic to me so the knife may be (or so I wish) a factory reject.
You can see it's a tad bigger than the Gerber.
The blade is 4 mm thick and came razor sharp. The scales seem to be nylon or Zytel again. The spacer in the back is solid aluminium. Finish is excellent, but fit is not so good (see below). The clip has a good tension and has only one position (tip-down).
The locking liner has a good position and passed the spine whack test., liners are 1.5 mm thick.
The knife features the LAWKS safety system which is working just fine. If you push the lever forward it blocks the locking liner.
Initially the blade- and the LAWKS-movement was a little coarse. I disassembled the knife and found that the two brass (or bronze?) washers enclosing the LAWKS disc had some burrs. After sanding the burrs away the movement is now buttery smooth, still the blade shows no play in the opened position (under the pivot screw's head there's a tiny o-ring that's supposed to prevent the screw to rotate by itself. Don't drop it or you will probably spend several minutes crawling on the floor. Not that I have been there. Just saying).
The only thing not to like is that the blade is not centered in the handle...
...which already led to ugly scratches in the dark grey coating.
Despite the miscentered blade I like it mostly because of its heftiness. It feels and is constructed like a knife you can rely on.
The third one is a knock-off of the SOG Gov-Tac (and this time it's definitely a knock-off). Even this knife came sharp (in an unmarked white box) but not as sharp as the other two.
It looks very nice with even black coating and a very nicely cut handle which seems to be made out of a solid Micarta block.
The blade is 4.5 mm thick at the back until 2.2 cm before the tip, so I would say solid enough for all the misuse a budget knife can expect.
The sheath is -if I put it friendly- a POS. It is difficult to put the knife inside and if you have managed it it doesn't hold the knife inside. It can only be used to explain the difference between a knife sheath and a sheath-like object.
Because the knife was suspiciously light despite of the thick blade (SOG 188 g – Kasper-Crawford-folder 208 g) I did an Xray to examine the tang construction.
As you can see the blade has a very short tang connected to a threaded rod which ends in the tailcap (yes, I know, it's not a flashlight, but I have no better word for it right now). Looking at the connections of the rod on either end I assume that the rod is spot welded to the tang, or at least that's what I hope (the „tailcap“ appears to be glued, I can't twist it by hand). I strongly doubt the construction of this knife is suited for heavy use like batoning or chopping wood which really is a pity because besides this contructive flaw it's a very nice knife for the price.
The last one is IMHO more for show-and-tell and not for serious use. If you want to use it you have to build a proper sheath first, but I don't know if it's worth it.
Personal conclusion: 2 out of 3 were good/better than expected, the last one can be used with limitations. Well, I'm afraid this order was no cure for my online ordering desease...
