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KestrelX
135
Sep 6, 2018
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Is RWL34 similar to 154CM? If so it seems the majority of the price of this knife is for the design.
Sep 6, 2018
Hnenny
5
Sep 6, 2018
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KestrelXit seems like it might be a little closer to cpm-154 seeing as it's a powder version of ats34
I still agree with you though
Sep 6, 2018
Omniseed
1972
Sep 8, 2018
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KestrelXAs far as edge retention and whatnot it isn't a superstar, but it's an extremely respectable steel that is used in customs quite often. It takes a very good-looking polish and does blade steel things well while being quite corrosion resistant, and it has a nice provenance as Robert W. Loveless' pet steel.
Sep 8, 2018
KestrelX
135
Sep 8, 2018
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OmniseedSo what everyone is saying that as a "collector's piece" it's worth the price but otherwise it's like an Apple computer: you're paying for the brand..
Sep 8, 2018
Omniseed
1972
Sep 8, 2018
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KestrelXNo, that's not even close to what I am saying.
It is a perfectly good steel is what I said.
At the price point this knife is at, it is a perfectly reasonable choice of steels, and I believe they selected RWL-34 for this one specifically because Bharucha wanted it to be made with that steel. It's not a substandard steel at all, and is an appropriate choice of material for this knife.
M390 is a better performer, sure, but this is not a basic utility knife. Do you understand that? If you want a Kershaw go buy one. If you want a knife with the best price:steel ratio you can get, sure this isn't a particularly good choice. But it seems like you don't understand the fundamental difference between the Cold Steel catalog and what Reate makes.
If you buy a Reate you are buying 'a collector's piece' no matter which Reate you buy. Same with the standard range of WE knives. They make knives that are first and foremost collector grade. They put out (usually) mechanically perfect knives that are examples of their craftsmanship and the art of the designer.
Calling knives like that a 'collector's piece' in the derogatory way you do is silly. Comparing it to a brand known for intentionally sabotaging their own products to encourage people to buy the latest model and who set pricing with little regard for industry standards is ridiculous. This knife is made with appropriate materials, it is a perfectly practical and functional design, the build quality is at least equal to competitive knives, and your decision to compare it to your imagination based on nothing more than price and internet summaries of the steel makes you look foolish.
Sep 8, 2018
KestrelX
135
Sep 8, 2018
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OmniseedNice civil reply fanbois....
/sarcasm off
Sep 8, 2018
Morrowind542
127
Sep 9, 2018
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KestrelXIn the tasks I do on a daily basis, cutting cardboard, tape, and plastic, this knife holds it's edge about as well as S35.
As far as pure materials go, it's a little steep, but you aren't paying just for materials. You also pay for machining, QC, tolernaces, and, yes, design.
There is a knife out there that has S35 steel and only costs $50. If all that mattered was the materials, that would be an insane deal, but the problem is that the knife sucks balls. The design is shit, the build quality sucks, and the QC is non existent. I wouldn't touch that knife with a ten foot pole.
This knife is the complete opposite. Material wise, you can get better elsewhere, but it makes up for that in quality. Tight tolerances take time to get right. Same with the machining. All those holes in the handle take time to cut out. The detent takes a lot of work to get right. The design probably went through hundreds of iterations, which, again, takes time, especially being as unique a design as it is. A Kershaw in S35 or M390 is no comparison.
This isn't a knife for everybody. The law of diminishing returns is a bitch, and you can get 80% of the value for 50% of the price elsewhere, but you're going to run into that with any high end knife, or any high end product for that matter.
Tl;dr: There are good reasons for the price, but I can see why you would think it's overpriced.
Sep 9, 2018
Gunnersmate2
1646
Sep 9, 2018
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KestrelXThis knife is worth twice the price. I was hesitant getting this knife but I'm so glad I did. Blade steel is not an issue, it is perfect!!
Sep 9, 2018
KestrelX
135
Sep 9, 2018
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Gunnersmate2You would honestly pay $500 for this knife? I didn't realize knife collectors had reacted the level of "audiophiles": types who will pay $2,000+ for a pair of ear buds...
Sep 9, 2018
Gunnersmate2
1646
Sep 10, 2018
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KestrelXI said it's worth, not that I would pay twice as much. If you had this knife you would understand. It has so much attention to detail that the pictures don't reveal. It has micro beveling everywhere and the flow of the design is insane. The lines of the blade and handle match up in a way that's hard to describe. It's an awesome knife in every way and I get the feeling you just wouldn't understand. And that's ok
Sep 10, 2018
Morrowind542
127
Sep 10, 2018
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KestrelXClearly you've never looked at the custom market. It states on the product page that Tashi's custom knives sell for thousands of dollars.
Even on the high end production market, $250 is chump change. True high end knives start at around $500, with some hitting $1000 at the top of the market
But that's really not the point. I think what Gunnersmate was saying is that the design and fit and finish on this knife is such that it can hang with the big boys at $500(Personally I disagree. It's a great knife, but the details aren't on the level of e.g. Chris Reeves. $350-$400 isn't out of the question, though, and there are many far worse knives that sell for far more *cough*Medford*cough*).
Is it worth it? That's a different question. It really comes down to where you fall on the cost/quality curve. As I said, the law of diminishing returns is a bitch. ROI probably tops out around $80-$100, and the slope starts to flatten out after that. But it's a personal thing.
As far as the comparison to audiophiles go, it's not completely out of line, but it's important to note that the knife world is almost completely devoid of the worst parts that give audiophiles such a bad name. Knife guys aren't going around buys magic rocks that keep their knives sharper, or buying orientated ethernet cords. Because of the more objective nature of knives vs the subjective nature of sound perception, there isn't the same kind of placebo effect going on.
Sep 10, 2018
Omniseed
1972
Sep 11, 2018
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KestrelXAt this point, damn near every drop has some tool wandering in to gawk and slander Chinese craftsmanship, while typically making statements that explicitly illustrate that they are out of their depth.
I'm not sorry to get sharp with you, you're one of dozens of indignant, bad faith, and often somewhat racist people to come to this discussion board over the past year.
Pretending that this knife is a useless piece of shit 'art knife' that must be a ripoff because it isn't made with crystallized meteorite harvested from the caldera of Mount Doom by virginal eunuchs who are then slaughtered so their blood can be used to temper the blade is nonsense.
It's how you sound when you creatively fail to understand my first comment to you about the validity of RWL-34 in a ~$250 knife. RWL-34 is an absolutely viable steel for use in high end and custom knives, and your inability to understand the difference between 'useless art piece' and 'utility knife' is frankly stunning.
What is wrong with you that you can't understand the existence of high end knives? They are not useless art, and they are not really the best choice for a working knife, because of their cost and retained value and not because they are less functional than a less expensive knife.
If you just want a raw user, there are tons of sub-$200 knives that are excellent and replaceable if they get damaged. This is not a very replaceable knife, and at its price, there is really no reason to put it through extreme use. Office carry where it will be used here and there and mostly appreciated is what this knife is really best at.
A Cold Steel Broken Skull or American Lawman, a Spyderco like the Manix, Native, PM2, Para3, or Chaparral, or an appropriate Benchmade are all perfectly reasonable options for a working knife, and are all replaceable if you somehow screw up. Kizer makes a ton of excellent higher-end but less-expensive knives as well. They've got a 2.5" bladed S35VN knife that was on Amazon for about $50 not long ago that would functionally equal the Prizm, but it's a totally different animal when it comes to the action and workmanship.
Most of us have written at least a handful of replies to people like you, who seem aware of the hobby but also disdainful of it. It gets old. Especially since there are probably six more discussion threads exactly like this one on the Prizm alone.
If you had come across as curious in your participation here, the response would have been different.
But you chose to convey a derogatory attitude, and so you got treated like all the other bad-faith actors who come to these threads specifically to gawk or slander Chinese manufacturing prowess using generic bigotry.
Sep 11, 2018
Gunnersmate2
1646
Sep 11, 2018
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OmniseedYa what he said.
Sep 11, 2018
Gunnersmate2
1646
Sep 12, 2018
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OmniseedYou should be writing graphic novels or something. Your posts are awesome.
Sep 12, 2018
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