Walt's flat guard vs. regular

[Scotchman]

Is one better than the other as far as quality?

[john]

I don’t think so. Each type has its own appeal. I like both types. The two styles may have developed because of the manufacturing process. If you don’t have a machine that can stamp out rounded bolsters, it can be time consuming making them by hand. It’s much easier to make a flat guard bolsters by hand.
Any other thoughts out there?

[natcherly]

Generally speaking, makers of stilettos buy many parts from various suppliers. I would be surprised if anyone makes the rounded top bolsters in house. Frank B makes the 11" flatties, he started with Walt's Flatguard back in 2004, so those bolsters are probably made in house. Not sure they are "hand made" as no doubt he has some specialized tooling to form these. Cutting each out of solid NS using hand tools would indeed be very time consuming.

Anyhow, I've found that the flatguards tend to be a bit better in fit,finish and in some cases snappyness!

[METALGOD]

in my opinion the walts limited edition flatguards are of better quality than a regular line stiletto , the liners are thicker, the bolsters are nickel/silver instead of stainless , backspring and blade are 5mm thick compared to regular at 3.5 or smaller , they feel like old school 1950's stilettos nice and thick and heavy when you get one in hand it just screams quality .
maybe i can shed little light here none of the italian knives these days are entirely handmade except the few Renzo Pascotto makes as protos, they are hand assembled yes, all parts are stamped out then finished , not sure about other makers but Frank B and AGA both have stamps for every piece to make a stiletto , AGA has stamps for every knife they make , the parts that are not stamped are either laser cut or water jet cut . reason i know is i had to buy stamps to have knives made , in Frank B factory i own the 9" (regular bolster) picklock stamp , in AGA factory i own 10" dagger picklock stamp . i had to buy these stamps to produce the knives.

[JulesVane]

I actually thought the original question was whether a Walt's Flatguard was better than a Walt's Classic stiletto. Which ARE thicker liners, nickel/silver bolsters and 5mm blades and backsprings. I don't think there was ever a doubt that a Walt's Flatguard was better than a "common" 3mm Italian stiletto. (I could be wrong).

[Scotchman]

I asked because I found what I believe is the "classic" and it says it is NS, 5mm, and all that,but, it has the rounded bolsters.