http://www.sharperdeal.biz/forums/viewt ... ilit=clone
I apologize in advance to the manufacturers who had their good names stolen, and to any member or moderator here who thinks I should not have done this. My rationale is that 1) Neither of the manufacturers makes a model like the ones shown here. If I wanted these knives, this was the only source. 2) The price was right. 3) I've had experience with buying directly from China before and it's relatively safe from a credit card security and delivery standpoint. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I'll touch on these subjects again later in the post.) 4) Many of these same manufactures have product built in China and their quality is steadily improving. I can't simply dismiss these as Chinese Junk (no pun intended). 5) Both of these are OTF's and we all know how the quality is on most of those, and most of us own them - so my expectations were pretty low. 6) I have a weak spot for doubles and this was the only double OTF I'd ever seen. (In my young and stupid days I dated Cecilia who had an identical twin Marie. They were a couple of cute blonde German girls and they were willing to give me {at least the one I dated was} what young men want. Perhaps this fascination is the old fart equivalent of a young man's predilection?)
All that being said, I went to the site and placed my order around July 5th, or rather I got almost through the order process and it offered a couple of payment options, none of which was our favorite online method or a direct charge to my credit card. The way the site was organized it said that my order was complete, but I never finished the payment process. A day or two later I began to get emails where they said they'd ship as soon as they had notice of payment. At this point I replied that none of the payment methods was satisfactory, but if they could invoice me through the online method, I'd pay immediately. They did and I did. They then advised that shipment would take approximately 25 days. It seemed pretty normal at that point but there were more surprises to come. On August 4th they emailed to say that the first shipment of my 'camping tool' had not cleared customs in the Netherlands and they were reshipping and it would take ... you guessed it ... 25 days. The second package arrived on 8/16, but I wasn't home to receive it and had to pick it up this morning.
You are probably aware that shipping is based on weight and very expensive. Therefore the package was actually two fairly sturdy boxes in chip board slip cases, this was wrapped in newspaper and overwrapped with brown mylar tape. The slip cases were a bit banged up but the contents were fine. So, should you decide to order this is what happens. Now to the contents:
Here's the slip case from the first knife, a double OTF. The accuracy of copying Benchmade's information is uncanny and makes me wonder if they didn't provide the original copy, perhaps for another product.
Both of these knives came with really nice canvas cases with high quality furniture. The knives feel very sturdy and I have to think that they'd make good EDC's if one were so inclined. Me, I carry a Case Russlock or a Cold Steel Ti-Lite. This knife weighs a hefty 9.8 oz and is 5-1/8" long including the skull crusher, or 8-1/2" with the single blade open or 8-3/4" with the double-double edge.
This is the flip side of the knife and the case:
Here's the wicked sharp double edged blade:
And here's the equally sharp single edged blade.
Here's what it looks like with both open at the same time. My knife works like a champ, both open and lock like a champ.
The scales seem to be micarta or some type of carbon fiber - it's pretty danged impressive under the circumstances. They had two different colors, but I don't recall what the other was.
This brings us to the second knife and slip case. No testimonial this time, but they prominently display an American origin.
This knife weighs in at 6.6 oz and is 5-1/4" closed and 8-5/8" open. It's headed to a certain forum member who's fond of old Elton John songs along with my compliments and best wishes. There's not a lot to say here other than the abalone had to be imitation. Again, everything was done well. Clear stamps, great reflectivity and color flashes on the scales.
Okay, so that's it other than to say I used the IPEVO camera for all of these, cropped them, straightened them and applied what Corel calls a "high pass sharpen". They were all size reduced to a maximum of 1000 pixels in the long direction. I used ambient sunlight coming in through the screen room. The biggest issue was glare off the shiny printed boxes and all were shot at -2 exposure. I couldn't seem to block the source of sunlight and -2 seemed to be where they looked the best.
OK, proceed with the negative comments and telling me I should be ashamed.