Walt's 23cm

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thom
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Walt's 23cm

Post by thom »

Just got this email from Walt. Here are what he has available in the 9"

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Luke_of_Mass
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Luke_of_Mass »

This was his whole stock? It makes me wonder if it was a pretty small run since they haven't even made it to his website yet. Or just a really hot seller once word got out about them? Perhaps both? I got an email saying he's mailed me a package but no actual email from Walt himself... kind of antsy waiting for it..
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JulesVane
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by JulesVane »

Thanks for posting this Thom. Certainly the availability of this run of 9"ers has been a bit of mystery. The numbers on the French Tip Horn goes to 32, and only 3 in stock? This is the first I've seen ANY French Tip. They don't seem to be flying off the shelves at PVK.
Luke: I'm hoping the ones you needed to return are replaced with deeper seating pieces. I'm SURE it was a wide spread issue as I saw lots of sales photos on PVK that the tips were way at the tops of the liners. The 2 I bought certainly far from sitting deep. I was hoping Walt got into a little more detail about the situation with you. The pics Thom posted in closed positions look better. (From this angle anyway).
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"By accepting you as you are, I do not necessarily abandon all hope of your improving"- My Wife (1963-Present)
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Luke_of_Mass
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Luke_of_Mass »

Here's the direct quote from Walt regarding what he planned to do with these knives:
Blade not sitting deep, and peaking has not been the norm.

The peaking fix, we can laser weld the sear holes.
Never even heard of laser welding sear holes before but he mailed me a package the other day (got an email confirmation about it, no actual email from Walt himself) so I guess we'll have to see! I'll keep you guys updated for sure
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thom
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by thom »

I asked him to email these, so I could post them here. He said available, which might mean anything. That might be the end, or that is what he has ready for sale???? I see the numbers on the knives, 30, 31 etc. So this might be all he has left.
Luke, I am curious about yours. The scales were awesome on the ones you picked. Keep us posted.
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Luke_of_Mass
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Luke_of_Mass »

thom wrote:I asked him to email these, so I could post them here. He said available, which might mean anything. That might be the end, or that is what he has ready for sale???? I see the numbers on the knives, 30, 31 etc. So this might be all he has left.
Luke, I am curious about yours. The scales were awesome on the ones you picked. Keep us posted.
He told me that he sends them in batches to a guy in Rhode Island who does all his engraving, perhaps this is what is holding up the stock - he sends them in small batches and it can take a week or two for all to be finished up, this was the cause of delay for mine; I waited 1.5-2 weeks for them to be mailed to me after buying them. I thought it was kinda neat how he actually goes to the trouble of having a jeweler do the stamps.

I'll put a pic / review of what I get in this thread package should be here tomorrow. And I've finally got a good phone so therefore a good camera which can do the pieces justice :D
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thom
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by thom »

I knew he had the stamp done here. I was guessing Bill was doing stamp and final tune.
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Luke_of_Mass
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Luke_of_Mass »

I'm pretty new to Walt's pieces to be honest, has his stuff always been laser engraved? I do seem to recall the Wasp Body had a Pascotto signature that at least appeared to be actually stamped into the blade itself... Boy I tell you what, a 10'' Wasp body by Pascotto thru Walt with the 5mm build is something I would grossly overpay for. Of course the bigger pieces are Pascotto's forte, but I'm more of a 8-9 inch collector.
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Luke_of_Mass
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Luke_of_Mass »

Adjusted knives arrived! They do sit deeper, perhaps only by a nano-meter or two but I'd say it turned at least one of them into a "keeper" - being the catch-and-release collector that I am, I will probably end up selling 1-2 of these pieces that aren't "perfect enough" for my OCD-plagued psyche... But collecting modern 'lettos is all about taking hits isn't it? :P

For reference, I'll re-post the before pics of the blade peek:

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(The third one peeked just as much as the other two, but for whatever reason I couldn't seem to get a good enough pic of the issue...)

Now that I've got a better phone with a better camera, I can do the pieces justice a little better-

How they arrived:
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Definitely sitting deeper:
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The "fix", as I stated before, "laser-welding" the sear hole was something I'd never heard of before, and what it appears to be was just adding some more metal to the outer-edge of said hole to get the sear to have to cross more material to find its resting closed position. I guess it makes sense, but I only hope that as it's a post-production addition to the finished blade, it won't wear off with time (who knows what exactly was dripped in there!) I did my best to get pics of this, perhaps I should have had the foresight to take a pic of the holes before mailing them back...

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I suppose the easiest thing to pick out about it is that the sear holes are no longer exactly round, but more like a moon a day or two after the crazies go back in for the month... Luckily it mostly strikes me as something no one would notice unless they were looking for it or told about it.

Has anyone ever heard of adding metal to the sear hole for this purpose? I suppose this would only work if you're absolutely positive the sear and button assembly are structurally and functionally sound...
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Luke_of_Mass
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Luke_of_Mass »

Well, the QC saga continues...

The French Tip Horn one appears to have yet another problem, on my way to the Marlborough, MA knife show today I heard a click and a thwack, as it deployed in my cup holder and tore through its baggy... I guess the safety doesn't work at all! When safety is all the way up, you can still depress the button by about 1 mm and that's all it takes for the blade to deploy...

Has anyone else had this problem? No the knife was not played "too rough" with or anything of this nature, never rode around in anybody's pocket or anything... I'm ambivalent about bothering Walt twice about the same knife but at this point I'm not sure I want to buy another Walt's classic... :( Shipping back to him again would put my total shipping investment in the neighborhood of a "standard" stiletto by Frank.

I feel as if either I get some of the worst luck out of all of you guys, or perhaps everyone gets these issues and just sucks it up?

Sad day for me here in MA.
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Jrarbogast
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Jrarbogast »

I just bought one of these from PVK, and it should be here tomorrow. After reading this, I am going to be pretty upset if I have an issue with mine. I bought one because I thought I was getting one of the best. I sure hope so.
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thom
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by thom »

Sorry to hear of your problems. Sounds out of the ordinary to me. I have quite a few of Walt's pieces, with little to no issues. I have yet to see a perfect stiletto, even the customs have there own "personality".
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Jrarbogast
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Jrarbogast »

just got the beautiful honey horn 23cm and it has the blade sticking up just enough to catch the skin of my finger when I run across it. PVK was excellent on the phone and will trade it out. They recommended a 28 cm and the blade sits nice inside. So I ordered one of those in pearlex.
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Luke_of_Mass
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by Luke_of_Mass »

Jrarbogast wrote:just got the beautiful honey horn 23cm and it has the blade sticking up just enough to catch the skin of my finger when I run across it. PVK was excellent on the phone and will trade it out. They recommended a 28 cm and the blade sits nice inside. So I ordered one of those in pearlex.
That's so great they were willing to swap it out for you. That was the dilemma I had - it was peaking, but only by a nanometer or two... if it were an $80 knife it's minor enough for me to live with.

I heard on the grapevine at the Marlborough show this weekend that apparently Frank is having some serious health problems, perhaps this could have something to do with it? I'm more worried about this iconic cutler than his pieces to tell you the truth, hope things are ok for him... :(
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K1111
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Re: Walt's 23cm

Post by K1111 »

I have 3 of the new 23cm Walt’s. No problems at all. Good luck maybe.
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