(Update II) This was 100% a bootleg, and I just got the real one here. The materials feel maybe 1% better, but other than that it’s night and day. The blade actually has an edge that will cut paper rather than tear it, though it’s not crazy sharp. The blade opens smooth and easy with basically no blade play. There is actually a tip-up clip that carries insanely deep, though I really wish it didn’t so I could deploy with a higher position on the handle**. It also isn’t insanely over-tight like a lot of the Kershaw wave knives (this made them catch on the pocket, making deployment more difficult). The liner lock actually seats VERY securely, while being easy to manually disengage. The wave feature is actually more aggressive than the bootleg without producing any snagging issues. The sheer length of the blade is more of an issue for deploying than anything else, but even that just a minor gripe imo. Note that there is a chip taken out of the base of the blade, but it looks like this was done to improve liner lock mating.

**After practicing my draw a few more times, the clip depth really is a problem for a knife this size. There just isn’t a good way to get the level of purchase I want on the handle, and the bottom really doesn’t have enough retention to justify that design choice.

(Update) Turns out this was (probably) a cheap knock-off of an identical and slightly more expensive knife on Amazon. I’m exchanging them and will update on how that does, but won’t post a link unless it holds up better.

This is a VERY cheaply built knife, so much so that it’s barely worth keeping, let alone carrying. There’s not even a pocket clip on it.

BUT, this combination of form and features is EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for (with a tip-up clip, that is) in a daily carry folder. The handle and finger protection is there, the blade and handle length fit a perfect middle ground for fighting and practicality, it even has a fuckin Emerson style wave that they don’t even bother advertising.

Unlike most wave openers, this one is set VERY far back, is slightly oversized, and doesn’t have anything forward of it (discs, pegs, etc) to prohibit getting your full blade length.

So if this wasn’t so GODDAMN TRASH, I would call it perfect. I haven’t seen anything yet, but if there is a brand-name, high(er)-quality knife that is basically this, PLEASE let me know.

  • southsamuraiEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    Gotcha

    As far as I’ve ever personally handled, the only properly implemented wave knives are the actual emerson and Kershaw knives.

    I can’t say nobody else does them right, only that the knockoffs and the ones that rolled their own version tend to fail in one way or another, usually by snagging on the pocket instead of smoothly coming out ready.

    There’s snaggletooth add-ons that work well on some knives though. It is very model dependent, but when the specific knife blends with it well, it’s as smooth or even smoother than a native one. Plus, you can usually modify a snaggletooth to work better for a given model.

    I’m not personally hooked on the wave (pun intended) since I tend to prefer a focus on the blade design when carrying a knife that’s going to be a back-up emergency option to a firearm or pepper spray. It’s one of those things where carrying a design that’s the same or close to what you train with the most is more important in actual use than theoretical speed of deployment. The wave knives that are worth buying just aren’t close enough to what I train with, and the knives I carry as emergency back-up like that don’t do well with the snaggletooth.

    Truth be told, even the wave takes practice to be faster than a standard modern folder, and can still be slower if the pants involved aren’t friendly to that method. I tend to be faster than the people I train with, even when they’re pulling a fixed blade just because I’ve got the time in with anything I carry regularly. That’s even with me slowing down via age and arthritis. Drilling a few thousand times gets you to the point that the only real limitation to draw and positioning speed is your muscle tone and how much you put into fast-twitch exercise vs slow twitch.

    Which is getting off topic, but I so rarely get a chance to talk about the subject, irl or online, that I have trouble not going deep. I’m not trying to talk you into or out of anything, just doing the knife geek thing :)

    • Squiddick17@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      I’ve updated the post after finding the legit version of this knife. I like it, but the carry depth is too much for its size, which is definitely a problem for deploying this thing.