Yeah - Justin ...... Sorry. Been dealing with a Jason a lot lately on some other business stuff. Getting old-timers.

I understand imperfections in a hand made knife. I have a lot of hand made knives. Sometimes I am fine with them and sometimes some of the imperfections bug me.

Also, most of my "FINEST" premium custom knives are "HAND-Made" and with visually perfect details. And the prices on these vary from Scrap Yard Price ranges and up.

In the end, I don't care to "Pay" for knives that look poorly made. Even though Justin's knives are good performers, I don't consider $100+ to be so cheap that I would be fine paying that amount for pretty rough and unfinished looking knives - Beaters or not. If it is to be so much a beater that I don't care what it looks like and still want performance, then I would prefer prices closer to $50 - $80 range instead of Justin's $90 - $150 range. If I want an ugly "beater" knife that performs pretty well, there are quite a few I can pick up for $20 - $40 on the auction site - granted they won't likely perform as well as a Ranger, but they will be cheap, ugly, decent performing beaters.

Bottom line - At $100+ for 6" + blades or even $50+ for 3" + blades, I still expect a pretty "Decent" fit and finish, good design and ergos - WITH quality performance. Maybe I am a tough customer, but that is just my opinion.

The two Ranger knives I owned in the past were both satin (cost MORE - I think I paid about $135 or so for a satin RD6) and the grind lines and fit and finish were just pretty rough ("TOO" rough) in my book - especially at that price. I really didn't care for the feel of the handles either. I didn't buy either directly from Justin - I think I probably got them off the forums. But, I have sold both a while back. I probably could have worked on them to make them nicer feeling in my hand and nicer looking. But, I chose to sell them rather than put in the effort. I didn't see the return value in the efforts.

** Although, in all fairness, I have seen pictures of other Satin Ranger knives that looked nicer than mine did, so ????? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

In spite of my personal experiences, I would possibly still consider future purchases of Justin's work in the future - ??? I just feel pretty well covered by Scrap and Swamp blades for now.

A lot of companies including Ranger and all three Busse companies cover up a lot of rough stuff with the black coatings. But, with black coatings, it doesn't matter "As" much. I have actually had a few coated knives were you could see imperfections in grind through the coating. My SJTAC was a good example - and that honestly really annoyed me considering the price of a SJTAC! But, even in spite of the bad blade grind lines through the finish and not being overly happy with the SJTAC's handle, I love the blade a LOT and had to strip and keep that baby. But, DANG, what a pain in the arse to get that SJTAC finished - still don't have it finished - VERY rough. The SJTAC was one of the few convex grind blades. I don't think the BATAC had a convex blade (????). The AK-47 does and I think the RUCK does (????). But, these blades were apparently convexed with some sort of CNC cutter. The Cutter left deep cut lines similar but not as deep or bad as CBT cut lines. You can see the cut lines through the finish. They looked particularly rough at the ricasso and especially where they met the flat part of the blade near the spine. One side was a lot worse than the other.

Since I strip a lot (most) of my coated blades, I would rather buy a satin finished knife that already has a decent finish for a few dollars more. OR, at least not have to deal with a VERY rough finish under the coating.


Looks like I started rambling again - sorry.


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