I have a love/hate relationship with the Ritter Grip. The blade is well designed. It slices well and holds a good edge. And I can open/close it with either hand. The whole knife is light and easy to pocket carry.

The handle is ergonomic and safe. The jimping and the self guard shape make it unlikely that I’ll carelessly slice my finger tendons when using the knife. The axis lock has never given me problems.

On the other hand, I hate the FRN handle. It looks and feels cheap. It sounds cheap if I run my thumb over the flat of the grips. Since Benchmade did so much right on this knife, why can’t they use a better handle material?

I don't know your budget but I would suggest taking a look at a Chris Reeve Sebenza. Choose the blade size that meets your needs. I have a small Sebbie but I don't have any "tactical" requirements for my pocket knife. The Sebbies are simple, strong framelocks with superb construction that can be disassembled for cleaning. The blade shape is useful and the S30V holds a nice edge for quite awhile.

This is why I posted this here......thanks for all the great leads.

I read an article in one of my knife mags quite a while back about someone making micarta or G10 grips for the griptilians. Don't remember the source but if you do an internet search for benchmade or griptilian grips hopefully you will find it.

check out this article and then check out the source(s) listed in the article

www.tactical-life.com/online/tactical.../griptilian-upgrade/

Oh, they're called griptilkins

The only problem is, the grips cost more than the knife!

I would go with...

Spyderco - Military, Para, or Chinook3
Benchmade - 710 or Rift
Kershaw - Blur or Junkyard Dog

But there's really a ton of factor's that can play into this.

Do you care about type of lock? handle material? what blade length laws are you bound to? what type of uniform work do you do? how much are you willing to spend? ect, ect, ect...

My EDC is a Large CS Voyager, PLain edge. Don't go anywhere with out it. It's my second one. My first went with my nephew when he first got deployed to Iraq. But I've carried a voyager for 6+ years now. Love it!

If you want to limit your choices with "only made in America", that's your choice, but the Endura is an absolute classic in folding knife design and makes a brilliant EDC. The slightly smaller Delica is a fine choice as well.


I still carry an AUS-8 Endura, with a non-removable molded plastic pocket clip, that I bought over a decade ago.

I'd recommend digging through this thread as well as asking there:
http://www.scrapyardknives.com/ubbt...;amp;Number=172639&an=0&

That is the official folding chat area here at the Yard. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

I also realized that while it was referred to in the rules, there was no easy way to find it. That has been corrected now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

To stay consistent with the rules, I'm going to be locking this thread. Don't worry about it though.