Anyone got a smith and wesson

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Well, they seem like decent knifes. I'll try 'em. I did some Googling and find that one "Taylor Cutlery" is the licensed distributor for both Smith and Wesson knifes and Schrade. They listed a "distribution center" in Tennessee. A little closer look at the box and, sure nuf, "Made in China". LOL So, well, like I say, we'll see, but at least I didn't have a cleaver before and this will come in handy.

Damned hard to find anything not made in China anymore. :rolleyes:
 
S&W knives today are a Taylor Cutlery brand. Taylor licensed the name years ago and has done very well manufacturing knives with it as one of their brands. They're unrelated to the firearms company.

You'll have to determine if the quality is adequate, but don't let the name influence your opinion.
 
I have no idea if this set is any good, but I have a S&W "SWAT" assisted opener, and it's a pretty good knife. They could have used more loctite on the hex bolts, but it's been plenty reliable.

I also have a S&W titanium/tritium watch that's been very good to me....at the least S&W does pick decent companies to carry their trademark.
 
I have a small knife business and sell a lot of the S&W tanto (Homeland Security) liner locks. They are a descent well made everyday use knife that will not break the bank. So far I have sold around 75 of these with no returns. I gave my son one when he went to Iraq last year - he put it through some heavy use and abuse during his tour. He says it's one of his favorite knives. Other than the finish being worn, his knife still functions and looks as good as it did when I gave it to him.

Taylor Brands, who handle the S&W knives, has a life time warranty on their products.

Guess it all depends on what your perspective is. I have some expensive custom knives and some cheaper ones. I am currently serving in Afghanistan and did not bring anything I would regret loosing or could not easily replace. Two knives I brought with me that see a lot of use are an older Swiss Army Centurion and one of the new ($25) Marbles Safety Folders.
 
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I have a Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops. I would say for the price it is an ok knife. The one thing that I do not like about it is sometimes the liner lock will stick in the locked position and will be harder to disengage to retract the blade. I had a Homeland Security model several years ago that multiple screws came lose and fell out.
 
Sorry, but they lost my sale as soon as you said Made in China.

I'm sure there are some good ones out there, but I've had such bad experiences with just about every item that comes from there that I scrupulously avoid them.
 
Lots of S&W knives are 440 C stainless. When they say surgical steel it usually means 440 A stainless, which is the same steel that many pocket knives are made from. If the fit and finish looks good, they are probably going to work Ok. Just have your sharpener handy. Unless one is a knife afficianado and somewhat of a knife snob and you use them hard every day, they should be just fine. Besides, that was a nice gift from you SIL, which just shows that he cares very much for you.
 
I have a Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops. I would say for the price it is an ok knife. The one thing that I do not like about it is sometimes the liner lock will stick in the locked position and will be harder to disengage to retract the blade. I had a Homeland Security model several years ago that multiple screws came lose and fell out.
Click to expand...

I am not here to bash on S&W knives, but I find it interesting that you say that it is an OK knife when the locking mechanism sticks and a previous experience resulted in not one, not two, but "multiple" lost screws. Call me a knife snob if you will, but that does not sound like an OK knife to me...
 
If the liner stick was with an assisted open, the usual cause is inadvertant movement of the safety lock. Their safety lock will lock the blade position to closed or open.

As for bolts...best answer is proper torquing and proper threadlocker application. For my assisted open, it's biggest problem is the stresses of the assisted open springs acting upon the bolts, eventually backing them out.

The fix would be a finer pitch bolt, but that would be custom threaded. That's one reason the S&W knives are cheaper, they use standard hardware. It's all a tradeoff in what you want.
 
Don't count on any re-sale with most of these knives. You get what you pay for and you won't get anywhere near what you paid for them, if anything at all.

That said, I do like my M&P Assisted openers.
 
SW HRT9B Black HRT Boot Knife

It's this one I'm interested in.

I'm looking for a dagger. Nothing special. Won't be used a lot.
One of those back up things used for one thing only: last ditch SD.

This one has the right blade length (for me; ymmv).
440 steel, but that's ok for me for this application.

I like the looks of the handle & blade guard.

Inexpensive.

I have not seen or held one.

Don't like it? Tell me why.

Then, recommend a better one of same blade length.

Tnx.

Nem

swhrt9b.jpg
 
Grips And Strength

Nem, how's your hand strength?

I have a smaller boot knife, an original Gerber Guardian, looking something like this:
Mine has the original cast aluminum handle with Armorhide non-slip coating.

I have found that the longer the blade, the more leverage it has against your hand if it becomes wedged in the working material. If the application requires force, and the working material is such that is inhibits the cutting or other action of the blade, a good and unambiguous grip is required to keep from losing control of the knife.

A slightly shorter blade provides less leverage from the work against the hand. This limits penetration, but gives better control.

Whatever you choose, make sure you can maintain a positive grip under physical stress.

 
I have a SWAT Auto. It sucks as Auto. Never could get it adjusted just right. It ended up in my hunting bag. It actually field dressed my last Deer. It has since been replaced by Kershaws
 
Arf, great advice. Thanks.

Hand strength is "ok". No manual Hercules, but as a rock climber in days of yesteryear (now designing an 18' climbing wall in my studio), I understand the concept of firm grip and am mostly capable of exerting one.

That Gerber is a nice one. I've got it - or some version of it - bookmarked.

Part of the reason I'm so fond (so far) of the SW is those guards. They seem very positive & protective to me, more than the smaller shouldered guards on most others.

I'm also liking 4.7" a bit better than sub-4" for some reason, even though it's pushing my limit. More than 5" is too long for my taste.

I've gotten some good feedback on the SW via PM (thanks), and hope to learn more, maybe even look at one. There's one pretty nice knife shop in town near here - in the mall, alas, but at least it's there, and they have a reasonably good selection, including some really nice makes and models : Benchmade, Gerber, SOG ... Going to go there later to see what they have.

I'll keep you posted.

Nem

PS: just called that store. They have boot knives by Kershaw, Benchmade (?, I think) and one other name. They also have the SOG Pentagon Mini, another on my list. She said they have carried the SW boot knives, but they're produced in China (?) now, and claims their 440 is ... not the best quality. Won't sharpen up well. Maybe I'll stray from that.

I'll offer a report later. Actually, I'm considering starting my own thread; don't want to hijack this one with too many of my own questions, especially about non-SW blades.
 
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I have a smaller boot knife, an original Gerber Guardian ...
Click to expand...
Arf, after I read that again, I started researching several brands, hopefully to look see at le store.

I looked at some bookmarked pages of GG. It looks really nice.

And truth be told, for this application, for me, I think 3.5"ish makes more sense than 4+.
(Yeah, I'm craving :rolleyes: a Boker 4.75", but that'll need to wait a while; I'll start smaller.)

So, I got my mouth all wet for a Guardian, then read two reviews - a one- & two-star - on Amazon that raised my eyebrows. :scrutiny:
Seems new ones aren't so good as the old ones.

Opinions?

With apologies to the OP for steering away from Smith Wesson skinning knives, I didn't read carefully enough :uhoh: - was searching a bunch of knife threads last night on "Smith Wesson", lost track of where I was. I'll take my queries about daggers/bootknives to a different thread. :)

(H: thanks for note re SOG; more later.)
 
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i have a s&w multi-tool, the thing sucks. it's not the workmanship, that's fine. it's the lack of forethought in the design. you can't grab onto any individual item in the multi-tool, they all have that finger nail slot but you can't get ahold of one without taking out everything. in other words: all tools are flush with the surface and covering each other's finger nail slot.

-kirk

EDIT: i should say, since you're refering to the cutlery set my post may be entirely irrelivant
 
MY HRT ( Purchased 2005) had a soft an narrow tip that bent when stabbed into wood ( a cutting board).

Since re-profiling, the tip is strong an the edge is serviceable...I presume the very tip of the knife was "burnt" in grinding and the hardness lost, but the rest of the knife is aces.
 
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