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Showing 1 of 10 conversations about:
Naftoor
291
Feb 4, 2019
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Interesting looking knives for sure. I'll start by stating I haven't run into James Brand knives before, either on bladeforums, r/knifeclub or r/knifeswap; it could be I've just missed them but I would say they aren't incredibly common knives. As for worth? That's subjective. Will it increase in value? Probably not, no exotic materials, doesn't look like they're using limited runs to drive up demand, and the name doesn't seem to have too much power. Will it retain it's value? Maybe, but I doubt it for what I'll outline below. But I could be wrong. Value's dependent on you, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that; what designs appeal to you won't appeal to others and vice versa. That being said, it only holds so true. In this case I can say at the very least The Chapter is not worth the asking price. The Folsom I would say is probably not, but it's closer. My issues with the Chapter are numerous and as follows: 1) The product page tells you nothing of value. Literally, there are more missing specs then there are present ones. Linking to a bladeHQ page for the Chapter to demonstrate how it SHOULD look https://www.bladehq.com/item--James-The-Chapter-Frame-Lock-Knife--29725 It's not a great sign when you can get vastly more information from a reseller then from the actual manufacturer. For reference I'll be referring to the Spyderco Slysz Bowie and the Opinel #8 when doing some comparisons. BladeHQ pages below. https://www.bladehq.com/item--Spyderco-Slysz-Bowie-Frame-Lock--20415

https://www.bladehq.com/item--Opinel-Knives-No-8-Beech-Stainless--20516 2) The grind is a bit chunky; It's a hollow grind on a short, fairly thick blade. I carry the Bowie listed above, I use for for food prep on a regular basis to justify my spending as much as I did on it, and because I enjoy using it. What I can say is that it wedges like a son of a bagel on hard foods. It's using a flat grind on a blade that's longer (better distal taper) and not much thicker then the Chapter. The Chapter would probably do fine for small stuff like opening boxes, cutting herbs, cutting string as that's where a hollow grind shines, but it'll fail once you start to reach the top of that hollow on any kind of hard object like a potato or apple if you decide to use it as something more then a fancy box cutter. The Opinel #8 above is a slicing monster, and as you can see it's about half the thickness of the Chapter while being quite a bit longer. 3) The steel is garbage. It's D2 steel. It's been used on kabars and the ilk for decades at this point, it's a fine serviceable steel. At 100 bucks or less. At 250 bucks from a no name, non storied manufacturer I would expect some form of powder metallurgy steel such as M390. There are manufacturers who go full retard and somehow sell knives using D2 at ridiculous prices (Such as Medford) but that's a rare exception. One of the key things you pay for in a knife is the steel, and this knife isn't providing any value. Beyond that they call it semi-stainless, which is laughable. D2 will rust if you don't care for it, or leave it somewhere it doesn't like. Sure it's SEMI stainless, but most of the chrome content goes to carbide production so it isn't as stain proof as the composition would make you think. Them calling it corrosion resistant is basically preying on people with more dollars then cents who want a pretty art piece. 3) Handle design. It looks pretty abysmal in terms of ergonomics, it looks like it would fit in your hand like a brick, it would kill your hand if you were in a situation where using the knife is the best solution (E.g going to a tinder matches date for dinner, finding they cut everything on ceramic plates instead of their cutting boards so using a knife is like cutting with a computer mouse so you whip out your razorsharp knife to blow their minds. ) 4) What's it running on? Another huge question when it comes to knives. Even BladeHQ has no idea whether it's on washers or bearings, and that's a pretty bad sign. 5) The pocket clip. Good god the pocketclip. Right side, tip down carry only? On a knife of this price that's a pretty solid indication that you're paying for a fashion accessory here, not a tool. No shame in that, but be aware of that fact and don't expect it to perform like other $250 knives you see. Personally I would pass. Far too many negatives and questions for an interesting design. As for it's little brother, it looks more ergonomic for sure ,but the steel is atrocious at that price. BD1 would be pretty close to AUS8 and that class of steels, which might be worth 30-40 bucks, certainly not worth 100ish. That's my two cents, as I said though designs a powerful thing and if it speaks to you no issues with materials or quality will sway you so best of luck in your quest!
Feb 4, 2019
DMTTAB
98
Feb 5, 2019
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NaftoorThank you so much for your thoughtful response. I have quite a good knowledge of headphones/In Ear Monitors and something dawned on me after i read your response. The James Brand Knives are to the Knife/EDC community what Beats Headphones are to the Headphone/IEM community. They both look relatively "good & stylish" but are overpriced, overhyped and all in all not worth their money. Beats doesn't list their frequency response, that amounts to the same thing as not listing bearing types and other important info with knives. Thank you for the good overview of Knives in general. I will look into spydercos assortment. Have a good day! :)
Feb 5, 2019
Naftoor
291
Feb 5, 2019
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DMTTABHappy to help to any extent I can; Spydercos are excellent knives, Benchmade is another company with an excellent roster. ZT is anothe american company, I've heard the fit and finish can be hit or miss but are generally good knives That being said, these 3 companies do carry a premium brand tax associated with them; I'm not as familiar with the headphone world but I would probably liken them to Bose in that regards. You certainly can't go wrong with either spyderco or benchmade. I normally try to look for for them on the secondhand market (r/knifeswap is a good location for this, with a very positive community. If you're looking for specific recommendations on a style of knife then r/knifeclub is yet another good location for discussion as I've found the community to be very welcoming.) There are a number of other manufacturers I've heard generally positive things about in the same price range, Kizer, Reate, WE and Twosuns. Do keep in mind those last 4 are all chinese manufactured knives; while I've heard generally good things from them, warranty services may be a concern. Benchmade is bulletproof, spyderco is excellent in that regard, and ZT is part of Kershaw (A cheaper knife brand, but with a fairly bomb proof warranty) so you should be able to avoid most warranty concerns with the american companies. Obviously this is all from my own experience and what I've heard; but if anyone else in the community has had other experiences or heard otherwise on anything I've stated above I'm hoping they can speak up so you aren't mislead. Welcome to the wonderful world of pocketknives; it's a deep rabbit hole with a startling capability to drain your wallet, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Browsing Knifeclub is a good route to go to see what the knifeworld has to offer; it's got a decent mix of low end to high end customs with plenty of people more skilled in photography then I am; it's a good way to see whats out there if you aren't 100% set on a particular knife. You have a great day too!
Feb 5, 2019
DMTTAB
98
Feb 5, 2019
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NaftoorI will for sure check out this subreddit. At the moment i have a swiss Soldier knife 08 that i've been given in my military service here.
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https://www.victorinox.com/ch/en/Products/Swiss-Army-Knives/Large-Pocket-Knives/Swiss-Soldiers-Knife-08/p/0.8461.MWCH It's a good knife but it lost its sharpness rather quickly.
Feb 5, 2019
14themoney
1395
Feb 6, 2019
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NaftoorExcellent post, dude! Thank you.
Feb 6, 2019
Naftoor
291
Feb 7, 2019
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DMTTABLooks like a serviceable tool to me. I appreciate the simplicity in it's design in that they didn't do the stereotypical swiss army knife thing of stuff 2000 tools in it, keeps it simple and everything has a use. I did some digging but can't find any sources on the steel hardness outside of SAKs wiki article. They're using X55CrMo14. Based on the composition it looks like it would be a low carbide, forming, not particularly high carbon stainless steel. Perfectly functional for a multipurpose tool, that may be used for prying or batoning or god knows what in warzones or survival situations. They run the steel pretty soft as well, at 56 HRC which in combination with the low carbide formation would explain the issues with edge retention. Outside of backwoods use or hard use as a prying tool in say a mechanics shop, I wouldn't say it's a superb knife steel, perfectly functional but there are much better options out there depending on your intended usage. If you are going to be using this primarily for cutting tasks, and not as a general tool for prying or otherwise applying lateral pressure to the blade, a high carbide steel will fit the bill nicely for prolonging the sharpness. If extreme edge retention is what you'd like, the steels I would recommend S110V, ZDP-189, K390, M390 and S90V. Of those my personal favorite is M390, it can take a decent edge but is extremely corrosion resistant which gives me some piece of mind. A few things to keep in mind; many knife steels have another name they go by. This is due to various steel companies producing their own proprietary grade, but you'll find the compositional differences are small enough to render them functionally identical. E.G. M390 vs 20CV or CTS 204P. All different sources, but all essentially the same steel in use. Another key point is that there is no perfect steel. Pretty much full stop. You see it asked all the times about what the perfect steel and in short it doesn't exist. There are steels better for one application or another, but nothing that is perfect. The reason for this is the properties that make a knife steel good for a knife tend to compete with one another, so a compromise must always be made. A steel that's extremely hard, such as ZDP-189 which can be run at 65-67 HRC or beyond in the hands of a good knife maker and heat treater, is also very brittle so any kind of sideways loading will destroy your edge. That being said due to its carbide content and it's hardness it will hold its edge for what feels like forever compared to softer steels like whats used in the SAK. Another point that's a bit more subtle is the type of edge; the high carbide steels I linked above will take a screaming sharp edge, and then rapidly degrade due to carbide tearout. What follows is an extremely long time of just shy of shaving sharp performance, for blowing through cardboard, fibrous and most cutting tasks it will be perfectly functional but you won't be able to shave with it. Lower carbide steels will take a much finer edge, that will dull more quickly overall but will give a finer edge for things like push cutting, shaving or whittling. High carbide steels can't support extremely acute edges due to the aforementioned carbide tearout, low carbide steels can thus take a finer, and more acute edge even if they will lose it relatively quickly. They're also generally much easier to touch up. As with most technical things, a trade off between edge retention, chippiness, toughness, corrosion resistance and ease of sharpening has to be made. With some of them inter-related you may get multiple with a single decision, but you'll never get to have all of them.
Feb 7, 2019
DMTTAB
98
Feb 7, 2019
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NaftoorThank you so much for this very informative post. And thank you for sharing your knowledge on knives. Most people don't want to share their knowledge, i really appreciate that. I haven't gotten a clue what types of steel exist before your post. The swiss soldiers knife is pretty cheap i'd say. It works well while in service but without sharpening it got dull after a few months.
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I used this sharpening steel to give it a better edge. It worked quite well but it probably isn't the right way to go about it. I'm a chef and use these knives for work.
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https://www.knivesandtools.de/de/pt/-wuesthof-kochkoffer-bestueckt2.htm?gclid=CjwKCAiAy-_iBRAaEiwAYhSlA1-yd524JyN2Aho9JOcTuCrl5mCjKdwVP2K2aGEOTfIb4WHxHfwiqhoCpJkQAvD_BwE They are made of X50CrMoV15 Steel. I'm pretty happy how they hold up after more than five years and sharpening it with the sharpening steel.
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https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cEtIxKXR I've ordered a whetstone 1000/3000 grit and will try to work the knives with it.
Feb 7, 2019
Naftoor
291
Feb 11, 2019
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DMTTABHappy to help however I can! There's a ton of knowledge out there regarding the hobby and I always wished someone would aggregate it and turn it into an easier to digest form, so I guess this is a subconscious method of doing that now. Based on the looks of that that's a ceramic rod, which is indeed a sharpening rod (many people mix them up with the grooved metal rods, also known as hones). I'm personally of the opinion that on a beater knife they should perform fine, the biggest issue is that you need to be very careful with the angle by ensuring you have a steady hand, which is harder with a smaller item such as a rod vs a wet stone, in my opinion. That being said, it's a skill/muscle memory and if you can get it down with the rod then who cares what the world thinks? Sharp is sharp and a knife is a tool designed to be sharp. Lots of people in the community spend as much on sharpening systems designed to hold an angle to a pretty exact quantity for the duration of the sharpening activity. For me I find wet stone sharpening therapeutic even if my knife edges will never be pretty enough for IG photo shoots. I'm using a combination stone with the same grit ratings at those, in addition to some no name 3000/8000 grit stone. For softer german steel knives like Wusthof, which are around 58 HRC my next suggestion might be superfluous. However I would recommend picking up a strop and some compound. You can get a decent one for relatively cheap (normally 2 sided, letting you use 2 compounds for under 30 bucks), they'll last essentially forever barring the addition of more compound over time, but they can really help put that mirror polish on a knife edge. You can also use them to delay additional sharpening (this may not hold true for a professional setting due to the shear amount of use a knife will see in service) but I find for my casually used pocket knife using CTS-XHP I can strop it 3-4 strokes every week or two to bring it back to shaving.
Feb 11, 2019
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