A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

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Killgar
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A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Killgar »

As many here know, cheap switchblades can be a lot of fun. They can also good for tinkering, experimentation, and learning. And sometimes they can actually be pretty decent quality. And of course if you break or ruin one it's not a big financial loss.

I saw this particular switchblade in one of my regular online switchblade searches awhile back, it really appealed to me, so I took the chance and bought a few ($25 each). There isn't any name or brand to go along with them, but I'm pretty sure they were made in China.

A few of the things that appealed to me about them, other than their appearance, are the all-screw design (makes it easy to take apart/re-assemble for tinkering), adjustable pivot, and the thick stainless steel liners.

As it turned out, they're pretty decent switchblades (I bought 3), although they benefit greatly from a little work. The final product are knives that fire hard, have a solid lock-up, and little to no side blade play. I'll explain the work I did along with the pics.

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So, the first thing that needed to be done after the initial disassembly was a thorough cleaning. The inside of all three knives was filthy (all of my pics are after cleaning).

The next bit of work was to file and sand the outer circumference of the blade tang, and the corresponding contact point of the backspring. They were both very rough, and it was obvious (could feel the surfaces GRINDING against each other). Smoothing out both surfaces made for a much smoother, and faster action.

Two of the three knives I purchased had tight lock-ups out of the box. But one (pictured) had a little forward-to-back play in the open/locked position. The three dimples in the side of the backspring are from me "pushing" the steel outward and closing the gap using a hammer and pointed punch. I performed this procedure on both sides of the backspring. This completely removed the little bit of f-b play. The steel was soft enough to make such a task easy.

The last performance mod I did was simply to bend the springs out a little more (with pliers). This was easy, and it made a noticeable difference and produced a much stronger opening. These pics were taken before bending the spring out.


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A few pics of the sear. I was very surprised by the tight tolerances between the sear and the sear holes in the liners.


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And they actually have centered blades when closed.

Oh yeah, in pursuit of "perfection" I also added some very thin bronze phosphor washers to the pivot, and a few along the backspring to even everything out on one knife (pictured). But it turned out not to be really necessary to produce a decently functioning switchblade, so I haven't done it to the other two.

I have also ground off the so-called "glass-breaker" from the end of the back-spring on this one pictured below.

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I keep all three in various places around my apartment in case I need to cut something (I don't carry around a knife at home). This way I get to enjoy them and get some practical use out of them. The blade steel is soft, but they do take a shaving-sharp edge. So they're decent for light utility cutting.

And between the thick liners, and the tight all-screw construction, I would actually decsribe these knives as "robust". They feel very solid and hefty in my hand.

Overall I'm pretty impressed with the quality of these $25 switchblades :) .

Feel free to share any love you have for any cheap switchblades you might own :) .
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thom
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by thom »

That is pretty cool, and for $25 you can't go wrong. What site did you get them from?
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by sammy the blade »

Check out some of the Ganzo automatics, pretty well made on the cheap.
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Mario
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Mario »

Nice that they’re held together by screws. Not something that’s very common with leaf spring fired autos. They seem like nice knives for the money. Kind of like a budget version of a Mikov or Microtech OSS Cobra.
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Killgar
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Killgar »

thom wrote: Mon Jan 10, 2022 11:17 pm That is pretty cool, and for $25 you can't go wrong. What site did you get them from?
Thom
The problem with trying to find these knives is that they don't have a name or brand. Although some sellers in China add their own brand names.

I ordered two off of Amazon, and then discovered that they were coming all the way from China, and that it would take a month. I didn't feel like waiting a month, so I started searching for a US source, and found them at Directknifesales.com. So I ordered one from them, which came in a week. But I just checked and they are out of stock.

There are still some listed on Amazon, but it appears they come from China, and Amazon isn't making it easy to find them. One listing has them under the brand name "Ultraray", and the other is "FreeDouble", but doing searches for either name doesn't seem to bring them up in the search results. I was only able to find them because one was still in my browsing history. Both of those listings are priced at $30. The Chinese vendor I bought two of mine from is no longer there. I would have posted links but they went all the way across my browser and beyond.

Ebay has some under the name "Tactical Folding Blade 440C Steel Blade Knife Hunting Survival Knife Wood Handle", but those come from Saudi Arabia and are $27+ $7 shipping. It looks like that vendor has a few listings for them including a "damascus" version.

There is another US vendor, Keywestknifeworks.com, under the name "Predator 241", but they are selling them for $40 each.

And to think that at one time Grindworx had them for $20. But by the time I found them there they were out of stock.
Last edited by Killgar on Tue Jan 11, 2022 7:43 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Killgar
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Killgar »

sammy the blade wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 12:45 am Check out some of the Ganzo automatics, pretty well made on the cheap.
I've had a few Ganzos, and although they were very decent knives, they didn't really do it for me.
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Killgar
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Killgar »

Mario wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 6:57 am Nice that they’re held together by screws. Not something that’s very common with leaf spring fired autos. They seem like nice knives for the money. Kind of like a budget version of a Mikov or Microtech OSS Cobra.
Yeah, the screw construction is something that appealed to me (all torx screws too), also the blade style, which I refer to as "sharktooth" because that's what it reminds me of (sort of triangular). I never had any interest in the Mikovs. Pinned construction (It's important to me that I can take my knives apart), no pivot adjustment, and I don't really care for the broadly tapered blades (I like finely tapered, really pointy blades).
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NorthCarolinaDude
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by NorthCarolinaDude »

I've been thinking about buying one of these to play with and now I think I'll actually do it. As said, how can you go wrong? Thanks for helping validate this decision brother. :)

Peace.
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Killgar
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Killgar »

NorthCarolinaDude wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:45 am I've been thinking about buying one of these to play with and now I think I'll actually do it. As said, how can you go wrong? Thanks for helping validate this decision brother. :)

Peace.
My pleasure :) .
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Killgar
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Killgar »

I just noticed that someone over on AAPK is using a few of my pics from this thread to advertise a knife for sale. I want to be clear that it's not me.

Not cool. I think people should take and post their own pics if they are selling a knife. Not use someone else's pics and misrepresent the pictured knife as the one they are selling.

I'm not a member there, otherwise I would try to report it to the powers that be over there.
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Bill DeShivs
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Bill DeShivs »

Where is it on AAPK? It's not in the Sale or Auto forums.
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Killgar
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Killgar »

Bill DeShivs wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 5:33 am Where is it on AAPK? It's not in the Sale or Auto forums.
I just checked and it's still there in the "Buy" section under the "Automatic Knives" category, about a third of the way down on the first page.

The title for the ad is "MIKOV Lever Lock clone", posted for sale by someone calling themselves (name redacted).

EDIT: Feb 4, 1:39 pm PT- I see that the pictures have now been replaced.
Last edited by Killgar on Thu Mar 24, 2022 5:53 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by whippersnapper »

Hmmm..XBMX has been a member here for about 2 years. Over 50% of his posts have been in the buy/sell area. I haven't heard about any problems but attempting to sell a knife using your pictures of one of "your" builds seems a little sketchy to me. Especially if you have never parted with one of yours.

Hopefully it was just a mistake.
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Bill DeShivs
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by Bill DeShivs »

I sent him a message.
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Re: A Little Love for Cheap Switchblades

Post by XBMX »

Poor decision on my part, deleted sorry X
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