A curious thing! Did you seal the wood? If you did, with what?

Woah! You have been busy! That Humbolt is a heck of a chopper. Given the amount of batoning we do around these parts, it's very tempting

It appears, from the photos online, that what is holding the knife together is the pivot screw at the front (which you said you can take out) and 2 sets of screws at the back. One set right by the glass breaker and one set right behind the belt cutter. You may need to have 2 torx bit screw drivers, one on each side of the pair of screws turning in opposite directions. Likely there is a barrel with threads on both ends in between the two sets of screws and the barrel is free to spin internally. So you have to leverage one screw driver against the other to loosen them.

This knife is an assisted open knife, so perhaps the spring mechanism inside has figured out how to wiggle itself free (or whatever was holding the spring in place has broken). It might be challenging to put it all back together if you can sort out what might be happening.

If you don't have additional torx bits and a driver, the cost of those is going to be some good percentage of an exact replacement. Certainly there's value in learning how this thing is put together, but it might not be repairable in a cost-effective way.

Well shoot. A chonky boy but also serial #1...

Seriously though, having one for sale is very cool. Hopefully many more to come!

What a great write-up. I stand in awe again. :)

My two local Walmart stores continue to dissapoint when it comes to knives. The whole outdoors area has been made smaller and all the knives are now inside a glass storage cabinet behind a counter or at least behind a retracting stantion. Neither had the holiday specials out yet either.

I did sort think they were going for a combo Bugout/Bailout look with this one. The Bailout "Crater Blue" edition for example: https://www.benchmade.com/products/537fe-02 for the colorway and the blade shape, with a more Bugout-esc handle.

Still though, for $20 this is a rather astounding bargain. Even the button lock green one at $25 is a good deal.

Really amazing at how far they've brough the line since that first $6 crossbar lock .

what did that knife ever do to you to deserve that?! 🫠

It occurs to me that somebody with a 3D printer and a huge predilection for cutlery related nerdery could probably make custom replacement lock toggles for these pretty easily. Now there's something to think about.

Indeed. I mean the printer is likely just sitting there waiting for another new project to be worked into the queue, right?

Nice write-up and it's good to hear it's so easy to take apart (and hopefully all their glyde locks are like this).

The Penguin was my first QSP purchase, in 2021. They had a pretty good hit on their hands and were putting out decent varients. I think only the liner lock version was avaialble then. I held out for one with green micarta scales. The micarta is fairly smooth and at first I thought it was going to be slippery but that's not proved to be an issue.

About a year ago I got the mini Penguin in the green micarta. It's been a great little 5th pocket carry. Not sure if it was based on feedback or just they decided to change it up but the micarta was not as smooth and much more to my liking (especially for a smaller knife).

Most recently (May) I got one of their 4" paring knives in 14C28N. Very thin and slicey blade and the edge retention has been excellent. (As an aside, they list it as a Kiritsuke but it's double-beveled so I think technically it's not a Kiritsuke? I'm not a kitchen knife person so I don't know.)

Edit: they do also make a slip-joint version of the Penguin which is supposed to be excellent. QSP is the OEM for others. In particular I know they made the Stump Lifter and the upcoming Stump Fish for Advanced Knife Bro.

The one nice thing about having 2 sets of torx drivers is that now you have 2 sets of torx drivers! 😁 One can wander off into some hidden area of a junk drawer or a forgotten tool box or something and you'll have a backup!

In all seriousness, if you do get it apart, snap a couple pictures and post a follow-up. There's good info in a tear-down, even if someone never buys the same knife, it's good to see how things work.

And if you get to the point where you would like any recommendations for a replacement, post that as well. :)

Hell yeah. This is great. Congrats on the first of many new knives. Can't wait for you to setup shop for orders. 😀

Right, I get that. I guess what I'm saying here is that he should have talked to you about how sharpening isn't the correct choice here and instead offered to re-profile it.

Regardless, after you use it for practice, put it in a shadowbox and stick it on a wall as a reminder of how to not treat knives! 🤪

Yes, pressing the button fully releases the blade and the action is very smooth. So it's very easy to wrist-flick open and drop closed. Very little actually wrist movement needed. If you aim the knife down, it'll fall open easily with the button pressed. Same for closing if you hold it upward.

Live and learn indeed. This is important to show, IMHO, and I appreciate you doing so.

In the $25-50 range, the world is your oyster, in the knife world that is for sure. Especially if seatbelt cutter and glass breaker are not requirements. And honestly, most of the glass breaker tips you see on knives don't actually do a good job doing that. (No experience with your particular knife, just an overall observation).

If you were to look at just KnifeCenter.com and just knives that are in stock today, you get 950+ choices for knives in your price range with blades between 3" and 4" in length.

https://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_store.html?a=folder&instock=t&max_blade=4&max_price=50&min_blade=3&min_price=25&sortType=defaultDe

If you like the combo edge (partially serrated) there are lots of options as well. I don't think you can filter on that option though so you'll have to look through.

For trying different lock types (the term for the lock on your knife is: liner lock) you can also filter on the left side. I would highly recommend something with an AXIS/Crossbar lock because they are a lot of fun/very fidget friendly. :) But there are also lots of great knives with liner locks in that list too.

Feel free to ask any questions about brands, styles, etc. once you dig into the list. (Of course, you can buy most of these elsewhere if you have a favorite spot, but the KnifeCenter website is great for filtering/sorting etc. so at least you can get a handle on what's out there.)

The usual answer is either a heat gun or a soldering iron tip to heat the threadlocker that is probably in there. But @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world is not a usual person 😂

I hope Pete starts posting again. I miss his videos. He seems to go through a flurry of creative output and then crickets for weeks and weeks.

See @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 's post below. I am not aware of any knife company (this is different than a retailer) marketing knives as ambidextrous that are not so.

If you're looking for a left-hand only, Spyderco makes a couple. Example:

https://spyderco.com/...

This is the Kershaw Launch Iridium (for those who may not know). This is an automatic version of the already very popular Kershaw Iridium which can be had with either a crossbar lock in both a sub-3" blade (Mini Iridium) and 3.25" blade versions or a manual button lock.

I'd use a spray lacquer but only after the paint has been drying for 48 hours. You should do very very light coats many times. Too much and you'll probably ruin the paint job. The lacquer layering will also take a while as you have to let it dry before applying more.

I recently started carrying a Yonder as well. I was going to make a post here about it. It's excellent. The action is very smooth and the thin blade geometry is proving even better than my previous EDC, the CJRB Maximal. The crossbar lock, like all crossbar locks, is perfectly usable in left or right hand (and the pocket clip, as you know, is reversible).

I saw it coming and I still laughed. :)