Land 961 962 Pocket Folding Knife Axis Lock 12C27 Sandvik Blade G10 Handle with Lanyard Hole Pocket Clip for Camping Hiking and Travel

For a knife that costs under $30 this knife gives you a whole lot. 12C27 is decent, if budget, steel -- and it can take and keep a razor edge. The G-10 scale/steel liners are stabilized by a thick pivot, stop pin several standoffs and a heavy duty lanyard tube. The clip is fine, but possibly the weakest part of the design simply because it's a single screw clip. Stability is provided by the fact that they milled the scale for the base to fit into, but if you're really hard on the clips of your pocket knives, heads up that this setup won't be as stable as a regular setup with two screws attaching the clip to the handle. It's got good handfeel and is pretty well balanced in the grip, and while it's curiously angular in some parts of its design, none of that translates into awkwardness in the hand. The blade's got a decent utility grind on it -- optimized for piercing but still sharp for cutting. The frame is milled for lightness and the lanyard tube is wide enough for a strand of ungutted 550 paracord to fit through. The texture of the scale, along with the sculpted grip lines give the knife a lot of traction in the hand, but as decent as the rest of the knife ends up being, the axis lock is the star of the show. It's really good, and smartly engineered and implemented.However, they may wish to call it something else -- axis locks are no longer patented but the Axis Lock name is still trademarked. They should do what everyone else does, and rename it.The 961 flips on hybrid phosphor bronze/nylatron washers -- a thicker set than you often see on Land knives. Makes for a very stable blade with zero wobble but an effortless flip, far smoother than you're getting on the setups most budget knives have.The axis lock is, surprisingly, perhaps the best implemented axis lock I've ever seen on a knife, let alone a budget knife -- and i own some expensive knives with axis locks. The reason I say this is that the axis lock has two little quirks about it that make me really really like it. The first is that when you pull back on the axis lock, the lock bar nudges the blade out just a touch from the handle -- allowing the blade to be effortlessly deployed the rest of the way with a wrist flick. The second is that when you pull back on the axis lock again to disengage it and close the blade, when the blade swings shut it doesn't want to bounce off the lockbar. It just catches and stays, and when you release the axis lock it pulls the knife blade the rest of the way shut.That's pretty nifty. I have $300 knives with axis locks that don't do that.I am a huge, huge fan of the Land 910 and I believe I'd rather have this one, the 961 instead. If you like axis locking knives and are occasionally prone to fidget with them, I think you'll be very taken with this knife. If you just need a good budget knife that you can open one handed, you'll be just fine with it, but if the little things matter to you, I think you'll like it even more. Seems like a lot of thought went into the design.

I have developed this weird hobby of buying cheap knives and then tearing them apart.The actual goal is to clean them up, tune them up and make them work better than they should.I often will mirror-polish everything around the inside pivot area, including the blade, liners and washers.This guy, I pulled apart, wipe some factory gunk off of it, threw some oil in it and sewed it back up."Sorry ma'am, there's nothing we can do for your husband, at this point."Easily one of the crappiest washer setups that I've come across - thinner than paper bronze followed buy a chunk of plastic on each side. You can argue that the plastic is some form of space-age nylon, but I'm just gonna continue to call it plastic. The barely existent bronze washers also have holes milled in them, which I'm sure is an engineered method of reducing friction - AKA saving bronze.How the hell much can two, decent bronze washers cost?The Axis... umm... Slidey Lock Thingy is OK, but the springs just sort of gave me the impression that they're eventually gonna fail.Speaking of tearing knives apart, don't tear this one apart, unless you have some patience and some time on your hands. The washer setup makes it a real challenge to get it back together.Everything else is pretty much OK for a knife in this price range.The blade had a little spot where the grind was a little gnarly, but that was easily honed out.It also could have been a little sharper out of the box, but not a big deal to me.Fit and finish? Standard fare for the price range. Pretty decent - a little blocky, maybe.Bottom line - is it a good knife in my opinion?Naw.It's alright, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be a loose goose after things wear in.They should've scrapped the idea of putting the Axi... uhhhh... Slippy Thingy Lock on it, went with a liner lock and upgraded the washers.Would've made it a much better knife.If you're gonna spend the $30, buy a Ruike, a Rat I, or even a Ganzo.They're all much better tools.

The media could not be loaded.  Great solid knife for the monet. Except for the clip which is loose even when the screw is tightened all the way.