Just decided to re-watch your review because I finally won a Roosevelt lotto. Excellent, excellent review. It helps build up my anticipation nicely. Once again, great job!
@@KnifeNerdery I was able to get the standard finish with the golf putter scales. It’s set to arrive Friday, that’s if my hourly monitoring of the tracking is accurate 😬. I’ll be sure to let you know what I think once I get it 👍
What a great video! Thank you for putting that much effort into showing what makes these so interesting! I finally get it, though luckily I still don't want one :D
The current custom Variants are a carbidized lock interface. I’m thinking about going to using one of the detent balls as my lock interface to make it more consistent and repeatable. Just letting you know. Great stuff by the way!
Drats! Hehe, yeah, Lefty-Kev just told me I was wrong about that. And I also just saw your recent post about trying out the ball lockface approach on v3! Thanks for the clarification. My Variant PE video should be up soon, BTW!
Quite interesting details. Very informative. Worth watching the entire video for those wanting a well explained easily understood video of the workings of a knife. Nice Kevin! Very educational. 😊
Thanks for the time and effort that went into this review! The explanation of the action/detents was fascinating. Once again, I feel smarter after watching one of your videos. Regarding the design, this ticks a lot of boxes for me. I'd drop the point a little lower below the pivot, but other than that it looks great. It's too bad about the availability. I'd be tempted to buy one if I could get it at retail price.
Really glad you enjoyed it! This was one of the more fun ones to make, in large part because it's just such a well done knife. I keep entering every lotto hoping I can get one of my own sooner than later!
I've been dreading your video on this knife. The last 2 or so years, I've had absolutely no desire to own this knife, but im not sure that's gonna be the case any longer once this video is over 7:30 - By far, the best description of this concept that I've ever seen. Well done. I'm glad you brought up my biggest issue with it; steel choice. Such a thin, slicey blade deserves (IMO) something crazy like s125v, if he's set on stainless options which he seems to be. There's no denying that the way the double detent balls work is ingenious, but how much different is it really than a good detent ramp with a properly tuned lockbar? (Edit: that loses that final push off the ball when opening, though. I see it now) Can't say I want one any more than I did before the video, but I'm a lot closer to understanding why so many other people do. My major takeaway is that I finally need to buy a Drift... Great video, as always!
Hahaha, yeah -- the Drift is excellent. It's also interesting just how similar they can be, and yet how different they can feel in hand and in use. But the Drift is definitely still highly recommendable -- one of the best EDC knives to date. And I'm glad you liked the grind description part! It's definitely a dramatically oversimplified description still, but that's the rub with trying to fit any of these discussions into a much larger video -- you have to leave out a lot of complicating details to fit it in and not get too bogged down. All three of these knives (and many FFG knives) actually have the plane of the grind tilted inward slightly along the Z axis as you move in the negative X and Y axes. This is a pretty common technique to help maintain BTE thickness along the length of the grind for knives with a belly and rising tip -- they essentially subtly tilt the plane toward the curve of the grind. But _for a given grind plane_ , these concepts of "the further down the grind you plunge, the thinner the stock will be" all apply. And yeah, absolutely -- while I have no qualms with LC200N (or MagnaCut) as EDC steels, this is definitely an ultra-slicing-focused knife. Gimme that ultra-slicing-focused steel! The comparison to a well-designed ramp and well-tuned lockbar is a valid one. I think a key difference is just that the placement of the balls means that the engagement with this pseudo-ramp happens a lot earlier than would happen on a typical arrangement -- you have none of the drag along the remaining portion of the lock bar. The built-in-ramp detent "nub" approach employed by Brian Nadeau and the Holts is actually a very comparable experience (especially on the Holts, where the ramp is a bit shorter), as the ramp abuts the edge of the lockbar, and falling off the sloped portion of the nub means you're immediately off the lock bar altogether. In my view, that's an even better approach from some of these perspectives (you still have to place the nub close enough to the pivot that it doesn't run off the edge of the tang), but it's certainly far more complicated! While the careful placement of these detent balls is certainly something that requires attention to detail, it's far less complicated than precision milling a ramp-sided butte into a lockbar insert!
@@shanelyle8051 Sorry for the late reply, yeah I'm in Central New York. There's only a couple that I know of. Fradon Lock, in Syracuse, is awesome but I imagine you know about them. If not, It's a great store run by great people. Rock USA, in Camillus, is a nice little shop, but is almost exclusively traditionals. The owner is basically a living encyclopedia on the history of knives.
@@KnifeNerdery I actually thought about the different ways detents/ramps can be done for quite a while after I made that comment, which of course made me go through all my knives and obsessively focus on that aspect. The way it's done on Holt's was what kept coming back into my mind as probably the most comparable because of the quick drop off the ramp/lockbar. Pretty unrelated to the conversation around this particular style, but have you handled a Wind River, from Schenk Knives? It's a flipper that uses a big ceramic ball as the detent/lockbar interface (CRK style). It's a really unique action.
@@CNYKnifeNerd I've never even heard of that knife before. But how cool of them to show a full internal pic on their website of that lock interface! cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-idhs62ejq4/images/stencil/1024x1024/products/147/693/wind_river14__49287.1568411125.jpg?c=2 That's definitely a hefty detent ball! Very cool learning about another maker trying this detent-ball-as-lock-interface approach. It's also neat seeing them putting a second strip of jimping up at the end for utility cuts. These folks are obviously thinking hard about what they're doing. Another interesting similar lock interface design is Snecx's Hybrid Pin Detent System (HPDS), where the detent and lock interface are both from a pin inserted through the lock bar rather than a spherical ball.
I like this design where the blade choil is moved back into the handle more so than other knives with blade choils - this shortens the overall length of the knife when compared to Spydercos and also lessens the material being cut, like cardboard, getting stuck in the choil. Why don't more knife designers do this? Does it cause problems with other design aspects of the knife like where to put the circular detent path? Also, once you win the lotto, can you get custom options like the spanner pivot screw or anodized screws?
Awesome video and very informative. Would love to see a Koenig Arius review from you. Definitely earned my sub and I look forward to watching more reviews!
Great video! Love the details on this and it's definitely a pinnacle achievement in the slicey slicey fidgety folder sub group. I did want to just point out, I know it's hard to believe right now because that's what's hot and all the younger folks know, but slicey fidget knives is just the current fad and not objectively different than fad of the tanky prybar knives that was super popular 10-15 years ago.
Yeah, I think these kinds of things are really interesting to think about -- pulling yourself back a layer and trying to look at both where and why the community and industry are focused right now, and how that has and will continue to change over time. I agree wholeheartedly that both slicey and fidgety are en vogue right now, but I feel like they are popular for pretty different reasons and, thus, are traveling on their own separate arcs with differing levels of staying power. There's been an understanding and appreciation of haptic feedback in mechanical objects for many centuries, but the recent rise of "fidget toys" seems to me to be a reflection of a rising sense of anxiety in the world. I suspect the true rise (and fall) of fidget spinners in 2016-2017 was driven by the same kinds of FOMO, hype-cycle forces as all toy fads -- Cabbage Patch dolls, Rubik's Cubes, Bop-It, Beanie Babies, Pogs, etc all follow relatively similar arcs -- but if you look at what the articles and headlines were saying as they were gaining mass market recognition, nearly all of them mention a connection to soothing anxiety, restlessness, ADHD symptoms, and general stress relief. So while the swell of the bubble may have been normal fad shopping dynamics, the initial growth and spread was rooted in an increasing number of people looking for an outlet for feelings of anxiety. And as a result, while the main fad era of fidget spinners may be behind us, there's still been a steady growth of haptic (often clicky) toys in the EDC space, especially in the higher end market. Just like fidget toys in general, I suspect there's a large number of people prioritizing haptic toy qualities in knives purely because it's fun, and many more still purely because that's what they're currently being told makes a knife "good". But I also have heard countless people indeed express that their desire for those qualities comes from a general background sense of restlessness and anxiety. I suspect those first two camps will move on from "fidgety knives" once they find a new source of dopamine, or once the mainstream influencers themselves start pushing different qualities. But the pessimist in me does not think that global anxiety will be waning anytime too soon, so I suspect there will be a smaller but vocal portion of the community still looking for fidget-toy knives for a while. The emphasis on thinner, slicier blades -- and on thinner, lighter-weight knives in general -- feels less like a fad to me, and more like an evolution of who is buying knives and why. I suspect that the extremes of the market -- that new absurdly thin Benchmade Narrows, for example -- are indeed a fad-cycle overreaction, but the move towards thinner, slicier knives is also a response to an increasing awareness of cutting geometry fundamentals and an improvement in day-to-day functionality for knives that are now being marketed to a much wider audience of everyday people as practical tools. For decades, the industry marketed knives almost exclusively using machismo imagery: big, "manly" knives built to look intimidating, with allusions to the military and so-called "tactical" and survival scenarios normal people aren't experiencing. An overwhelming majority of these people were still practical users of their knives, but the culture and imagery surrounding knives was largely one of bravado, and bulky, tanky knives supported that storyline. While that imagery and knife style will continue to appeal to a subset of the population, that subset itself is not meaningfully growing. To grow their businesses, knife manufacturers had to appeal to a different and wider audience. The growth of the modern EDC era popularized and helped normalize the notion of a pocket knife as a practical, everyday tool for doing normal, mundane, everyday tasks -- a far cry from the survivalist cosplay of the past. But for a knife to actually meet that utility expectation, it has to have different characteristics: it has to actually cut well. This newer audience came into knives *because of* their practical, functional usages. I'm sure they will sway from one aesthetic trend to the next, (e.g., the rise of "modern traditionals"), but that "it has to actually cut well" characteristic is less likely to fade, because it's at the core of why they have the knife in the first place. These are of course just my 2-cent musings, and they are obviously biased from spending decades *avoiding* the knife industry specifically *because of* that perceived machismo culture. I'm sure many would disagree with my (admittedly quite) oversimplified telling of things. 😅
I think on the Rosie my recommendation is to just leave the bearings alone, as they're already very high-quality bearings. If you have one of the first ~900 or so, they have TiConnector delrin-caged bearings, which work great. If you have one of the later ones, they have in-house, acetal-caged bearings. Both of those are well-made bearings with ceramic balls. (The exception here is if you have one of the *very, very* early ones from when he first started -- those, I believe, had steel-caged steel bearings. The odds are very low of finding one of these early ones on the market.) But yes, on the Rosie the bearings ride directly on the Ti. And yes, it would be arguably better if they ran on a hardened steel raceway washer instead. And yes, you can buy hardened steel raceway washers from places like Alpha Knife Supply, or you can buy bearings that already come with them as a set from Taco Bearings. The problem is, the knife as-is isn't designed to have those extra washers in them -- the pockets are milled very precisely to fit 1/16" bearing balls and nothing else. The washers are very thin -- about 5-10-thou -- but throw two of those in and now you have ~10-20 thou of stacked skew at the front end of the knife. Might not sound like much, but it's enough that you can definitely tell it's messing up the parallelism of the handles, which can noticeably impact the action of the knife, because it causes asymmetric pressure on the bearings -- they're slightly too loose on one side and slightly too tight on the other. The only real way I can see around that is intentionally using smaller bearing balls and a thicker washer to compensate. I've always wondered why Taco Bearings doesn't already do that -- they just use the same 1/16" balls everyone else does, and throw a washer on top. What they *could* do is use 1mm bearing balls and a 23-thou washer to perfectly add up to 1/16". Ultimately, I don't personally feel that the bearings riding directly on the Ti is enough of a real-world problem to do anything about it, especially since there isn't a good, simple solution right now. It's more of an academic concern than something that matters in day to day use.
You got a nice one, good bronze tone and the aqua is a great touch. After forty years of collecting, the Roosevelt is the only high-end knife I've ever carried & used on a regular basis. Don't ask why . . . there's something strange about this knife, it will seduce you. Fascinating look at the guts of this knife, BTW, good job. Daniel's a genius and we're lucky to have him.
Haha, I *wish* that one was mine -- it was a loaner from @LeftyEDC -- but I'll pass on the praise. But I was lucky enough to attain my perfect user-build Rosie not too long ago: a stonewashed-everything golf putter one in MagnaCut. It's *exactly* what I wanted it to be, and I indeed carry it regularly because it's just too good not to!
You know, wildly, I never actually tried doing that. I even knew people said you could, and yet somehow I never tried. I think the middle finger flick is just *so* good that I never felt compelled.
In this video I'm using the bit iFixit Aluminum Precision Bit Driver along with the Wiha Stubby bit driver (with Torx bit storage). I'm also using Wiha bits for both (4mm bits for the iFixit and 1/4" for the Stubby). They're all really nicely done, and also pretty affordable. You can find all of them here: www.amazon.com/shop/knifenerdery/list/16AX9BYUVTCRW?ref_=cm_sw_r_apann_aipsflist_aipsfknifenerdery_GEH0DGGBFTQRM35NT5H7&language=en_US In this video I also used the much larger iFixit 1/4" bit driver, because precision bits (the smaller 4mm ones) don't usually come in a T15 size (because it's wider than 4mm and would need to flare out). While the iFixit 1/4" driver is very well made, I don't recommend it for this purpose because of how large it is -- it's a lot easier to slip and mess up than with a smaller driver -- I just didn't own anything better for 1/4" bits at the time. If you watch some of my newer disassembly videos, I've switched to using the Griffen Co/Combat Beads MKII driver for 1/4" bits. This is a high-end and much more expensive driver made by Kieth Griffen in Canada. It's far more of a splurge than many are looking to do on a driver, but in addition to being extremely well made, it has a killer feature: it holds three 1/4" bits in the tube of the driver, meaning you always have the bits you need on hand.
Ooo, I hope you can find the build you want!If you're willing to go for an older LC200N one, a PJ build, or both, you can definitely get them cheaper than 1.5k finally. But they're still markedly above table! I encourage you to also check r/Knife_Swap and the Oz FB group -- both have a lot of postings!
I've added a few more degrees to the entry tab and both of mine work great now! I'd like to see it come this way from the factory so I don't have to risk damaging it myself. Also, the shiny screws seriously detract from most of your finishes. If you can't offer your knives from the factory with ti hardware ($$) then I'd like to see the shiny stainless screws blasted to a matte finish.
Sure! The Rosie uses a 1/4" pivot, which Taco Bearings lumps under the "hinder001" model number, because they first introduced them for Hinderer knives. You can see their compatibility chart here: tacobearings.com/index.php/about/ And those bearings are here: tacobearings.com/index.php/product/triway/ And congrats on scoring one!! Did you snag one in the lotto, or get it on secondary? The second lotto option (GP and stinewashed everything) is basically my perfect build. Hoping I can trade mine (not the one in this video, that's Kev's) for something like that!
😅 Yeah, this one got extra nerdy and thus was extra fun to make. And yeah! I wonder if dual detents will ever catch on enough to enter into a production knife, let alone a budget knife. The Reate-made production SBD knives have Brian's detent ramp-nub, for example, but those are still $400+ knives. Because so few knives are actually attempting the dual detent system, it's not clear yet just how well someone can pull it off at scale.
That is indeed Kev's knife! But nah, I don't live in PA (though I used to!). He, Corey (Stafford's EDC), and Brent (BakPak B) all live near-ish each other, though!
Very recent update: he moved his blade grinding back in house and is switching to Magnacut (at least for some recent builds). The newer blades look even more wonderful.
Hahah, yeah, I mentioned a couple times in overlay text that grinding is back in house and whatnot, but if I'd had more time I would have liked to have put in some actual audio on it, since I know a lot of folks just listen to these longer videos and would miss text like that. Thanks for helping draw attention to these changes!
I'm curious about your comment about this knife not needing toughness. It seems to me that high toughness on a very thin behind the edge blade is good insurance against catastrophic edge failure.
Oh yeah, you're not wrong. My comment is mostly based on assumptions about what a blade profile like that is typically used for: almost exclusively slicing, and not chopping or prying or other tasks for which toughness is crucial. So I'm arguing that this knife is designed for a task for which the more important quality is edge retention. But if you _were_ to do something outside of the norm (intentionally or otherwise), yes, toughness would indeed help reduce meaningful edge failure. Or perhaps put differently, I'm thinking "what's needed for when things go right", and you're thinking "what's needed for when things go wrong".
Watched the entire video while unboxing my first Roosevelt. Great breakdown, thanks!
Oh nice!! What configuration did you snag? Hope you enjoy it!
@@KnifeNerdery PJ all day! 👌✌️
Love the "small details" reviews.
Glad you're enjoying the nerdery!
I really appreciate your edge analysis! Subscribed!
Great to hear! Happy to have ya here!
Just decided to re-watch your review because I finally won a Roosevelt lotto. Excellent, excellent review. It helps build up my anticipation nicely. Once again, great job!
Oh how exciting!! Which config did you win? And when does it arrive? Let me know what you think when you get it
@@KnifeNerdery I was able to get the standard finish with the golf putter scales. It’s set to arrive Friday, that’s if my hourly monitoring of the tracking is accurate 😬. I’ll be sure to let you know what I think once I get it 👍
What a great video! Thank you for putting that much effort into showing what makes these so interesting! I finally get it, though luckily I still don't want one :D
Haha, if only we could all be so lucky. It still haunts my dreams.
The current custom Variants are a carbidized lock interface. I’m thinking about going to using one of the detent balls as my lock interface to make it more consistent and repeatable. Just letting you know. Great stuff by the way!
Drats! Hehe, yeah, Lefty-Kev just told me I was wrong about that. And I also just saw your recent post about trying out the ball lockface approach on v3! Thanks for the clarification. My Variant PE video should be up soon, BTW!
@@KnifeNerdery kick butt and all good sir! I love your content, thanks for making your awesome content!
Quite interesting details.
Very informative. Worth watching the entire video for those wanting a well explained easily understood video of the workings of a knife.
Nice Kevin! Very educational. 😊
Haha, I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's one of the more fun ones I've made so far.
Thanks for the time and effort that went into this review! The explanation of the action/detents was fascinating. Once again, I feel smarter after watching one of your videos. Regarding the design, this ticks a lot of boxes for me. I'd drop the point a little lower below the pivot, but other than that it looks great. It's too bad about the availability. I'd be tempted to buy one if I could get it at retail price.
Really glad you enjoyed it! This was one of the more fun ones to make, in large part because it's just such a well done knife. I keep entering every lotto hoping I can get one of my own sooner than later!
I've been dreading your video on this knife.
The last 2 or so years, I've had absolutely no desire to own this knife, but im not sure that's gonna be the case any longer once this video is over
7:30 - By far, the best description of this concept that I've ever seen. Well done.
I'm glad you brought up my biggest issue with it; steel choice. Such a thin, slicey blade deserves (IMO) something crazy like s125v, if he's set on stainless options which he seems to be.
There's no denying that the way the double detent balls work is ingenious, but how much different is it really than a good detent ramp with a properly tuned lockbar? (Edit: that loses that final push off the ball when opening, though. I see it now)
Can't say I want one any more than I did before the video, but I'm a lot closer to understanding why so many other people do. My major takeaway is that I finally need to buy a Drift...
Great video, as always!
Are you in Central NY? Judging by your username I would assume so - do you know of any good knife shops in the CNY area?
Hahaha, yeah -- the Drift is excellent. It's also interesting just how similar they can be, and yet how different they can feel in hand and in use. But the Drift is definitely still highly recommendable -- one of the best EDC knives to date.
And I'm glad you liked the grind description part! It's definitely a dramatically oversimplified description still, but that's the rub with trying to fit any of these discussions into a much larger video -- you have to leave out a lot of complicating details to fit it in and not get too bogged down. All three of these knives (and many FFG knives) actually have the plane of the grind tilted inward slightly along the Z axis as you move in the negative X and Y axes. This is a pretty common technique to help maintain BTE thickness along the length of the grind for knives with a belly and rising tip -- they essentially subtly tilt the plane toward the curve of the grind. But _for a given grind plane_ , these concepts of "the further down the grind you plunge, the thinner the stock will be" all apply.
And yeah, absolutely -- while I have no qualms with LC200N (or MagnaCut) as EDC steels, this is definitely an ultra-slicing-focused knife. Gimme that ultra-slicing-focused steel!
The comparison to a well-designed ramp and well-tuned lockbar is a valid one. I think a key difference is just that the placement of the balls means that the engagement with this pseudo-ramp happens a lot earlier than would happen on a typical arrangement -- you have none of the drag along the remaining portion of the lock bar. The built-in-ramp detent "nub" approach employed by Brian Nadeau and the Holts is actually a very comparable experience (especially on the Holts, where the ramp is a bit shorter), as the ramp abuts the edge of the lockbar, and falling off the sloped portion of the nub means you're immediately off the lock bar altogether. In my view, that's an even better approach from some of these perspectives (you still have to place the nub close enough to the pivot that it doesn't run off the edge of the tang), but it's certainly far more complicated! While the careful placement of these detent balls is certainly something that requires attention to detail, it's far less complicated than precision milling a ramp-sided butte into a lockbar insert!
@@shanelyle8051
Sorry for the late reply, yeah I'm in Central New York. There's only a couple that I know of.
Fradon Lock, in Syracuse, is awesome but I imagine you know about them. If not, It's a great store run by great people.
Rock USA, in Camillus, is a nice little shop, but is almost exclusively traditionals. The owner is basically a living encyclopedia on the history of knives.
@@KnifeNerdery
I actually thought about the different ways detents/ramps can be done for quite a while after I made that comment, which of course made me go through all my knives and obsessively focus on that aspect.
The way it's done on Holt's was what kept coming back into my mind as probably the most comparable because of the quick drop off the ramp/lockbar.
Pretty unrelated to the conversation around this particular style, but have you handled a Wind River, from Schenk Knives? It's a flipper that uses a big ceramic ball as the detent/lockbar interface (CRK style). It's a really unique action.
@@CNYKnifeNerd I've never even heard of that knife before. But how cool of them to show a full internal pic on their website of that lock interface!
cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-idhs62ejq4/images/stencil/1024x1024/products/147/693/wind_river14__49287.1568411125.jpg?c=2
That's definitely a hefty detent ball! Very cool learning about another maker trying this detent-ball-as-lock-interface approach. It's also neat seeing them putting a second strip of jimping up at the end for utility cuts. These folks are obviously thinking hard about what they're doing.
Another interesting similar lock interface design is Snecx's Hybrid Pin Detent System (HPDS), where the detent and lock interface are both from a pin inserted through the lock bar rather than a spherical ball.
I like this design where the blade choil is moved back into the handle more so than other knives with blade choils - this shortens the overall length of the knife when compared to Spydercos and also lessens the material being cut, like cardboard, getting stuck in the choil. Why don't more knife designers do this? Does it cause problems with other design aspects of the knife like where to put the circular detent path? Also, once you win the lotto, can you get custom options like the spanner pivot screw or anodized screws?
Awesome video and very informative. Would love to see a Koenig Arius review from you. Definitely earned my sub and I look forward to watching more reviews!
Coincidentally, I just bought one off a friend this weekend! Should be getting it soon! (No clue how long til a review though 😝)
Great video! Love the details on this and it's definitely a pinnacle achievement in the slicey slicey fidgety folder sub group. I did want to just point out, I know it's hard to believe right now because that's what's hot and all the younger folks know, but slicey fidget knives is just the current fad and not objectively different than fad of the tanky prybar knives that was super popular 10-15 years ago.
Yeah, I think these kinds of things are really interesting to think about -- pulling yourself back a layer and trying to look at both where and why the community and industry are focused right now, and how that has and will continue to change over time.
I agree wholeheartedly that both slicey and fidgety are en vogue right now, but I feel like they are popular for pretty different reasons and, thus, are traveling on their own separate arcs with differing levels of staying power.
There's been an understanding and appreciation of haptic feedback in mechanical objects for many centuries, but the recent rise of "fidget toys" seems to me to be a reflection of a rising sense of anxiety in the world. I suspect the true rise (and fall) of fidget spinners in 2016-2017 was driven by the same kinds of FOMO, hype-cycle forces as all toy fads -- Cabbage Patch dolls, Rubik's Cubes, Bop-It, Beanie Babies, Pogs, etc all follow relatively similar arcs -- but if you look at what the articles and headlines were saying as they were gaining mass market recognition, nearly all of them mention a connection to soothing anxiety, restlessness, ADHD symptoms, and general stress relief. So while the swell of the bubble may have been normal fad shopping dynamics, the initial growth and spread was rooted in an increasing number of people looking for an outlet for feelings of anxiety. And as a result, while the main fad era of fidget spinners may be behind us, there's still been a steady growth of haptic (often clicky) toys in the EDC space, especially in the higher end market.
Just like fidget toys in general, I suspect there's a large number of people prioritizing haptic toy qualities in knives purely because it's fun, and many more still purely because that's what they're currently being told makes a knife "good". But I also have heard countless people indeed express that their desire for those qualities comes from a general background sense of restlessness and anxiety. I suspect those first two camps will move on from "fidgety knives" once they find a new source of dopamine, or once the mainstream influencers themselves start pushing different qualities. But the pessimist in me does not think that global anxiety will be waning anytime too soon, so I suspect there will be a smaller but vocal portion of the community still looking for fidget-toy knives for a while.
The emphasis on thinner, slicier blades -- and on thinner, lighter-weight knives in general -- feels less like a fad to me, and more like an evolution of who is buying knives and why. I suspect that the extremes of the market -- that new absurdly thin Benchmade Narrows, for example -- are indeed a fad-cycle overreaction, but the move towards thinner, slicier knives is also a response to an increasing awareness of cutting geometry fundamentals and an improvement in day-to-day functionality for knives that are now being marketed to a much wider audience of everyday people as practical tools.
For decades, the industry marketed knives almost exclusively using machismo imagery: big, "manly" knives built to look intimidating, with allusions to the military and so-called "tactical" and survival scenarios normal people aren't experiencing. An overwhelming majority of these people were still practical users of their knives, but the culture and imagery surrounding knives was largely one of bravado, and bulky, tanky knives supported that storyline. While that imagery and knife style will continue to appeal to a subset of the population, that subset itself is not meaningfully growing. To grow their businesses, knife manufacturers had to appeal to a different and wider audience. The growth of the modern EDC era popularized and helped normalize the notion of a pocket knife as a practical, everyday tool for doing normal, mundane, everyday tasks -- a far cry from the survivalist cosplay of the past. But for a knife to actually meet that utility expectation, it has to have different characteristics: it has to actually cut well.
This newer audience came into knives *because of* their practical, functional usages. I'm sure they will sway from one aesthetic trend to the next, (e.g., the rise of "modern traditionals"), but that "it has to actually cut well" characteristic is less likely to fade, because it's at the core of why they have the knife in the first place.
These are of course just my 2-cent musings, and they are obviously biased from spending decades *avoiding* the knife industry specifically *because of* that perceived machismo culture. I'm sure many would disagree with my (admittedly quite) oversimplified telling of things. 😅
May I ask which bearings u recommend? Since u said something about Rockwell and a track on the titanium?
Would appreciate it!
Best wishes
Jonas
I think on the Rosie my recommendation is to just leave the bearings alone, as they're already very high-quality bearings. If you have one of the first ~900 or so, they have TiConnector delrin-caged bearings, which work great. If you have one of the later ones, they have in-house, acetal-caged bearings. Both of those are well-made bearings with ceramic balls. (The exception here is if you have one of the *very, very* early ones from when he first started -- those, I believe, had steel-caged steel bearings. The odds are very low of finding one of these early ones on the market.)
But yes, on the Rosie the bearings ride directly on the Ti. And yes, it would be arguably better if they ran on a hardened steel raceway washer instead. And yes, you can buy hardened steel raceway washers from places like Alpha Knife Supply, or you can buy bearings that already come with them as a set from Taco Bearings. The problem is, the knife as-is isn't designed to have those extra washers in them -- the pockets are milled very precisely to fit 1/16" bearing balls and nothing else. The washers are very thin -- about 5-10-thou -- but throw two of those in and now you have ~10-20 thou of stacked skew at the front end of the knife. Might not sound like much, but it's enough that you can definitely tell it's messing up the parallelism of the handles, which can noticeably impact the action of the knife, because it causes asymmetric pressure on the bearings -- they're slightly too loose on one side and slightly too tight on the other.
The only real way I can see around that is intentionally using smaller bearing balls and a thicker washer to compensate. I've always wondered why Taco Bearings doesn't already do that -- they just use the same 1/16" balls everyone else does, and throw a washer on top. What they *could* do is use 1mm bearing balls and a 23-thou washer to perfectly add up to 1/16".
Ultimately, I don't personally feel that the bearings riding directly on the Ti is enough of a real-world problem to do anything about it, especially since there isn't a good, simple solution right now. It's more of an academic concern than something that matters in day to day use.
You got a nice one, good bronze tone and the aqua is a great touch. After forty years of collecting, the Roosevelt is the only high-end knife I've ever carried & used on a regular basis. Don't ask why . . . there's something strange about this knife, it will seduce you.
Fascinating look at the guts of this knife, BTW, good job. Daniel's a genius and we're lucky to have him.
Haha, I *wish* that one was mine -- it was a loaner from @LeftyEDC -- but I'll pass on the praise. But I was lucky enough to attain my perfect user-build Rosie not too long ago: a stonewashed-everything golf putter one in MagnaCut. It's *exactly* what I wanted it to be, and I indeed carry it regularly because it's just too good not to!
The gimping might not work well with the knife open, but it works well if you want to front flip it!
You know, wildly, I never actually tried doing that. I even knew people said you could, and yet somehow I never tried. I think the middle finger flick is just *so* good that I never felt compelled.
Best review ever. Well thought out and performed.
Hahah I appreciate the kind words!!
What make are your torx drivers? They seem to be of good quality.
In this video I'm using the bit iFixit Aluminum Precision Bit Driver along with the Wiha Stubby bit driver (with Torx bit storage). I'm also using Wiha bits for both (4mm bits for the iFixit and 1/4" for the Stubby). They're all really nicely done, and also pretty affordable. You can find all of them here:
www.amazon.com/shop/knifenerdery/list/16AX9BYUVTCRW?ref_=cm_sw_r_apann_aipsflist_aipsfknifenerdery_GEH0DGGBFTQRM35NT5H7&language=en_US
In this video I also used the much larger iFixit 1/4" bit driver, because precision bits (the smaller 4mm ones) don't usually come in a T15 size (because it's wider than 4mm and would need to flare out). While the iFixit 1/4" driver is very well made, I don't recommend it for this purpose because of how large it is -- it's a lot easier to slip and mess up than with a smaller driver -- I just didn't own anything better for 1/4" bits at the time.
If you watch some of my newer disassembly videos, I've switched to using the Griffen Co/Combat Beads MKII driver for 1/4" bits. This is a high-end and much more expensive driver made by Kieth Griffen in Canada. It's far more of a splurge than many are looking to do on a driver, but in addition to being extremely well made, it has a killer feature: it holds three 1/4" bits in the tube of the driver, meaning you always have the bits you need on hand.
Outstanding nerd-level review. Thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you.
Hahaha glad you enjoyed it!
I want to buy one, thinking about ebay, but not at $1500.
Ooo, I hope you can find the build you want!If you're willing to go for an older LC200N one, a PJ build, or both, you can definitely get them cheaper than 1.5k finally. But they're still markedly above table! I encourage you to also check r/Knife_Swap and the Oz FB group -- both have a lot of postings!
I just picked one up and it’s so much better than I would have thought
Jeeaaaaalllous. What build did you end up with?
@@KnifeNerdery Golf putter milling with that kind of dark washed finish and stonewashed blade. It’s number 192. I put a video up of it
I've added a few more degrees to the entry tab and both of mine work great now! I'd like to see it come this way from the factory so I don't have to risk damaging it myself. Also, the shiny screws seriously detract from most of your finishes. If you can't offer your knives from the factory with ti hardware ($$) then I'd like to see the shiny stainless screws blasted to a matte finish.
I don't quite follow -- perhaps this comment was meant for a different video?
$700+ cardboard slicer nice.
Accurate!
I think that rounded area on the blade near the pivot is there to direct debris away from the pivot and the lock area
Excellent video! I'm waiting for mine to come in later this week. Do you happen to know the exact model for these taco bearings?
Sure! The Rosie uses a 1/4" pivot, which Taco Bearings lumps under the "hinder001" model number, because they first introduced them for Hinderer knives.
You can see their compatibility chart here: tacobearings.com/index.php/about/
And those bearings are here: tacobearings.com/index.php/product/triway/
And congrats on scoring one!! Did you snag one in the lotto, or get it on secondary? The second lotto option (GP and stinewashed everything) is basically my perfect build. Hoping I can trade mine (not the one in this video, that's Kev's) for something like that!
This is the nerdiest level of nerdery.
The comparison to Qvist is interesting... too bad the PE Qvist doesnt have the same architecture.
😅 Yeah, this one got extra nerdy and thus was extra fun to make. And yeah! I wonder if dual detents will ever catch on enough to enter into a production knife, let alone a budget knife. The Reate-made production SBD knives have Brian's detent ramp-nub, for example, but those are still $400+ knives. Because so few knives are actually attempting the dual detent system, it's not clear yet just how well someone can pull it off at scale.
Is that Kevin's knife ....are you the one that meets up with Lefty edc in his town?
I don't know why I think that I could be totally wrong
That is indeed Kev's knife! But nah, I don't live in PA (though I used to!). He, Corey (Stafford's EDC), and Brent (BakPak B) all live near-ish each other, though!
Thank you for the deep dive.
Very recent update: he moved his blade grinding back in house and is switching to Magnacut (at least for some recent builds). The newer blades look even more wonderful.
1:19:50
Hahah, yeah, I mentioned a couple times in overlay text that grinding is back in house and whatnot, but if I'd had more time I would have liked to have put in some actual audio on it, since I know a lot of folks just listen to these longer videos and would miss text like that. Thanks for helping draw attention to these changes!
An excellent deep dive into a pretty stellar knife. I can see why all the hype is there. Great review 👍
Glad you liked it! And yeah, it's quite the special knife -- one of the rare ones that's actually worthy of the hype.
I'm curious about your comment about this knife not needing toughness. It seems to me that high toughness on a very thin behind the edge blade is good insurance against catastrophic edge failure.
Oh yeah, you're not wrong. My comment is mostly based on assumptions about what a blade profile like that is typically used for: almost exclusively slicing, and not chopping or prying or other tasks for which toughness is crucial. So I'm arguing that this knife is designed for a task for which the more important quality is edge retention. But if you _were_ to do something outside of the norm (intentionally or otherwise), yes, toughness would indeed help reduce meaningful edge failure. Or perhaps put differently, I'm thinking "what's needed for when things go right", and you're thinking "what's needed for when things go wrong".
@@KnifeNerdery well worded: could go right vs. could go wrong.