It’s been a while since I’ve actually made a post here. @[email protected] has the lock on entertaining content here, so I figure I should come in with boring and bland (both the knife and the post!) ;)

Earlier this year, in addition to my normal (aka way too many) knife buying, I went down the rabbit hole a bit on inexpensive knives on Amazon.

Now, you can’t throw a dust mote and not hit a dozen cheap knives sporting blades made of pot metal (or worse) on that hellscape of a site.

But I was after bigger game: a usable, decent knife for about $10.

That lead me, first to the Duratech liner-lock which I discussed here: https://lemmy.world/post/12442733

That knife is still in use and has done reasonably well, despite the terrible detent. (I never did take it apart). I have not been kind to it, including batoning wood to make some kindling.

Shortly thereafter, Duratech came out with their own cross-bar locking knife (aka Axis lock) which ended up being just under $12.

The quality was greatly improved for sure, but it’s also a bunch heavier than the liner-lock which itself was already too heavy for my normal EDC.

One of the knives I also purchased around this time was the Watchman W001 (or as the box says: Watchman W001 Pocket Knife Folding Knives Traditional folder Wood Handle Material Collection). Strangely, you might also see it as the Watchman WM001.

Watchman as a brand offers a number of knives on Amazon. I have no idea the quality of any of them but they are sufficiently inexpensive.

The W001 is, according to Amazon, a non-locking knife despite the fact that all the photos show a rear-mounted lockback. Rest assured that this is indeed a locking knife.

For $10 you wouldn’t expect much in terms of steel, but honestly 7CR17MOV, which is the same as 440A, is way better than a lot of other knives for even more money. (Assuming Watchman have a decent heat treatment on it).

Fit and finish is predictably not great but certainly not terrible. Some gaps between scales and liners and one of the pins is just slightly proud of the scales. But the lockback provides plenty of snap. There’s side-to-side blade wiggle but nothing worrisome. The wooden scales are nice and smooth and appear sealed but I wouldn’t want to test it.

The grind (of which I do not have a good closeup) tapers in thickness from back to front on the blade and for sure more aggressive on one side than the other. Sharpness out of the box was ok but nothing to be excited about. I stropped it but haven’t sharpened it yet.

Curiously, there’s another knife out there that looks strikingly similar. The Rough Rider RR1708. Someone posted a video on it a couple years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKv36gDGx4I The Rough Rider is marketed as having 440A steel. (The video says it’s 420A but that’s incorrect).

This knife has sat on the desk since it arrived. My youngest kid gut-punched me the other day when he looked at all the knives and said “you sure have a lot of knives you never use”

Brutal takedown.

So the W001 is being put to use. I’m going to 5th-pocket carry it and it will be my only knife for the next two weeks or so. We’ll see how the 7CR steel holds up and if I can stand not having a pocket clip.

I’m sure, at the very least, it’ll be great at opening more packages containing new knives.