BEWARE Native BRK not made by Spyderco
BEWARE Native BRK not made by Spyderco
I asked about this on blade forums.Heres the reply I got.
1598
Ahhh! Since you asked, I guess I'll answer!
I ordered six of them from Discount Knives and got them about a week ago. Two SE and four PE. I had heard of these from the Spyderco forum on their website.
This is the FRN handle with reversible silver clip. The blade is 440A and is marked as such on the left side. There is also an etch (or lazer writing) on the blade:
1st GENERATION
BRK
which someone on the Spyderco site said stood for "Blue Ridge Knives."
On the reverse side it says:
Golden, Colorado
U.S.A.
The good news is they only cost just over $22.00, and they are quite serviceable pocketknives. All locked solidly, worked fairly smoothly, were sharp out of the box, and had from very very little to only slight verticle and side play. None of them failed hard spine whacks into my palm. Well worth the $$, IMO.
Now for the not so good news:
The fit and finish are not what I was expecting from a Spydie. Apparently, these were assembled by Camillus in New York! They came bagged only (no boxes) and had an instruction sheet which said if there were any problems, send them back to Camillus...
I'm guessing Camillus took the handles, springs, and blades and did the final finish on the blades and assembled them. On the insides of the locking/pivoting areas, you can tell there are wavy inconsistencies on the metal surfaces, unlike my GIN-1 and 440V Natives. The thumb grooves near the top tang go from pretty well done to very shallow and inconsistant. There are nine of them, instead of my GIN-1's six. Some knives had the FRN ground down to match the lockbar height. All the springs looked good quality (exactly the same as on my GIN-1) without any of those aforementioned "inconsistancies." The metal parts around the locking area/tang look thinner than my other Natives, but I think that's just because they are well rounded off instead of squared off.
The blade serrations were done deeper than my GIN-1, took up the same blade length, but had an (extra) large serration at the tang end. (My GIN-1 begins with the two small serrations at the tang end.)
The clips have the patent number on them, whereas none of my FRN or Blue Natives do.
My guess is from appearances of the metal (waviness), the holes were stamped out rather than machined.
The grind of the swedge is slightly different.
Finally, the pivot area has a smaller diameter, with a correspondingly deeper lockbar at the tang end. The joint between tang and lockbar is not even and has a larger gap than any of my Spydies (or for that matter, my old Buck Scoutlite which happens to be sitting here).
If you want a cheap Native for a beater, or for giving out to folks, these are not bad. They work well and have most of the nice handling characteristics of the "standard Spyderco" Natives. Only one was a bit stiff of blade swing, and that's the one I'm keeping (SE).
If you collect Natives, or Spydercos, IMO you should get one of these to show the "bottom end" of the line.
Maybe Sal or Carlos or someone else can tell a more complete story on these versions of the Native, or correct any of my "guesses."
I was gonna post all this earlier, but I got busy fixing cars...
Karl
BTW, I got six thinking I'd keep one SE and one PE. Turns out I sold five of them to co-workers within the week! I was going to charge $26, but when I inspected them, I lowered it to $23. Paid my postage, anyway
So not made by Spyderco and not made in Golden.Humm.
JEFF .............Sooooo I see the internet is on the computer now.-Homer Simpson
Edited by - J Smith on 7/27/2002 12:28:07 PM
1598
Ahhh! Since you asked, I guess I'll answer!
I ordered six of them from Discount Knives and got them about a week ago. Two SE and four PE. I had heard of these from the Spyderco forum on their website.
This is the FRN handle with reversible silver clip. The blade is 440A and is marked as such on the left side. There is also an etch (or lazer writing) on the blade:
1st GENERATION
BRK
which someone on the Spyderco site said stood for "Blue Ridge Knives."
On the reverse side it says:
Golden, Colorado
U.S.A.
The good news is they only cost just over $22.00, and they are quite serviceable pocketknives. All locked solidly, worked fairly smoothly, were sharp out of the box, and had from very very little to only slight verticle and side play. None of them failed hard spine whacks into my palm. Well worth the $$, IMO.
Now for the not so good news:
The fit and finish are not what I was expecting from a Spydie. Apparently, these were assembled by Camillus in New York! They came bagged only (no boxes) and had an instruction sheet which said if there were any problems, send them back to Camillus...
I'm guessing Camillus took the handles, springs, and blades and did the final finish on the blades and assembled them. On the insides of the locking/pivoting areas, you can tell there are wavy inconsistencies on the metal surfaces, unlike my GIN-1 and 440V Natives. The thumb grooves near the top tang go from pretty well done to very shallow and inconsistant. There are nine of them, instead of my GIN-1's six. Some knives had the FRN ground down to match the lockbar height. All the springs looked good quality (exactly the same as on my GIN-1) without any of those aforementioned "inconsistancies." The metal parts around the locking area/tang look thinner than my other Natives, but I think that's just because they are well rounded off instead of squared off.
The blade serrations were done deeper than my GIN-1, took up the same blade length, but had an (extra) large serration at the tang end. (My GIN-1 begins with the two small serrations at the tang end.)
The clips have the patent number on them, whereas none of my FRN or Blue Natives do.
My guess is from appearances of the metal (waviness), the holes were stamped out rather than machined.
The grind of the swedge is slightly different.
Finally, the pivot area has a smaller diameter, with a correspondingly deeper lockbar at the tang end. The joint between tang and lockbar is not even and has a larger gap than any of my Spydies (or for that matter, my old Buck Scoutlite which happens to be sitting here).
If you want a cheap Native for a beater, or for giving out to folks, these are not bad. They work well and have most of the nice handling characteristics of the "standard Spyderco" Natives. Only one was a bit stiff of blade swing, and that's the one I'm keeping (SE).
If you collect Natives, or Spydercos, IMO you should get one of these to show the "bottom end" of the line.
Maybe Sal or Carlos or someone else can tell a more complete story on these versions of the Native, or correct any of my "guesses."
I was gonna post all this earlier, but I got busy fixing cars...
Karl
BTW, I got six thinking I'd keep one SE and one PE. Turns out I sold five of them to co-workers within the week! I was going to charge $26, but when I inspected them, I lowered it to $23. Paid my postage, anyway
So not made by Spyderco and not made in Golden.Humm.
JEFF .............Sooooo I see the internet is on the computer now.-Homer Simpson
Edited by - J Smith on 7/27/2002 12:28:07 PM
I too, noticed the considerably lower quality in the BRK's than I would expect from Spyderco. I was confused when I got them (i got three) and asked for some native history in an earlier thread. I'm not too happy with them, and it turns out that the two ppl I was going to pass them off to, didn't want them anymore. I guess that's what I get for being greedy and trying to get Spyderco quality for 22 bucks..
- Clay Kesting
- Member
- Posts: 1241
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:33 am
- Location: Sydney Australia
There was a considerable delay in introducing the Native due to manufacturing problems. I wonder if these were the initial run which Spyderco wasn't happy with. If so I'm rather surprised that the company would let them reach the market now, particularly since the quality doesn't seem to be up to par. Even if they're not marked with a <img src="spyder.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0> they are being promoted as such by dealers.
Clay
Life's too short to waste on instant coffee.
Edited by - Clay Kesting on 7/27/2002 3:20:37 PM
Clay
Life's too short to waste on instant coffee.
Edited by - Clay Kesting on 7/27/2002 3:20:37 PM
-
- Member
- Posts: 1760
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:33 am
- Location: USA
Heres the reply I got from the Camillus forum.
Dexter Ewing
Moderator & Gold Member
Registered: Oct 1998
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Posts: 4145
I highly doubt we will hear any confirmations/denails of this because it is considered confidential information
If it is confidential then why do this?
They came bagged only (no boxes) and had an instruction sheet which said if there were any problems, send them back to Camillus...
JEFF .............Sooooo I see the internet is on the computer now.-Homer Simpson
Edited by - J Smith on 7/28/2002 9:37:25 AM
Dexter Ewing
Moderator & Gold Member
Registered: Oct 1998
Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Posts: 4145
I highly doubt we will hear any confirmations/denails of this because it is considered confidential information
If it is confidential then why do this?
They came bagged only (no boxes) and had an instruction sheet which said if there were any problems, send them back to Camillus...
JEFF .............Sooooo I see the internet is on the computer now.-Homer Simpson
Edited by - J Smith on 7/28/2002 9:37:25 AM
- Big-Target
- Member
- Posts: 880
- Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:33 am
- Location: Peoples Socialist Republic of New Jersey USA
- Contact:
Have any of us heard from <img src="spyder.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0> themselves on this issue? Is it possible that somebody is passing this off as <img src="spyder.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0> when they really have nothing to do with it at all. Because this sounds to me like the Oakley sunglasses you find at flea markets for $20. They look like the real thing but the feel and quality isn't there.