Seki City models disappointing

[amateur blacksmith]

I view the Seki knives as the work horses of the Spyderco range.

Nothing whatsoever wrong with them but I can't bring myself to make a beater out of a Golden or Taichung made knife.

[Spydeefo]

Just bought 2 Hap 40 knives, a delica and endela. Delica is great but Endela has a wide/normal beveled edge on one side and the other side has a medium wide bevel at the back and very slim bevel at the front. This makes the blade very assymetric. The tip is really odd looking cuz one side's bevel is so thin. So 50% success rate with my first two ajapanese spydercos. Knife center is honoring the return thankfully.

[Wartstein]

The vast majority of my Spydies are and have always been FRN Seki models.

Honestly all perfectly fine, as far as I can recall. Certainly none had/has any "safety issues", on the contrary they stand up to use and abuse (I really don´t baby my Spydies) very well.

I don´t know though if the lockbars on each sat/sits perfectly flush, just cause I don´t care for such details (to be clear: It is fine of course if one does care, just not me).

There seems to be a tendency of loose or too easily coming loose screws on Seki models lately - just from what I read here, and I personally lost the pivot screw on my Endela SE pretty soon after I got it, as well as two clip screws on other Seki models.

[Wartstein]

I view the Seki knives as the work horses of the Spyderco range.

Nothing whatsoever wrong with them but I can't bring myself to make a beater out of a Golden or Taichung made knife.

Try with a Manix 2 LW (Golden) and Chap FRN (Taichung), if you like!

Great beater knives in my experience, and especially the "basic" BD1N Manix 2 LW certainly not substantially more "fancy and expensive" than a Seki knife!

[amateur blacksmith]

I could probably make a beater out of a Manix 2 but I just find the lock fiddly and difficult (for me) to use. For a beater the back lock suits me best.

I only have one model in the Chap. It's the sun and moon. For me it's a take it to a wedding knife not a beater. A thing of beauty.

As time goes by maybe a Native Chief will progress to a beater but I can't bring myself to do it yet.

[jwbnyc]

The vast majority of my Spydies are and have always been FRN Seki models.

Honestly all perfectly fine, as far as I can recall. Certainly none had/has any "safety issues", on the contrary they stand up to use and abuse (I really don´t baby my Spydies) very well.

I don´t know though if the lockbars on each sat/sits perfectly flush, just cause I don´t care for such details (to be clear: It is fine of course if one does care, just not me).

There seems to be a tendency of loose or too easily coming loose screws on Seki models lately - just from what I read here, and I personally lost the pivot screw on my Endela SE pretty soon after I got it, as well as two clip screws on other Seki models.

Agree.

Across the board.

Screws bring the ability to adjust, and disassemble, knives - but also the chance they will disassemble spontaneously.

Loctite is your friend, but not a guarantee.

Seki City quality has been on par with Golden quality, maybe a little better, in fact, in my experience.

Taichung has been exceptional, but no better than one particular Manix 2 LW in my possession.

But that’s just quibbling.

Spyderco quality has been excellent in my (over Thirty years) experience with the the breed.

I would also say that the quality has improved, if anything, in that time.

There are a few, a very few, companies that I would venture to say that about.

Choose your knife purveyors with care is the one thing I would add.

[Gsg9]

I have a 2019 P4 VG10 from old friends in Japan, mine has blade off centered and the back lock not really flush with the blade, but so far it's working OK, maybe at these price points the fit and finish should be better but otherwise I have no complaints. Maybe 2019 was a good year

What's puzzling me is the pricing that these lightweights are now going up to
https://www.knivesandtools.ie/en/pt/-sp ... -knife.htm

This one has reached 225EUR and it's close to the point where the original G10 P4 K390 was before being discontinued due to the high price-low demand I presume.

So if the lightweights are reaching the same level when G10 models were discontinued for being too expensive then what's next, the ultra-lightweights with no scales? Buy the blade separate and assemble it yourself?

[capt.carl]

My recent k390 delica wharncliffe has an awfully uneven edge grind, all over the place. The tip is like a chisel grind. But I’m planning on reprofiling it anyway to get to fresh steel. Everything else on it is good but that primary bevel is really bad. I really like the steel so far and seki does great frn and lockbacks in my experience. Not to the level of taichung though, my chaparral is seriously impressive

Hard to see in the pics…

[Michael Janich]

Dear Spydeefo:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

[GarageBoy]

Did seki get worse, of has everyone gotten better since?

[TomAiello]

If I'm going to actually use a knife, I really don't care if the grind is uneven. I just use it anyway.

For a collector, I can see how you'd want perfect grinds. It's just way down on my list of qualities for a user knife. In fact, it's not really on that list at all.

[electro-static]

I own a few recent seki models, I feel
like half of then have had perfect fit and finish, half of them have had off center grinds for the apex. All of them have lock-rock.

I have a similar experience at my favorite restaurant, half the time the food is pretty good, the other half the time the food is amazing and blissful. I figured it must be down to the chef that is on duty. I wonder if the seki factory has an experienced guy and a new guy working on those edges.

Seki however does do the K390 HT better than golden, and I generally like FRN handled knives better so I stick with them. I can fix the grind with my KME.

[Spydeefo]

Dear Spydeefo:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

Thx Mike, seems like a friendly place here. Cheers!

[Ramonade]

If the primary grind is good, I don't really care about the secondary grind (the edge, on these FFG knives)

[The Mastiff]

Seki models since 1992. I have had a lot more than a hundred go through my hands and I have probably 70 seki models currently. I am fine with current production and see no difference in QC. I have had a couple that the backlock was off by a tiny amount but it never affected the use or longevity or safety of my knives. I'm happy.

As far as costs I see only the same thing I see everywhere. I just got done putting groceries away. Now those have gone up! Knives not so much. In fact every week I have to seek out alternates because products are just not in stock . There are times they were completely out of whole sections in the meat dept..

Yeah, Knives are really not on my list of things to worry about.

[wrdwrght]

I know that QC issues vexed Seki products some years back, but you wouldn’t know it from by my recent Endura4, Delica4, Endela, and Stretch2.

I’m not so pleased with the Stretch2 XL, but more because of design choices than because of manufacturing issues.

[JRinFL]

Sal has been quite open about the struggles of some of the makers in Japan. Go back and read some of the threads. Suffice it to say, the Glessers have long standing relationships with the families of the Japanese makers and they have stuck together through thick and thin. Spyderco worked with the makers to improve quality instead of just abandoning them.

That said, Japan is a very expensive place to produce handmade items like pocket knives, so unless you are will willing to pay double or triple the current prices, you will have to accept some imperfections on affordable Japanese knives. I'll avoid rehashing several recent threads, but what some call defects are really just artifacts of being ground by a living human being.

[Coastal]

My only disappointing Seki knife, or any Spyderco for that matter, is my most recent: a Stretch 2 XL.

The handle feels harsh in-hand because every FRN and lockbar edge is sharp and the scales don't meet properly, such that the right-hand scale is well proud of the left. The lockbar itself is proud of the blade, as shown in Ramonade's Manbug pic above, and the blade is asymmetrically positioned on the lockbar. Every screw was loose when the knife arrived, and it is impossible to snug all the screws and keep the blade even close to centered. The lockbar has to be depressed so deeply to unlock the blade that the Boye dent is almost bottomed out. The lock spring is far too strong, as well, those two factors making it difficult to unlock the knife. On top of that, the blade either sticks when unlocked, or swings totally free; I haven't been able to adjust the pivot screw satisfactorily.

All that said, the ergos of the Strech 2 XL work so perfectly for me that I'm finding the knife more comfortable than not, and it could end up being my favorite Spyderco design, out of a bunch of great ones. I have to say, though, that I won't buy the SE version unless I read a string of positive reviews in this forum. It'll take a Salt to make another Stretch 2 XL an automatic buy.

I'm sure some of these problems will be solved by disassembling, cleaning, and lubing the knife. While I have it apart I'll chamfer the scales and stone the edges of the lockbar, and it'll feel fine when reassembled. I'll end up putting maybe $30 labor into a relatively inexpensive $112 knife to make it nearly perfect, and after all it's a hobby, right?...

[Jared]

I’ve got more from Seki than any other Spyderco facility. I’ve noticed a tiny thing here or there, but nothing that ever made me consider returning the knife. When you factor in the price differences between the Golden and Seki models, I’d say the Seki knives become a great value.

[mikey177]

I've bought six models from Seki City over the past year. Of these, the MGE teal Delica and the Knifejoy wharnie Delica have backlocks that protrude maybe half a millimeter above the FRN. I've used the knives and have verified that this variance doesn't affect their function.

My five year old Delica did not look like this, so the difference is apparent. I am hopeful that the company will look into these slight deviations in production consistency to keep quality within the acceptable range.

Photo of my Delicas below for reference.