Kizer Begleiter: Review & Teardown
Published: 3 years ago
I know this thing is anything but new at this point. Picked this thing up recently from White Mountain Knives. It was an open box due to some micro-scratches in the blade. Brown G10 isn't my first choice, but I got this thing for a great price.
This one is also made with VG10 steel, which I believe is outdated to the models they're currently releasing that use N690 instead (easier to import and usually bests VG10 in edge retention anyway). I still like VG10 though. I'm used to it from a lot of Spyderco's, easy enough to maintain/sharpen, and I don't agree with some other reviewers out there that say it's "just slightly better than H1" or "it's butter-soft".
The handle is fairly neutral and fairly comfortable. While not as bad as some, it contains "shadowboxed" scales... in that the liners are proud of the scales for the whole circumference of the knife. I'm not a fan of doing this as it reduces the surface area of the contact patches that receive the most force (top and bottom). It's an aesthetic choice that hurts ergonomics in almost all cases.
Thumbstud deploys the blade nice and reliably. No qualms with that. It's also placed behind the cutting edge, so it won't get caught up in your cutting media as easily as some can.
This is riding on bronze washers with some nylon film interfaces... however it's interesting that the nylon is interfacing with the liners rather than the blade, like Cold Steel tends to do. With that being said, the blade isn't going to be drop-shutty, and those nylon interfaces will continue to provide friction to prevent it from braking in to do so. Ain't nothin' wrong with that, it's how us older folks have built knives for the past 30 or 40 years. The action is still nice though.
Blade geometry is effective. it's not the absolute thinnest thing behind the shoulder, but it's a full flat grind without a crazy blade stock thickness to start with, so it works quite well.
This thing is HEAVY. If that's not your jam, I'd say look elsewhere. With that out of the way...
I'm loving the handle comfort and design. The wharncliffe is executed quite well. Thumbstuds are nice to use, but can be removed if you prefer spidey-flicking.
Nice stone wash on the blade as well which is great since it's 14C28N.
Specs:
3.6" VG10 blade with 3.2 mm stock thickness
3.79 oz / 107.5 gram weight
0.49" handle thickness (G10)
Liner Lock
Bronze/Nylon wahsers & Ceramic detent ball
This one is also made with VG10 steel, which I believe is outdated to the models they're currently releasing that use N690 instead (easier to import and usually bests VG10 in edge retention anyway). I still like VG10 though. I'm used to it from a lot of Spyderco's, easy enough to maintain/sharpen, and I don't agree with some other reviewers out there that say it's "just slightly better than H1" or "it's butter-soft".
The handle is fairly neutral and fairly comfortable. While not as bad as some, it contains "shadowboxed" scales... in that the liners are proud of the scales for the whole circumference of the knife. I'm not a fan of doing this as it reduces the surface area of the contact patches that receive the most force (top and bottom). It's an aesthetic choice that hurts ergonomics in almost all cases.
Thumbstud deploys the blade nice and reliably. No qualms with that. It's also placed behind the cutting edge, so it won't get caught up in your cutting media as easily as some can.
This is riding on bronze washers with some nylon film interfaces... however it's interesting that the nylon is interfacing with the liners rather than the blade, like Cold Steel tends to do. With that being said, the blade isn't going to be drop-shutty, and those nylon interfaces will continue to provide friction to prevent it from braking in to do so. Ain't nothin' wrong with that, it's how us older folks have built knives for the past 30 or 40 years. The action is still nice though.
Blade geometry is effective. it's not the absolute thinnest thing behind the shoulder, but it's a full flat grind without a crazy blade stock thickness to start with, so it works quite well.
This thing is HEAVY. If that's not your jam, I'd say look elsewhere. With that out of the way...
I'm loving the handle comfort and design. The wharncliffe is executed quite well. Thumbstuds are nice to use, but can be removed if you prefer spidey-flicking.
Nice stone wash on the blade as well which is great since it's 14C28N.
Specs:
3.6" VG10 blade with 3.2 mm stock thickness
3.79 oz / 107.5 gram weight
0.49" handle thickness (G10)
Liner Lock
Bronze/Nylon wahsers & Ceramic detent ball