u/friendlyfire883

I want to start by saying I really like CJRB/Artisan knives, but I really dislike AR RPM9. The edge retention is abysmal to say the least, so I got really exited when they announced their new steel formula. That was over a year ago and since then they've used it in a total of 8 knives. I haven't seen or heard anything about it since it came out and they haven't used it on a single one of their new models. They hyped it up like it was going to be their new signature steel and then promptly went back to using their butter knife steel for everything like it didn't exist.

I don't get it, and it honestly bothers me to the point where I'm not going to buy any more knives from them. I'm not really asking any questions just expressing my frustration in the hopes an artisan intern will scroll through here and tell me why they bothered spending money on a new alloy if they had no intention of actually using it for anything.

To put it as simply as I can, it has masterful machining, the ergonomics of a 2x4, and some really annoying design touches. Oh and or of the box it I was scared to carry it because of how soft the omega springs were. Thankfully they're adjustable, it's just annoying to have to do before you feel comfortable putting it in your pocket.

I'm serious about the machining, they even grooved the bearing surface, unfortunately they used the cheapest bearings I've ever seen, a floating pivot, and a crossbar where both sides unscrew and neither side has a torx head which ago negated the beautiful machine work.

Most egregious of all is the fucking gigantic pocket clip that they put on it. It's 2.5 inches long and 1/4 inch off the scales pointed directly into your palm. It's hard to explain but it actually makes the knife harder to open because of how prominent the clip is. The knife is hard enough to open due to the lack of contour on the scales and how slippery the knife is.

Even with all that, it's still a nice knife, I'm going to do some parts swapping and a some gentle sanding and see how I feel about it then, but had I handled this knife before purchasing it I would have walked. Maybe I've just been spoiled by kizer, but I expected a little more out of tennable.

It's a really nice knife for $18, but I've found a couple big issues with it. The first is how low the flipper tab was from the top off the scales, I was able to fix with a belt sander and an angle grinder(last 2 pics), the other being the insane amount of loctite that they used during assembly. I legitimately broke 3 t8s trying to get it loose and it won't even budge. Aside from that the action, lockup, and blade edge are all way above the price point, and it's a really nice looking knife.

I also learned that Flissa's parent company also makes swiss tech knives, so I'm pretty confident that heat treat should be pretty decent.

I had originally tried to dye it teal using Rit dye more and it turned out looking like glacier freeze Gatorade(last pic) and yesterday I decided to switch it up and dye it black. After a small sanding incident I ended up with this 2 tone situation and I'm kind of digging it. I may actually start carrying it again now.

I picked it up of ali express for $31 a couple weeks ago. I couldn't pass up that sweet ass japanese tanto grind in vg10.

First impressions were absolutely awful, I would best describe it as having Minecraft ergonomics. It legitimately felt like it wasn't made for the human hand.

I couldn't disengage the lock without 2 hands because it was flush with both scales, I couldn't reach the front flipper because of the hard corners, I could barely use the thumbstud because of how thick the scales, every edge on the scales were razor sharp, and on top of that the micarta looked like absolute dog shit.

The hardware is also pretty cheesy, the pivot has a flat ground into it like it should be captured but the liners and scales don't , the thumb stud is to long and when fully tightened it spins in the blade, and it uses a non standard single screw pocket clip making replacement difficult.

It's not all bad though, the blade grind, action, lockup, blade centering, and overall machining of the metal parts are in my opinion better than that of my comparable knives. Because of that I spent well over 2 hours with a dremel and oscillating tool knocking down all the edges and reprofiling the scales into a really nice, fully functional EDC knife.

TLDR, it's s great knife if you have Lego hands or don't mind spending hours sanding the shit out of micarta. The knife is an enigma, they could have spent another $2 on there end and easily had a $70-$80 knife on their hands. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and hopefully it serves me very than the petrified fish scholar and kizer drop bear it'll be replacing. I should also add that its obvious right hand tip up only, and the blade seems to be heat treated really well and is held up nicely in my limited time with it.

Also if anyone can point me toward an aftermarket single screw pocket clip that would be fucking awesome.