Myerchin Generation 2 Framelock Knife

This knife has two frame locks, one for each of the attachments - one knife blade and one marlinspike. It has an ingenious single piece that keeps the frame locks on both attachments from bending outwards and ruining the knife. The knife is very sharp and the spike is smooth and strong and should work fine for working on knots. The pocket clip is sturdy and springy and should hold the knife tight to a pocket, though it only has one place on the knife to be attached.What I don't like:-The tiny wire bale for attaching a strap to the knife looks weak and easy to bend out of shape. Tightening it using pliers would cause the wire to go deeper into the knife and interfere with the spike. If the bale holes were moved slightly, this wouldn't be a problem. Better yet, why not drill a larger hole to accommodate a cord? After all, this type of knife is quite often used on boats (hence the whale imprint on the blade) and having a confident means of securing it to one's wrist or clothing should be important to the consumer-The build quality is good but not great. The pieces are don't wobble when the attachments are open or closed, which is good, but the pieces are quite tight and not necessarily parallel. The outside edges of knife that contact the hand are chamfered, but the internal edges are very sharp. This includes the frame lock piece that is used to close the knife. The inside edges of the thumb hole in the blade that is used to open the knife are similarly sharp. This knife is very uncomfortable to hold in your hand, even though the inside edges are not always in contact with the hand, but these sharp edges will start to cause pain or damage if this knife is used a lot.-This is big. The tip of the sharp blade touches one of the handle screws when the blade is closed. Typically, the screws are placed so that they don't contact the blade or the blade's base is formed to prevent the edge from coming in contact with any screws. On my knife, the tip misses the screw by 1/32 or so of an inch, but lightly pushing down on the closed blade will cause it to hit the screw. I can hear it scratching. I can see this happening in normal to rough use. Had the handle screw been moved over an eighth of an inch or so and this would not be a problem. It appears that the holes for the bale and the handle screw are either misplaced or not well thought out.-There is a machined slot in the knife's scale that could be used by the thumb to open the marlinspike, but it faces a flat spot on the spike, making the thumb slot useless. The flat spot in the spike is necessary to clear the handle when the spike is extended, so why not machine the thumb slot maybe a quarter inch closer to the center of the handle so it could be used?-The instructions caution you to make sure the attachments are fully extended and locked by the frame lock. When you extend one of the attachments, there is a definite click and slight lock prior to the attachment being fully extended: this could be mistaken as the full lock, but it is not and could cause the attachment to close while in use. This could be avoided by machining the base of the attachments such that the ball does not cause the click and the false lock. Other manufacturers (see Chris Reeve knives, for example) have fixed this problem with frame locks.-This improved version of the knife boasts of being opened quickly. However, the flipper button is very small and disappears when the blade is only perpendicular to the knife. Maybe breaking it in for several hundred flips would help it open further, but that will take time. I have a Zero Tolerance blade that has a similar flipper button, but it flies open fully from the time I opened the package and this may be due to better tolerances and fit. Use of the thumb hole in the blade is necessary to open it using one hand, but again, the thumb hole has very sharp edges.-While this is a utilitarian knife, it is not very attractive; just an opinion here.Overall, it does work as a rope slicing and knot opening tool as advertised. Slight manufacturing changes would make it a superior tool.

It is with some disappointment and reluctance I write this review, however I believe if we as consumers want quality products from manufacturers we have to hold them accountable. So, here goes. Back in the 1990's I purchased a Myerchin rigging knife. The first time I saw the knife and picked it up I knew the design and quality were absolutely superb. I had to have it, but it was not cheap. At the time I was pretty young and money was tight but it was worth every penny. The fit and finish were excellent, the blade locked up tight. The whole knife was tight. It simply felt like fine piece of equipment. The heft in the hand, the finishing touches, all excellent. In over 20 years it has ZERO rust, it has never had any rust and aside from some wear marks it looks like the day I bought it. I love it. It sealed my commitment to Myerchin products (at the time). I still have this knife and plan on giving it to my son. A little over a year ago I purchased this knife, the Myerchin Generation 2 Rigging knife. I wanted a little bit bigger knife with the serrations for cutting line and the shackle key. The design appeared (in photographs) to be the same inspired Myerchin design, updated with a few new features. However, when I received the knife as soon as I took it out of the box I could feel it was cheaply constructed, it had much less heft and was not nearly as tight. After owning it and using it for over a year, it rusts at the drop of a hat even if you rinse it off in fresh water and keep it oiled. The quality of stainless steel used in this knife is clearly inferior to what was used in the 1990's Myerchin knives. It behaves like Chinese junk flea-market-knife stainless steel. I am sorry to say I purchased a fixed blade Myerchin dive knife at around the same time before I realized this, and it has the same problems no matter how I try to care for it. Having said that, the design in and of itself is quite good and my complaints are limited to the materials, fit and finish. I recognize the higher carbon stainless steels hold a better edge but tend to rust, and the more "stainless" a steel is, the more it's edge keeping suffers. Nevertheless, in a truly marine environment the higher quality stainless steels are a must. I would call this knife "serviceable", but not worth the price, and not something I think one would contemplate passing along to future generations. This is disappointing because the experience I had with my first Myerchin knife was simply terrific (and 20 years on continues to be terrific). This new one is just a tool, and about as disposable as a knife gets. I am not confident that it will hold up to any serious use over time. Speaking for myself, I wish Myerchin had kept the quality and simply charged more rather than cheapening a great product.

I really wanted to like this new Myerchin. I have had the same Myerchin for 25 years, so was really curious as to how it could be better.There are several reasons why the older one is still better for me:- The marlin spike on the older one is more substantial and the contact area is machined, so lateral strength is high...the new one is not- There are serrations on the top of the knife that offer a substantial grip...these are absent on the new one- The construction of the older one is more substantial...the metal is much thicker...the blade is 440 stainless on the old one...and no rust after 25 years- There are no screws to loosen on the old one...the new one has a bunch to loosen up- The older one had a clever way to release both the blade and marline spike, you pressed the lanyard ring down...easy to do with gloves. The new one has of those liner locks...try the liner locks with wet gloves- The old one is a lot heavier- The new one has a clip and lanyard ring the size of a big paper clip. No sailor in their right mind is going to use this without a lanyard.My guess is that it is cheaper to assemble the new knife from a bunch of parts than it is to press everything together so it lasts for 25 years.So the new knife is probably better than other new knives..but certainly not better than the old one.