If you collect cutlery, one of the most anticipated knives is the HEST 2.0 folder. I obtained about four or five of the original folders, and they were fairly decent knives. Amid Q/C debates, all of the ones I sold had good Q/C, fairly straight bevels and the blades nested straight inside the handles when folded. The blade was CPM-D2, one of my favorite alloys.

I liked the knife, but I was not going to give up my Zero Tolerance knives.

Well, I just got notice that the 2.0 was available from my supplier. The Black Flag Cafe forum has been buzzing for a while, but that's expected. The designer, Robert Pelton, is a member and administrator of that forum.

(BTW, don't bother going there. The place is rife with smart-mouth European kids, and I only go there to show my colors and monitor blade news for my bbusiness. I post about once every week or two--or when I'm bored.)

However, my supplier says they got 600 of them in last week and they have 38 left. I bought one to inspect, and then sell off to a good client. I do not see the hype in the knife. My last few were 'good,' and they were useful, but not great.

I'll keep you in the loop.

Well, the HEST 2.0 arrived today, and I had it for about 17 minutes before the waterstones were soaking and the knife was taped up to polish.

I heard a comedy singer once begin a song with the statement, "A lot of songs have been written --and this is one of them..."

I thought a lot about that guy when I started to make the first few passes straightening out the bevel, finding several grinding errors, blemishes and the need to dig out my coarsest shaping stone and just start over. "HEST" stands for 'hostile environment survival tool," and 2.0 stands for the fact that the first model failed so often that YouTube slams were a dime a dozen.

A lot of knives have been ground, and this is one of them...

I didn't sharpen and polish this knife, I fixed it. It still has a grinding error blemish near the ricasso. Early reports on forums say this knife is "better." Yes, the overall fit and finish is better. The problem I keeping finding lately with many new knives is that the blades fail on one major issue--they're not much good for cutting. Duh. Now, can you beat up this knife in your 'hostile environment'? Well, since I don't know many secret black-bag government operators, I cannot say. And since knife forums are rife with as many posers as bike forums, we may never know.

Final tally. It's a jackknife. I sharpened it. It sells for about 200 bucks.

https://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb23 ... 005-10.jpg

After a thorough polish, I carried the knife today. I trimmed up some dog beds for their kennel and did some kitchen work. Yes, I cleaned the knife before I used it for food...

I had to adjust the pivot (quite easy, they send you a tool for this) and it's still a tad stiff to open. I'll tweak it tomorrow.

As for the knife, yes, it does what I want. To be fair, I have also been carrying The Pit Boss, and a ZT0300 and I went to retrieve a ZT0551 Hinderer model from the vault. Each one has strengths and weaknesses, and playing them one against the other makes these decisions very apparent.

While I've never been in love with these black-ti finishes to begin with, the one on this new HEST 2.0 seems especially problematic. I sliced up one and only one apple and parts of the finish have already become worn and polished looking, while the top portion still looks matte' when I twist it around in the light. Considering that--and I'm not hard on my stuff--I'll be wearing the finish quite a bit inside of a week.

I had some polishing papers left over from the initial job, and I stropped the edge and then re-polished the bevel's finish. The edge became sharper, which means the edge was palpably dulled. Surprising because CPM-D2 is one of my favorite alloys.

For some reason I want to like this knife, but also feel let down. Kind of ho-hum. It makes me like the The Pit Boss and the ZT0551 more just by comparison. If pressed, I would give the knife faint praise, but I'd want to sell you a better knife.

i like reading about your knives. I have been collecting for several years. I like auto knives and have several. my problem is that i hate to use them for fear of trashing them. I cary a small case slim knife...

If you like autos, and like to use them hard, then get a hard use auto.

Contact my friend David Strndal (that is not a misprint, he lives in the Czech Republic) and order one of his many Mikov autos. He has prices from 60 bucks to about 350, depending on how fancy or what alloy. See the Mikov website.

I have several, and my wife has a left-handed version.

The nice feature, he sells replacement springs, and you can remove and install them with your bare hands.

You deposit your payment into any Wells Fargo location, and he sends you the knife!

Here's the spring replacement video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTY_tTLrm1k

I have 3 of those knives. Great knives!! I just have them in a case on the wall of my Man Cave... They do hit hard. Almost jump out of your hand. I like the Boker brand as well...

Good for you! I have two of the yellow handled clip-points. My wife has the same model in the left-handed version.

I used to carry/use a lot of autos, from Pro Techs to Microtechs to Daltons. Got to be one expensive hobby! But, as my wife reminds me, our inventory is to sell, not collect. Over time it all got sold--and to one guy, no kidding.

I now have a serious Zero Tolerance addiction...

https://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb23 ... 01-119.jpg

After putzing around for a week with the "new and improved HEST 2.0" I have come to the disappointing conclusion that the knife is not worth the money. And they wanted a lot of money for it.

They wish to charge 219 dollars for it. Granted, lowballers might do better, but I had to pay my supplier 131 bucks for the knife. They needed more R/D.

Most of that cost is due to the titanium frame lock--I'm told. However, the Hinderer ZT0551 is a better knife, superior fit, thicker titanium, better blade alloy and has fewer of them made and they still only charged me 125 bucks.

But like I told you when my original front-end on Betty pogo'ed, I only give people and things one chance to kill me. While hardly a 'tactical' knife and not really marketed as one, I expected the 2.0 to at least stay bolted together. I went for an afternoon ride, came home and emptied my pockets, and fold the pivot screw had shaken loose and had fallen out.

Now, we all idealize our Harleys. We tell the whiners that our huge engines take a real man to handle, but even a paint-shaker really vibrates more than a modern big twin. I cannot believe this knife, or any other, would get the loving touch of a tinker or other blade worshipper and then shake out screws from simply being out for a ride. In the Amazon or other world hot-spot that Pelton narrates, knives are survival tools.

The name "HEST" means 'hostile environment survival tool.' Now, many young ladies often do gasp that inside of my pants has a hostile tool. But my trouser-trout has never shaken the screws out of anything.

No, wait. There was this four-poster bed that rattled apart in Boaz, Wisconsin in 1971...

Not every test I do shows us a winner. That's why I do tests.

https://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb23 ... 003-28.jpg

Well, it's official. My company is not going to carry this knife as a shelf item. In fact, I have no orders right now to carry the thing as a "prepaid special order."

Not only are the ZTs better IMHO, but the knife is a bit pricey. I had been very hopeful after seeing the newer videos on YouTube showing that the problems with the earlier run had been fixed. Of course, I did not know 'the story behind the story' until I talked to a friend who was an industry insider. That clinched my final decision.

We didn't sell that many of the first model, but to be fair, we had no problems and no returns.

BTW, guys, I'm having a bit of a problem. I joined the forum belonging to the designer just to learn more about the first model knife. It was a mistake. It seems to be just a trollfest for younger guys. I wrote to the designer of the knife to have my account disconnected. I know he has signed on since my PM, but he ain't movin' to fix the request.

I have a business to run. I'm a sole proprietor. I've quit posting there, and in time my name will slip away. But it sure would be great to have my avatar space show "Banned" or "Disconnected." Besides going ape and drawing a ban (which seems to never be done considering the language there), do you guys have any similar experiences from the past to rememdy this?

Edit: After failing to get the attention of the forum owner, I just sent a PM to forum administrator. I'm heading to the gym now, and we'll see what happens.