Reate J.A.C.K. Integral Knife Blue Titanium/Marble Carbon Fiber (3.94" Satin)

Yes, this thing is gorgeous. The pictures don't do justice to the luster of the marbled carbon fiber, and in general just how impresive the whole design looks in person. I always swore I'd never spend $400+ on a knife, but as soon as I held it I thought it was worth every penny. After some more time with it though, I'm not so sure... This is a massive, heavy knife that feels solid, that feels like it wants to be used. The blade out of the box is so sharp it will cut you if you look at it wrong, and the choil and swedge make it easy to choke up on for detail work. The action is probably the smoothest I've ever encountered, though not the fastest; the detent is lighter than some other knives this size, and combined with the weight of the blade it requires a good shove on the flipper if you really want it to fly open. It always locks up, but it's not one of those knives that builds up a lot of energy before it breaks free of the detent, then rockets open. Now the complaints: first, I've noticed since I first posted a 5-star review that this knife has more lateral blade play than any I own. Not awful, and not enough to prevent using it for any reasonable purpose, but a $400 integral should not have more play than a $40 liner lock! Next, the blade centering is off. Not enough that the edge scrapes the liners or anything, but again, worse than knives I own at a tenth the price. And finally, there are a few sharp corners on the handle that aggravate your hand over time. The first is where the carbon fiber slab meets the titanium on the opening edge of the show side. The titanium comes to a point there and is raised enough that if you run your hand over it, it grabs you. The other hotspots are at the corners of the lanyard hole, at the top of the handle above the pivot, and at the tip of the lockbar where it curves up toward the flipper when the knife is open. All of these are pretty minor, but all were avoidable if Reate had smoothed them out just a little. So I'm torn. I love the look and feel and effectiveness of this knife and can't really bear to return it. But it also makes me a little angry every time I use it, over the lack of attention to detail and sloppy QC. This is my first Reate and probably my last.