And now for something completely different! Seber Knives!

[Grant Lamontagne]

Bob wanted to make sure we saw the Seber Booth, but I have to confess that I didn't recall ever hearing of them or not.  In fact, I still don't know if I have or not, so Bob gets all the credit for this one!  I was however very glad that he knew about it and insisted on it, as I was so impressed with the knives there I bought one so I could write a full review on it!  More on that in a minute!



Seber has a small but varied line of knives ranging from the utility to the tactical- you can see they also supply knives to Sears for the Craftsman brand.  The Craftsman you see above is a prototype, and features the same lock mechanism that the rest of the knives do.



The lock is what sets the Seber knives apart from the other knives in it's category- it's a three position switch that locks the blade in any position, open or closed using a ratcheting mechanism inside the bolsters.  The blade can't be opened until the switch is in the far left position in the above picture, and can't be closed until it's in the right hand position.  With the switch in the center, the blade won't move in either direction, meaning that you can actually lock the blade at any point in it's 180 degree opening arc!



When I heard that I initially thought it sounded handy, but for the life of me I couldn't think of a situation where I'd need that.  Fortunately the folks at Seber had a few examples, and it wasn't long before the designer was using the blade opened about 30 degrees to safely slice carpet since only a portion of the blade was exposed, or inserting a water hose suitable for home plumbing projects (dishwasher or clothes washer for example) into the partially opened blade.  A quick twist of the wrist and he had an almost perfectly straight cut on the hose with no kinking at all!



My initial question was how sturdy could the lock be if it had that many "stops" or had that many parts, and the designer said it had actually been tested up to 250 pounds in a Cold Steel type test where the handle was locked in a vise and weights were hung from the blade.



They also come with all the typical tactical knife doodads, like a pocket clip.

There are utility knives with replaceable blades and there are tactical drop points, but the model I got was similar to this tanto pointed Rescue version:



I didn't get the black one, I got an even more ninja-ish camo bladed one (which I'll post pics of later!) because, well to be honest, because despite how cheesy it it, I kinda thought it was cool! 



What you don't see in the pic is a neat feature I didn't notice until I got home and am wondering if it's intentional or not, is that the main blade just slightly crosses the rescue cutter blade, meaning that if you were trying to slit a belt, strap or clothing, it's being cut on both sides, similar to the two blades on SOG's V Cutter.  Whether it was intentional or not, it appears to be very effective.  Further testing will tell for sure though!

It also has the obligatory hardened point on the butt for breaking glass, which is just as much a staple of Rescue Knives as the cutter blade.

All in all, I really like this knife for a number of reasons.  It gives you not only the added functionality of being able to lock the blade in any position, but even if you never used that feature, it still makes the blade quite safe to use- it locks open when you open it since the ratchet mechanism won't let it closed, and it locks closed when closed since the ratchet only lets it close, so you never have to worry about this one coming open accidentally.  It may take a bit to get used to switching the ratcheting lock switch when you want to use it, but I think it's well worth trying out- and at an MSRP of $50 for the Rescue version, it's not a huge investment if you decide it's not for you!

Def

[Benner]

You can get Seber knives here and I have been tempted, but I have never really known why. 

I'm keen to hear your thoughts. 

[jim guy]

I just seen some videos on their web site, they are loud opening!

[cliosguy]

interesting

[jzmtl]

Wasn't hennie in uk selling something with this lock for a lot of money a while ago?

[Grant Lamontagne]

You can get Seber knives here and I have been tempted, but I have never really known why. 

I'm keen to hear your thoughts. 

My initial thoughts are that you'd be hard pressed to find more knife for the money.  This locking mechanism is great, and the knife itself is at least average in quality.  I have seen better, but I have also seen a lot worse.  This would make a great gift to someone as it's really neat, decent quality and not expensive!

This is the type of knife I'd like to see in Wal Mart and Home Despot as it meets their price point but will keep people's fingers where they belong.

The ratchet isn't loud but it is noticeable.  I will be doing some video to demonstrate this knife eventually, as it really does need to be seen to be understood.  I took some video at the booth of the designer showing it, but he went off frame an awful lot.  

Def

[Benner]

Wasn't hennie in uk selling something with this lock for a lot of money a while ago?

About £38 inc delivery.  Not really a lot of money over here.

[nuphoria]

I like the idea of a utility knife with the extra locking positions - I can see how that would be quite useful 

[jim guy]

You can get Seber knives here and I have been tempted, but I have never really known why. 

I'm keen to hear your thoughts. 

My initial thoughts are that you'd be hard pressed to find more knife for the money.  This locking mechanism is great, and the knife itself is at least average in quality.  I have seen better, but I have also seen a lot worse.  This would make a great gift to someone as it's really neat, decent quality and not expensive!

This is the type of knife I'd like to see in Wal Mart and Home Despot as it meets their price point but will keep people's fingers where they belong.

The ratchet isn't loud but it is noticeable.  I will be doing some video to demonstrate this knife eventually, as it really does need to be seen to be understood.  I took some video at the booth of the designer showing it, but he went off frame an awful lot.  

Def

the videos on their site sounded like a 3/4 inch snap on!

[jim guy]

think I may get the black tanto.

[Grant Lamontagne]

It's about as loud as a regular ratchet head- not significant, but you know it's there.

They actually had another knife there that was completely different from these but was much more interesting- it was a typical utility type knife, but to load it you simply dropped fresh blades into a compartment on the side.  One would automatically load into the frame for use, so when you slid the lever a fresh blade was in it.  Then, when that blade was worn out, you press another button to release it, slide the lever in and when you slid it out again, a new blade was in it!  It's a semi-automatic utility knife!  Bob and I were both floored by it!  It was a prototype, but should be available at Sears soon.

Def

[J-sews]

The ratchet lock is surprisingly cool. I say surprisingly because when you first see it you figure its just another of those silly gimmick locks that every other knife company comes out with every year. But this one is actually useful in that it can make an ordinary folder more useful for a number of different tasks.

Y'know, pictures are nice but they don't really convey how flexible this knife is.

Def, we'll be needing some video footage from you on this one...

[trickknife]

I spent a while talking to Brett and Wes at the booth and I was very impressed.  They started out with putting the ratchet mechanism on a vise and work it all the way into the utility knife.  They have been around for quite a while.  I remember seeing the Seber Grip (?) about 8 years ago which they sold to Craftsman.  I think it is still out there.  That was a very clever tool.

The utility knife with the ratchet is a good idea.  The noise may put some off, but I think it gives you the feeling that this is seriously locking.  We'll need to find out from Def if it really does hold up under extreme conditions (like cutting his hair).   

From the sounds of it, they have lots of cool stuf on the way.  i just wish I could find out more.....Def?  Bob?    any good scoop?

[J-sews]

Despite my offer to loan them one of my many booth babe aquaintences the Seber guys remained silent about their upcoming projects. The only other knifey/tooly thing we saw was the self-loading automatic utility knife. Man was that cool! (I want to tear it apart and see how it works!)

No pictures of that one allowed though, as it was a prototype made for Sears.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Def, we'll be needing some video footage from you on this one...

My desktop is currently fried (HD failure) so here's a good video I found on YouTube from 2009 SHOT.  This is the exact model/configuration I have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myxGxx0YPiQ

Def