First Mate unpolished can opener tool.

[nuphoria]

Can all you Alox First Mate owners have a little look at them for me please?

Mine has a kind of rough finished bottle opener - as if it hasn't been tumbled/polished? The edges of it are very sharp in comparison to other alox tools etc. I actually makes the screwdriver on the end more useful bite-wise!
Does that make sense to anyone else?! I was just wondering if that was normal for a First Mate or if I had an odd tool that slipped the QC net somehow. I certainly don't mind either way as I love the little thing 

[Gareth]

I've heard of that before.  IIRC it's just how they made them at the time so it's not a QC issue.  Sorry I can't be more exact but someone else will know more I'm sure.

[nuphoria]

Okey dokey, Cheers Gareth 

[felinevet]

Having just processed 35 of them lately, what you describe is normal for these knives. I kinda wish they still made today's SAKs that way.

[WH867]

Hopefully it will show up.  Not exactly a first mate ,but close.

[Benner]

I believe older Alox all came like that.  I personally prefer the unpolished tools.

[Bill.H]

Ahhhh, the good old days 

IMO, Vic overpolishes almost everything, especially the screwdrivers. I keep meaning to take the time and square up the edges on mine.
Funny thing is, they don't even smooth off the edges of the liners, you can still see the stamping marks. Too far on one part, not at all on the other. 

[bren10man]

Ditto what Felinevet said.  All the 35 or so First Mates that I sent to you guys from Korea had "rough" bottle openers.  Apparently, that is the design, as all were NIB.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Yep all the older Alox knives had square cut tools, and it's a shame they stopped doing them that way

[Swiss Man]

I understand the reasoning for not liking the polished tools espically the screwdriver / bottle opener. 

But I have been using SAKs for 25+ years and never had one fold on me or slip off the item (is it just luck or is it really that common)?

I have a DAK that it looks like the tools were punched out with a cookie cutter and and I have old style Pioneer about the same, to me it just looks cheap.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

But I have been using SAKs for 25+ years and never had one fold on me or slip off the item (is it just luck or is it really that common)?

They rarely fold or slip on me either, but I think that because most long term Sak user's probably adjust there technique to compensate automatically

[Benner]

Flat heads are fine, but the phillips does slip more than other brands.

[nuphoria]

What the comprehensively answers my query - thank you muchly 

I think I like the rough tool thing too, something more earthy and trustworthy about it.

[DaveK]

Flat heads are fine, but the phillips does slip more than other brands.

I still say, that it's not so much the polish, but the shape of the Vic phillips that causes them to "slip". A bit of context though, they are only going to slip if you're really torquing the hell out of them, and if you're doing that then maybe an SAK isn't the right tool for the job, so it doesn't irk me at all. I just wish they'd put something beefier on the Spirit and Swisstool, something like a Bear phillips maybe.

[Gareth]

Flat heads are fine, but the phillips does slip more than other brands.

I still say, that it's not so much the polish, but the shape of the Vic phillips that causes them to "slip". A bit of context though, they are only going to slip if you're really torquing the hell out of them, and if you're doing that then maybe an SAK isn't the right tool for the job, so it doesn't irk me at all. I just wish they'd put something beefier on the Spirit and Swisstool, something like a Bear phillips maybe.

I agree to an extent.  The main problem as I see it is that the vast majority of screws we see today aren't Phillips they're Pozidriv and they're not the same shape.  Leatherman just seem to have hit on a slightly better compromise between the two different heads.

[gafftapegreenia]

I find the backspring phillips handles pozi-drive well.

[Gareth]

I find the backspring phillips handles pozi-drive well.

Interesting, it's not a tool I use that often so I wouldn't know.  I'll have to give it a go.