Smith and Wesson Bullseye Linerlock

[Travis Autry]

I received an S&W Bullseye linerlock as part of a Christmas gift.  The knife has G10 scales with a .357 style shield and a black and gray camo blade.  It's a pretty big folder and seems fairly well made.  I don't know what the steel is but it would shave after a few passes on the kitchen steel.

Anyone have experience with this knife or similar?  All thoughts and opinions welcome.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Not to sound negative or anything, but in my experience, S&W knives are monkey poo.  In fact, that's how I've always described them, and I had someone at KF years ago argue with me about it.  They quoted the materials list and explained that not all S&W knives were built the same.  A week or so later he admitted that the knife was indeed a piece of crap.  It's all here:

http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/704541/post/705744/hl/monkey/fromsearch/1/#705744

In short:

S&W knives are not made by S&W- in fact they have nothing to do with S&W except for the name stamped into it.  Some marketing exec from Taylor Craplery backed a dump truck full of money to the house of some executive at S&W who signed over the rights to the name without asking any questions.  Taylor then found the cheapest manufacturer in the darkest corner of China and had them crank out lots and lots of fancy looking pieces of crap that they could sell at Wal Mart for $20, making a killing since the knives probably cost less than a dollar to make.  But, with the S&W stamp on it they could sell the same knife for $50 or more.

While it is possible that they have produced one good knife or possibly a line of decent knives, I have yet to see any indication of it. 

Def

[2xTap]

I agree with Grant, the import line of S&W knives leaves alot to be desired. Over the years I have accumulated quite a few. Most are junk, some are ok but I would never recommend them.

That said, back in 1990's there was a line of slipjoints made that were S&W anniversary models......the only ones I am familiar with are the Jumbo Trappers. They were USA made, and I do believe done by Camillus. Real good quality. They would be the exception.

2xTap

[jekostas]

From what I remember, there were/are a couple of decent fixed blade S&W knives, but the *admittedly very few* folding varieties I've handled have not been very good.  You might be better off getting a knife from one of the better Chinese manufacturers like Navy/Enlan/Sanrenmu and putting the S&W logo on yourself.