Contender 9- EDC Pocket folding Knife Cut Survival Multi tool folding keychain B

[Grant Lamontagne]

Contender 9 of the Fantastic Five Dollar Challenge is another one that looks kind of interesting.   The seller has it listed as EDC Pocket folding Knife Cut Survival Multi tool folding keychain Bottle Opener which seems a bit lofty considering it is really just a folding knife with a few notches cut out of it- or is it?



The seller says this about it:

Material: Stainless Steel
Length: 12cm

Package:
1 X Multi tool

Color: Black, White.
Important: pls leave us a message which colour you need, or we will sent it random.

I can't recall if I told them a color or not- either way, it is nice to know that this knife apparently excels at defending oneself against overly aggressive trees.



If the tree is really aggressive, you may need to use two....   



The knife blade seems to use a small tab to lock in both the open and closed positions, so it's hard to tell whether it is going to open easily or lock up that solidly.



This photo seems to imply that the bottle opener could be used to open this knife one handed, although that just may be an image of someone choking up on the blade for fine tasks.  I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the latter since (again, judging by the photo) the user would have to have pulled the blade out from the wring side of the handle.



To sum up, the functions of this knife appear to be:

3x wrenches (unknown sizes)
1x blade
1x bottle opener
1x carabiner

That's actually not a bad list for what appears to be a very small knife- I have much larger knives that do nothing but cut!     Lazy no good knives, livin' off the gubbermint.....   



Fully extended this knife is 12cm, which for those of you that don't understand centimeters, is about 4 3/4 inches.  Not a bad size, although it is smaller than a 91mm SAK, which, by comparison 9.1cm when closed.  Still, this knife came in at $3.99 with free shipping, which makes it the third most expensive knife in the $5 Challenge, but still well below the max budget.

Will it be able to hold it's own or will I need stitches after the first use?  Only time will tell!   

Def

[Kev D]

It'll be interesting to see how you use the wrench without cutting yourself. It doesn't look like it can be used with the blade closed 

I'd dust off the chain mail gloves for this one, or it'll get bloody 

[Grant Lamontagne]

I wondered much the same thing.  Knives with wrenches in the handle seem like a very bad idea.

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Contender 9 was the next one to show up in my mailbox, and let me tell you, it is really a stand out tool in my mind. 



This thing is so tiny and flimsy that I don't understand how anyone could claim it was, even jokingly, a survival tool.  I mean it.  It sort of reminds me of the CRKT KISS knife, only without any of the things that make the KISS knife great- things like a lock for example, or a designer that didn't have his head lodged firmly in his rectum.



This is also smaller than the KISS knife, and has several more "features" like three wrench cutouts and a bottle opener cutout.  Instead of a pocket clip it has a carabiner of sorts that acts like a carabiner when you fold the blade.  But, to remove the knife from your keys you need to open the blade, which really isn't safe IMHO.  Maybe 99% of the time it is well enough, but how many times have you pulled a knife out of your pocket and used it without giving it a second thought?  Situations like that are likely to cause some of your precious blood to fall out with this knife.



It also doesn't seem to stop in the open position- there is a very small folded lip that is supposed to stop it when it hits 180 degrees to the handle, but it seems to be there largely for show, as with the slightest pressure the blade is happy to continue on it's round trip around the pivot.



Because of this I am not sure I feel comfortable using the blade for anything even remotely heavy, for obvious reasons.



Since the bottle opener and wrenches can't be used with the blade closed, they don't really instill a lot of confidence either.



Of course, the functionality of the wrench cutouts (which measure 9.35mm, 7.76mm and 6.79mm) was in doubt anyway, as I don't like gripping a sharp edge as a handle and using it as leverage to turn a nut.  Call me old fashioned if you like, but I prefer to keep the red stuff inside my skin whenever possible.



I am inclined to consider this one a fail based on my initial impressions- in fact, I would have also called this a failure in the $2 Challenge as I don't believe it is even worth that much.  But, as I have been wrong before, and fully expect to be wrong in the future, this one will go through all the same testing criteria that the other tools in this challenge do.  I just find it very difficult to think a tool that has failed handling will succeed in actual use.

Def

[Steinar]

  I just find it very difficult to think a tool that has failed handling will succeed in actual use.

 

[Chako]

My copy just arrived. I agree fully on everything said here. I have to wonder if the designers were for a full month before devising this. 

[Grant Lamontagne]

My copy just arrived. I agree fully on everything said here. I have to wonder if the designers were for a full month before devising this. 

If you were a bit more patient I would have saved you the effort of buying this hunk of crap. 

Def

[Chako]

You know me...I do not discriminate so long as it will be a shelf queen.

[Zephon]

bought one not too long ago -- the one I had couldn't retain the cutting edge.

Yes, the stopper is quite useless.  Add a little pressure on it and it'll flip all the way down.  That fact plus the inability to retain its edge make it more of a vanity kit keychain than a knife for me.

[Grant Lamontagne]

This one is definitely more of a "put in a drawer and forget about it" item as far as I'm concerned.  It's not even good enough to give to someone.

Def