Bear Edge #102 Ball Bearing Folder

[gerleatherberman]

This thread is to introduce a knife I purchased this week for $20($30-$40 online). Bear and Sons Bear Edge #102 folding knife. It was unused, so I felt it was a good deal.
Upon first impression:
Pros:
Pocket clip can be swapped to other side.
Has place on end for lanyard or what have you.
Blade pivot has ball bearings making it ultra smooth to deploy.
Fully opened after passing blade safety detent with light pressure on thumb stud or flipper.
Nice edge length at 3.35".
Length closed is 4.65", so it is a nice length for the features.
Nice strong G10 handles with steel liners with nice grip.

Cons:
Weighs 4.4oz. Quite heavy
Steel of blade is bead blasted 440 stainless. A lot of knives made now like it have better steels.
Pocket clip is tip up only.
Says "Built in the USA", but it is actually assembled here from foreign materials.

I am going to use this knife for a while and update the tread with how it performs. Hopefully not bad.

[gerleatherberman]

Few more pics.

[cody6268]

How's the quality control? The three Bear products I have purchased have been awful.   

I feel that if Bear upped their quality control, with their vast product line, I think they could really compete well with a bunch of manufacturers. After all, the Bear Jaws is the basis for the SwissTool (and given the story I've heard how it went with Bear and Victorinox, that's why I really haven't bought a SwissTool). It only makes sense for it to go head to head with the SwissTool at a lower price, not something so bad, I'd rather have an $10 special in the place of it.

[clown]

Hope you put it through the ringer and keep us updated.  I'm always on the lookout for new bargain work knives.  The RAT-1 and Tenacious are two I've been happy with.

[gerleatherberman]

How's the quality control? The three Bear products I have purchased have been awful.   

I feel that if Bear upped their quality control, with their vast product line, I think they could really compete well with a bunch of manufacturers. After all, the Bear Jaws is the basis for the SwissTool (and given the story I've heard how it went with Bear and Victorinox, that's why I really haven't bought a SwissTool). It only makes sense for it to go head to head with the SwissTool at a lower price, not something so bad, I'd rather have an $10 special in the place of it.

Ebay and Amazon are slap eaten up with sellers selling factory rejects from Bear. Bear sells the rejects to people at the factory for almost nothing with the agreement the rejects won't be sold by the buyers. Nobody abides by that rule, yet Bear still sells the rejects that would cost too much to repair over making another tool. Bear sells the QC passed stuff on their website and as far as I know, that is the only way to make sure a Bear product isn't a defective reject.
I bought a "brand new" Super Bear Jaws recently and it was soo defective I sent it back to Bear before using it. It was dangerous and Bear said they were going to "look into" the ebay seller. I doubt they give a smurf. Cheaper to replace a tool when someone knows how smurfed up it is and sends it in than to quit selling rejects to people.
The knife I bought is a legitimate #102. I only know this, because the guy had the wholesale receipt where he bought them direct from Bear. The fit and finish are fantastic on the knife.

If Bear would stop letting "factory seconds" leech into the public, then they may be able to compete with the big boys. Until then, most Bear stuff on Amazon and Ebay have glaring defects, because they were rejects.
/end rant.

Hope you put it through the ringer and keep us updated.  I'm always on the lookout for new bargain work knives.  The RAT-1 and Tenacious are two I've been happy with.

Holding up well so far Clown! I have the Rat and love it. I have hope for the Bear, because the edge length is as long as the Rat's and has a much shorter handle. But, the Rat is a hard knife to beat. I really enjoyed the chisel ground blade when I was carrying it!