When it slid out of the box, the Bel Air’s pivot was significantly looser than it should be. There was up and down blade play and so much side to side blade play that I could here the blade clicking as I moved it from side to side. The action, as you can imagine, was great, but the cost was pretty steep. To say I was concerned is an understatement. Then I tightened down the pivot screw to eliminate all blade play and the knife has been amazing ever since.
Never has such a good product arrived for review with such an inauspicious first appearance. But as bad as that was, its been that good since. This is an elite design, a knife better than the other Magnacut blade produced by KAI, the very excellent ZT0545. Of all the production knives out there, no knife is closer to the blissful slicey performance of the TRM N2. In fact, the gap between the N2 and the Bel Air is vanishingly small. The differences are preferences only. This is a genuinely special knife. Let’s take a look at why.
The expiration of the Axis lock patent continues to be felt.
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