Sorry I miss that, yes I wrote to tops and link this video in the email. They said it was probably defective and they offered to change it for free. But they don't pay, as a policy rule of the brand, the shipping costs for and from their facility. Living in Italy, paying for all the shipping costs and most of all the tax on the knife at the customs duty, which are very high here it's more than half the cost of the knife. Tax that I've already paid for that items the first time. Basically it wasn't convenient for me, It was more simple if I would have buy a new one for the price. Their warranty it's good only if you live in the USA. That's very stupid in 2019. I had to use in the past the busse, swamp rat, esee and ka bar warranty services, in all the cases I pay only to get my knife on their factory. They paid all the rest.
...and that's why many brands have such policies and that's how they avoid covering their crap blades, that were sold outside the country of origin. Applies to many manufacturers, everywhere. It just doesn't worth paying twice the import taxes, plus the back and forth shipping. So much for lifetime warranties and PR shit...
maybe you got defective knife... I own yacare knife to, and used it last summer very extensively, its hold edge well , i never bend it or dose any other dsmages to it. My knife stand out very well to any tasks i throw to it. I must say sheath it came wit is total garbage !!!
Probably it was defective.. But that portion of the blade between the blade and the handle is definitely a stupid weak spot. All the blade was probably too soft, but the weak spot is were mostly bent all the knife. Soft steel need a generous dimension to hold, especially in different heat treatment. The Japanese katana are 8 mm thick on the spine, no weak spots. The sheat is garbage. With some modification the yacare could be a great knife.
I've had a few tops knives, I've come to the conclusion that their thinner models are just too soft and bend too easily. They get away with it on their 1/4" thick low sabre grinds but the thinner and full flat grind stuff bend too easily and don't spring back to center. Their "differential heat treatment" seems to not be suitable for thinner knives
Just like Katana’s that are differentially treated vs. Katana’s that are through hardened. Ive put sets (bends) in differentially hardened katana like noodles. Through hardened spring tempered 1095 doesnt bend easy at all. Differentially hardened has better edge retention though. Still, on this blade…this was a Tops heat treatment fook up. This steel is way too soft and missed heat treatment process. In the words of this guy on the vid…… oh chit
1. They do or did heat treat by hand, probably a slight defect. 2. U probably would have never noticed if u didnt yank to the side and it wouldve lasted a life time. 3. Ive only ever had the tops bob. And being an ex criminal i used to prey car doors open at the top of the door with it and never had an issues with the three ive bought back in those days. Conclusion, dont rape ur blades, anything will fail at a point. And the yak is very thin close to the handle. Alot alot alot thin😂 im thinking about buying one bc i bet u got one of very few heat treats theyve had that wasnt great.
Maybe some points in the video weren't clear. I clarify a couple of things. It didn't bend because I slipped it into the trunk and made strength laterally. He folded during the chopping, normal, which you can see in another video, against another knife. When I realized that it was bent, at the end of the video, I made this other video to talk about the problem, and I deliberately folded it laterally to the right and left to show how easy it was to do it, because it was too soft and defective on the differential heat treatment. At the end of this video I straightened it without any effort. I had and tried many tops, the best I had was undoubtedly the bob, so I speak with full knowledge of the facts. What escapes this video is not the single defective piece that can happen to every brand, but the production process of tops that is completely wrong. They make too many models, some, like this completely poorly designed, all with the same base steel, without differentiating according to the project, based on the intended use and above all the differential heat treatment, which they believe to be their strong point is actually the weakest point of tops. Because there is a person who does it manually on hundreds of pieces and this leads to a high possibility of having defective pieces and having two identical knives with completely different performances, which is unacceptable for an industrial knife. You can't go to luck, such a company must have constant quality. The differential heat treatment is exceptional on high-end custom knives, big knives, swords, made by expert masters of the ABS Mastersmith, by expert forgers, on the single quality piece, not by a company of this kind on the entire catalog of an industrial production. This is the point of the video, clearly it is my opinion, based on my experience.
That's the result of a blade that HAS NOT BEEN HEAT TREATED. The steel is in the anealed state. I see this kind of crap everywhere I go, with almost every genre of products. The buyer has to be the quality control because manufacturing doesn't have QC anymore and the workers are all on drugs!!!
@@MovieGuy666 - Are you guy joking? A 250$ knife can't handle a test a 15$ machete can pass with flying colors? I can't tell if you're a TOPS fanboy or just ignorant, but it's utterly unacceptable a blade bends like this. Something went very wrong during the heat treatment.
Idk I have a couple tops knives with perfect quality heat treatment, and I've chopped with the one for well over a year and even batoned through wood the same length of the blade and there was no bending of the blade whatsoever. On either one.
I'm sorry to hear that, i'm not surprised though... try to contact them, this sort of problem should be fixed by warraty with a new one. Tops have the problem that they want you to pay for the shipping, both shipping. So if you are not in the USA, it could be expensive/problematic. If you want a good knife on those generous dimensions, a successful hybrid (one of the few) between field knife and machete try a Terawa skrama 240, that's a great knife.
@@zoroutdoor9 Well I finally got around to sending my yacare back to tops knives. They told me that the first batch may not have had the right heat treat, but they have since fixed that problem. So they perfectly straightened my knife, and did a new heat treat and resharpened it and put their new upgraded clear coat finish on it all free of charge. So I’m very happy with that warranty service, and I’ll let you know how it chops once I take it back out
That is a bad heat treatment. That is the problem with differential heat treating. I'm not a fan of Top very overpriced. It's Carbon steel no excuse for a bad knife at those prices. I prefer ontario and kabar. To me no knife is worth more then $150. I'm surprised you don't have some hidden Italian jem. Italy makes some beautiful folding knives.
I totally agree with you, ka-bar and ontario are far better!! I've had lots of folder in the past, all the Italian brand and more, but recently I've started to buy mostly fixed blade. As for edc my favorite ones are spyderco and benchmade, I also like cold steel and microtech over the Italians knives.
I own 2 tops knives and the heat treatments have been perfect even with heavy batoning through 6.5 inch thick pieces of wood. I have owned one kabar, it didnt break because i didnt put it through hard use but ive seen multiple kabar knives break in half on CZcams, they're quality is way worse than tops. I've never owned an Ontario but have watched plenty of reviews on they're ranger series of knives and they're edge grind lines are asmmetrical by a long shot on lots of different videos, you claim tops knives are overpriced but what your actaully paying for is almost complete perfection on the edge grind and litteral perfection on the bevel for a great price, if that's something you care about. You've probably just watched this one review of this one defective model, but I garentee look up any other tops review and it will be positive.
This is a single defective model, I have 2 tops knives(made out of the same 1095 steel) which haven't bent or anything that I've batoned through 6.5 inch wide pieces of hard wood with knots in it, just look up any other tops knife review on CZcams and you will find they are a great quality brand
I've never had a fake knife in my life. If I can't afford something, I get something else, not the copy. furthermore, testing a fake only throws mud on the original brand and the Chinese fake the most famous and best-selling knives, not secondary models like this one. That said, it was purchased new on Lamnia at list price. This knife is defective for two reasons. The yakare has an unbalanced blade, too thick at the tip and thin between the blade and the handle. this already makes it a bad hybrid between machete and big chopper. But not only the other reason why it is bent is the differentiated heat treatment, done randomly and completely wrong by tops. in fact the part between the blade and the handle is not hardened and is around 48 HRC, the etching they do on the blade makes it clear, because it reveals where the hardest part begins around 56-58 HRC. thin steel at 48 HRC bends like a flag in the wind. After having several tops and testing them, aside from some uncomfortable handles and cheap sheaths (like this one) and high prices, I can safely say that they have made some very good knives, like the Bob, which remains their best product, but that their the biggest problem is always the design and above all the differentiated hardening.
This comment does not make any sense.... It fail on camera, while I was chopping, that's a huge fail. Even tops itself said that it's defective. I test my knife like I want, I wasn't chopping steel or rocks, it was wood. If you don't like the video go see something else or use your money, buy it, test it out, record it, post the video on CZcams and link the video in the comment, I will gladly see it.
When the blade was stuck in the wood he bent it towards his left, this test is for a pry bars not for a machete. We use machetes as a source of living in SE Asia we do not use this for bending sideways.
Surprise it bent to the side you are pulling it when the blade is stuck in the wood !
Did you had a replacement or explanations fromTops ?
Sorry I miss that, yes I wrote to tops and link this video in the email. They said it was probably defective and they offered to change it for free. But they don't pay, as a policy rule of the brand, the shipping costs for and from their facility. Living in Italy, paying for all the shipping costs and most of all the tax on the knife at the customs duty, which are very high here it's more than half the cost of the knife. Tax that I've already paid for that items the first time. Basically it wasn't convenient for me, It was more simple if I would have buy a new one for the price. Their warranty it's good only if you live in the USA. That's very stupid in 2019. I had to use in the past the busse, swamp rat, esee and ka bar warranty services, in all the cases I pay only to get my knife on their factory. They paid all the rest.
...and that's why many brands have such policies and that's how they avoid covering their crap blades, that were sold outside the country of origin. Applies to many manufacturers, everywhere. It just doesn't worth paying twice the import taxes, plus the back and forth shipping. So much for lifetime warranties and PR shit...
That’s Odd usually Tops is extremely reliable.
maybe you got defective knife... I own yacare knife to, and used it last summer very extensively, its hold edge well , i never bend it or dose any other dsmages to it. My knife stand out very well to any tasks i throw to it.
I must say sheath it came wit is total garbage !!!
Probably it was defective.. But that portion of the blade between the blade and the handle is definitely a stupid weak spot. All the blade was probably too soft, but the weak spot is were mostly bent all the knife. Soft steel need a generous dimension to hold, especially in different heat treatment. The Japanese katana are 8 mm thick on the spine, no weak spots. The sheat is garbage. With some modification the yacare could be a great knife.
I've had a few tops knives, I've come to the conclusion that their thinner models are just too soft and bend too easily. They get away with it on their 1/4" thick low sabre grinds but the thinner and full flat grind stuff bend too easily and don't spring back to center. Their "differential heat treatment" seems to not be suitable for thinner knives
Just like Katana’s that are differentially treated vs. Katana’s that are through hardened. Ive put sets (bends) in differentially hardened katana like noodles. Through hardened spring tempered 1095 doesnt bend easy at all. Differentially hardened has better edge retention though.
Still, on this blade…this was a Tops heat treatment fook up. This steel is way too soft and missed heat treatment process. In the words of this guy on the vid…… oh chit
Oh great. I just got mine too😅
1. They do or did heat treat by hand, probably a slight defect.
2. U probably would have never noticed if u didnt yank to the side and it wouldve lasted a life time.
3. Ive only ever had the tops bob. And being an ex criminal i used to prey car doors open at the top of the door with it and never had an issues with the three ive bought back in those days.
Conclusion, dont rape ur blades, anything will fail at a point. And the yak is very thin close to the handle. Alot alot alot thin😂 im thinking about buying one bc i bet u got one of very few heat treats theyve had that wasnt great.
Maybe some points in the video weren't clear. I clarify a couple of things. It didn't bend because I slipped it into the trunk and made strength laterally. He folded during the chopping, normal, which you can see in another video, against another knife. When I realized that it was bent, at the end of the video, I made this other video to talk about the problem, and I deliberately folded it laterally to the right and left to show how easy it was to do it, because it was too soft and defective on the differential heat treatment. At the end of this video I straightened it without any effort. I had and tried many tops, the best I had was undoubtedly the bob, so I speak with full knowledge of the facts. What escapes this video is not the single defective piece that can happen to every brand, but the production process of tops that is completely wrong. They make too many models, some, like this completely poorly designed, all with the same base steel, without differentiating according to the project, based on the intended use and above all the differential heat treatment, which they believe to be their strong point is actually the weakest point of tops. Because there is a person who does it manually on hundreds of pieces and this leads to a high possibility of having defective pieces and having two identical knives with completely different performances, which is unacceptable for an industrial knife. You can't go to luck, such a company must have constant quality. The differential heat treatment is exceptional on high-end custom knives, big knives, swords, made by expert masters of the ABS Mastersmith, by expert forgers, on the single quality piece, not by a company of this kind on the entire catalog of an industrial production. This is the point of the video, clearly it is my opinion, based on my experience.
Ouch….Tops fooked up the heat treatment on this batch
I've tried to break my tops tahoma field knife.... I failed
That's the result of a blade that HAS NOT BEEN HEAT TREATED. The steel is in the anealed state. I see this kind of crap everywhere I go, with almost every genre of products. The buyer has to be the quality control because manufacturing doesn't have QC anymore and the workers are all on drugs!!!
he was bending it when trying to pull it out, it's his fault not the knife.
@@MovieGuy666 - Are you guy joking? A 250$ knife can't handle a test a 15$ machete can pass with flying colors? I can't tell if you're a TOPS fanboy or just ignorant, but it's utterly unacceptable a blade bends like this. Something went very wrong during the heat treatment.
Idk I have a couple tops knives with perfect quality heat treatment, and I've chopped with the one for well over a year and even batoned through wood the same length of the blade and there was no bending of the blade whatsoever. On either one.
Unfortunately, my yacare has the exact same problem.
I'm sorry to hear that, i'm not surprised though... try to contact them, this sort of problem should be fixed by warraty with a new one. Tops have the problem that they want you to pay for the shipping, both shipping. So if you are not in the USA, it could be expensive/problematic. If you want a good knife on those generous dimensions, a successful hybrid (one of the few) between field knife and machete try a Terawa skrama 240, that's a great knife.
@@zoroutdoor9 Well I finally got around to sending my yacare back to tops knives. They told me that the first batch may not have had the right heat treat, but they have since fixed that problem. So they perfectly straightened my knife, and did a new heat treat and resharpened it and put their new upgraded clear coat finish on it all free of charge. So I’m very happy with that warranty service, and I’ll let you know how it chops once I take it back out
Lol. Too Low Hardness.
That is a bad heat treatment. That is the problem with differential heat treating. I'm not a fan of Top very overpriced. It's Carbon steel no excuse for a bad knife at those prices. I prefer ontario and kabar. To me no knife is worth more then $150. I'm surprised you don't have some hidden Italian jem. Italy makes some beautiful folding knives.
I totally agree with you, ka-bar and ontario are far better!! I've had lots of folder in the past, all the Italian brand and more, but recently I've started to buy mostly fixed blade. As for edc my favorite ones are spyderco and benchmade, I also like cold steel and microtech over the Italians knives.
I own 2 tops knives and the heat treatments have been perfect even with heavy batoning through 6.5 inch thick pieces of wood. I have owned one kabar, it didnt break because i didnt put it through hard use but ive seen multiple kabar knives break in half on CZcams, they're quality is way worse than tops. I've never owned an Ontario but have watched plenty of reviews on they're ranger series of knives and they're edge grind lines are asmmetrical by a long shot on lots of different videos, you claim tops knives are overpriced but what your actaully paying for is almost complete perfection on the edge grind and litteral perfection on the bevel for a great price, if that's something you care about. You've probably just watched this one review of this one defective model, but I garentee look up any other tops review and it will be positive.
It is a lot 😜
Try doing that with an Esee Junglas, no chance!….. completely agree with your test Zoro! 👍
You think the Esee is better?
Thank U 👍
U saved my money 👍
This is a single defective model, I have 2 tops knives(made out of the same 1095 steel) which haven't bent or anything that I've batoned through 6.5 inch wide pieces of hard wood with knots in it, just look up any other tops knife review on CZcams and you will find they are a great quality brand
Crazy so differential heat treat isn’t all that great in some cases
Chinese copy??
I've never had a fake knife in my life. If I can't afford something, I get something else, not the copy. furthermore, testing a fake only throws mud on the original brand and the Chinese fake the most famous and best-selling knives, not secondary models like this one. That said, it was purchased new on Lamnia at list price. This knife is defective for two reasons. The yakare has an unbalanced blade, too thick at the tip and thin between the blade and the handle. this already makes it a bad hybrid between machete and big chopper. But not only the other reason why it is bent is the differentiated heat treatment, done randomly and completely wrong by tops. in fact the part between the blade and the handle is not hardened and is around 48 HRC, the etching they do on the blade makes it clear, because it reveals where the hardest part begins around 56-58 HRC. thin steel at 48 HRC bends like a flag in the wind. After having several tops and testing them, aside from some uncomfortable handles and cheap sheaths (like this one) and high prices, I can safely say that they have made some very good knives, like the Bob, which remains their best product, but that their the biggest problem is always the design and above all the differentiated hardening.
Chopping doesnt mean you bend the knife. This "test" is a fail not the blade
This comment does not make any sense.... It fail on camera, while I was chopping, that's a huge fail. Even tops itself said that it's defective. I test my knife like I want, I wasn't chopping steel or rocks, it was wood. If you don't like the video go see something else or use your money, buy it, test it out, record it, post the video on CZcams and link the video in the comment, I will gladly see it.
Angel Cocio Can you please share your divine wisdom, of how this test's a fail?
he was bending it sideways when trying to pull it out.
When the blade was stuck in the wood he bent it towards his left, this test is for a pry bars not for a machete. We use machetes as a source of living in SE Asia we do not use this for bending sideways.
Heat treated steel is able to be bent and come back straight.