Ozark Trail 6842

Just when you thought it was safe to walk down the camping goods aisle...

Here's number two out of three. I haven't found the third variant of the fabled Walmart Axis lock knife yet, and to be honest I didn't expect to find the second one, either. We looked at the "6835" variant about a month ago and now I'm back at it again with this, SKU 6842.

Tl;dr: Walmart unexpectedly started offering a trio of "Axis" lock-alike crossbar locking folders to very little fanfare, and then discontinued them instantly. Normally we would say this is totally unexpected, if it weren't for the fact that a couple of years ago they did exactly the same thing: releasing some very similar knives that were likewise dropped just as quickly. While they last, if you can find one, these are $5 each -- A ridiculously low price point, even for trash quality knives. But luckily these aren't trash quality. In fact, if you ask me they're about on par with what you'd get for an inexpensive brand name department store knife from a few years ago. Think along the lines of a Gerber, Buck, or Camillus.

I randomly found one the other day, in addition to one (1) more of the model I already owned. I bought them both. (My double is still sealed in its original packaging... I can feel my investment appreciating in value by the second. Some day, that knife might be worth $6.50, maybe even $7.)

These come on brown hang cards, pictured both front and rear here. There is no name or model designation on these other than "7-Inch Folding Knife," and the SKU on the rear. In this case, 6842. Insofar as I have been able to determine these are no longer listed on Walmart's web site, so the only way to find one is to be a big enough nerd to paw through the selection of cheapo hang card knives at the sporting goods counter at your local Walmart(s) and look for the telltale Axis/crossbar lock.

See, there it is. Just like daddy's Benchmade. Except in every other detail.

This variant is definitely a chip off the same block as the 6835 knife, and is probably made by the same manufacturer... Whoever that is. Hangzhou Great Star Tools Co. Ltd. is my best guess, who have been the historical manufacturer of most of the previous Ozark Trail branded knives. The combination of mechanism and price is what makes these, for lack of a better word, special. They're not great knives but they're surprisingly competent given the price point. One of these would make a fine knockaround camping knife, tackle box knife, glovebox knife, or find a home for any similar application where maybe you won't care too much about its appearance or condition.

The quality and specifications of this knife are nearly identical to the last one. So I'll try not to waste too many words treading the same old ground. You get the same polypropylene handle scales -- a very unusual material -- unspecified stainless steel alloy, drop point blade that's precisely 3" long, deep carry reversible pocket clip, and 72.8 gram overall weight (2.57 ounces). That's all the spitting image of the 6835 SKU, and this one even does the same dumb thing where the screw heads inside the pocket clip aren't flush.

There are, however, some differences.

For a start, this time the blade has this fairly attractive stonewashed finish.

Oh, and the damn pivot screw heads are actually flush with the scales on this one, which is nice. And in addition to the ambidextrous thumb studs, this one's also got a flipper opener. And it almost even gets that part right!

Just like the last knife, this one came shipped packed full of unctuous crud that probably at one point had the intent of being a lubricant, but isn't anymore. So the action was pretty awful until I took the whole knife apart, cleaned it, and regreased it. But the flipper design has one other personality defect built in, which is that the crossbar can bind on the inside surface of the flipper if you pull it back all the way, and that makes it impossible to flick the knife open while holding the lock back.

Using the flipper as intended, by pressing it into the spine of the handle and adding a slight but absolutely mandatory flick of the wrist works fine and does indeed get the knife to snap open easily. (After, of course, the obligatory disassemble-clean-reassemble-tune song and dance.) But you cannot "Axis flick" this knife no matter how hard you try, because there is no position whatsoever you can hold the lock in where it won't have to contact one side or the other of the slot it rides in during the blade's travel.

What we're up against is this.

There's a track cut into the heel of the blade for the crossbar lock to ride in, but it's not actually semicircular. It's slightly elliptical, but the blade's pivot is obviously an arc of a perfect circle. So no matter what, the crossbar crashes into it at some point along its travel. That's just tickety-boo if you're opening the knife normally, since the surface is smooth enough and the springs behind the lock weak enough that it just slides over the surface. But if you're holding the crossbar still in some particular position, that just plain old don't work nohow. On a normal Axis knife you can pull it all the way to the rear so it's clear of the blade entirely. On this, you can't.

Here's the whole thing smashed to pieces. Getting it apart wasn't too tough, but did require two T6 drivers to grab the screws from both ends at once. The construction is extremely simple with the handles and liners being held down via the same pairs of screws into threaded barrels that also serve as the spacers between the two handle halves.

The pivot rides on two PFTE washers and the centering's pretty good for a cheap knife, but not perfect. The blade does not contact either liner when closed, at least. One of the thumb studs is visibly longer than the other one, too. I'm not sure what that's about.

All the screws are the same except the rearmost one in the clip, which is inexplicably longer than the others. This goes in the threaded barrel and not in the second screw hole in the clip. If you do that, it's long enough to stick all the way through the liner and contact the blade. You'll figure it out.

The edge grind is pretty good for a cheap knife and mine came off the card with an edge on it that ought to be sharp enough to please ordinary oiks who aren't knife maniacs.

If you're not one of those, you'll instead be pleased to learn that the edge (at least on my example) is perfectly within true. Turning this into a razor ought not to be too hard, then, if that's what you're into. I have no idea how long it will stay that way because no one will admit what kind of steel this is made out of.

No surprise, this knife is almost exactly the same footprint as its sibling Ozark knife. It's a hair thicker at 0.548" not including the clip. It's also not very deep across the other dimension, from spine to channel. That makes the cross section feel almost square in the hand. The scales have a crosshatched texture on them which I found give it a much more confidence inspiring grip than the other knife.

Both of them are dwarfed by my CQC-6K except in thickness.

The Inevitable Conclusion

If you want to trade your ability to Axis flick your knife open for a better grip texture, a flipper opener, and a stonewashed finish that almost -- but not completely -- hides the machine marks on the blade, go with this knife over the other one. What the hell. It's still only $5.