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Pros: Blade Material, Blade Sharpness, Ease of Opening, Handle Feel, Handle Material, Lock Ease of Use, Lock Type, Overall Quality
Cons: Pocket Clip
Perfect, but for the pocket clip
This is really a 4.5-star review. Nearly everything about the Terzuola ATCF Lite is superb, especially for its price point ... blade shape, blade thickness, even grind, handle shape, liner lock action, flipper shape, thumb ramp, fuller size and shape ... and, yes, the pedigree. The liners are not skeletonized, so this knife feels solid in spite of its size ... about the same as a non-lightweight Spyderco Persistence with G10 handle scales. "Lite" seems to be relative. It balances perfectly at the finger groove, though. Nevertheless, lefties beware: The "reversible" pocket clip is more like "fully disassemblable". And lest you think I'm exaggerating: The pocket clip is attached with a single screw to the *inside* of the liner. Yet, it occludes a screw on the *outside* of the handle scale. So, to swap the clip for left-side carry, you'll need to sort out a T6 and T8 driver, cloth or paper towel, padded or silicone mat, and a reasonably sized reservoir of cusswords. Then, disassemble the knife starting with the side *opposite* the clip, and work your way down—removing the pivot screw and pivot (you may have to apply pressure to the dragon side so it doesn't slip off the keyed tab that prevents it from rotating), the handle scale, the liner, the backspacer, the bearings, and the blade, just to get to the point where you can access the screw to remove the clip. Then, to reassemble, you must first continue disassembly, because you'll need to reassemble in reverse order, and the clip now covers up the screw holding the handle scale on the *other* side. So, keep going—with the clip gone, now you can remove the second handle scale. You'll need to remove the lanyard pin, the barrel spacers, and the backspacer pin as well, then apply them to the *first* liner (the one you already removed), because ... the clip covers up the screws that attach the barrel spacers. There's probably a fair amount of tool oil coating the liners and the inside of the handle scales, so take the opportunity to wipe the extra off, along with any dust or fingerprints left by Bob Terzuola's elves. Next, attach the first handle scale, *then* attach the clip to its new side using the same screw that was in it before (don't mix up the screws, this one is shorter than the others!). Insert the dragon side of the pivot, making sure to press it onto the keyed tab, and side the whole side down clip-and-dragon-side-down. Fiddle with the backspacer and its pin until it seats correctly, add one of the bearing cages, and set the blade carefully onto the pivot, making sure the blade pin seats correctly in the semicircular liner groove. Then add the remaining bearing cage and set the remaining liner carefully on top of the blade and pivot. Screw the liner into the barrel spacers at the backspacer, keeping pressure on the liner lock so it doesn't spring the liner free of the pivot. Finally, add the remaining handle scale and fasten it with the last two screws and the pivot screw. Any pieces left over? Gotta start again. So, that's a metric boatload of work just to swap the clip for left-side carry. But Bob's probably right-handed and so isn't affected by that. Does all that really amount to just half a star? Well, maybe. Count the cusswords you used, and see whether the dozen-cusswords-per-full-star rule of thumb I used matches your experience. The good news is, by swapping the clip I was able to clean all the fingerprints, lint, and grit off the inside of the knife where they had been covertly residing for some time. And with the clip swapped, I'm pretty happy with the ATCF Lite—not just because of the quality, feel, etc., but also because I swore to myself that I'm never doing *that* again.