EverydayCommentary: Oz Machine Co. Roosevelt Review

If you were a collector of baseball cards in the mid 90s you remember Ben McDonald. He was the “can’t miss” prospect from the Baltimore Orioles. Unfortunately, he missed, and now is perhaps most famous for the also overhyped error card that he appeared on in the 1990 Upper Deck set (not the mysterious “White Circle” error card which looks like a fake, but the one with the Orioles logo on the front instead of the “Rookie” logo). Neither were worth the hype.

Knives have hype too and no knife has been more hyped than the Roosevelt (often lovingly called a “Roosie”). Issued by Oz Machine Company as a limited run production knife now, it was originally a full custom where buyers could choose from a host of features. The version that is out now is the same in terms of blueprint, but you get what you get when the batch is announced. The retail price is around $700, but with add-ons and scarcity on the secondary market, they easily go for over $1,000. When Nick visited last fall, he brought his for me to borrow for review. After a few months I feel like I have a good handle on the Roosevelt, its positives and its negatives. Borrowing it also means that I am not as caught up in the hype around the knife. Thanks to Nick for letting me handle this hard-to-find blade.

I am not as up on the modern high-end collector market as I perhaps should be. But once you get over $300 or so, one’s personal preferences matter more than anything objective about the knife. I am not surprised that this performed well. And frankly, if I were a cost-is-no-object collector, I like the look of this as well.

Read the whole thing at EverydayCommentary.com.