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- Verified Buyer
This knife is bringing my knife-collecting hobby to a premature end.It has everything I need and want in an EDC pocketknife, which makes it very difficult to justify getting any more knives.Construction - 5/5 - Solid. Everything is bolted down tight, almost no flex or give anywhere. There's very slight left-right blade play, but it's negligible.Aesthetics, Fit and Finish - 4.5/5 - Excellent. Clearly a lot of attention to detail that's shown off well. For example, the back lock, rear spacer and steel liners look and feel like a single unbroken block of metal, until you look closer and notice that the back lock and spacer are made of a slightly darker steel.Overall, I find this knife aesthetically pleasing, but this is very subjective. The color of the G10 scales is described as "blurple". I suspect this puts off a lot of prospective buyers. In reality, they are more of a translucent indigo or royal blue. If you have ever looked at a clear sky through a pair of polarized sunglasses and tilted your head to make the sky go as dark as possible, that shade is comparable. I find it quite beautiful, but again this is subjective.There are some very very minor flaws. The gimping on the blade doesn't quite match the gimping on the back lock, so the transition is noticeable. On my copy, the first quarter of the left side of the blade seems to have been ground to an ever so slightly shallower angle than the rest of the blade, so it reflects light at a slightly different angle. The left side of the blade edge also seems to have been ground at a slightly different angle at the very tip. Blade centering was slightly off, but it corrected itself after some use. These are nitpicks. Fit and finish is flawless otherwise.Cutting performance - 5/5 - This comes shaving sharp right out of the box. The full flat grind on the blade makes it a great slicer, and the thickness of the spine suggests it can step up to handle smaller bushcraft tasks if necessary. The blade is on the short side, but I've not found myself wanting a longer blade for any of the everyday tasks I've put it to. By all accounts, S110V loses its razor sharpness at the same rate as any other steel, but holds a usable edge practically indefinitely. I haven't really put this to the test though. S110V is also reportedly not the toughest steel, but in a pocketknife this is fine.Ergonomics - 5/5 - Very, very comfortable in the hand, especially in the choked-up position. Some reviewers have reported problems backing off and gripping the handle alone, but I have no issues with this (it's slightly less comfortable though). The gimping on the spine of the blade makes for a very grippy hold for my thumb, giving excellent control. The textured G10 scales are grippy enough too, and the pocket clip doesn't get in the way.Operation - 5/5 - A back lock is one of the strongest, but it makes for a knife that isn't that fun to play with. Having said that, it opens and closes easily one-handed with no issues. A few weeks of playing with this knife has made it quite smooth.One genius element of the design shines through here. Gripping the handle and operating the back lock makes the blade choil fall onto your index finger, not the blade edge. This is very safe, as there's little risk of the blade edge meeting your fingers (unlike most liner locks). I've found that the kind of grip necessary for the blade edge to fall onto your fingers also makes it very uncomfortable to operate the back lock, so this is unlikely to happen by accident.Ease of Carry - 5/5 - Slim and small enough that I can slip it into a tight jeans pocket and forget it's there. I find myself having to feel for it to check if it's still in my pocket. A real danger with this knife could be forgetting it's on me and going to the airport.In terms of weight, it's hefty enough to inspire confidence, but not so heavy that it weighs down my pocket. I'm having trouble understanding why an even lighter FRN version of this knife needs to exist (apart from the cheaper price). The detent on the blade is positive and strong, so there's no question of it falling open in my pocket. The clip is functional, deep enough and can be re-positioned 4 ways. I've replaced it with a deep carry clip so that nothing sticks over the lip of my pocket, but this wasn't really necessary.I would not consider this a gentleman's knife. However, since it is a relatively small knife that doesn't have any aggressive angles or serrations, it looks more like a tool than a weapon, which is less likely to cause panic or get you arrested.Maintenance - 4/5 - Sharpening this knife will require fairly specialized equipment and lots of elbow grease, but that is what you get with S110V steel. Regular whetstones and stropping compounds will not work on it. I've found that the SpyderCo Sharpmaker works fine, and it can be brought to a mirror finish by stropping with diamond paste. Sharpening is not quite as tedious as I was led to expect, but it definitely is a lot more work than most other steels. An interesting thing I've noticed is that the Sharpmaker, from the same company, is set up for only two angles - 30 and 40 degrees inclusive, whereas the factory edge on this knife was somewhere in the middle. The 30 degree setting is therefore too shallow, whereas the 40 degree setting will start creating a secondary bevel that isn't quite as aggressive as the factory edge. This doesn't really bother me much, but it is something to consider.I haven't taken it apart yet as the screws seem to be well secured with Loctite. That said, I haven't had a reason to as it hasn't accumulated much dust or lint.Overall - 4.5/5 - A well-constructed, very pretty knife with an intelligent design that performs all my EDC blade tasks with no fuss and which I can take almost everywhere. This ticks all the boxes and frankly makes it hard for me to justify buying any more pocket knives.
