Just rec. this knife today from KC Slim. Was kind of hesitant to buy another liner lock as I have not had great luck with them. The only one I currently own is a Outdoor Edge Magna. Not that great of ergonomics with that knife and the liner lock fails miserably, but the cavaeat to that being that I can not make it fail unless I hit it on the back of the blade and the edge gets absolutely scary sharp. A differnt type of sharp than other AUS-8 blades I have had. Now to the EDI. First off it is a plain looking black knife. Didn't know if I would like it that much due to the color. Not much of a tactical person and if I feel I need to be tactical with a knife it would be with my CS XL clip point. Well pleasently surprised. Indeed it is black but son of a gun I kind of like it! Very unobtrusive to say the least. Next is I really like the way it sits extremely low in my pocket. I mean it disappears. This I really like. The simple reason being is that it doesn't bang my car door jam every time I get in nor does it hang up on everything it brushes against. Next is ergonomics, very nice to open easily and stays opened. I mean I have rapped this thing pretty hard. Harder than most other liner locks I have owned in the past and can not get it to fail. Just the design of the liner. You also have to work at it to close it. This just means to me that working around with it being it on a game animal or just simply trimming fuzzy sticks etc it will not accidently close. I have touched up the edge on my white stone to a really nice scary sharpness that bites especially into some old hickory I have. Made some nice fuzzy sticks for the heck of it while my youngest was in the pool today. There is no blade wobble at all and the knie is pretty lite weight. The grind lines are very well done and the blade centers perfectly in between the liners. The design of the liner lock seems to be unique in that it is not sqaure to the back of the knife. This wraps around the back of the blade behind the pivot. This is a very good idea if you ask me. Just seems to me to be a more secure way of locking the blade in place. It follows the complete contour of the back of the knife and how it is made. I also dropped the knife on our kitchen floor(carpal tunnel very bad), and it did not fly open. The ball detent is very secure. The ergonomics of the grip is not bad either. Very secure to hold due to the serrations that lock on to your thumb at the top of the handle and the heel of your palm at the bottom. These are in turn recessed sllightly below the handle scales. There are no gaps at all between the liners and the G10 give a nice grippy surface to boot. I havent' seen much on this knife in the past. Don't know why that is either. If my example is a typical example of there quality well holy crapola they should have a definite winner. I once owned a MT SOCOM that although was fancier absolutely did not pass the spine whack test. I know my Magna fails miserably when just tapped out towards the point. The EDI in this respect is better than either. Hey the thing is lite wt., easy to maintain, scary sharp, has very decent ergonomics, cuts like no tomorrow, and sit nice and low in the pocket. Who could ask for more? Well a nice distal taper drop point with a slightly deeper belly. Keep'em sharp.
PS it passed my paper bag test admirably which is about as tactical as I will get with it.
PS it passed my paper bag test admirably which is about as tactical as I will get with it.