I wasn't planning on buying one, but two things changed my mind when I saw it in person today and I had to have it. I wanted to like the knife when it was introduced, and there were only two things that bothered me, the little cutout on the back side and the linerlock which had not worked so well on other knives I have played with recently.
1, The little cutout on the back side of the handle doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. It only dips in about 1/8" because the whole knife is not that big.
2. It's a "good" linerlock with a concave lock surface ground into the blade for the liner to connect to. Like a recent Benchmade or Emerson. The liner is not going to push all the way over to the opposite handle slab easily. It's not like the linerlocks Buck is still making which are often just barely hitting.
The only negative thing I noticed is it does not have any ridges where your thumb rests, even though it has them on the bottom of the tang where your index finger would rest. But I think I might prefer it without them, as ridges sometimes eat at the edge of my back pocket.
1, The little cutout on the back side of the handle doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. It only dips in about 1/8" because the whole knife is not that big.
2. It's a "good" linerlock with a concave lock surface ground into the blade for the liner to connect to. Like a recent Benchmade or Emerson. The liner is not going to push all the way over to the opposite handle slab easily. It's not like the linerlocks Buck is still making which are often just barely hitting.
The only negative thing I noticed is it does not have any ridges where your thumb rests, even though it has them on the bottom of the tang where your index finger would rest. But I think I might prefer it without them, as ridges sometimes eat at the edge of my back pocket.