2021 New knives

[VenoMal1c3]

They dropped the 590 Boost for 2021, which has had a permanent home in the pocket of whatever shorts/pants/jeans I wear for the last year & a half. Guess it's a good thing I bought a second 590 Boost in case anything happened to my Number 1. Kinda makes me wish I'd bought a 3rd when Knife Works had them for under $110 in/around November or December, but that would be silly.

I should send my wife the link for the Aramis Knives ebay listing of the scales I want for my birthday as he is the only one I know who makes scales for the 590 Boost & I've wanted custom scales for it for a while. Hope he will still make them...

I perused the catalog & nothing really jumped out at me, aside from the $10 price increase on everything except accessories. Well, one product did, but I would have to be drunk, high or both to drop $525 for the Unlimited Edition Infidel, especially when the blade is the ubiquitous S30V & not something more premium like S110V or something similar.

 

[Centermass]

I really dig the Fact auto, but think everything else is just meh.

Is it just me, or does the “Claymore” ooze tacticool cheese whiz? I’d probably be more into it if it were G10 or aluminum instead of Grivory. I handled the Casbahs in the past, which also had Grivory scales. They were just “ok” and seemed light duty at best to me. At least the visual design of those was somewhat understated and utilitarian, not screaming “fighting knife-shaped” like this one. I wonder if the name implies it will blow up in your face, or if it’s a reference to the sword.... either way, seems like a miss to me.

I have to walk back my own initial assertion here a bit. At first, I did not like the idea of the Claymore, at all. Nothing about it appealed to me, and I thought it looked a bit, I dunno, hokey? And maybe that’s still kinda true. Since I posted that, I ran into a buddy who had one, and I got to play with it. And I kinda dug it. It’s a good size. The deployment is authoritative, which surprised me. It felt more solid than it looked in the photos, but it was light. Once I got past the GI Joe aesthetics, I realized it might actually be worth considering, and might make a good knockaround auto. That said, it initially only came with a partially serrated blade, and I’m not a huge fan, so I dismissed it.

Enter the second iteration which more recently came out in a plain edge, and my curiosity sparked again. So much so, I recently saw one in the Exchange (curse you, Exchange!), and it should be in hand later tonight. Lol. I guess tacticool cheez whiz ain’t all bad. Perhaps it can even be useful, well, fun at the very least.

 

[Centermass]

Now that I have said aforementioned Claymore in hand, I definitely dig it. Pleased most I think with the light weight to overall size ratio. My only complaint, minor as it is Benchmade , is that the inside edges of the grivory scales are kinda sharp. Not a dealbreaker by any means, and I know it’s kinda par for the course with molded materials, but some light sanding or chamfering would be a really nice touch there. I think a contoured G10 version would be a total slam dunk.