The Reiver is S35VN and sports a 0.16" blade. That's going to be a pass. I get no benefit from having a blade that thick on a folder. If anything, it acts as a hindrance when passing through materials. Given the blade shape and height here, it'll only be more wedge-like.
The Shakan is 20CV and runs their usual 0.13". That's much more reasonable, though I'd love to see more WE knives running in the 0.10-0.12" range. The handle milling on the C version calls the Kitefin to mind, which stands out as a great slicer at ~0.10".
This brings up another issue... My introduction to WE was the initial Civivi releases. The blade thickness started at 0.12". Between the tall blade of the Naja and the hollow grind of the Baklash, they got fairly thin behind the edge.
They sliced beautifully. They also did an exceptional heat treatment on their 9Cr18Mov. Besides my own anecdotal use, several samples were tested by Outpost 76. For each, a series of fresh 15dps KME edges to the same grit were tested against cardboard. The Civivi 9Cr18Mov consistently punched above its expected grade and became a budget staple. Unfortunately, many of the WE knives in "super steels" like S35VN punched below their expected grades under the same conditions. This led to a situation where their budget knives with a good heat treatment were close
or even better on performance relative to their premium knives.
I wish
WE Knife Media
would look into better heat treatments for their premium steels and hopefully offer more models with thinner blades.
All-new designs
