Arno Bernard iMamba praise

LimpCroissant

LimpCroissant

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Hey guys/gals. I just wanted to share with you guys my awesome experience of receiving and owning an Arno Bernard iMamba. It's very rare that I see a knife design I love right when I first see it and then continue to be enamored by it over the course of looking at it for months. I love all sorts of knives but this one has always seemed special to me. I started getting serious about looking for one about 6 months ago and really started reading into them and found out that Arno Bernard only puts a run out once in a great while. Well, I saw that he was making a run of them a few months ago and tracked down where they would be headed. It took about 3 months for them to actually show up and become available. I didn't preorder one because I wanted to be able to look at pictures of each individual one that they had and choose one the one that I liked the best. I had my heart set on a plain warthog tusk inlay (white) version for months and that's what I planned to get. Just before they finally became available, they put out a comment saying that version had already sold out. I was kind of heart broken but then when I saw the pics of the died warthog tusk, I almost liked them better.

I've had it now for a few weeks and I can't say enough good things about it. The fit and finish is absolutely top notch. I'm talking a Chris Reeve level of fit and finish. The size is perfect for me. Just a little bit smaller than a large Sebenza, which is something I always hoped for. The action on it is magnificent, it flips open smooth as hell and takes work to get it to not fly all the way open using the flipper. You can also use the fuller to open it with your thumb, or reverse flick it with your middle finger. I love a knife that has multiple deployment options and is ambidextrous. The grind geometry is nice, pretty thin, and stays thin pretty far up the blade, similar to a Sebenza. The pocket clip screws in from the inside of the scale leaving no external screws for the clip. After receiving it, playing around with it, and carrying it a bit I decided that I'm actually really glad I got the dyed warthog tusk inlay. Turns out I like it better. All in all it's an amazing knife in my opinion. I just wanted to share it with you guys. I've had these pics saved for a week and have been waiting to find a bit of time to make a post.

Please share your own pictures and thoughts on the iMamba or other Arno Bernard knives!

Edit: Normally I'd make this thread in the Review section, however I wanted as many people to see it as possible now, while there still may be a few available since they're usually pretty tough to find. That and I'm hoping other people will share pictures and discussion on their own iMambas, Rinkhals, and other AB knives.


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unwisefool said:
iMamba? Why the lower case "i" in front? Does it get cell reception or have onboard wifi? Looks like a nice knife though, enjoy! And I think that inlay looks great
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Haha, ya know I'm not sure why Arno Bernard did the whole lowercase "i" thing. I thought it was pretty weird too. But... That's the only thing I think is weird about it and usually there's atleast two or more things per knife that I think is weird, so that's a good sign.
Thanks man, yea she sure is a beaut and I think I got lucky with a really nice looking inlay. The way they were sold you can see each one individually, so I was lucky to be able to choose between about 10 of them. I highly recommend it!
 
Landshark99 said:
I have an Arno Scavenger series Wild Dog fixed blade really nice knife, great attention to detail
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Oh boy, and it's even in mammoth! Very nice man! I've been kind of thinking about getting on of his small pocket fixed blades. Jeez, the contrast throughout that mammoth is crazy!
 
bayouace said:

Dunno the small size you like. Here is my AB Squirrel in Mammoth Molar.
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Oh man... That thing is absolutely stunning too! Mammoth molar has such a crazy cool pattern, it never fails to amaze me! Is that in RWL-34 like his folders?
 
LimpCroissant said:
Oh man... That thing is absolutely stunning too! Mammoth molar has such a crazy cool pattern, it never fails to amaze me! Is that in RWL-34 like his folders?
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To be honest, my sons gave it to me for Christmas 3 years ago, and I am not astute enough to know the steel. It was bought retail, so probably their usual good steel.
 
bayouace said:
To be honest, my sons gave it to me for Christmas 3 years ago, and I am not astute enough to know the steel. It was bought retail, so probably their usual good steel.
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Right on man, sounds like you have yourself a good set of sons, that's really cool of them!
 
Redwood25 said:
Just received mine (Desert Ironwood) this week! They are fantastic I’ll be getting a plain version, too (I’m a sucker for plain knives and seldom get “fancy” stuff).View attachment 1832041
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Ooo wee! Now there's an awesome trio! I was very tempted by the desert ironwood also. I would have been just as happy either way, but I already had my hear set on a tusk/bone inlay. That came out real nice man. Yea, I also very seldom get any type of dressed up knife. Mainly because they're always quite a bit more expensive though and just can't bring myself to spend even more money on whatever knife it is. The plain jane versions look real nice too, I bet they'll look real good after they get some nice use to them!

Wow, that Sebenza is out of this world too. Is that one of the very few Damasteel Sebenzas out there?
 
madcap_magician said:
I really wanted to like them but have a hard time getting over the low-hardness RWL34 choice for the blades. I suspect they're very much the closest thing to flipper CRKs we can get.
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Yea man I've definitely battled with that same hurdle myself. Ultimately I decided that a lot of high end customs are still made in RWL34 so I should just trust the maker and not put too much thought into it. It kind of gives it a more old-world appeal to me though a bit for some reason and it's nice knowing that it will be very easy to maintain no matter where I am in the world.

I think you're right too about it being the closest thing to a flipper Sebenza we can get. It's really cool that it's not exclusively a flipper though and you have other opening options. It's also quite a bit smoother than my Sebenza.

I think ultimately the reason I fell in love with it when I first saw it and have stayed in love with it is because I've always loved the Sebenza, the Mnandi, and South African made knives. This kind of merges all three of those things into something like a flipper Sebnandi.😅
 
Looks very nice. I've handled a few of his fixed blades and they were very well done. I'd rather it wasn't a flipper, but I really like the size. I've always thought the Small Sebenza was just a bit too small & the Large too big.
 
Halfneck said:
Looks very nice. I've handled a few of his fixed blades and they were very well done. I'd rather it wasn't a flipper, but I really like the size. I've always thought the Small Sebenza was just a bit too small & the Large too big.
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I've always thought the exact same thing my friend! Haha. There was a post asking Tim Reeve to consider making a medium Sebenza the other day and he said "If ya'll don't mind a wait time of 5 years!"

I'm not a big flipper guy at all either. Really I won't buy a flipper knife if that's the only way to open it. However this flipper is done very well. There's a member on here that did a flipper delete on his, it looks pretty sweet.
 
I don’t mind flippers, at all, and besides this, I have two front flippers. The Imamba can also be opened as if it has thumbstuds. Just roll it open. Works great!
As far as the blade steel, I think we fall into “needing” the latest, greatest steel way too easily. Sure, it may be “better”, but “lesser” steels will still often do everything most of us need, and more!
 
Oh, as far as my Inkosi, I believe they made about 15 of these with wood inlays and the dama blade.
I underatand wood inlays will eventually be a standard option though.
 
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