Arno Bernard iMamba praise

smithkzn said:
I am South African ;-) Lived down the road from Chris Reeve before he abandoned ship for US. Very mature knife making scene in South Africa, excellent engineers. I suppose I have a general thing against China’s politics. The people are great, as are most everyday citizens everywhere; certainly China’s production and industry is world class and very well priced. It’s the darn politics I try not fund. Probably because my country was destroyed by Marxist politics.
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There is a lot to be said about this but forum rules relegate that kind of discussion to the political sub-forum. I think you need a paid membership to participate though.
 
K.O.D. said:
I just bought a warthog tusk iMamba off the exchange. I'll let y'all know my opinion when it comes.
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Nice, you're gonna enjoy it if I had to place a bet! I really like the warthog tusk too.
 
K.O.D. said:
It will add to my natural materials collection. Thus far it's ironwood, giraffe bone, and ram horn.
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Hell yeah. I've got the warthog tusk as well. I'd really love to have one of the ironwood inlay iMambas too. I'm also a big fan of natural materials.
 
K.O.D. said:
It should be in my mailbox when I get home from Colorado this weekend.
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It arrived. A few observations:

Detent is a little weak, and it was slightly off center. A small pivot adjustment and it's centered and now nearly drops shut.

I expected the inlay to have some texture to it.

I'm ok with RWL-34 based on what I paid for it, but I wouldn't pay near full price for one.

It flips well with a push button type flip. I like it, especially for the price. It's probably a keeper, but it didn't blow me out of the water. I see the "If CRK made a bearing flipper comparison." It has that feel to it.
 
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WedgeAntilles said:
For those in the thread complaining about the price/steel combo, take a look at Grimsmo. Same steel for almost twice the price.
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Also, I think it's probably more expensive to finish RWL-34 to this level of polish than to put a normal finish on Magnacut or whatever the new rage is. CRK charges $100 extra for a "polished" blade now and it's not nearly as polished at the AB ones. I think AB will probably switch to a more conventional finish and more modern steel at some point to cater to where the market is, but I'll enjoy the way they're doing things now while I can.
 
Tsujigiri said:
Also, I think it's probably more expensive to finish RWL-34 to this level of polish than to put a normal finish on Magnacut or whatever the new rage is. CRK charges $100 extra for a "polished" blade now and it's not nearly as polished at the AB ones. I think AB will probably switch to a more conventional finish and more modern steel at some point to cater to where the market is, but I'll enjoy the way they're doing things now while I can.
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They now offer a stonewash finish. The two I bought at Blade I elected for the stonewash. I just didn't want the fingerprint magnet, or scratches to be an issue.
 
WedgeAntilles said:
They now offer a stonewash finish. The two I bought at Blade I elected for the stonewash. I just didn't want the fingerprint magnet, or scratches to be an issue.
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That's one of my worries about the mirror polish. However, it's a tool meant to be used even if it's a bit fancy.
 
K.O.D. said:
That's one of my worries about the mirror polish. However, it's a tool meant to be used even if it's a bit fancy.
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One thing that really really helps with fingerprints on mirror polished, and the like, knives is Renaissance Wax. I've got a mirror polished fixed blade that collected prints like nobodys business, I put a few good coatings of wax on it, and now it cant even get a finger print if I wanted to. I'd imagine car wax and whatever other type of wax would work well too.
 
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