Camillus Cuda Mini-Talon

ThinkOfTheChildren

ThinkOfTheChildren

Joined
Jul 7, 2000
Messages
1,556
After reading all the hype about Talonite®, I just couldn’t help myself anymore: I ordered a Camillus Cuda Mini-Talon. For such a small knife it is very expensive: a direct result of the use of Talonite. Let me just say that I am very disappointed with this knife.

<b>Sheath</b>
Well built, of course, because the sheath was crafted by Blade-Tech industries. It can be carried very well as a neck knife or attached to a mini-tek-lok or even a full sized tek-lok (using a 45 degree angle). See pic here: http://flatground.tripod.com/tek.html
Some things I <b>don’t</b> like about the sheath:
There is no weep hole. I know that Talonite is supposed to be rust proof but a weep hole still aids in the cleaning out of the sheath. I took my mini-talon to the beach in my bathing suit pocket and it was a real pain getting the sand out afterwards. I’ll stick to my bear claw as my beach knife from now on.
I think the holes for neck carry are too small: they will accommodate a ball chain but not paracord.

<b>Handle</b>
Very nice with smooth lines. Scales are matched up well with the full tang.

<b>Blade</b>
<img src="http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/barf.gif"><img src="http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/barf.gif"><img src="http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/barf.gif"> The grind on this little thing came horribly uneven: the full flat grind does <b>not</b> meet at the center of the knife. The edge is 60-70% over to one side. This is very disappointing: not my idea of good quality control. See a pic here: http://flatground.tripod.com/grind.html
I know that one bad piece shouldn’t sour a customer to a company’s entire product line but I’ll think twice before ordering other Camillus products.
After a couple of days of use there are many nasty scratches on my blade. I guess this is the problem with having such a soft material as your blade. Any kind of grime that gets stuck in the sheath such as dirt or sand will leave a nasty scratch upon removal of the blade.

Well…… I regret spending this much on such a small knife. My main interest in getting a rust proof knife was to have something that I could take into nasty environments without worrying about it. With a sheath that is so difficult to clean out, I will have to use other knives. I hate spending so much on a knife that didn’t have the proper attention paid to it.

Oh well…. I was very pleased with my last couple of knife purchases before this. I guess you gotta lose some to win some.
 
For a small fee I'll be glad to take that Mini-Talon off your hands and give it a good, loving home. :D

Shame about the uneven grinds. I would say that must be an aberration, as the Talon that I got had perfect grind lines. Or maybe my Talon was an aberration :confused: ?

Anyway, I'd urge you to use it some more, especially if this is your first experience with Talonite. As I have used my Talon more and more I have come to appreciate the Talonite more and more. Sort of the opposite of most knife purchases: initial infatuation, cooling to just admiration, then to boredom and relegation to the knife drawer. That hasn't happened to the Talon, because it is just too good a knife. However, I don't have the mini-Talon.
 
TOTC, have you contacted Camillus about this? They have a stellar reputation about costomer service! I agree that the grind looks unacceptable. I would contact Will Fennell about it.
 
If you are looking for a home for your scratched up, off center ground, overpriced hunk of Talonitre, please drop me an email. I will not only refrain from charging you a nominal fee, but will send you money. Seriously, I would be happy to purchase this user off of you. Let me know.
 
Hey TOTC...

Firstly..
You should have sent it back as soon as you got it if the grinds were uneven...

Secondly as far as the sheath goes,go get you cordless drill and put your own drain hole in the sheath,,it's quite easy to do...

Then when you go swimming with it make sure you hose it out afterwards..
A grain of sand will cause Havoc on any kind of steel, in Any kind of sheath..

As far as the eyelets go,, BT uses 6:6 eyes on those sheaths and they will accept paracord.. Take the guts out of it....


Sounds like you got one that slipped through QC..
I just got a 154 CM Talon,,and I can honestly say that this is one of the Absolute finest production knives on the market..

I couldn't have hand picked a more perfect blade myself. I for one would not hesitate to order another,,and if all Camillus products are like this 154 Talon I won't hesitate buying more of their products...

I for one am Very pleased and satisfied with my purchase...It's a Sexy little knife...

ttyle

Eric...
 
I have been using my Camillus Mini-Talon for a few months and I think is a very nice knife for the $.
Its not very expensive when you compare it to a custom Talonite fixed blade. ;)

I know my Kydex sheath was made by DDR's step son and not Blade-Tech. My sheath has a drain hole in it. I like the thinner ball chain. :) The ball chain has a built in safety device so you don't hang yourself with it. ;) You can always remove the outter sheath to the paracord and slide it over the ball chain - you just have to use a little imagination...... LOL. You can use the large holes for paracord as well - its not perfect, but its doable. I haven't used mine with a Tek-lok. Most of the time I have it in my front short pocket with the chain thru a belt loop.

The grind on mine is pretty centered. Better centered than most custom knife makers. ;) The edge on this little baby is WICKED sharp!!

My only complaint would be the laynard hole edges were a little sharp and needed to be rounded/chamfered a little bit. I put a Traser Glow Ring on mine so I could see it in case I dropped it while I was fishing in the dark.

Camillus has been coming out with a lot of big name collaborations with the help of Will Fennell. :) I wouldn't hesitate to purchase more of these style knives in the future.
 
TOTC;

Bummer that you feel so unhappy. My Mini-Talon is just perfect in every respect. Listen to what Mr. Simonich says ang give them a call. They always seem like they want to please their customers.
I feel that this is more worth the money then the 3 Busse's I have had and much better customer service too.
:rolleyes:
 
Thanks for the offers to buy but I'd rather not sell it. While I feel that it's overpriced, I'd hate to lose money by just selling it at a lower price than I paid so soon. I might as well get use out of this thing. Maybe I'll come to respect it more as I use it as rockspyder suggests.

Normark,
I have already made my own weep hole. This sheath is still hard to clean out. I can't quite put my finger on it... stuff just kind of gets trapped in there. Maybe 'cause it's so small it's just harder to clean out.
You're also right that I should have sent it in upon recieving it and noticing the flaw. I had waited a while for it, however, and I was way too excited to put it to use. I figured that I could live with a bad grind but after a couple of days it kind of steamed my booty.

I'm sure that Camillus would be willing to fix my problem. I think I'll just keep this one and put it to some hard use. I hate sending stuff back to the factory. Since my problem is not a safety issue I don't feel like spending the time and money to send it back and get another. If it was a faulty lock on a folder then I would but I can endure this.

I think the thing that displeases me most is just the cost of the product. It's a lot of money for a small knife. I will live with the problems I mentioned but I just expected more.... Spending this much money for such a small knife you expect it to fly around and cut stuff for you.

Maybe with use I will come to respect this product more.
 
Hey TOTC, do you think you'll be at the Timonium show this year? I'm planning on being there. If you are still disappointed with the mini-T at that point, bring it. I'll bet someone there will be very willing to buy it off you; possibly even me. ;)
 
TOTC,

My Mini-Talon Sheath has a weep hole so I don't know how some got one and others didn't.

The grind lines on mine are also off center but the knife came wicked sharp and I accepted that.

If you are not able to enjoy the knife because of the flaws I encourage you to contact Camillus. They will make it right and the Mini-Talon is too nice a knife not to enjoy.
 
i love my mini, and yes, in my opinion the sheath is the big weak link (and i do mean big). the problem is, the sheath is about 3x as big as the blade, almost defeating the purpose of such a SWEET little knife, since when u carry it, it turns into something quite a bit larger than the knife itself. i have been thinking of making my own sheath, barely larger than the blade with a nice G clip. then the mini would be a true mini. i LOVE the handle feel and the grind on mine was great. it is also VERY easy to keep VERY sharp on a Spyderco sharpmaker. all in all i LOVE the knife, HATE the sheath ... plus, talonite Kicks ASS, no rust, and takes all the buse i give it ;)
 
So far. I just got it today and am very happy. I like very small fixed blades though. I usually carry a sub 6" overall fixed as my daily carry. I like the mini talon a lot.
BTW, my grind lines were way off too. But, it is sharp as hell, so I don't care. I think I want toget a leather pouch sheath and carry it as a pocket knife.
 
The picture tells the story. The sheath is the size it needs to be IMHO. If it was that much narrower it would spin/rotate in your pocket, or on your chest. Sometimes it hard to make everyone happy with a multi-carry system. ;)
 

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Looks Familiar, Ray! :)

I would post this thread to the Camillus Forum and see if Will can help you out.
 
Sorry to hear that. Camillus are normally very good for QC. I agree though Talonite is very overpriced, but its not like they force you to buy one is it;) ! I decided to go for the Talonite EDC as I want a light use EDC that is rust proof. I think it will fit the bill and then some:cool: . Great knife (my 2 EDC 154CM models anyway!).

TOTC how well is the edge holding up?
 
Originally posted by The General
...I decided to go for the Talonite EDC as I want a light use EDC that is rust proof....
Click to expand...

Then you should have gone for the mini-Talon, shouldn't you? I mean, the metal scales of the EDC are only stainless, right? ;)

Sorry, couldn't resist...
 
UPDATE:

Will from Camillus has e-mailed me. He was great and offered to call me on the phone if I wanted or I could just send the knife in. I will keep the knife as it will be a hard user and I'd like to put it through its runs. Anyway, I still give credit to Will for dropping me a line and offering his service.

General,
The edge is cool. It's certainly different than my other knives. I'm sure you'll appreciate it even more with that recurve.
 
Originally posted by rockspyder


I mean, the metal scales of the EDC are only stainless, right? ;)
Click to expand...

Not if you buy one directly from DDR - another good reason for going custom....

Regards,

Ed
 
Ok ok! You got me!:p. But what would it take to get the 410? Series handle steel to rust? A salt bath?:cool:
 
Originally posted by The General
Ok ok! You got me!:p. But what would it take to get the 410? Series handle steel to rust? A salt bath?:cool:
Click to expand...

I think probably so. Didn't Cliff recently, or not so recently, put some 420 in a bath of salt water, along with various other steels, and Talonite? I'm pretty sure he did, with pretty good corrosion resistance results from the 420. If he DID do it, it was the test that he did with the Alan Blade MEUK, I'm pretty sure.
 
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