Cool! New TOPS Fixed Blade Variation on CQT Magnum Folder

Brian Jones said:
Skammer,

You gotta hold this knife to know anything in comparison to any others...

1095 still is my favorite all around tactical steel. Properly heat-treated, it hold an edge well, is felxible for prying, and is easy to resharpen in the field. It's why it is still requested by military and spec ops folks. It's been working well for many many years for them. There's a lot of hype about the new supersteels these days. It's mostly hype.
Click to expand...

True enough, however holding and seeing a knife is but a small reason for me to buy one, it must be utilitarian. I have given up 1095 years ago and stopped buying them.

1095 is a basic steel provided to the military by the lowest bidder not by the people who carry them I assure you.

Civilian model blades are the hottest item going for ground pounders (I was one ;) ) and most are not 1095 if given the choice not based on price.

I own a blade in nearly all modern steels and old 1095 as well and I can say without a flinch "some" of the so called new supersteels are what they are touted as and not hype for the most part. I will never go back to 1095 no matter what the heat treat, I have bent and snapped too many. That being said I am hard on blades and do not collect them but rather abuse them and I get my moneys worth out of some of the newer steels no question.

1095 is a good basic steel but until you abuse similar blade to blade side by side you can't understand. MY experiences echo Cliff's very closely thus I trust his judgement based on like experiences.

I like to think 1095 is my grandfathers steel and metalurgy has come a ways since the 1940's. I am not nostalgic about steel or engines for that matter.

I drive a fuel injected car and my best blades are made of new proven steel. Its not to say that a carbureted vehicle won't get you to point B but there are better options today. ;)

If one is just collecting it don't matter what the steel. I collect baseball cards, I use my knives.

At the end of the day its whatever floats your boat.

Skam
 
ok, I think that knife is ugly :footinmou :D . I suppose this means that it works pretty well :D In all seriousness, though, I have read some really good reviews on TOPS knives and, to the best of my knowledge, Mike Fuller is an ex-Spec. Forces member. In addition, Ron Hood of Hood's Woods Survival works with tops for some outdoor designs; Hood's trust in TOPS speaks to his trust in their product. Combining these three pieces of info together, I personally trust TOPS designs to do what they are intended to do. I wonder if this one was intended to look ugly? :footinmou ;)
 
It is ugly isn't it? I lovve ugly knives.

Skammer, I know there are some great steels out there...but I do like 1095. Just being tongue-in-cheek a bit here while making my point, so please take it in the spirit intended...

Featherstone, we did a concealed carry tactics class last week, and this week we'll be doing high risk vehicle stop and approach tactics -- it'll be force-on-force stuff with simunitions... Yeehaw!!
 
I like that knife. I think it would make an awesome bug out/last ditch blade. It appears to be very versatile which holds true with most of TOPS knives.
Example: Fill those slots with basic survival gear, wrap with 100mph tape, then wrap with para cord. I like it.


Not to get off topic:

Skammer,

Just curious, but what knives have you tested side by side?
Have you ever used a TOPS knife?
If so what TOPS knife did you use?

Thanks.
 
Brian Jones said:
Featherstone, we did a concealed carry tactics class last week, and this week we'll be doing high risk vehicle stop and approach tactics -- it'll be force-on-force stuff with simunitions... Yeehaw!!
Click to expand...

Lucky dog, man you always get to have all the fun :grumpy:
 
i really like my tops knives for their toughness and i like the looks of that one as well but can someone tell me why all of the tops knives have hollow ground blades?

i get better performance out of flat ground blades and that is what tops is all about so why the hollow grind?

my favorite tops knife is the overlander but it would be so much better if it lost the hollow grind for a flat or scandi grind
 
skammer said:
I still think for $199 you can get a better blade.
Click to expand...
MSRP is usually *way* above user cost, that is probably going to sell for $125-$150 assuming discount dealers. Though I would not argue against your statement regardless. I'd take a CU/7 directly and that is like $50. It is easy to see it is a TOPS knife though and I would assume it is going to be very popular with anyone who likes the TOPS line.

The tang has a large hole(s) in it making it less stable.
Click to expand...
Assuming the tang is full thickness 3/16" stock, even with all the speed holes it isn't likely to be a fail point, the blade is likely to fail at the narrowest point in front of the handle especially as it has a bunch of stress risors running across the top at that point. Ask TOPS, I assume they did this in R&D anyway. You would do it to periodically small sample test steel quality anyway.

This assumes of course you have a person holding it and not have it locked in a vice with a wrench at the end of the handle, in that case it is likely to break through the handle. But you can't really load it like that in use unless your pinch grip is insanely strong, or you are standing on the last inch of the handle or similar.

Even then though note it is full thickness with a low sabre grind so it carries a lot of metal in the blade, plus it isn't that long a blade anyway so the load required should not be trivial as in jam it in a stump and wrist twist and the blade cracks in half. I would not bet against Brian being able do a pull up off of the blade assuming a sensible heat treat, the one I had was off and I had low breaks but I assume that was faulty.

My main concerns would not be strength considering the grind, but relative cutting ability compared to a fully ground blade, ergonomics due to thin grip, serrations along the spine and in the thumb apex area, and the holes in the handles which are also contaminent issues. Yes you can flush out easy to clean dirt however get that sticky and then dirty and now clean it compared to a solid grip.

The steel is plain old 1095 which is decent but has serious limitations.
Click to expand...
It should be price reflected mainly. It is a very cheap steel and easy to grind without exotic temps required like some CPM or HSS grades. For heavy use knives I would drop the carbon percentage down or look at other steels. 1095 works really well in light use knives ran full hard, M2 is better, but 1095 full hard is still nice to cut with for a long time.

As to all those people requesting it, or it being popular, well it is a very common steel, I would ask which higher end knives have those people used that they actually prefer 1095 over. Have they ever even used differentially tempered spring steel blades for example?

As an example, a lot of people will see the brand "stainless" on a knife and assume it is directly superior to something without it, and see 440 stainless as a sign of extreme quality. You need to find out the baseline for performance before you can judge its merit.

The most common military or "tactical" knives are usually the lowest end on the market, this then isn't a great baseline to judge from. If you want to talk performance you need to compare it to something. There are lots of blades of that type out there, cut, chop, hack, pry, dig, etc. with a bunch of them and say how that relatively performs across the board.

-Cliff
 
Thanks Cliff for your comments, the pictures may not show it well but the handle slabs are milled and the tang is solid. 1095 steel it's true is old school, but it works well for field use, easy to sharpen and holds a good edge. The new folders will have a similar blade / handle style.

Wichhunter, I too have a "flat grind fettish" and have several TOPS Knives that I had Mike flat grind. Sometimes though I get a little carried away, like a 1/8" S30V Armagedon with a super thin flat grind!? Trace has been working on him also, as a result, several models including the Armagedon,Bird & Trout, DART and Pasayden are flat ground. My favorite candidates for flat grinding are the Overlander, Cochise and the Cougar Claw. All small knives that work well for game processing. You might call Mike directly and see if he will make you one, but don't tell him I sent you, he's still mad about the Armagedon. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top