- Joined
- Jun 8, 2005
- Messages
- 4,761
Well, it's finally here. And I won't beat around the bush about it. This is a game changer.
I suppose we must start with the obvious. This thing is gorgeous. It's a blue anodized stainless steel 3D machined handle and a high polish blade. The level of detail here is fantastic and it wasn't, apparently, enough to do this beautiful blue anodizing, but to remove it in certain areas, created the appearance of waves in the vertical center with two shining "rails" alongside.
The blade itself is nearly mirror polished. I don't know about this Acuto+ stuff is, but it's beautiful. Even the lock is beautiful. It's essentially inseparable from the handle design--you can look straight at it and not see it. The way it interfaces with the tang is amazing too. I've never seen fit and finish this perfected before. It's hard to see in the photos, but there's a little ramp that connects to the side of the tang seemlessly, to what must be within a 100th of a mm as if the lockbar simply merges with the tang.
And then there's the fit and finish. As everyone knows by now, I am obsessed with fit and finish--if there is a flaw in this knife, you can know I'd find it.
But there isn't. It's flawless. The lockup is perfect to a new level--it has 100% interface starting within 0.01 mm and the precision here is a MUST to make the cool "ramp" lockbar design (hard to describe or photograph) line up with the tang. I would also bet that there is less lock wear on this knife due to the use of steel instead of titanium in this model (unlike its brother the Eros).
The blade is perfectly centered, and this is the first medium/small knife that I've used that felt...surprisingly strong in the sense of blade play. It has none. At all. It almost feels as robust as my 0200 or MUDD. And the blade is crazy sharp. I think the only production knife I've owned that was sharper was my old Dodo.
And this thing is as thin as it is sharp. It carries very well. It's also surprisingly light. It actually feels great in hand, surprisingly well for its small stature.
Of course, we can't talk about this knife without mentioning that it's the first affordable IKBS folder, a system which uses two rings of ball bearings instead of the washers we're used to. It's not hype. This is, along with perhaps the RAM or MUDD, the smoothest folder I've ever used. And if you take the framelock out of the equation, it is clearly smoother than those.
Once the blade is deployed, I pushed the framelock out of the way to see just how smooth it is (and keep in mind, this is with a tight pivot). It just rolls with no discernible resistance--which resulted in a couple cuts to my thumb.
It's a weird feeling to use the flipper. You'd swear it's an assisted open because, if you push the flipper down, it WILL open. No wrist flick necessary--in that sense it's also like the RAM. But the RAM is a visceral experience--it has loud sounds and you can feel the lock disengage and reengage. It's loud. This thing is nearly silent. There's no thwack, no matter how hard you pop it open.
Of course, no knife is perfect. There are some annoying design flaws, in my opinion, present here. First off, there's nothing to stop the lockbar from being overextended, and it's quite a thin lockbar, so I can definitely seeing this being an issue over the course of a year.
And, as a related issue, you have to hold it a certain way to open it easily. Many people have complained about how sharp the flipper is and how it can cause pain. At first I thought this was the case too. But it's so thin and there's no clip over the lockbar--so what is going on is people are actually putting their grip against the lockbar and thus against the detent. And then it takes a lot of effort to open it, and the flipper is too sharp for that amount of power.
Once I adjusted my grip for it, it opens smoothly and without trouble, but this problem could have been avoided in the first place. Another minor flaw is that the pivot screw loosens itself with use, so they should have used some loctite in there at the factory. But perhaps mine is not a great example in this regard--I've had other knives that had this "problem." No big deal for me.
Ultimately, this is an unbelievable deal for $80. It's sort of a problem because it's displaced a lot of my newer more expensive knives. Go out and buy one.
I suppose we must start with the obvious. This thing is gorgeous. It's a blue anodized stainless steel 3D machined handle and a high polish blade. The level of detail here is fantastic and it wasn't, apparently, enough to do this beautiful blue anodizing, but to remove it in certain areas, created the appearance of waves in the vertical center with two shining "rails" alongside.
The blade itself is nearly mirror polished. I don't know about this Acuto+ stuff is, but it's beautiful. Even the lock is beautiful. It's essentially inseparable from the handle design--you can look straight at it and not see it. The way it interfaces with the tang is amazing too. I've never seen fit and finish this perfected before. It's hard to see in the photos, but there's a little ramp that connects to the side of the tang seemlessly, to what must be within a 100th of a mm as if the lockbar simply merges with the tang.
And then there's the fit and finish. As everyone knows by now, I am obsessed with fit and finish--if there is a flaw in this knife, you can know I'd find it.
But there isn't. It's flawless. The lockup is perfect to a new level--it has 100% interface starting within 0.01 mm and the precision here is a MUST to make the cool "ramp" lockbar design (hard to describe or photograph) line up with the tang. I would also bet that there is less lock wear on this knife due to the use of steel instead of titanium in this model (unlike its brother the Eros).
The blade is perfectly centered, and this is the first medium/small knife that I've used that felt...surprisingly strong in the sense of blade play. It has none. At all. It almost feels as robust as my 0200 or MUDD. And the blade is crazy sharp. I think the only production knife I've owned that was sharper was my old Dodo.
And this thing is as thin as it is sharp. It carries very well. It's also surprisingly light. It actually feels great in hand, surprisingly well for its small stature.
Of course, we can't talk about this knife without mentioning that it's the first affordable IKBS folder, a system which uses two rings of ball bearings instead of the washers we're used to. It's not hype. This is, along with perhaps the RAM or MUDD, the smoothest folder I've ever used. And if you take the framelock out of the equation, it is clearly smoother than those.
Once the blade is deployed, I pushed the framelock out of the way to see just how smooth it is (and keep in mind, this is with a tight pivot). It just rolls with no discernible resistance--which resulted in a couple cuts to my thumb.
It's a weird feeling to use the flipper. You'd swear it's an assisted open because, if you push the flipper down, it WILL open. No wrist flick necessary--in that sense it's also like the RAM. But the RAM is a visceral experience--it has loud sounds and you can feel the lock disengage and reengage. It's loud. This thing is nearly silent. There's no thwack, no matter how hard you pop it open.
Of course, no knife is perfect. There are some annoying design flaws, in my opinion, present here. First off, there's nothing to stop the lockbar from being overextended, and it's quite a thin lockbar, so I can definitely seeing this being an issue over the course of a year.
And, as a related issue, you have to hold it a certain way to open it easily. Many people have complained about how sharp the flipper is and how it can cause pain. At first I thought this was the case too. But it's so thin and there's no clip over the lockbar--so what is going on is people are actually putting their grip against the lockbar and thus against the detent. And then it takes a lot of effort to open it, and the flipper is too sharp for that amount of power.
Once I adjusted my grip for it, it opens smoothly and without trouble, but this problem could have been avoided in the first place. Another minor flaw is that the pivot screw loosens itself with use, so they should have used some loctite in there at the factory. But perhaps mine is not a great example in this regard--I've had other knives that had this "problem." No big deal for me.
Ultimately, this is an unbelievable deal for $80. It's sort of a problem because it's displaced a lot of my newer more expensive knives. Go out and buy one.
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