Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
The CRKT M60 has, if I were to list, pretty much exactly the characteristics I would not want in a knife. This was part of a quartet of knives donated for review by someone recently retired from the military. Like many knives promoted/designed for such use, image is often chosen over performance and the M60 stood out immediately as such an obvious example.
The M60 is a tactical knife made from a stainless steel, 3/16" thick, chisel grind edge, tanto tip, black blade, partially serrated with the ultra-pointy pattern, and grip serrations carved into the actual steel. The knife stood out quickly as having issues with durability, cutting ability and versatility, and grip ergonomics.
However a quick check on the website and things started to look up. The steel is AUS-8A, so a decent amount of toughness and flexibility. The edge on this one is ground at 25-27 degrees included, so impressions of the cutting ability rise, and some work with the handle show it to be decent, though likely to be cramped if you have large hands.
The knife weighs 260 grams and is balanced handle heavy, with the balance point right at the index finger position on the grip. Sharpening up the M60, which wasn't too blunt to begin with, just overpolished, used first an x-coarse waterstone to recut the edge which was polished up to 4000 and then stropped on CrO. The knife then push shaved easily and cut straight down into newsprint. It responded well to the honing, no large floppy burrs, just a crisp and clean edge.
Before the picture starts to get too positive though, the serrations are near useless on ropes and other such materials, they just tear and rip clothing, leather and such, the only advantage they have over fluid patterns like on the Silver Trident is that they can saw into plastic better. Some comparative runs show the difference is fairly large, 2:1 in favor of the M60 sawing various plastics.
The handle is also fairly small, reall cramped with a large rawhide glove. Without the glove the handle is solid in hammer grips, but cramped in reverse, and the serrations cut into the steel chew into the hand readily during any contact. In a reverse grip on heavy stabs, they very quickly start to abrade the skin.
The M60 has a full tang construction, the guards are also cut out of the same single piece of steel. With the full tang the pommel could be used to hammer however if anything hard hit the plastic handle slabs fracture is likely so care would need to be taken in that regard.
The sheath is standard cordura/kydex which is decent, but a fairly obvious step down from the Blackhawk sheaths. It lacks a drainage hole for the liner, which can't be easily removed and doesn't have the ability to convert from low to high ride.
Compring it to a few other knives, the Buck/Strider Solution has a more versatile blade shape and a higher level of cutting ability, plus a harder and more resistant steel so it seems a more obvious for light cutting, however when a lot of force has to be used, the handle ergonomic issues would have the M60 come to the front readily, plus the edge has more material support and is tougher and more ductile.
Comparing it to the Gerber Silver Trident, the Trident has a much more ergonomic handle which is more secure and far more versatile with a full plated buttcap for hammering. The Trident also has a much more fluid serration pattern along the primary edge, and is longer and heavier so has better chopping ability and more leverage for prying. However the primary edge on the Trident is much thicker in profile and is for example out cut on woods 2:1 by the M60.
This one should be interesting to work with, the tip serrations on the guard are soon likely to meet the business end of a grinder however. Ref :
http://www.crkt.com/m60softb.html
http://www.crkt.com/M60GROUP05.jpg
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/m60.jpg
-Cliff
The M60 is a tactical knife made from a stainless steel, 3/16" thick, chisel grind edge, tanto tip, black blade, partially serrated with the ultra-pointy pattern, and grip serrations carved into the actual steel. The knife stood out quickly as having issues with durability, cutting ability and versatility, and grip ergonomics.
However a quick check on the website and things started to look up. The steel is AUS-8A, so a decent amount of toughness and flexibility. The edge on this one is ground at 25-27 degrees included, so impressions of the cutting ability rise, and some work with the handle show it to be decent, though likely to be cramped if you have large hands.
The knife weighs 260 grams and is balanced handle heavy, with the balance point right at the index finger position on the grip. Sharpening up the M60, which wasn't too blunt to begin with, just overpolished, used first an x-coarse waterstone to recut the edge which was polished up to 4000 and then stropped on CrO. The knife then push shaved easily and cut straight down into newsprint. It responded well to the honing, no large floppy burrs, just a crisp and clean edge.
Before the picture starts to get too positive though, the serrations are near useless on ropes and other such materials, they just tear and rip clothing, leather and such, the only advantage they have over fluid patterns like on the Silver Trident is that they can saw into plastic better. Some comparative runs show the difference is fairly large, 2:1 in favor of the M60 sawing various plastics.
The handle is also fairly small, reall cramped with a large rawhide glove. Without the glove the handle is solid in hammer grips, but cramped in reverse, and the serrations cut into the steel chew into the hand readily during any contact. In a reverse grip on heavy stabs, they very quickly start to abrade the skin.
The M60 has a full tang construction, the guards are also cut out of the same single piece of steel. With the full tang the pommel could be used to hammer however if anything hard hit the plastic handle slabs fracture is likely so care would need to be taken in that regard.
The sheath is standard cordura/kydex which is decent, but a fairly obvious step down from the Blackhawk sheaths. It lacks a drainage hole for the liner, which can't be easily removed and doesn't have the ability to convert from low to high ride.
Compring it to a few other knives, the Buck/Strider Solution has a more versatile blade shape and a higher level of cutting ability, plus a harder and more resistant steel so it seems a more obvious for light cutting, however when a lot of force has to be used, the handle ergonomic issues would have the M60 come to the front readily, plus the edge has more material support and is tougher and more ductile.
Comparing it to the Gerber Silver Trident, the Trident has a much more ergonomic handle which is more secure and far more versatile with a full plated buttcap for hammering. The Trident also has a much more fluid serration pattern along the primary edge, and is longer and heavier so has better chopping ability and more leverage for prying. However the primary edge on the Trident is much thicker in profile and is for example out cut on woods 2:1 by the M60.
This one should be interesting to work with, the tip serrations on the guard are soon likely to meet the business end of a grinder however. Ref :
http://www.crkt.com/m60softb.html
http://www.crkt.com/M60GROUP05.jpg
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/m60.jpg
-Cliff
