I haven't seen much posted about DMknives so I decided I'd run my big mouth about the Instigator I have had for 6 months or so now. I decided to go with S30V steel for the blade I have had very little experience with it and it is the latest and greatest. I had had problems with ATS34 in the past, edge chipping on me and was hoping S30V wouldn't do that, so far it hasn't. The handle slabs are blasted micarta which I personally like the look of. The liners for this knife are Dave's standard .063" which look pretty thin compared to the 3/16" blade, but are plenty strong enough for my needs so far. The pocket clip sits real high on the knife which allows the knife to all but disappear in my jeans pocket for very descreet carry, especially for a knife this size.
When I first recieved it I thought damn this is alot larger than I had thought it was going to be. It's the size of a Buck/Strider 880 which is a pretty big knife by my standards. The fit and finish on the knife are very good but the edge was pretty by my standards but I was and still am quite satisfied with this knife. At the time I recieved this knife was using a Les Adams EOD as my EDC so I put this knife in the safe for awhile and even tried to resell and trade it a couple of times, which I am glad that none of the deals went through. When my EOD started having lock problems I decided to try this knife out for while. For a knife this size it carrys extremely well no pinching when I sit down and it doesn't bulge out like my Buck/Strider does.
One of the problems I had at first with this knife, do to it's size, was when flipping it open it would want to snap out of my grip. This problem of course became more prevelant after I cleaned it and relubed it, but now I have gotten used to it and compensate for the blade heaviness and wide grip. Which the grip on this knife is very comfortable and ergonomic, definitely solid feeling in the hand and doesn't slip even under hard use.
Okay enough rambling, time for some hard use. I have been replacing the windows in my house the past couple of weekend and have been using this Instigator alot. I sharpened it on my Lansky before starting the adventure, it would easily shave hair. I have an old house with very old drafty windows, the style with the pins you pull out and the piece of 1"X1/2" and trim for the track of the window. These windows were all painted totally shut with like four layers off paint so I used the knife to cut around the trim so I could pry the trim off, I didn't realize paint could be so tough to cut through! Once that was done and the first window pain was out I use the knife to cut through the paint on the 1X1/2" piece of wood that held the next pain in. At this point I had to pry the piece of wood out, I grabbed it with pliers and pulled it out and pried with the Instigator to help, then I realized I had to trim part of the bottom of the window pain frame to get the wood out all of the way. I tried at first with a wood chisel but I was afraid of breaking the glass after the first couple of hits. So I grabbed the Instigator and used a hammer handle as a baton to cut notch out of the bottom piece of the window. This worked great as the Instigator sliced a heck of alot better than the wood chisel I have.
The hammer handle took most of the damage leaving wood chunks on the back of the blade. I had to do this on the three windows I have gotten done so far. This of coarse did no damage to the Instigator, lock up is still rock solid and there was no edge chipping or rolling at all. I did have to tighten the pivot screw as it must of rattled loose during the batoning. I also used the knife as a paint scraper and to trim some wood out of the corners of the sills so the windows would fit.
Now compared to a Cliff Stamp review this is kinda mild but it is my knife and I do have some limits on what a knife can handle and what it can't. I definitely didn't even approach the limits what this knife is capable of and probably never will. Dave builds a great knife and I will continue to use it in confidence.
That's my windbag review of my Instigator, if you made it this far reading thanks! Feel free to make any comments you want I like feedback. I do have some pictures if some one would like to post them for me, they aren't great but they'll give you an idea.
When I first recieved it I thought damn this is alot larger than I had thought it was going to be. It's the size of a Buck/Strider 880 which is a pretty big knife by my standards. The fit and finish on the knife are very good but the edge was pretty by my standards but I was and still am quite satisfied with this knife. At the time I recieved this knife was using a Les Adams EOD as my EDC so I put this knife in the safe for awhile and even tried to resell and trade it a couple of times, which I am glad that none of the deals went through. When my EOD started having lock problems I decided to try this knife out for while. For a knife this size it carrys extremely well no pinching when I sit down and it doesn't bulge out like my Buck/Strider does.
One of the problems I had at first with this knife, do to it's size, was when flipping it open it would want to snap out of my grip. This problem of course became more prevelant after I cleaned it and relubed it, but now I have gotten used to it and compensate for the blade heaviness and wide grip. Which the grip on this knife is very comfortable and ergonomic, definitely solid feeling in the hand and doesn't slip even under hard use.
Okay enough rambling, time for some hard use. I have been replacing the windows in my house the past couple of weekend and have been using this Instigator alot. I sharpened it on my Lansky before starting the adventure, it would easily shave hair. I have an old house with very old drafty windows, the style with the pins you pull out and the piece of 1"X1/2" and trim for the track of the window. These windows were all painted totally shut with like four layers off paint so I used the knife to cut around the trim so I could pry the trim off, I didn't realize paint could be so tough to cut through! Once that was done and the first window pain was out I use the knife to cut through the paint on the 1X1/2" piece of wood that held the next pain in. At this point I had to pry the piece of wood out, I grabbed it with pliers and pulled it out and pried with the Instigator to help, then I realized I had to trim part of the bottom of the window pain frame to get the wood out all of the way. I tried at first with a wood chisel but I was afraid of breaking the glass after the first couple of hits. So I grabbed the Instigator and used a hammer handle as a baton to cut notch out of the bottom piece of the window. This worked great as the Instigator sliced a heck of alot better than the wood chisel I have.
The hammer handle took most of the damage leaving wood chunks on the back of the blade. I had to do this on the three windows I have gotten done so far. This of coarse did no damage to the Instigator, lock up is still rock solid and there was no edge chipping or rolling at all. I did have to tighten the pivot screw as it must of rattled loose during the batoning. I also used the knife as a paint scraper and to trim some wood out of the corners of the sills so the windows would fit.
Now compared to a Cliff Stamp review this is kinda mild but it is my knife and I do have some limits on what a knife can handle and what it can't. I definitely didn't even approach the limits what this knife is capable of and probably never will. Dave builds a great knife and I will continue to use it in confidence.
That's my windbag review of my Instigator, if you made it this far reading thanks! Feel free to make any comments you want I like feedback. I do have some pictures if some one would like to post them for me, they aren't great but they'll give you an idea.
