The knife I had been waiting on for three decades is likely an impractical one by many people's standards, and a scary one by many sheeple's standards, but were I to be left alone in deep southern woods I would be very happy having it so far. It is an MCE2 made by Newt Martin of Martin Knives. It is a knife inspired by those that Jimmy Lile made for the Rambo movies, similar in many ways but different in several as well. That story had a big impact on my life at a critical time, and I spent a good bit of money on cheap reproductions back in the day. All of the reproductions failed at the slightest hint of hard use, and I could never have afforded an original Lile so I had sort of given up on getting a decent one, but had never stopped wanting one. A while back I got to check out the Boker Apparo which is a production version of one of Newt's knives after hearing many good things from friends about the high quality of Martin knives. The Apparo impressed me and made me rethink the idea of hollow handled knives again. Then I got to test the prototype of his new Caiman model, and became convinced of the quality construction of Newt's hollow handled knives. I really started looking at Martin Knives as a whole and saw that both he and his father Ed made several designs that I like a lot, and I picked up a couple of Ed's knives. One old school design with soldered brass guard made of O-1 tool steel, and one newer style made of CPM S35VN (a steel that has been of particular interest to me over the last couple of years). Then at the Blade Show I got to handle one of Newt's MCE2 models and fell in love with it.
These are three of the 5 CPM S35VN knives of different sizes and styles that I have been experimenting with over the last little while made by four different makers, and I have another on the way. So far I have been really impressed with the toughness, edge retention, and corrosion resistance of this steel. I like it very much in my high humidity neck of the country and in the corrosive salt and brackish water of the coastal plains.
Of these three the largest is the MCE2 made by Newt, the middle sized knife is a Runt made by Ed Martin, and the small neck knife is a Parker model made by Chris Liv, a fellow member here on Blade forums. Of the three I have had the little Chris Liv Parker for the longest time. It has lived the last several months hanging around my neck being sweated on during work and hikes, and in showers and out in the rain. It has participated in plant studies, and has been used to cut quite a bit of cordage and opened a lot of packages and envelopes. It still looks like new, and still retains a very good working edge. The slightest hints of rust have appeared at times but easily wiped away with just fingers and thumb. The Ed Martin Runt I've had for the last few months and it has been carried a lot in my pocket and on my belt. It has seen a good bit of time out in our rainy weather here and has been used quite a bit in plant studies and relocation projects, making quick work of whittling field expedient digging sticks. It has been the go to knife for demonstrations that involved younger students due to the size not being a distraction that inhibits learning. Both of these knives have filled their intended roles perfectly and I couldn't be happier with them.
Having been disappointed with several hollow handled knives of this style, the first order of business was to see if the thinner steel, longer blade, and finer point of the MCE2 would hold up to hard use as well as the other two. The fine point was for me the perceived weakest link of the blade from previous experiences with Newt's knives, so the first to be tested. The first test was to dig around in an old oak log I found and see how it handled looking for fishing bait. I dug into the log prying out chunks of the spalted wood and on into the more solid part, past where any larvae would have been, and experienced no failure of the tip so far.
The next task was to see how the long blade and full flat grind would handle some serious chopping in some hard seasoned dogwood. The knife came extremely sharp, and bites deep. Even though chopping in a very inefficient manor to maximize the number of impacts to the blade the knife had no issues at all, it bit deep, threw large chunks, and there were no sounds or feelings that gave away the fact that the knife has a joined handle. It felt just as solid as cutting with a full tang and there is no signs of loosening.
It makes quick work of green saplings
The sharpened clip makes it easy to use the full length of the blade for more reach to cut green briers in one clean cut.
The notching saw works very well, and I think it will do very well in some bamboo experiments later on. Through several penetration tests the tip has done well, and in handle twists splitting bamboo there have been no issues at all so far. Three decades is a long wait, but well worth the wait as far as I have seen yet.
My friend has been wanting to really give the Martin MK-22 a go since I got it months back. He has cut and whittled with it before, but wanted to give it a good work out. He decided to make wet conditions fire to drive off some of the freshly hatching mosquitoes, via a route that would be hard on the knife just to test it out.
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End Part 2 of 3
