First Impressions
Fit & finish
It’s near perfect. Tolerences are pretty tight. Blade is centered perfectly and has no play. The screws are fitted nicely throughout the nife. The lock bar locks up nicely at about 15-20% with no lock stick.
I do have to say that the finish is nice. I like how the finish on the blade, in certain light, is exactly the same as the finish on the handles. I totally understand the justification for the extra $50 increase for the finish. With that being said, I would also like for everyone to understand that the GMP isn’t a better knife or really any different besides finish. So for anyone bummed that they were stuck with only the GM4, don’t be. They’re both equally great knives and everyone should be super excited to have one.
Attention to detail
Like GiantMouse says, there are definitely details put into this knife. I wouldnt necissarily say jimping is a special detail so I’ll exclude it. (They’re there and work fine). What im talking about is the logo on the inside of the handle, the custom number on the inside of the back spacer, the new clip design, the jimping on the back of the tip of the clip. That’s right, there’s jimping on the backside of the clip.
The only real downside that I feel they missed was also with the clip. The clip doesnt fully meet the handle so it sometimes will ping against the knife. There’sanother small detail with the clip but isn’t such a huge deal. Just a detail I thought they would have taken care of. The section of the clip that screws onto the handle doesnt fully meet the handle. There’s a small gap. This is because the curvature of the handle whereas the section of the clip that meets the handle is flat.
Ergonomics & Size
This seems to be where all the fuss is. I’m not going to lie. I was optimistic but have to agree that despite knowing the dimensions beforehand, I’m not a huge fan of the ergonomics of this knife. This is partly due to the thin handles making it an overall thin knife. While they’re nice handles, I would have liked it if they were thicker.
The size is actually not a big issue like I was expecting. I do have smaller hands so the handle is not bad. The blade length and cutting edge is actually enough to get every day tasks done. One thing to keep in mind is that it was purposefully designed this way. Jesper and Jens aren’t trying to recreate the GM1 or any of the other models. I also don’t think they’re trying to perfect the flaws of previous models for the sole purpose to create that perfect edc. This is a completely new and purposefully different knife all on it’s own. I think people lose sight of that when they start getting all upset about the size. They even say on the site that it is not a camp knife but something you can carry to work or around town.
Action
This is probably the feature of the knife that is the least exciting right out of the box. This thing does not flip well at all. Perhaps the pivot screws are a little too tight on this one? I’ll continue to use it as is but may eventually loosen the tension if it doesnt get better. The detent of the blade is strong enough for me so I see no issue there. There’s definitely no blade fall but that’s another one of those things where I could care less. Mine definitely doesnt have any blade fall when closing, again, probably because the pivot screw is too tight.
Overall thoughts
This is my first GiantMouse knife so I have no other model to play favoritism with. I’ll let others out there compare the models and pick their favorite. With that being said, I think this is a great knife (pending further investigation of the action). Yes it is a small knife but if you expect that or are looking for a knife of this size, you’ll be more than happy hunting for one of your own. While the style and materials of the knife are not super original, the design and exectution of it is.
I like it and think it’ll have a place in my pocket as well as my collection for a long time.
Untitled by Danny Nystrom, on Flickr
