After making a rather big stink about ball bearings in knives, I was convinced by some people that I needed to try a knife with these things for pivots in order to have an opinion that was valid. It was suggested I might like the Harnds Talisman. Well it did fit most of my likes in a knife design so I got one thrown onto the slow boat from China.
http://www.harnds.com/index.php?case=archive&act=show&aid=48
It arrived a couple of days ago so here are my initial impressions.
The overall design of the knife is quite good. The handle fits my huge hands quite well and basically no hot spots. It is a bit thicker than I usually like but in this case it fills my hand very comfortably allowing good grip with its contoured smooth G10. The corners of the G10 near the pocket clip end were a bit abrupt and irritated my hand a bit as I was handling the knife so a bit of light sanding took them down to smooth them and that alleviated the problem. The liners are skeletonized which gets the weight down to below 5oz. I would prefer a bit lighter but it doesn't feel that heavy in hand. The liners are nicely deburred and have rounded edges and some thoughts were put into the areas where you need to access the liner lock to disengage it and where your finger slams into the back when deploying the knife using the flipper. There is a usable lanyard hole/slot but the edges are sharp and would need a bit of chamfering in order to not fray any lanyard material over time.
The pocket clip is pretty good but some people might find it a bit wimpy, I like it. I did find it a bit close to the handle making it very tight on blue jeans so I adjusted the shape to my liking. The pocket clip is very deep carry, which I like.
The blade shape is quite useful. It has a nicely done full flat grind with no thumb studs in the way of the cutting path. Thumb studs would be redundant on this knife and I am glad to be rid of them. Some people might consider the tip of the blade to be a bit too fine and possibly fragile but it is less so than the Paramilitary 2. There is some gimping on the back of the blade which is helpful but nothing has better gimping than Spyderco IMHO. Being AUS8,this knife might not appeal to many steel snobs but from my experience so far it has a good heat treat and is a very serviceable steel for an EDC and all climates. The blade came hair popping sharp but a bit toothy.
The fastening hardware is well made and doesn't seem to suffer the flaw of many cheaper knives of being made of very soft steel. The pivot has a nicely done custom pivot nut with the screw being a custom part but uses a standard torx driver for adjustment. My one gripe about the fasteners is with the back spacer fastener near the clip. The nut side is not keyed in any way and free spins when trying to turn the screw. This could be a problem should you want to disassemble the knife to clean and lubricate.
The pivot has ceramic ball bearings captured in what appears to be a bronze cage. There also is a deep detent with a ceramic ball too I think. These two features make the opening action of this knife extremely quick with no wrist action needed at all. It is impossible to not open this knife. Light switch, push button, causal push of any type, they all work. I can say that the light switch technique seems the fastest and most comfortable. I wouldn't call the action smooth because I can feel/hear some kind of skidding of the cages against the cavities in the liners sometimes. I would call it a friction less feeling. This is not a complaint but rather an observation. The lockup on the liner lock is around 25%, which is acceptable.
Conclusion:
The Harnds Talisman has a logical and well considered design. It is comfortable in hand, made to high standards, operates very well, and is a very nice cutter and slicer. The steel is adequate but this knife would be a giant killer if it had something like D2. I would also prefer 440C over AUS8 but AUS8 is still a good steel. This is a great knife, price considered or not. The fact that it cost me only $30 is icing on the cake.
How well the ball bearing pivot holds up to use and desert sand is still yet to be seen.
http://www.harnds.com/index.php?case=archive&act=show&aid=48
It arrived a couple of days ago so here are my initial impressions.
The overall design of the knife is quite good. The handle fits my huge hands quite well and basically no hot spots. It is a bit thicker than I usually like but in this case it fills my hand very comfortably allowing good grip with its contoured smooth G10. The corners of the G10 near the pocket clip end were a bit abrupt and irritated my hand a bit as I was handling the knife so a bit of light sanding took them down to smooth them and that alleviated the problem. The liners are skeletonized which gets the weight down to below 5oz. I would prefer a bit lighter but it doesn't feel that heavy in hand. The liners are nicely deburred and have rounded edges and some thoughts were put into the areas where you need to access the liner lock to disengage it and where your finger slams into the back when deploying the knife using the flipper. There is a usable lanyard hole/slot but the edges are sharp and would need a bit of chamfering in order to not fray any lanyard material over time.
The pocket clip is pretty good but some people might find it a bit wimpy, I like it. I did find it a bit close to the handle making it very tight on blue jeans so I adjusted the shape to my liking. The pocket clip is very deep carry, which I like.
The blade shape is quite useful. It has a nicely done full flat grind with no thumb studs in the way of the cutting path. Thumb studs would be redundant on this knife and I am glad to be rid of them. Some people might consider the tip of the blade to be a bit too fine and possibly fragile but it is less so than the Paramilitary 2. There is some gimping on the back of the blade which is helpful but nothing has better gimping than Spyderco IMHO. Being AUS8,this knife might not appeal to many steel snobs but from my experience so far it has a good heat treat and is a very serviceable steel for an EDC and all climates. The blade came hair popping sharp but a bit toothy.
The fastening hardware is well made and doesn't seem to suffer the flaw of many cheaper knives of being made of very soft steel. The pivot has a nicely done custom pivot nut with the screw being a custom part but uses a standard torx driver for adjustment. My one gripe about the fasteners is with the back spacer fastener near the clip. The nut side is not keyed in any way and free spins when trying to turn the screw. This could be a problem should you want to disassemble the knife to clean and lubricate.
The pivot has ceramic ball bearings captured in what appears to be a bronze cage. There also is a deep detent with a ceramic ball too I think. These two features make the opening action of this knife extremely quick with no wrist action needed at all. It is impossible to not open this knife. Light switch, push button, causal push of any type, they all work. I can say that the light switch technique seems the fastest and most comfortable. I wouldn't call the action smooth because I can feel/hear some kind of skidding of the cages against the cavities in the liners sometimes. I would call it a friction less feeling. This is not a complaint but rather an observation. The lockup on the liner lock is around 25%, which is acceptable.
Conclusion:
The Harnds Talisman has a logical and well considered design. It is comfortable in hand, made to high standards, operates very well, and is a very nice cutter and slicer. The steel is adequate but this knife would be a giant killer if it had something like D2. I would also prefer 440C over AUS8 but AUS8 is still a good steel. This is a great knife, price considered or not. The fact that it cost me only $30 is icing on the cake.
How well the ball bearing pivot holds up to use and desert sand is still yet to be seen.
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