- Joined
- Feb 7, 2007
- Messages
- 99
This is a great knife. 4" tanto blade of S30V steel. Aluminum frame with invertable clip.The blade grind has a graceful recurve ending in what I would consider a classic Tanto point. The top grind, again, has some graceful lines that bring beauty to function.
This knife is all bussines, with a fat liner lock that gives a positive lock-up. Fat aluminum frame that easily lends itself to solid tactical grips almost as if it were designed for me. It's light enough for EDC but the sandpaper grip on the inside scale is pretty caustic. I toned mine down a touch by rubbing a dowel cross grain (sanding the end) until the abrasive was suffitiently dulled.The one complaint that I had about this knife, and I don't like to complain about the work of a master (Ken Onion), was that the blade was hard to open enough for the speed safe to kick in. It wasn't that it was too tight, because once open the action was very smooth. There is a ball on the face of the liner lock that gentley holds the blade in the fully closed position, which would be perfect if it didn't also have the Speed-Safe torsion bar holding it closed. My answer was to open 'er up and remove to torsion bar. It makes for a fast and easy opening tactical knife. I know that some people are concerned that an A/O knife might open in their pocket. I am not one of these. I remove the safetys off my A/O knives as soon as I get them home. But, if you like A/O, and you want to feel confident that it will not open with out your express permission, then this is a great knife for you. I much prefer this to "safetys" or fiddley A/O on-off switches.
To recap, the steel is great, the blade grind is beautiful, the frame is solid and comfertable, the price is great($150), but the A/O was a little stiffer than I wanted.
This knife is all bussines, with a fat liner lock that gives a positive lock-up. Fat aluminum frame that easily lends itself to solid tactical grips almost as if it were designed for me. It's light enough for EDC but the sandpaper grip on the inside scale is pretty caustic. I toned mine down a touch by rubbing a dowel cross grain (sanding the end) until the abrasive was suffitiently dulled.The one complaint that I had about this knife, and I don't like to complain about the work of a master (Ken Onion), was that the blade was hard to open enough for the speed safe to kick in. It wasn't that it was too tight, because once open the action was very smooth. There is a ball on the face of the liner lock that gentley holds the blade in the fully closed position, which would be perfect if it didn't also have the Speed-Safe torsion bar holding it closed. My answer was to open 'er up and remove to torsion bar. It makes for a fast and easy opening tactical knife. I know that some people are concerned that an A/O knife might open in their pocket. I am not one of these. I remove the safetys off my A/O knives as soon as I get them home. But, if you like A/O, and you want to feel confident that it will not open with out your express permission, then this is a great knife for you. I much prefer this to "safetys" or fiddley A/O on-off switches.
To recap, the steel is great, the blade grind is beautiful, the frame is solid and comfertable, the price is great($150), but the A/O was a little stiffer than I wanted.