Liquid Metal - Reviews ?

Surprized that no one has responded to this yet. There are quite a few LM1 knives out and about now.

Here is an post that was made on another forum.

"A few day ago I received my handmade Liquidmetal knife from R.W. (Ron) Clark. The tool is identical to the one shown in the Blade article on page 14, better described as Ron's Model 6 Dropped Point Hunter with a bead-blasted LM1 blade and black textured-G-10 handle. The cutting surface measure 3 3/4" with an OAL of 7 1/2." It is a full flat grind and measures approx. 5/32" thick. It has a full length tang. As one would expect from a custom & handmade knifemaker, Ron's knife is par-excellent ! The fit, finish, grind and expertly crafted handle are a statement of prefection.

My first impressions of this new metal is good. I have cut a wide variety of materials ranging from hard & soft wood, plastics, binder twine, fruits & vegetables, leather, rubber, tough skin from the ball of my foot, various kinds of paper and lots of cardboard.

This first use of the material is far from long term evaluation of the knife and I reserve detailed comment until I get a chance to work with it further. My estimation is that this material is not only quite "tough," it will hold an effective edge for an extended period of time. It does not behave like plain carbon and stainless blades and it is similar to Talonite in cutting.

I can run my thumb across the blade's edge and get the impression the tool has never been sharpened. Oh how wrong that is. This material cuts and cuts and keeps on doing that some more with efficiency.

I do have one recommendation. This material left permanent "black" marks on my Spyderco Tri-Angle Sharpmaker after honing/sharpening. Nothing I used to remove the marks worked. Normally, carbon or other deposits left behind on the ceramic rods are easily removed. I am not sure why these deposits will not come off. My liquidmetal knife sharpened quite easily on both ceramic and diamond hones. No problem.

Initial reaction is I like this material for edge retention, ease of shapening, cutting efficiency against some materials but so far not against others. Once I clearly understood the mental approach to using Liquidmetal is different than the use of plain carbon and stainless steel blades, my ability to "cut" improved by leaps-and-bounds. That is, for me practice is required and my new R.W.(Ron) Liquidmetal knife is becoming a favorite. "

The entire thread can be found at

http://www.jungletraining.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1585&highlight=clark
 
Hey R.W. you're in Corona!!! So do I, where is your shop? Love your model 11, very nice!!!:D My profile says Los Angeles, because I work there. Not many people know where Corona is.;)
 
I think George Tichbourne, an excellent Canadian maker and a forumite, has started making knives from liquid metal and I saw one at the CKG show. The finish is outstanding and George was going to evaluate its performance and do some more. It sounds like it has great promise. I'd love to see a picture of Mr. Clark's.
 
Your maybe 15 minutes away. You should stop by sometime. My address is on my website. Just give me a call.
 
My knife hasn't arrived yet.

It should be getting close and as you can tell I am anxiously awaiting.
 
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