Looking for MAD DOG owners

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hotrodKelley

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I'm just curious about these knives. What do you think of them and how are they?

I've been thinking of buying one and don't know anyone who owns one. Thanks for the help. :thumbup:
 
Also, are they all handmade by Kevin? I've heard that some blades are factory and others are custom. How can you tell the difference? Or is this just BS?
 
The only thing I know about Mad Dog Knives is that Richard Marcinko has been known to feature them in his fiction series of books, The Rogue Warrior.

I don't know how the knives perform, or details about controversy surrounding the company, etc., but in my opinion the Frequent Flyer was a cool composite knife for concealed carry; it was much in the style of the Busse Stealth Hawk.
 
steelscout30 said:
The only thing I know about Mad Dog Knives is that Richard Marcinko has been known to feature them in his fiction series of books, The Rogue Warrior.

I don't know how the knives perform, or details about controversy surrounding the company, etc., but in my opinion the Frequent Flyer was a cool composite knife for concealed carry; it was much in the style of the Busse Stealth Hawk.
Click to expand...

Hey Thanks, thats neat info. Anybody else?
 
I have an ATAK...good knives, well made.


Thats all I'll say about that.


edit to add: As far as I know they are all handmade.
 
Hotrod.. contact forum member Parker , he may a bit biased ( he won't dispute that will ya bud ;) ) , but he knows a great deal about MadDog Knives.
 
One of my shooting buddies and I both have ATAK2 knives. We have used them seriously in many wilderness situations and they have performed well. We bought our knives a long time ago (mid '90s?) when they were much cheaper. I also have some Busse Basic series knives (discontinued). They cost less, perform great, and probably aren't as valuable. These days I often take a Basic 7 or 9 to AK instead of the ATAK2 when I am flying and have to put my blades in the hands of TSA and baggage handlers. I have two of each Busse Basic so a loss of one would be less disturbing than the loss of my only ATAK2.

I like the grip on the ATAK2 a lot---very sturdy and comfortable. I guess you could call the blade a compromise size/weight/configuration. I've used it for everything from hacking light brush to preparing salmon filets (when it was the most accessible knife).

Don't know whether I could bring myself to pay the prices I've heard recently.

DancesWithKnives
 
hotrodKelley
some knifemakers are in a category all of their own.
figure all your questions would be answered over at tacticalforumsdotcom.
 
They are good knives but I find Kevin's edges to be way too hard and thus difficult to sharpen. Also, IMO, they are every overpriced. But, they seem to increase in value so they can be somewhat of an investment.
 
i have an ATAK2 and like it a lot, and its no more difficult to sharpen than anything else i have FWIW, good design,well made/well finished, great sheath, i like the handle a lot too.

is it better than a busse this or that at probably 1/2 the price, i doubt it.


but they are a darned good knife no doubt about it & a good investment too imho as far as knives go.
 
I have a Pack Rat that I got about 8 years ago.

The overall quality of construction is superb. Handle ergonomics are also fantastic, although I think I would prefer a more abrasive surface on the G10.

The 01 takes and retains like crazy, and is very easy to sharpen. (Lack of) corrosion resistance would be the downside there, but that has not been a problem for me.

The big negative is blade thickness. Honestly, I bought the knife primarily because I wanted a representation of Kevin's work, and secondarily as a user. So I did choose a model that would be relatively useful to me, but that is of course not the same thing as choosing a knife entirely on the basis of its utility characteristics. 3/16" is just too thick for a knife of this size, IMO.

An 1/8", uncoated, convexed Pack Rat would really be something.

I've heard through the grapevine that Kevin plans to take another look at doing some new, small pattern knives. Don't know if that will happen or not, but sure could be interesting.

Yeah, AFAIK all the work is done by Kevin's hands, except sometimes cutting out the profile of the blank. The chroming was shopped out back in the day. I know he had some problems with that, but don't know if he brought it in house.

Like other makers, Kevin does custom work. There's always that bizarre debate over what's custom and what's not, with knives. In my mind "custom" means purpose-built to a specific design for a single end user. By that definition, a custom MD would be identifiable as not being part of the pattern catalog from the time it was produced.

Nice to see an MD thread sans political commentary.
 
Funny you mention grip texture. When I took my ATAK2 on a 3 week river trip in AK in the old days, I put some adhesive-backed abrasive strips on the handle. May have got them from Brownells but I can't recall. Turned out to be a good idea because on the day after we arrived, a couple weeks of rain broke one of the worst droughts in the AK records. Also helped when I was too lazy to carry a king salmon back to camp before taking the fillets.

I peeled the abrasive strips away and cleaned off the adhesive after returning to sunny and dry Los Smogeles because the grip feels so good without them.

DancesWithKnives
 
HotRod, controversies surrounding the maker himself put aside, Kevin "Mad Dog" McClung undeniably makes excellent hard use blades with superb cutting geometry.
 
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