Review Manly Folders: Comrade, Peak, Wasp. Fixed Blades: Patriot and Drugar, Made in Bulgaria

[Gary W. Graley]

Glad to help Raj, hope more folks decide to give this a try as well.
G2

 

[Zagorov]

It's not a hard use knife - it's more of a gentlemen's knife. It is a great slicer.

BTW - Manly released a small fixed blade knife - kinda looks like a fixed Comrade. 11 cm handle and 9 cm blade, 4mm thick, FFG, the steel is again 1,2379. The sheath is made of Kydex. It's called the Patriot.

 

[batosai117]

I'm glad I found this thread, I was thinking I was one of the only ones out there that heard of this knife. A local hardware store in the town I work in ordered a bulk order of these in all different colors. Unfortunately for my wallet and budget, I now own 3 different colors and bought a fourth one for my dad for fathers day. I have the Orange, Green, and Gray / Black models. I'm currently carrying the orange handled Comrade and I love it. It's comfortable to use, easy to carry, and has a beautiful blade shape and overall profile. In researching for more information, reviews, etc.. I also saw that Manly makes a fixed blade version called the Patriot. As soon as I can get a hold of a Patriot I'll order it too.

I'm hooked

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Nice sir and speaking of the Patriot, Manly made a batch for the Bladeforums.BG folks and I heard tell of it and was able to, with the help of a forum member here, to get in on that recent run, arrived just today!

It is very similar to the Comrade in overall length with the Patriot coming in with a slightly longer, wider and thicker blade stock, same German steel a D2 close relative.

The knife arrived pretty sharp, I'll say the folder was keener out of the box but then it also has a thinner blade stock, but a short while on my stones and wow is she sharp!

Measurement at the shoulder bevel is about .024" so it's still ground down fairly thin too, with a spine thickness of 4mm

Handle is a nice dark green coloured G10

Sheath is pretty nice, while the strap that retains it also is like a holster for the kydex to slip into, so, basically when you pull on the knife, it will pull the knife and sheath clear of the webbing holster, which isn't a bad thing, just you need to keep track of it once you have the knife out, or just slip it back into the holster.

Here are a few shots of the knife, this one being one of their Bladeforum.BG club knife is one of 205 made, on the spine has the serial number and they also etched in each persons name! I really appreciate the kind gesture of helping me getting this knife, very nice! Thanks again to the gang at Bladeforums.BG and to Manly for producing these too.

Patriot_BG_blade by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Patriot_BG by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Patriot_BG_sheath by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2

 

[batosai117]

Very nice!

I'm still keeping an eye out for a Patriot that I can pickup. If anyone needs to clear out their Bladeforums edition one I'm game for that too.

Here's pics of mine just to share:






Sent from my electronic multi-tool.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Nice collection there, they sure do cut well, I'll be taking some comparison photos of the folder and the fixed blade shortly
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Here are some shots taken today and a few comparisons of the Patriot fixed blade and the Comrade folder...and a guest



Patriot_lanyard by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Patriot_Comrade by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Patriot_Comrade_horz by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

and a small fellow that just dropped in for a visit while I took the shot above...I guess he wanted to "Bee" Manly lol

Patriot_guest by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Handle on both are comfortable, I'd have preferred the more grippy surface of the G10 that is on the Comrade but with it's method of fastening that might not have been something easily undertaken.

I would recommend BOTH folder and fixed blade if you can locate them, the Patriot I think will be coming out soon if not already through Boker?

Thanks again for the help getting this fixed blade into my hands, greatly appreciated!
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Today I rigged up a neck carry method, while it is a bit on the heavy side for a typical neck knife, it works well. Most people would just thread paracord through the end two holes but I don't like knots on there, so I take and weave the cord through the holes and then under itself to act as a self lock and took a lighter to weld the two ends together. No matter how hard I pull on the paracord, there isn't any stress on that weld at all. The length of paracord is just enough to be able to slip it over my head.
Here are some images of what I'm trying to describe;

through the holes and then the next set as well

then go under the paracord and pull both ends out and FAR away from the sheath to do the 'welding' and then pull the slack back and center the weld on the sheath, this side will be towards the outside and not against your body.

G2

 

[POCEH KOCEB]

Great review. I could never own the knife because they chose such a poor name for the company. No way I'll have something that says "Manly" on it. in my pocket.

Ha ha ha, you are probably right, but "Manly" sign can always be cleaned off... How's "Patriot" sounds to you ?

Gary, I love the pictures and your observations ! Lot's of my BG fellows are making a small hole in the sheath for draining out water, also they are attaching tec-locks to it, works fine.
Some of them complained about the blade rattling in the sheath but this can be easily fixed with some heat and squeezing the sheath at the tip of the blade.
Overall I absolutely love it. As they mentioned before - it is a very good slicer and light duty around the house or out in the open knife.

And Gary, Thank you Sir!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks to you too for your help in this!

and that's a great tip, easy enough to put a drainage hole in the back of the sheath and to tighten it up so it's a bit snugger would help eliminate some of the rattle.
G2

 

[knarfeng]

I would recommend BOTH folder and fixed blade if you can locate them, the Patriot I think will be coming out soon if not already through Boker?

Thanks to you both for the pics and comments.

Having missed out on the group buy, I will be scanning the web stores for sure over the next few months. Fingers crossed that Boker will distribute it.

Definitely at the top of my want list.

 

[ME4KOB]

Hi,everyone My English is so terrible(sorry for that ) ,but my knife is great Be careful - the knife easily rust. So i have make a little hole whit a hot nail:

And hire is my way to put a "tec-lock" without drilling the sheath:

And finally one sweet

 

[Raj]

and a small fellow that just dropped in for a visit while I took the shot above...I guess he wanted to "Bee" Manly lol

Hi Gary, I guess no pun intended on the statement about the little guy.
That was a nice line and a nice picture of the wanna bee manly bee.
Very nice write-up and pictures. How did you get the lanyard to stay like that on the pictures. Nice touch there.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

You're most welcome Frank and I think you'd really like the fixed blade as well !

Thanks Me4kob, nice shots and good tip on the drainage hole there!

and Rj, hehe good one on the Bee and as to keeping the lanyard like that, I just flipped the gravity switch to OFF while I set it up, easy peasy
G2

 

[VESO RAD]

Patriot- production of Manly.bg

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Nice shots there, unusual looking lanyard

I ended up taking the neck carry off and made an impromptu paracord belt loop which works a bit better as the neck carry was not only a little on the heavy side, it also would print too easily beneath a shirt when worn.

G2

 

[harronek]

Your not tempted to make a sheath for it Gary ?
Some G2 leather would set the whole package off brilliantly .

I'm not a fixed blade guy , but those pics sure do make it hard not to get bitten by the bug .

Ken

 

[Gary W. Graley]

It's a very nice fixed blade Ken, stout and sharp! As to making a sheath for it, I'm just not the guy, as I don't have the heavier leather that I feel is needed when dealing with razor edges that you put into a sheath!

I did the heat trick thing with the sheath, a bic lighter and a small block of metal to press down once it was plyable and that removed all rattle out of the sheath, also nailed it too drain hole that is...

As I said earlier, I dropped trying to carry it as a neck carry, just a bit overall too large to pull that off, so I did some more paracord things and made an impromptu belt loop which works quite well, and if you get to where you don't want to wear it on your belt right then, you can drop it easily into your pocket, without any attachments on it, it stays fairly thin. Here's some quick shots of how I wove the paracord through and then just two simple knots end it, pulled very tight in order to help keep it's tension.

pardon the shiny spot near the end of the sheath, results of my bic lighter heating up the kydex, as you can tell...I do not work with kydex lol

G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Just a tip about doing the heating of the kydex sheath, it seems that when I did that, it produced some condensation within the sheath, didn't realize that, inserted the knife, happy it was not tighter fitting but the next day some 'character' marks were showing on the very tip and along the sides, cleaned up easy enough, but if I had left it longer it might not have, so this does rust pretty fast, but boy does it take a nice edge!!!

Folks at work were quite impressed with the Patriot, size, shape and sharpness, all made a nice fixed blade knife.

G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

While I liked how the knife was made, the handles kept talking to me, 'please grind down the back 2/3rds ' or words to that effect and so today, with mask in place, I proceeded to reduce the scales so from just before midpoint it slopes back which provides a nice side type grip area along with the guard and top thumb jimping.

Here are some quick images, I'm not a knife maker so its a bit crude but I like how it feels, the fingers rest just before the swell of the G10 helping to prevent any forward slipping up on the handle.

It's ground down to just above the eyelets that hold the scales in place.

G2