Mantis Knives. Some brief comments and pics

STR said:
Ok well in that case yes. :D

For what its worth, once I put an Edge Pro 15` angle on the edge it turned things around just as I thought it would. However, the Edge Pro does show that you can take even a cheapy blade and make it perform big if nothing else comes out of this review.

STR
Click to expand...

Just what I needed. More reasons to buy more stuff.

STR, the Mantis people should be proud of the performance reached by this product. It's also apparent from your comments that the designers have specified features that where only previously seen on higher end knves.

I'm sure Mantis would love to quote your review in their promos!

Great thread!
 
I don't know about proud. I guess I've thrown some light on them in some ways, and perhaps brought more reason to question in others. The Rockwell 56 blades has me a bit disappointed because BG42 should be higher than that in a folder IMO. For that matter so should 420HC if that is what it is. I would like to see 60Rc on them and maybe even 62Rc on the BG42 blade.

Again, I have no real reason to call foul here that is anything personal against the owner of the Mantis company and I'm certainly not disappointed with the T5's performance or showing here even if the Rockwell hardness does seem a bit low but it would be nice to get an explanation from the owner of Mantis as to how he pulled off a $29 BG42 blade, even in limited numbers in a China made knife, if in fact it is China made. I guess to pull that off as a USA made product is even more of a mystery. After speaking with many industry professionals at length about this I have learned that there are so many reasons that this can't be possible with a China made product that it warrants an explanation from the company regarding this matter in my humble opinion. I'd like to know where these are manufacturered. If nothing else it seems to lead strongly to the fact that I was told wrong about China being the manufacturer of these Mantis knives.

I'll end this thread with that and the hope that one day we will hear about these issues from Jared, the director of Mantis knives.

For what its worth I've been carrying and using the T5 regularly and have found I am not the least bit afraid to do things with it that I'd normally avoid doing with my other knives. Its a great little beater and travel knife for those wanting something inexpensive to take across state lines or in their luggage for trips abroad and such. I've also found that its quite easy to use left handed. So for you south paws out there that want a frame lock that you can operate this one might be worth looking at.

STR
 
Great review STR , kudos on all of your research. :thumbup:

not to take this thread OT , and I do not really think I am but just a disclaimer. :p

Does anyone else find it quite annoying that different selling sites sometimes list the same exact knife with different blade steels ?
The manufacturer says "blade steel is XM95zc12" the knife sites say "blade steel is 420j2 , 420 HC, 440," so on and so forth.

Can we get some accuracy here ??

:)
 
Yes. It is annoying at times. Many times the manufacturers or makers of the knives cannot be blamed for this though. In fact most times its the dealers making these mistakes. I have bought knives listed as tip up carry that were anything but, as well as knives listed as plain edge that were combo and any number of other errors associated with mislabeled dealer info not the makers. It happens. I think when you have a large inventory you just miss things on occasion. Most of them honor it and fix it or refund you promptly and the good ones even give you back shipping when its their mistake.

To everyone. Do us all a favor when you see those errors. Alert the dealer to the mistake and hopefully they will fix it promptly.

Lastly, I've done some editing today and have now gone through the entire thread to correct my posts for spelling mistakes, and errors in grammer, run on sentences and such that I saw that stood out to me as well as making sure my ideas and descriptions came across as I had intended.

Also, I want to add that although the word is that these are China made, I have no proof of that at all. For all I know they are USA made and if that is the case I apologize for the unfounded doubts about these knives to the Mantis company. I want to reiterate that no where on any of the paperwork, or in the boxes, or on the knives themselves are there any indications that these knives are made in China folks.

Perhaps I am guilty of listening to hearsay and taking it as fact when it simply is unfounded because I cannot find reference to China on the web page for Mantis either and none of the dealers for Mantis knives list them as made in China. Neither Mantis or any of the dealers say they are USA made either though. Some of the competitors to Mantis knives told me that their knives are China made but again, maybe the competitors just hope they are or perhaps think they are being made in China due to the price or for whatever reasons. I think we all know from other knife manufacturers products that it is possible to sell USA made products at competitive prices. Just look in the WalMart displays anywhere in the USA and you can find USA made Kershaw knives for less money than this knife is on some dealer sites. My point is these could very well be made in the USA. Until we know I think it prudent to give the benefit of the doubt.

With that said, judge for yourself by checking out one of the Mantis knives. No matter where they are made they are not half bad.

Thanks for the input guys. Its been fun.

STR
 
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