Mantis MK-3vXb

The Mastiff said:
Dan, if he was using M4, or even M2 he would likely need to charge higher prices as that stuff isn't cheap. Nor is working it.

In addition it's a recognized name and it's quality is well known. Would you pay the extra for one of the market's hottest steels with name recognition, and then not use that name which in itself would mean sales?

In any event he calls it a stainless steel, stating" M-VX stainless steel "slices circles..." "

BG42 is in fact a stainless, high speed steel, and a bearing steel as well. It's the stainless version of M50 in fact.

Lots of steels have vanadium. D2 has vanadium. It's used in small amounts as a grain refiner and steels such as Aus 6, 8 and 10 are just some of the many stainless steels that have vanadium in it as a grain refiner, but not at levels sufficient to cause the large type, wear resistant vanadium carbides to form.

IMO, just more BS from Mantis. They also list ZDP as a steel used. Like BG42, I have my doubts.
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I'm with you on the steel thing. If it was that great, they'd advertise it as such. Mantis is weird in creating new names for things that already exist...for example, the blade type on the folding karambits is "hemispherical"...chisel ground.
 
Mantis imo is a shady company that makes most of its money ripping off novices in the knife world and also trying to create a troll militia isn't very cool either. I think I'd rather spend my money with established hard working honest companys such as spyderco, benchmade, and kershaw to name a few.
 
i can vouch for mantis knives. alot of you guys seem to not care for there products but ive bought more then a few of there knives and i think what alot of you have to complain about is pretty invalid considering how new the company is. also considering the excelent customer service. i was having a problem with one of there knives and unlike you i called them up and sent it to them. i got it back and things werent working out so i called them up and they put me on the phone with jared. hes a realy cool guy, never mentioned the mantis militia. i bought the midnight karambit by the way. and i hadent used it enough to get a proper opinion on M-vx. but if you can compare it to d2 then for the price you cant go wrong. i should also add that you guys should realy look more itno there products. they innovate. sometimes they screw up. but you cant say if you started a knife company tommorow that you wouldent have a few problems, could you?
 
Mantis knives are so goofy I almost feel like buying one just to try them out... Almost.

Just to see how it compares to something like my gayle bradley, military or ZT0200... :)
 
MANMU5.1.jpg

Innovation? To me it's a violation. It looks like parts from a broken fishing reel.
 
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nothing like a zombie thread, they have a few knives that are incredibly similar to other more famous knives (MT-8 is a spyderco Gunting, MT-5 looks like an angled ZT) and forgetting that, like what was stated in this thread, the steels they use whether good or not dont seem to be HT'ed very well. which being a knife company, you should try to get the most out of the steel you buy or your wasting money. and finally the pivots they use dont look adjustable. if they are great. but if not, why should i spend the money one a knife that looks like itll fall apart in 2 weeks and i cant put it back together?
 
PitbullShogun said:
but you cant say if you started a knife company tommorow that you wouldent have a few problems, could you?
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From what I've been hearing, I could probably forge better knives from old rebar with an oxy-acetylene blowtorch, a hammer, an anvil, and some oil for quenching:thumbup:.

If I started a knife company, I would not use random alphabet names for the blade steel, I would use the actual name so everybody knows what it is and what to expect of it.
 
Noctis3880 said:
From what I've been hearing, I could probably forge better knives from old rebar with an oxy-acetylene blowtorch, a hammer, an anvil, and some oil for quenching:thumbup:.
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Rebar would not be a good choice, go for something like old car springs (Mercedes benz are best IMO) [5160], or high tensile strength cable[M85V3, M90V3, M94Si3], old files [W1], RailRoad Chunks [1080] things of that nature and the tools stated would set you off for a nice beginning forge.
 
PitbullShogun said:
i can vouch for mantis knives. alot of you guys seem to not care for there products but ive bought more then a few of there knives and i think what alot of you have to complain about is pretty invalid considering how new the company is. also considering the excelent customer service. i was having a problem with one of there knives and unlike you i called them up and sent it to them. i got it back and things werent working out so i called them up and they put me on the phone with jared. hes a realy cool guy, never mentioned the mantis militia. i bought the midnight karambit by the way. and i hadent used it enough to get a proper opinion on M-vx. but if you can compare it to d2 then for the price you cant go wrong. i should also add that you guys should realy look more itno there products. they innovate. sometimes they screw up. but you cant say if you started a knife company tommorow that you wouldent have a few problems, could you?
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And who will vouch for you, Mr. new member with all of 3 posts who resurrected a Zombie thread to praise a very questionable company and cast aspersions at those who don't like that company?
You sound just like one of the spammers jared sent a couple of years ago.
 
knarfeng said:
And who will vouch for you, Mr. new member with all of 3 posts who resurrected a Zombie thread to praise a very questionable company and cast aspersions at those who don't like that company?
You sound just like one of the spammers jared sent a couple of years ago.
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That's exactly what I was thinking:D.

Though there's always a possibility that he's just a fanboy mall ninja.
 
Yer all just a bunch of big stinky meanies. Somewhere, out there, on this terrible, unforgiving interwebz, Chris Crocker is screaming, "Leave Jared alone! [SOB! SNIFFLE!] Leave Jared alone! [SOB! SNORT!] Just . . . leave him alone!"

I think a new model should be the RM1, the Runny Mascara model - endorsed by Chris Crocker. Every time you use it, the black finish runs off the blade onto your hands. It'll be the best way for people to know you're one o' them 'Special Militia People'. ;)

Maybe Jared could get Crocker to sit in the Mantis booth at next years BLADE show & sign the first-production-run knives for their hordes of devoted customers. You know, the throngs of devotees who love Mantis kni . . . oh, yeah. Never mind. :rolleyes:

~Chris
 
orca8589 said:
Yer all just a bunch of big stinky meanies. Somewhere, out there, on this terrible, unforgiving interwebz, Chris Crocker is screaming, "Leave Jared alone! [SOB! SNIFFLE!] Leave Jared alone! [SOB! SNORT!] Just . . . leave him alone!"

I think a new model should be the RM1, the Runny Mascara model - endorsed by Chris Crocker. Every time you use it, the black finish runs off the blade onto your hands. It'll be the best way for people to know you're one o' them 'Special Militia People'. ;)

Maybe Jared could get Crocker to sit in the Mantis booth at next years BLADE show & sign the first-production-run knives for their hordes of devoted customers. You know, the throngs of devotees who love Mantis kni . . . oh, yeah. Never mind. :rolleyes:

~Chris
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lmao! Now you can come and help clean my monitor.:p
 
pittbull shotgun stated:

i can vouch for mantis knives. alot of you guys seem to not care for there products but ive bought more then a few of there knives and i think what alot of you have to complain about is pretty invalid considering how new the company is.
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What is invalid? Jared's spamming campaign using the offer of free knives to his "militia" ? How about misrepresenting steels? Labeling a knife BG42 and then making it out of a cheaper, lower performing steel at unusually low hardness is no problem if it's a new company?

I spoke to Jared by e-mail too. He comes across as a nice guy. Being nice doesn't excuse poor, or unethical business practices.

I'm curious. Were you offered a new knife, an upgrade or discount of any kind to stand up for Mantis knives? No? If not, why? Others were.


Meet the newest militia member :) http://archive.aweber.com/jared1/e48A/h/Meet_the_newest_member_of_the_Mantis.htm


Note: The new "pit boss" is being released in 440V steel. Good find considering how long it's been out of production. Then sending it to be made in taiwan or china? I wonder what the final hardness is on this one?
 
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Shat's face has been photoshoped so much it looks like plastic. Hmmm, plastic people pimping plastic knives. Yup, works for me.
 
He comes across as a nice guy on the phone or email, but the man is a snake oil salesman any way you slice it, if you ask me. I met him in person at SHOT back when the company was brand new, and he couldn't answer even pretty basic materials, design, or performance questions and tried to divert the conversation back to how awesome he was at every opportunity.

An example of their corner-cutting practices: check out their carbon fiber models. You'll find that the carbon fiber is just a single flat layer under a bunch of clear resin. Contoured carbon fiber has a certain look to it...one that no Mantis knife has. ;)

But this is a necro thread, so I'm not sure why I'm bothering here anyway. :p
 
A.P.F. said:
lmao! Now you can come and help clean my monitor.:p
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Nope. You're on your own there. Besides, you're not a full bladeforums member until you've snotshot coffee all over your keyboard & monitor, and woke the family up at 2am laughing at threads like this. (I've done both; waking the family up nearly got me perma-banned at home. :D)

The Mastiff said:
Meet the newest militia member :) http://archive.aweber.com/jared1/e48A/h/Meet_the_newest_member_of_the_Mantis.htm
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Oh, Lord, please. An overly-dramatic, photo-shopped, washed-up actor is their new celebrity endorsement? Shatner's kind of cool, especially to us old-world Star Trek fans . . . but making a big deal out of him being a 'Militia Member' isn't very impressive.

And the whole "he [Shatner] made suggestions on improvements and we implemented them and now we have a better product but we're not passing the cost on the to customers as a favor to them" issue made me laugh out loud. Snake Oil salesmanship, right there.

Makes me wonder if Mantis will ever have any real credibility among folks here.

~Chris
 
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