- Joined
- Jun 20, 2008
- Messages
- 168
Ok, I got curious about how good the other mantis knives were, as the day before I got here they had spammed up the board pretty bad. So there was quite a barbeque going on when I came in. Those of you who have read my other posts can see I am more of a Kershaw fan, if anything. I already had one of the mantis karambits that I have been using as a utility knife for months, so I figured I would try out one of the fixed blades that looked like it was reasonably utilitarian. I couldn't find any for sale anywhere except ebay, so one "buy it now" with free shipping later, and I had one on the way. It was at my office desk less than 12 hours later. Damn! I looked up the location, and they are up in Orange county, I am only down in San Diego. I must have gotten the order in before UPS showed up or something. That was still nice to come into at work in the morning.
Ok, about the knife. I'll start with the handle. In the pictures online, I couldn't see that the handle material doesn't go all the way to the edge of the full tang so the edge of the tang sticks out a bit around the entire handle. It looked a bit odd. But it does fit my hand, and the edges of the tang are not sharp, crisp edges like they were on my karambit. That was a plus. They are also not "melted" like some of the concealed knives and guns out there. The handle material is some sort of rubber. It is dense, and has a good traction pattern in it. Not much give to it either, so it has a solid feel. I couldn't pry it out with just my fingers, so it passes that test. It has a decent groove for my index finger, that is comfortable to hold, and swells into enough of a guard to protect my fingers, and keep them from sliding up onto the blade. There are also some good notches on the back for your thumb. I like them because they are NOT the ultra-small, sharp-edged, quasi-serrations that some people put on the backs of knives to make them look cool. The ones that look good until you have to use them for something, and then they dig into your thumb as soon as you apply some pressure. These are not those. They are bigger, rounded, and spaced about 1/8 inch apart. Nothing spectacular or sexy, but very functional.
The sheath is some kind of black polymer that is held together with 4 rivets and 2 torx screws/nuts. It holds the knife in with friction. The sheath has a built in belt clip and a ton of places to attach whatever flavor of strap/tie-down floats your boat. The rivets have holes in the centers that are large enough to accommodate nylon cords as well, so if that is what you prefer, you can do that to. Not being a mall ninja, I just clipped it to my belt. I know, it's pedestrian. The knife stays in it's sheath, even when I went out and chopped some wood, and chased the sheep around their pen to trim hooves. So the friction seems to be enough for every day use. And no, I didn't trim the sheep's hooves with the knife.
Now to the heart of the matter. The blade. It is about 3 inches long. The info from the company says it is 420 HC. As I have said in other posts, I don't know enough about the different steels to have an informed opinion on this one. I leave that up to you guys. It did come sharp enough to shave the hairs off of my arm though. I like it when I don't have to sharpen them up myself to do that. It has your standard flat black coating that looks like some sort of oxide coating. There are also 2 circular holes drilled in the base of the blade. They are probably just there for looks, but I suppose they may lighten the blade some. Or give mall ninjas some place to tie their ropes onto it when they go to use it as a grappling hook. On a whole (or hole, as the case may be), I like them I guess. And the overall balance of the knife is right at the base of the finger notch on the handle.
Now, the testing. After shaving the hairs off my arm, I decided to see what I could do with it. So I washed it with soap and water to get the oil off, and got to work. The first test? Tomatoes. Not stabbing, or hacking, or anything spectacular. Just slicing them. Why? Well, if I am going to take this camping, in had better be able to handle some of the less manly tasks as well. It sliced them just fine. Which was nice, because some of my other knives have failed this one. I then did some carrots, celery and chicken. I tossed all that in a pot, turned it on low, and then went to finish my other tests. She-who-must-be-obeyed couldn't complain because dinner was already started. So I washed the knife, and headed out to the garage. I am currently out of 1 inch manila line. Or rather, I am out of any pieces longer than about four inches, since I used the last of it up a few months back doing the "cutting the hanging rope" test. I like being able to count to ten on my fingers, so four inches wasn't enough to do that this time. I did go out and cut through 40 sections of it on the counter top. And then I got out the 2" thick oak stick and pounded it through 10 more sections of rope. It cut well with both tests, and was still sharp enough to shave some more hair off my arm afterwards. I swear the people at work must think I have some weird skin disease, with all of the bald patches on just one arm. Anyways, I then used it to hack some of the smaller branches off of another piece of oak that I have aging in the garage. I found that if you whack the back of it just right with the other stick, the smaller branches pop off cleanly. That done, I checked the edge for nicks, bends, and other gnarlies. I didn't find any. Then I whittled some of the smaller branches into kindling. Then notches on the back really came into their own there. I was able to peel off some good sized chunks without a lot of effort, simply by bracing my thumb there and pushing away from me on the branch. Having abused the blade for about an hour, I checked it again, gave it a few swipes on the Arkansas stone, and went inside to clean it up again. It still worked just fine on the tomatoes.
Now, since I am actually planning on using this knife in two weeks for chopping up wild hogs in Texas, I didn't test it to destruction, like I would if I were testing it for real. Maybe after I am done with the pigs, I'll try some of the silly tests like car doors or splitting .22 bullets. In the mean time, I am fairly happy with it. I can't really carry a fixed blade all over the place here in California, so an EDC knife it is not. But as a camping or hunting knife, it seems to hold it's own. I really liked my karambit from these guys, which was why I was willing to risk getting another knife from them. And now I am actually glad I did. It is functional enough for me, and not so expensive that I would be afraid to use it.
-Mb
Ok, about the knife. I'll start with the handle. In the pictures online, I couldn't see that the handle material doesn't go all the way to the edge of the full tang so the edge of the tang sticks out a bit around the entire handle. It looked a bit odd. But it does fit my hand, and the edges of the tang are not sharp, crisp edges like they were on my karambit. That was a plus. They are also not "melted" like some of the concealed knives and guns out there. The handle material is some sort of rubber. It is dense, and has a good traction pattern in it. Not much give to it either, so it has a solid feel. I couldn't pry it out with just my fingers, so it passes that test. It has a decent groove for my index finger, that is comfortable to hold, and swells into enough of a guard to protect my fingers, and keep them from sliding up onto the blade. There are also some good notches on the back for your thumb. I like them because they are NOT the ultra-small, sharp-edged, quasi-serrations that some people put on the backs of knives to make them look cool. The ones that look good until you have to use them for something, and then they dig into your thumb as soon as you apply some pressure. These are not those. They are bigger, rounded, and spaced about 1/8 inch apart. Nothing spectacular or sexy, but very functional.
The sheath is some kind of black polymer that is held together with 4 rivets and 2 torx screws/nuts. It holds the knife in with friction. The sheath has a built in belt clip and a ton of places to attach whatever flavor of strap/tie-down floats your boat. The rivets have holes in the centers that are large enough to accommodate nylon cords as well, so if that is what you prefer, you can do that to. Not being a mall ninja, I just clipped it to my belt. I know, it's pedestrian. The knife stays in it's sheath, even when I went out and chopped some wood, and chased the sheep around their pen to trim hooves. So the friction seems to be enough for every day use. And no, I didn't trim the sheep's hooves with the knife.
Now to the heart of the matter. The blade. It is about 3 inches long. The info from the company says it is 420 HC. As I have said in other posts, I don't know enough about the different steels to have an informed opinion on this one. I leave that up to you guys. It did come sharp enough to shave the hairs off of my arm though. I like it when I don't have to sharpen them up myself to do that. It has your standard flat black coating that looks like some sort of oxide coating. There are also 2 circular holes drilled in the base of the blade. They are probably just there for looks, but I suppose they may lighten the blade some. Or give mall ninjas some place to tie their ropes onto it when they go to use it as a grappling hook. On a whole (or hole, as the case may be), I like them I guess. And the overall balance of the knife is right at the base of the finger notch on the handle.
Now, the testing. After shaving the hairs off my arm, I decided to see what I could do with it. So I washed it with soap and water to get the oil off, and got to work. The first test? Tomatoes. Not stabbing, or hacking, or anything spectacular. Just slicing them. Why? Well, if I am going to take this camping, in had better be able to handle some of the less manly tasks as well. It sliced them just fine. Which was nice, because some of my other knives have failed this one. I then did some carrots, celery and chicken. I tossed all that in a pot, turned it on low, and then went to finish my other tests. She-who-must-be-obeyed couldn't complain because dinner was already started. So I washed the knife, and headed out to the garage. I am currently out of 1 inch manila line. Or rather, I am out of any pieces longer than about four inches, since I used the last of it up a few months back doing the "cutting the hanging rope" test. I like being able to count to ten on my fingers, so four inches wasn't enough to do that this time. I did go out and cut through 40 sections of it on the counter top. And then I got out the 2" thick oak stick and pounded it through 10 more sections of rope. It cut well with both tests, and was still sharp enough to shave some more hair off my arm afterwards. I swear the people at work must think I have some weird skin disease, with all of the bald patches on just one arm. Anyways, I then used it to hack some of the smaller branches off of another piece of oak that I have aging in the garage. I found that if you whack the back of it just right with the other stick, the smaller branches pop off cleanly. That done, I checked the edge for nicks, bends, and other gnarlies. I didn't find any. Then I whittled some of the smaller branches into kindling. Then notches on the back really came into their own there. I was able to peel off some good sized chunks without a lot of effort, simply by bracing my thumb there and pushing away from me on the branch. Having abused the blade for about an hour, I checked it again, gave it a few swipes on the Arkansas stone, and went inside to clean it up again. It still worked just fine on the tomatoes.
Now, since I am actually planning on using this knife in two weeks for chopping up wild hogs in Texas, I didn't test it to destruction, like I would if I were testing it for real. Maybe after I am done with the pigs, I'll try some of the silly tests like car doors or splitting .22 bullets. In the mean time, I am fairly happy with it. I can't really carry a fixed blade all over the place here in California, so an EDC knife it is not. But as a camping or hunting knife, it seems to hold it's own. I really liked my karambit from these guys, which was why I was willing to risk getting another knife from them. And now I am actually glad I did. It is functional enough for me, and not so expensive that I would be afraid to use it.
-Mb
Joe