MaxFactor
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2012
- Messages
- 1,388
Sorry, no PM2 or Delica.
Techno - Military - Mantra 2 - Dragonfly 2
Bonus shot I took while doing some painting.
My first look at the Mantra 2 was two weeks ago when I received the 2016 Spyderco catalogue in the mail. The flipper section definitely caught my eye, in particular the Mantra 2. Lo and behold, later that week the Mantra 2 popped up for sale on BladeHQ, I quickly placed me order, and afterward the Mantra 2 was listed Out of Stock. What a score. The last one in stock was mine. I eagerly checked the tracking updates and eventually the package arrived at my doorstep. I didn't waste any time getting the knife out of the package and once I had it in my hands, I'm sad to say, I definitely had mixed feelings.
Foremost, I guess I hadn't paid close enough attention to the specs because I had expected a larger knife. That's obviously my fault, and could probably be chalked up to the fact that most of the knives I've purchased over the past year have been bigger folders. Additionally, I tend to prefer thick blade stocks, more akin to the stout blade profile of the Techno, so the slim and slender blade of the Mantra 2 was certainly a contrast to my normal preference. Lastly, the detent was weak out of the box. Devoid of any other opening mechanism, I would expect this knife to flip like a dream. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The weak detent, coupled with a fairly tight pivot out of the box, made for a less than optimal flipping action.
At this point I was quite underwhelmed with the Mantra 2, mostly due to my personal expectations. Nevertheless, I found it pretty disappointing, so I listed the knife on the Exchange, looking to recoup my funds.
Long story short, the knife didn't sell and sat on my desk. That is, it sat on my desk until yesterday. My most used work-knife had gotten fairly dull recently so on my way out the door I grabbed the Mantra 2. My original disappointment faded away and my initial impressions were proved wrong after I put the Mantra 2 to use. At work the Mantra 2 performed superbly, cutting through a huge amount of masking tape, metallic barrier paper, adhesive stencil paper, transfer film, and cardboard. The addition of some weapons grade lubricating oil to the pivot seemed to help quite a bit with the smoothness of the flipping action, although I'd still prefer a stronger detent.
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