I have been meaning to drop off some thoughts about the MPT-Ti. Get knowledge and share knowledge: the reason I love the Internet.
You can see the MPT on this page: Mission Knives & Tools Product Page. The only difference is that mine, which I believe is a newer one, now has grooves in the handle like the MPK.
I picked this over the MPK. The design (knife and sheath) seemed to be more streamlined, it was exactly the size I was looking for, and it had a nice choil. The MPK-10 in titanium was the other knife I earnestly considered. I paid $289 for the MPT-Ti. I am in Iraq and end up using the knife pretty much every day. Some days are much harder than others.
The knife is very light for its size and the handle is extremely comfortable. The handle design, with its thumb ramp, gives you a lot of control. I have not had problems using the knife with or without gloves, in temperatures that were down to freezing (with windchill).
My handle was missing the lanyard hole, which was odd and unfortunate. A lanyard is second nature for me. Anyway, a quick email to Mission Tools and Craig wrote me right back, offering to replace the knife or modify my existing one. I'll probably go for the latter after returning CONUS.
It should be noted that I have large hands. Others with medium hands also said the handle was great. Those with smaller hands said it was a little unwieldy. All of those who handled it remarked how light it was.
The sheath was very tight at first, but has loosened up so that it does still grip the blade firmly, with no sound even when shaken. I wish it was not quite so tight in the sheath. I had hoped that the two slots on the back would be the right width for the straps on my Blackhawk pistol drop-leg holster. They were a little too narrow (1", while I think the straps are 1 1/2"). I secured the holster to the straps with some flat cord and heavy tape. The setup is nice, putting the knife in a spot where it is easy to reach and always on me, even if I am not wearing my flak.
The knife is easy to unbutton and draw. However, the coating on the button is already wearing off to reveal the brass (I think), underneath. I will figure out a fix for that.
The blade was not quite shaving sharp when it arrived, but that was no big concern. Some prior WWW investigation said that "almost" shaving sharp was about par for the course on the titanium Missions. I know that the titanium alloy is about RC 47, so I would rather have a more durable edge than a narrow, easily bent over, one.
The knife was used to cut damaged comm wire, mostly slashwire (field telephone) and cat 5 (standard computer network cable) to pieces. This was to prevent it being used by insurgents in their IEDs (yes, they have used cat 5 before). Cat 5 is harder to cut, because it has an outer protective sheath, then 4 pairs of intertwined wires inside. I trap the line under my foot, pull with my left hand to give tension, and then slice through the wire. Wash, rinse, repeat. The MPT cut through a lot of wire, maybe 150 cuts through slashwire and about half that through cat 5. It performed well; maybe a bit better than a normal edged Becker CU7 or Ka-Bar, because the serrations do a good job of cutting without hanging up on the copper wire inside.
After the above, I could see some reflection where the edge was bent over slightly. I have found that the titanium bends over more easily than steel, but the MPT's edge cleans up pretty well by "steeling," but using a diamond rod.
The blade goes through rope easily. Again, the serrations work nicely and do not hang up at all, like some I have used. Where I have noticed the serrations hang up is if I hold something like comm wire in my left hand, bend it over into a loop, then try to cut through the loop. That feels bad, probably dangerous. I have not tried this with rope, because there has not been any need yet. Cutting 550 cord like this was no problem.
We also use knives to destroy sandbags. Hold the knife tip outboard, edge toward you (or down), then stab into the filled bag and pull toward yourself. Sand in Iraq comes with lots of little rocks and stones in it, very hard on the edge. After about 30 bags, one Marine's Ka-Bar was so dull that you could saw on your arm with no effect. It lost a large amount of material from the edge. The titanium knife dulled up a little, but the difference in wear between the other knives and the MPT was striking. I think the other knives were all Ka-Bars or Benchmades in 1095 and 154CM steel. If I only cut a few sandbags just "steeling" the blade with a diamond sharpening rod will fix things up.
Also used the knife to pry/dig the hinges off of a wooden door (nails and screws hammered in and bent over were holding the hinges on). Being jabbed in and contacting the hard steel screws or nails caused some damage to the edge and the knife, mostly the last 2 inches or so, flexed a lot while I was prying. It took a tiny permanent bend. I think the MPT has too thin of a tip for prying. I was wishing for a Becker or something with a more robust tip when I took off those hinges. The MPT is made, obviously, as something of a fighting knife. Hence, the thin tip for penetration. Since I picked it up as an all-purpose knife to eventually be my dedicated dive knife, and I tend to pry with that tool, maybe I should have gotten an MPK-10. (But, I like the choil.) My guess: I'll probably break the tip sooner or later and then send the knife in to have it modified - in the end a little shorter, but with a thicker tip. I should email Mission and ask how much that would be, to prevent any surprises.
The titanium does bend to points where I would expect a steel knife to break.
The coating on the blade seems very durable. You can hardly tell I have been stabbing it into sandbags. The sheath and handle have taken some hard whacks, with little more than a small indentation in the sheath noticeable. As for corrosion resistance, it lives up to the hype. The knife does not care if you put it away wet, even salt water. The sheath can be easily rinsed out if it gets full of grit. Fuel or oil was washed off with soap and water, with no lasting effect. I wonder how the handle would do if exposed to solvent, like the dunk tanks for weapons.
If you need a corrosion-resistant knife (more like impervious, so far), the MPT is a very good choice. It is a functional knife, unlike the other titanium knives I have used. It leans more toward being a fighter than a general purpose knife, because of the thin tip.
If I could tune it for myself, I would make the tip much thicker and widen the tie-down slots on the back of the sheath to 1 1/2".
Make sure you have a diamond sharpening rod to true up the edge, because it does bend over easy (compared to steel knives I have used). I will see if that can be tweaked any by reprofiling the edge, once I have the chance. This might be a good candidate for a convex grind.
Lastly, the wear resistance, when compared to 1095 and 154CM, was amazing. This is one of the few times, when comparing knives made of different materials (usually steels), that I could actually tell the difference in wear resistance. It was certainly the most dramatic demonstration of wear resistance playing a part in edge retention.
In the future (a couple of months), if it is appropriate to update this review, I will stop by and add a reply with the new information.
SSgt Andrew Borntreger, USMC
Al Anbar, Iraq
You can see the MPT on this page: Mission Knives & Tools Product Page. The only difference is that mine, which I believe is a newer one, now has grooves in the handle like the MPK.
I picked this over the MPK. The design (knife and sheath) seemed to be more streamlined, it was exactly the size I was looking for, and it had a nice choil. The MPK-10 in titanium was the other knife I earnestly considered. I paid $289 for the MPT-Ti. I am in Iraq and end up using the knife pretty much every day. Some days are much harder than others.
The knife is very light for its size and the handle is extremely comfortable. The handle design, with its thumb ramp, gives you a lot of control. I have not had problems using the knife with or without gloves, in temperatures that were down to freezing (with windchill).
My handle was missing the lanyard hole, which was odd and unfortunate. A lanyard is second nature for me. Anyway, a quick email to Mission Tools and Craig wrote me right back, offering to replace the knife or modify my existing one. I'll probably go for the latter after returning CONUS.
It should be noted that I have large hands. Others with medium hands also said the handle was great. Those with smaller hands said it was a little unwieldy. All of those who handled it remarked how light it was.
The sheath was very tight at first, but has loosened up so that it does still grip the blade firmly, with no sound even when shaken. I wish it was not quite so tight in the sheath. I had hoped that the two slots on the back would be the right width for the straps on my Blackhawk pistol drop-leg holster. They were a little too narrow (1", while I think the straps are 1 1/2"). I secured the holster to the straps with some flat cord and heavy tape. The setup is nice, putting the knife in a spot where it is easy to reach and always on me, even if I am not wearing my flak.
The knife is easy to unbutton and draw. However, the coating on the button is already wearing off to reveal the brass (I think), underneath. I will figure out a fix for that.
The blade was not quite shaving sharp when it arrived, but that was no big concern. Some prior WWW investigation said that "almost" shaving sharp was about par for the course on the titanium Missions. I know that the titanium alloy is about RC 47, so I would rather have a more durable edge than a narrow, easily bent over, one.
The knife was used to cut damaged comm wire, mostly slashwire (field telephone) and cat 5 (standard computer network cable) to pieces. This was to prevent it being used by insurgents in their IEDs (yes, they have used cat 5 before). Cat 5 is harder to cut, because it has an outer protective sheath, then 4 pairs of intertwined wires inside. I trap the line under my foot, pull with my left hand to give tension, and then slice through the wire. Wash, rinse, repeat. The MPT cut through a lot of wire, maybe 150 cuts through slashwire and about half that through cat 5. It performed well; maybe a bit better than a normal edged Becker CU7 or Ka-Bar, because the serrations do a good job of cutting without hanging up on the copper wire inside.
After the above, I could see some reflection where the edge was bent over slightly. I have found that the titanium bends over more easily than steel, but the MPT's edge cleans up pretty well by "steeling," but using a diamond rod.
The blade goes through rope easily. Again, the serrations work nicely and do not hang up at all, like some I have used. Where I have noticed the serrations hang up is if I hold something like comm wire in my left hand, bend it over into a loop, then try to cut through the loop. That feels bad, probably dangerous. I have not tried this with rope, because there has not been any need yet. Cutting 550 cord like this was no problem.
We also use knives to destroy sandbags. Hold the knife tip outboard, edge toward you (or down), then stab into the filled bag and pull toward yourself. Sand in Iraq comes with lots of little rocks and stones in it, very hard on the edge. After about 30 bags, one Marine's Ka-Bar was so dull that you could saw on your arm with no effect. It lost a large amount of material from the edge. The titanium knife dulled up a little, but the difference in wear between the other knives and the MPT was striking. I think the other knives were all Ka-Bars or Benchmades in 1095 and 154CM steel. If I only cut a few sandbags just "steeling" the blade with a diamond sharpening rod will fix things up.
Also used the knife to pry/dig the hinges off of a wooden door (nails and screws hammered in and bent over were holding the hinges on). Being jabbed in and contacting the hard steel screws or nails caused some damage to the edge and the knife, mostly the last 2 inches or so, flexed a lot while I was prying. It took a tiny permanent bend. I think the MPT has too thin of a tip for prying. I was wishing for a Becker or something with a more robust tip when I took off those hinges. The MPT is made, obviously, as something of a fighting knife. Hence, the thin tip for penetration. Since I picked it up as an all-purpose knife to eventually be my dedicated dive knife, and I tend to pry with that tool, maybe I should have gotten an MPK-10. (But, I like the choil.) My guess: I'll probably break the tip sooner or later and then send the knife in to have it modified - in the end a little shorter, but with a thicker tip. I should email Mission and ask how much that would be, to prevent any surprises.
The titanium does bend to points where I would expect a steel knife to break.
The coating on the blade seems very durable. You can hardly tell I have been stabbing it into sandbags. The sheath and handle have taken some hard whacks, with little more than a small indentation in the sheath noticeable. As for corrosion resistance, it lives up to the hype. The knife does not care if you put it away wet, even salt water. The sheath can be easily rinsed out if it gets full of grit. Fuel or oil was washed off with soap and water, with no lasting effect. I wonder how the handle would do if exposed to solvent, like the dunk tanks for weapons.
If you need a corrosion-resistant knife (more like impervious, so far), the MPT is a very good choice. It is a functional knife, unlike the other titanium knives I have used. It leans more toward being a fighter than a general purpose knife, because of the thin tip.
If I could tune it for myself, I would make the tip much thicker and widen the tie-down slots on the back of the sheath to 1 1/2".
Make sure you have a diamond sharpening rod to true up the edge, because it does bend over easy (compared to steel knives I have used). I will see if that can be tweaked any by reprofiling the edge, once I have the chance. This might be a good candidate for a convex grind.
Lastly, the wear resistance, when compared to 1095 and 154CM, was amazing. This is one of the few times, when comparing knives made of different materials (usually steels), that I could actually tell the difference in wear resistance. It was certainly the most dramatic demonstration of wear resistance playing a part in edge retention.
In the future (a couple of months), if it is appropriate to update this review, I will stop by and add a reply with the new information.
SSgt Andrew Borntreger, USMC
Al Anbar, Iraq
