My new knife of the year arrived

[Blackie Scantling]

What you need to do is save up a couple extra bucks and get a Kabar Heavy Bowie or Ontario Marine Raider Bowie. Neither will arrive bent or with the broken guard you mentioned, and neither is a cheap clone/knockoff/tribute of somebody else's knife.

I'm already lusting for a Becker.

 

[Tallahassee]

In November I ordered a MT 151 from Amazon, because it was $15 delivered and I was impressed with those youTube videos of guys putting it through incredible abuse and all the very positive reviews on Amazon.

Out of the box, I thought it looked great, felt solid and had a not great but decent edge. The resemblance to a Trailmaster is uncanny, and it really looks and feels like a quality knife. But wait...

It baton-ed through the first few 3" pieces of seasoned oak firewood well enough, and my next piece was just under 4". (I know how to baton correctly and what not to do, so this was not newbie operator error). Starting the 4" wide piece, on the second tap the Mtech snapped in half on the second tap. The break was 1/8" inch in front of the crossguard. I can't upload a photo here, but the exposed steel at the break is grainy and sandpaper-textured. It looks like cast alloy 'pot metal' if you know that old school term. Quality steel, when it breaks, doesn't look like pot metal. And you have to take my word for it, the little piece of firewood I was baton-ing should not have broken any decent knife, even a cheap one. The 151 is a very thick blade which makes the failure all the more serious.

Well, at $15 I'm out the price of a burger and an iced tea, so I'm not crying. But I won't buy another mTech no matter how cheap or how perfect a knockoff it appears to be. I wasn't hurt when the mTech broke, but I could have been and so could any bystander if the broken blade had gone flying off.

Good luck with your 151, Blackie. To the other knife suggestions I would add the Ontario SP1 Marine 7" knife. Amazon for around $35, great ergonomics, Ontario quality, lanyard hole, and a pretty good sheath, leather in back and sail Dacron in front.

 

[JTmisterknifeguy]

Just save up and buy a Becker. Their blades aren't twisted, the edges are not asymetrical, the guards aren't loose, and they are overall a very good quality knife.

For $50 more, you won't regret it. Think about it--do you really want to depend on a $20 piece of broken junk?

Couldn't agree more, I got one becker ( the "9") and three more en route, it's an awesome brand and design. I'm also getting a real sk5 trailmaster because I'm a Cold Steel fan/collector. Our friend here got ripped off, but for my part, I quit buying junk knives quite a while ago, and now the junkiest knife(vs) I own is a budget blade from Kershaw. It's just not worth it to me to buy junk. There's a reason a good woods/survival/tactical blade usually costs a good deal more than knockoffs.

 

[goldie]

I got one for 15.00 shipped,too,just to mess around with. i have a trailmaster carbon v & recon scout.it wasnt twisted,everything appeared ok. i used it to cut up a bunch of carpet padding made of heavy grey material. it is very tough material. at first it cut right through it,but after less than 10 minutes it couldnt cut it for nothing. thats 440a for you.it dulled out pretty quick. i resharpened it & keep it under the back seat of my pickup truck;not sure what good it will do,but worst comes to worst ill sell it on craigslist for 15 bucks!its the only cheap bowie i ever bought. oh,well,back to the trailmaster & recon scout....