Review on MTECH Combo Edge folding Knife

[jefff]

Hey Guy's...
Doing a quick review on one of these less expensive type knives for the guys over at ADVANCEDMART.COM.for the budget minded

To tell ya the truth .. I was very Leary about anything that had MTECH on it after seeing all of the Ebay deals and jumping to the conclusion that they were cheaply made poor quality knives.. but today after receiving this knife I am very impressed with this particular model they are offering.. it is built like a tank and has a certain heft to it.

I have not yet had a chance to put it through it's paces but the initial feel and appearance of the knife is very well worth the money.
Lock up feels solid with a sound click

And the grip feels right..

The blade is 440 Stainless steel with a satin finish with combo edge. Thumb stud's on each side for left or right one hand opening. Uses a liner-lock for locking and unlocking and the liner is quite thick and seems better than my Gerber/Winchester Engage...
and is easy to open and close with one hand .

It is a very nice package and come with it's own cool sheath. At first as with most knives it was kinda sticky opening.. but a little superlube and a few works of the action, this cleared right up and is alot smoother.. Im sure it will only get better with time.. There is no side to side or up and down blade play at all with this folder in the locked position! Also I would like to add that this knife has the clip mounted for only tip up carry and there is no other option to relocate the clip.. and it also offers a lanyard hole..

All in all I would like to say that I am pretty impressed with the quality and make of this knife and wonder how it is that they can put out such a quality knife for such a low price.. Even with out seeing how well the blade holds an edge and putting it through it's paces I know out of the box she is razor sharp

and here is the bald patch to prove it ... I will post more after I get it's teeth into some everyday cutting chores and see how well she holds an edge and takes a new one and get back with you guys .. but this is one that has so far impressed me with it's mere solidness and appearance out of the box.. here are some more pics of it next to my other knives.. kershaw leek silver and Winchester Engage.. just for size comparison and thank you for taking the time to read my review..
~Jeff

I want to thank the guys at ADVANCEDMART.Com for the opertunity to check out some of Mtech's product line..And to shed some light on they're so called bad name.. From my stand point they are well worth the price and would be an awesome work knife.. very solid and built on par with my Gerber Engage if not better..
~Jeff

 

[Planterz]

And to shed some light on they're so called bad name.. From my stand point they are well worth the price and would be an awesome work knife.. very solid and built on par with my Gerber Engage if not better..

Quality for the money or not, part of their "so called bad name" comes from a complete lack of ethics. This knife is an obvious ripoff of the Benchmade 520 designed by Mel Pardue. Right down to the pocket clip. Different lock though...

I don't mean to be disparaging to you. I'm glad you're happy with your knife. Just some FYI.

 

[Josh Muller]

and if you havent already looked at the debois distributors site yet (home to masters and jaguar knives, as well as mtech), you should. go to any major knife seller and look at their knives with a cursory glance, and you will find that 25% of their selection (the most popular) have EXACT copies via jaguar, mtech, or masters.

http://masterknives.com/

heres kind of a funny page because it has some rare ones on it - they have copies of

busse (original mean street, also note the gaurd hole),
crk&t,
rdt (karembit) ... or possible emerson? i'll have to look into that one
tops knives
and rob simonich.

and thats just one page among many.


dont get me wrong, they make some really high quality knives considering the often times 10-20$ price point, the fit and finish is good, and the grinds are even, and they good handles - but you should buy them understanding that they are direct copies of other companies knives. and with those comments im speaking of m-tech. masters has some nice ones, but mtech does a lot of the tactical ripoffs, tactical being the style that often impresses me more.

 

[Josh Muller]

they have a pretty accurate copy of masters of defense's Graciela Casillas-Boggs "Lady Hawk" knife. the one i handled was a 3 finger version. kind of hard to open quick, but a nice design (albiet that it came from someone else)

heres a run down of the knives from that page -

crk&t - not so much the blade as an exact copy of the handle

ya, that was rdt... wich is kinda funny kinda sad, since its a more obscure reference being a custom knife from a custom maker. - this is actually his avatar

busse mean street

rob simonich - switched photo to the pikuni, as its a little closer fit

scratch that - it wasnt tops. it was sibert. i knew i had seen that profile somewhere... especially the thumb ramp. his darius model

it wouldnt suprise me if the other ones are taken from somewhere, but i cant directly place them without really searching.

 

[Josh Muller]

cant decide wich it looks more like.

 

[Charlie Fox]

Copy-catting aside, M-Tech's knives are a solid choice for those who need a decent knife and can't afford to buy the original. I have two and they're holding up just fine to the use I put them through.

Let the lawyers figure out the legal stuff. In the mean time, these knives are OK!

 

[Josh Muller]

the knives are well made, and fit and finish is quite good. if i had any use for the lady hawk knockoff from mtech - i would have bought it in a heart beat. 15$ is nothin for a knife, i just dont have a use for it...

 

[jefff]

I have no doubt that they are knock off's but like stated above, let the legal begals tend to that..

I know as well as Im sure other's do also.. that they are not even close to being any where near the quality of the orginals they were copied from.. but they are a good low end knife..
Very much opposit from what I was thinking they would be in my head with out seeing one first hand... .. I had a vision of a total peice of junk, but this was not the case at all..

Yes ethics are probally being sacraficed in order to bring the general public a knife that a person on a budget can afford and they are stepping on the stones that the orginal knife maker had worked hard to build up to make a sale.
But I really doubt that is the typical joe blow's concern who is in the market with this type of knife.. it is more likely to be "hey that is a cool looking knife for a low price" And they are far better quality than the corner store junk or flea market knives I have seen..

Not trying to push past your point because I see it. and Im sure others do as well.. but there is a market for every thing and people will take advantage of it and hey if they get sued in the process .. it is not really my problem.. thanks for sharing your thought's on it though.
~Jeff

 

[Josh Muller]

sorry.... that one was bugging me, and i just came up with it (kershaw boa)

they really are good quality... took a great deal of restraint today for me to not go back and buy one... its just very funny to me the sheer quantity of copies they have available...

 

[Mitchell Knives]

I once owned an M-Tech folder. It was extremely well made considering the price. However, I doubt that I will ever purchase another M-Tech product due to their numerous design rip offs. Besides, you would be much better off with the real thing instead of a cheap copy.

 

[jefff]

Agreed.. but this I think was intended to bring a customer base a low budget decent folder to Advancedmart.com's patrons... and I think it is well worth the price they are asking.. anyway... On with the conclusion of my review..

Here is the knife almost completely disassembled when I applied the militech-1 to the washers and blade..

After working this knife like a dog for the past few days.. it is still nice and tight.. no side to side or up and down movement in the blade while in lock up... the cutting chores were at first pretty basic. paper, envelopes, cardboard, speaker wire, old extension cords..and nylon rope and it handled them really well.. I still have yet to re-sharpen it .. I did how ever manage to damage the teeth on the serrated area of the blade after using it as a hatchet on some 1/4 inch ply wood I was fitting under an old kitchen chair that I was repairing to fit in place.. here is a pic of the teeth

I couldn't really get a good picture of it but it had bent the teeth right over pretty good ..
But the knife is still usable and sharp as all get out.. here is a picture of a piece of paper it flawlessly etched out with out any effort..

It rides nice in the pocket tip up and is very secure as well as the blade staying closed with a hevy detent..

All in all I am really truly impressed with this low end knife and would probably buy another one of MTECH's products if I see one that catches my eye .. Copy cat'n or not.. they are decent work knives in my book for the price and if you can get past the whole ethic's thing I'm sure anyone would be impressed with they're product's.
~Jeff

 

[TOB9595]

Great review and PICS!!!
I particularly liked the disassembled one

Tom

 

[S. Sibert]

M-tech STEALS the creative ideas and designs from hardworking, honest knifemakers for there own gain. In some cases these knifemakers (and respected knife company's) have worked very hard for many many years to establish themselves in the knife business by offering extremly high quality knives, unique and innovative ideas that are coupled with wise business practices in order to make a meager living at the profession for some and hobby to others that we all love so well.They are a blatenet rip-off company. :barf:

This company make me sick. They are a company with ethics of a toilet bug.

 

[French Kiss]

The price are not even worth the materials used to make it, and I can put a reknown company name or designer's name on almost every knife I see in there catalog! Looks like another chinese attempt to flood the market with good looking crap
I wouldn't buy such knives, that's a pure attempt to steal a whole market, unfortunately, all the outsourcing companies (be it knives company or other) in the rush to make always cheaper products to compete with one another on the western market, gave the chinese industry all the machines and the know-how to do so... we can't really complain nor blame the chinese government industry to grab such an opportunity to kick their competitors out of the market... very faustian, isn't it?

 

[averageguy]

I purchased an Mtech recently. Would be a good knife at several times the price - $3.00 for the knife $5.00 to ship. Infinitely better quality than the Chinese folders of a decade ago. Really quite a nice knife. It looks like whoever makes these also makes at least some of the Chinese models for the Smith & Wesson brand (Taylor) and Magnums (Boker).

I'm not the least bit worried that someone's going to confuse these with a $200.00 - $300.00 knife. I maintain that this is a different type of purchase and or buyer. I seriously doubt either Busse or Sibert have lost many sales to these $10.00 knives.
I don't know about most folks but I didn't start into knives by picking up $300.00 pieces. Rather it was the cheap stuff from Asia that resembled finer knives that I bought. That's what got me into it - that's why I can appreciate a fine knife today.

What does bother me is that we've lost so many manufacturing jobs to China and other countries with lower labor costs over the last two decades. And, of course, it's not just manufacturing jobs anymore.
I'm more worried about the meager living most of us will, increasingly, be relegated to in a society where the vast majority of jobs will only be worth $10.00 to $15.00 an hour.