The Heat is on

[smegs]

Just picked up a Camillus HEAT and overall it's a damn nice knife. Beefier than I expected and great fit and finish. Absolutely no blade play in any direction. Out of the box shaving sharp and nice even grind lines. Darrel Ralph and Camillus have wrought a good lookin solid worker with the added gee-whiz factor of "Robo-Power" assisted opening.
Blade Length:: 3.65" Clip

Overall Length:: 8"
Closed Length:: 4"
Blade Steel:: Cryo treated AUS 8
Handle Material:: Checkered Glass filled Zytel ®
Reversible stainless steel pocket clip

Please forgive the pictures, they are scanned. Perspective wise, the knife appears chunkier than it really is and really sits well in the pocket. Also, the blade is not coated.

The blade has a swedge that extends about halfway to back of the blade so slicing ability is very good using the front portion of the blade. The hollow grind extends to about a 1/4" from the spine. All in all the grind produces a nice fluid slicer. Surprisingly nice.

The steel is AUS8. Believe it or not, it's why I chose this knife. After chipping out a couple of 154CM blades and my 710HS, I wanted to try a softer steel for cutting Bishop tape from connecting lugs on 40+HP motors. Depending on which one of us swapped out these motors, there could be 20 to 40 wraps of glass tape and 20 to 40 wraps of self sealing Bishop tape insulating the lugs. It's damn near impossible not to hit the steel lug or it's nuts and bolts as you near the end of the cut. A utility knife takes at least twice as long as a nice sharpened knife and considerably more effort. As luck (bad for me; good for review) would have it, we lost a motor last Tuesday.

Lug #1
Nice deep initial cut. Able to peel back a good 1/8" of tape. Second pass, I'm into the glass tape and on the fourth pass I hit the lug. The last remnant strands are cut with the edge up and not touching the lug.

Lug #2
Six cuts needed to hit the lug. I gave it an extra pass across the lug, cleanly separating all the tape. Off to the QC lab to inspect the edge.

Other than a few shiny spots lookin edge on under a strong light, no chipping to the naked eye. Under the microscope at 40x there's two sections blunted and one section rolled. All this in the front half of the blade with the roll near the tip. A couple of chips right before the rolled part but nowhere near the damage done to my other blades and only visible under magnification. She won't shave but still grudgingly cuts cardboard.





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[smegs]

Part Two

Sharpening back to shaving took about 10 minutes with about 40 strokes per side on the Sharpmaker (corners and flats) at 20 degrees. Next up was some Goodyear Gorilla hose. Gorilla hose is a basically a garden hose on steroids with Flexten Cord webbing as reinforcement rated at 500 psi. With the hose folded over with one hand, I'm able to cut through two sections with a single draw pass each. Third time takes a small second cut and fourth attempt takes two equal cuts along with considerably more effort. I'm able to cut four more sections using push cut on a cutting board but I got bored and had to impart too much of a sawing motion to cut the last piece. My steel snobbery is starting to erode. She's back to shaving sharp with 20 passes per side on the Sharpmaker and just for shits and giggles, I finished her on the Edge Pro with the 600 stone. A big part of my steel snobbery just slid down the bank and into the drink as I slice through hanging newsprint.

The handle is Zytel and checkered but somewhat slick. It's not really a problem but there's no checkering near the pivot and being tip down makes for a balky draw. Tip down is the only option but Camillus includes a tool and different length screws for left carry.

If that oblong checkering were turned 90 degrees the grip would be greatly improved but as I said, to me it's only bothersome on drawing from the pocket. That's about my only niggle with this knife. The "Robo-Power assist works well, is strong and whips the 3.65 blade out right quick.


The lock is a liner lock but with a twist. At least it is to me. Notice the stacked plates. Even if the lock wears all the way right, the stacked plates equal the thickness of the blade and would appear to function like new. I can't tell if the liner lock is nested but it extends to about 1/4" shy of the butt end of the handle.

Conclusion:
No complaints and more than pleased. It perfomed the task for which it was purchased. It "rolled" with the punches and didn't take four or five sharpenings to get the nicks out. At 40 bucks it more than surpassed my expectations for edge holding and toughness. In other words, it cut through what I usually cut through and lasted into the realm where all my knives usually get a break and get rehsharpened. Kudos to Mr. Ralph and Camillus.

 

[zinn1348]

Good review, thanks.

Thomas Zinn

 

[Peter La]

Looks like a good knife

 

[Mitchell Knives]

A big part of my steel snobbery just slid down the bank and into the drink as I slice through hanging newsprint.

This is one of the reasons why I've always liked AUS-8. A lot of people consider it "junk" steel, but I've never had a problem with it.

I played with a Heat at the knife store a few days ago; nice knife. The lockup was perfect and the blade was centered. I might have to go back and get it.