Thoughts?
Well, I've never been a huge fan of the flipper form factor. I had an old Kershaw (little orange thing with a weird fluted blade), and I got the ZT 0700 for Christmas and it's always seemed like an awkward way to deploy a knife. I think that was exacerbated by how stiff the ZT was though. The XM was a little stiff when I first started playing with it, but now I can flip it with barely any wrist movement. I'd say I still prefer the coin flip opening method, but this XM has made a convert as to the usefulness of flippers. It's just... smooth.
The lock up on it seems about perfect. It's just the right tension, and with the rounded jimping and the wide lock bar it doesn't tear up your thumb when you're closing it. It's barely bigger than my grip, and it looks like the actual cutting surface is smaller but it feels so much bigger. Holding this thing makes me feel like I'm holding a dagger. It just feels substantial and important.
I can't really talk about blade steels as, I don't know much about them and really haven't sharpened my knives before, but I'm interested in learning how and have been reading up on it here on the forum. I'm probably going to send off the XM and ZT to get them sharpened though. Yeah they come sharp, but apparently any factory grind is still going to have issues. Knifeknut1013 seems to have a lot of people impressed with what he does with sharpening.
I'm super impressed with the XM, and I'm very happy that I got it. My one gripe is that it came set up for tip down carry, but I fixed that right quick. I'll probably order myself Rick's armorer tool and some copper standoffs within the month.
I also want to get a CF scale for it, but those are apparently hard to come by. And of course, at some point I'd like another Hinderer, and that wharncliffe grind looks amazing.
