The Mamba with that horrible flat spot removed

T

Twindog

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Apr 6, 2004
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When the Mamba came out, I saw a beautiful knife; and I knew it was extremely well built. So I had to buy it.

It was a beauty.

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But there was a problem: The edge had a big flat spot at the heel. Any attempt to sharpen it would leave a nasty groove.
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I contacted Josh at REK, and he advised that we add a choil where the flat spot was. Sounded good.

Here’s the reground blade.

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But there was still a problem. The flat spot actually ran a long way. It could not be fully eliminated with a choil, unless the choil was absurdly large.

Here’s the forward part of the original flat spot after the choil was added. It's a little hard to see because I couldn't get the camera to focus. The new choil is at the top of the photo, the flat spot still continued down toward the tip until it feathered into the edge apex. The blade in this photo is pointing downward.
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So I had to grind it out. I used a belt sander first because so much metal had to be removed, and it was S30V, which is never fun to reprofile.

I’m not good with a belt sander and I was impatient, but it did the job. Then I finished up with a 15 dps edge using a Wicked Edge sharpener. [The original edge was 24 dps.] Joshes’ work looks great; mine not so much. But it is now sharp as heck and can be easily resharpened in the future. The edge should clean up with future sharpenings.
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It’s still a beautiful knife that handles like a dream. Love it. But that flat spot should never have been included in the original design.
 
I should add that the flat spot could be removed by regrinding the blade, but then you'd lose a lot of the black finish at the heel of the blade, ruining the look.

The finger choil is in a part of the blade that can't be used anyway, and the choil is really nice for choking up for better control in some cutting tasks. So the choil adds function to a part of the blade that had no function.
 
I like what Charlie Mike did with his also. I think this knife could use a detent ramp by looking at some videos. Good work.
 
Looks great. I always liked the sinister look of this knife, just the flat spot and the size turned me off. With a mod like this, it looks even better.
 
i have one as well. really great knife except for that flat spot. what was the point of that flat spot in the design?

nice job and results.....
 
There are two modems that have had the manufacturer drop the ball with the heel of the blade. Spyderco with this knife and Benchmade with the Proxy (the Proxy has a 1/4"-1/3" flat behind the sharpening notch).

I would loved to have picked up one of these, but I am not going to want to add a choil, as I find them useless at best on blades under 5". (This is why I love my Mantra, no choil, no notch).

Thank you for the pics, while I have heard of the issue, I have not seen it. This makes it much clearer and I completely agree that it should never had made it onto the finished product.
 
Looks pretty great man!

This one always tortured me. Such a great design but that flat edge kills it for me too. There are several of the more premium Spyderco models that at first glance I think are very appealing but in practicality one or two little design or manufacturing quirks will spoil the overall package. These are usually superficial though and I'm likely just getting more picky about what I buy.
 
That spot ends up flat because the plunge line is curved. The plunge line is ground curved to make the blade thicker and stronger close to the pivot, but it also means it will be too thick to form an edge at that point. You see it a lot on daggers that are mainly meant for thrusting, here's another example:

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