To Anax or not to Anax, that is the question!

[Lost Cosmonaut]

I've been bit by the Marfione Anax bug, especially now that there is a reasonably priced version. I'm not the hugest fan of Microtech for various reasons, but like I said, the Anax just keeps calling to me.

Anyone have these? Any pros and cons? Other similar knives I should consider in the price range? (~$750)

Keep in mind, I already own plenty CRKs, Hinderers, a handful of customs, etc. etc. and have no interest in Striders.

 

[asdf12345]

If they're your thing, go for it.

Personally I don't think the Anax is the best custom Microtech has put out there. I think some feel the same way as you see a lot of Anax's in stock on dealers websites & listed on the secondary market.

$750 can get you some really nice Microtech vintage customs, like the Chameleon, the Ultratech, and the L-UDT.

The nice thing about these is that even though they're autos, function can usually be fully restored with a simple spring change. In many cases it's easy for a dealer to do this and have the knife back to you within the week. In some instances new parts can even be machined from scratch. This makes whatever state Microtech's customer service is in not so important.

That won't be the case with the proprietary frame/liner locks. Those will need to be serviced by Microtech themselves.

If autos are not your thing, $750 could also get you a custom Socom (either vintage or current), which I personally thing is a better design.

That price range also puts really nice fully handmade customs such as those by Pohan Leu, Reese Weiland, Kirby Lambert and Ernest Emerson in reach. Something to keep in mind if the provenance of the knife matters to you. The more handmade customs from Marfione will put you at $3000+. While there is extensive hand finishing on all of the Microtech customs, a lot of the components are done by CNC, and in some of the newer customs the blades are ground by machine.

 

[Charr]

I agree with asdf12345.
If it floats your boat, and will continue to float your boat long enough for you, then go for it as long as it is reasonable for you to get it.

The only issue I have ever seen with the Anax is that Marfione tends to leave his Elmax a little softer than anyone else does in the custom market. I presume this is to make hand-grinding the blades more manageable, and to prevent the need for constant quenching of the blades.
You will notice that the edge will not hold for as long as something like Elmax done by ZT or similar, though I don't think tht the difference is huge.

Would like to see someone put one of these more reasonable models to the test to see if the softer Elmax still performs reasonably well in comparison to the same steel closer to 60-61rc. I imagine the edge retention at least would be quite different in most marterials, but sharpening the edge of the Anax would likely be easier.

Interested to see so if you do get one, let me know how it performs please.

 

[drrickso]

saw them at eccks and was unimpressed... but as others have said, if it's your thing- go for it!

 

[bigmark408]

If they're your thing, go for it.

Personally I don't think the Anax is the best custom Microtech has put out there. I think some feel the same way as you see a lot of Anax's in stock on dealers websites & listed on the secondary market.

$750 can get you some really nice Microtech vintage customs, like the Chameleon, the Ultratech, and the L-UDT.

The nice thing about these is that even though they're autos, function can usually be fully restored with a simple spring change. In many cases it's easy for a dealer to do this and have the knife back to you within the week. In some instances new parts can even be machined from scratch. This makes whatever state Microtech's customer service is in not so important.

That won't be the case with the proprietary frame/liner locks. Those will need to be serviced by Microtech themselves.

If autos are not your thing, $750 could also get you a custom Socom (either vintage or current), which I personally thing is a better design.

That price range also puts really nice fully handmade customs such as those by Pohan Leu, Reese Weiland, Kirby Lambert and Ernest Emerson in reach. Something to keep in mind if the provenance of the knife matters to you. The more handmade customs from Marfione will put you at $3000+. While there is extensive hand finishing on all of the Microtech customs, a lot of the components are done by CNC, and in some of the newer customs the blades are ground by machine.

So the knives you mention are hand made no cnc ?
One of the knives mentioned has a grind a 3rd grader can do IMO.
I think the Anax is a knife far beyond what the above mentioned produce.

 

[Lost Cosmonaut]

Autos are right out for me (nanny state. I've owned them, but I'm never comfortable carrying them) and none of Microtech's other offerings really speak to me other than the Socom (if I could find a plain edged in OD or FDE) or the Matrix (despite the fact that it's a ZT knockoff, I like the blade shape a little better on the ones with the reverse tanto type blade).

 

[asdf12345]

So the knives you mention are hand made no cnc ?
One of the knives mentioned has a grind a 3rd grader can do IMO.
I think the Anax is a knife far beyond what the above mentioned produce.

The other Marfione customs I mentioned are not handmade. I don't know where you thought I said that.

The other makers I mentioned do not use CNC to make their knives.

Knives like the Masterpiece, Dragonslayer, Ultratech III, IV, Vs have more handmade components than the other customs, and are priced usually at $2500 minimum.

Do you mean the L-UDT when you mention an easy to grind knife? Here's a Marfione ground one:

 

[egally08]

The Anax isn't that unique looking (IMO), and it's always puzzled me a little bit. One of the great things about an integral folder, is the minimal hardware use. The Anax is the exact opposite, where it has more hardware showing than most non integral folders - 7 fasteners showing. 4 for the lockbar, 1 for the clip, stop pin and pivot.

 

[egally08]

Do you mean the L-UDT when you mention an easy to grind knife? Here's a Marfione ground one:

I could be wrong, but I think he was referring to Pohan Leu's scandi grind. Although, anyone that's ever handled one of his, knows they are extremely sharp and unbelievably tough.

I might be the minority, but I hardly consider "Customs" from production makers true handmade customs.

 

[asdf12345]

I could be wrong, but I think he was referring to Pohan Leu's scandi grind. Although, anyone that's ever handled one of his, knows they are extremely sharp and unbelievably tough.

I might be the minority, but I hardly consider "Customs" from production makers true handmade customs.

Thanks for the clear up.

Perhaps not handmade - you're right. I'd still consider them custom. Hand ground blade, individually etched, plus the fit & finish is better than on production pieces, with a lot of the final work done by Mr. Marfione.

The advantage of customs like that L-UDT is that if a part were to fail or require replacement, the knife could easily be brought back to life by using spare components. This can't be done with handmade customs. Of course I prefer the handmade custom, but there is something to be said about the piece of mind you get with a custom knife using production components.

 

[PURPLEDC]

Thanks for the clear up.

Perhaps not handmade - you're right. I'd still consider them custom. Hand ground blade, individually etched, plus the fit & finish is better than on production pieces, with a lot of the final work done by Mr. Marfione.

The advantage of customs like that L-UDT is that if a part were to fail or require replacement, the knife could easily be brought back to life by using spare components. This can't be done with handmade customs. Of course I prefer the handmade custom, but there is something to be said about the piece of mind you get with a custom knife using production components.

I would argue a custom knife using production components would make it a production knife. I dont even think many of the lower priced "customs" from mt are actually handground. And really? sure an ultratech or a LUDT may have spare parts available to fix them if they break, a knife like the anax lacks those parts that usually break so the chances of actually having a problem are a lot slimmer. I just dont see an advantage to having an auto that has parts that eventually will fail simply because those parts are readily available. I would argue a knife that the anax design being a lot less involved would have much less chances of breaking in the first place so wouldnt that carry the advantage? And there have been instances where older micros in fact cannot be repaired. Anyone with a chameleon D/A with the defective sear issue can attest to that.

 

[RevDevil]

I could be wrong, but I think he was referring to Pohan Leu's scandi grind. Although, anyone that's ever handled one of his, knows they are extremely sharp and unbelievably tough.

I might be the minority, but I hardly consider "Customs" from production makers true handmade customs.

This seems to be the line that has been blurred with the entire "Mid Tech" term being tossed around loosely. I do agree that a production company that makes "customs" isn't inline exactly with my definition. A quick look through the Exchange section here in the custom folders would explain it better.

 

[egally08]

I would argue a custom knife using production components would make it a production knife. I dont even think many of the lower priced "customs" from mt are actually handground.

Many times I've wondered the exact same thing about the production "Customs", concerning all the companies that offer them - Emerson, Strider, MT, ect. All of those grinds can be achieved by the machine they use for the productions. The main reason I believe this, is the fact that they are too perfect. I've owned and handled extremely high end customs by a lot of the top tier makers - Rj Martin, Southard, Rexford, Rassenti, Terzuola, Mayo - among many others. I can tell they are hand ground because I can always find a slight variance of the grind from side to side, albeit very miniscule. With the custom productions I've handled, I don't see that.

I've considered dedicating a thread to gauge others opinions, but I'm afraid it'd get out of hand rather quickly.

 

[bigmark408]

I have collections of customs that I am keeping for my son, I'm talking the old school badass hand satin grinds not the orange peel 220 grit and stonewash (machine ground) that makers are calling custom and still getting ridiculous prices for.

It's all goop gobbling flavor of the week stuff IMO.

I have a couple Anax and think Tony did an amazing job with this knife at a excellent price point for what you get, now if he wanted to be like everyone else he could have added a flipper tab on the blade but he didn't need to he still sells everyone he makes.
Great knife IMO if you can get yourself to appreciate a conventional opener.

 

[RevDevil]

I'd like to have a non-custom Anax.

 

[asdf12345]

Many times I've wondered the exact same thing about the production "Customs", concerning all the companies that offer them - Emerson, Strider, MT, ect. All of those grinds can be achieved by the machine they use for the productions. The main reason I believe this, is the fact that they are too perfect. I've owned and handled extremely high end customs by a lot of the top tier makers - Rj Martin, Southard, Rexford, Rassenti, Terzuola, Mayo - among many others. I can tell they are hand ground because I can always find a slight variance of the grind from side to side, albeit very miniscule. With the custom productions I've handled, I don't see that.

I've considered dedicating a thread to gauge others opinions, but I'm afraid it'd get out of hand rather quickly.

I would still call "customs" by Emerson, Strider and Microtech custom knives. There are degrees of course.

Emerson grinds the blades of his custom knives and forms & finishes the components himself. Then there are the production prototypes with a handground blade and production handles & liners.

More nebulous with Strider, but for example if it's got a handground damascus blade that Strider made himself, and frames that he sculpted & flamed, I think it's fair to call that custom. Like Emerson, other knives have handground blades & CNC shaped frames, and yet others have all machine ground parts.

Most Microtech customs use CNC produced handles & a handground blade. Some of the newer ones are all machine produced - I think that that goes a little too far and I would hesitate to call that custom.

Where did you get the impression that Emerson, Strider and MT have machine ground blades and that hand grinding produces a greater variance in grind?

The most even grinds I've had on a hand-ground blade was on a Terzuola. My Marfione customs & Emerson customs didn't have grinds as even. I honestly doubt that they use machine ground blades on their customs.

I would argue a custom knife using production components would make it a production knife. I dont even think many of the lower priced "customs" from mt are actually handground. And really? sure an ultratech or a LUDT may have spare parts available to fix them if they break, a knife like the anax lacks those parts that usually break so the chances of actually having a problem are a lot slimmer. I just dont see an advantage to having an auto that has parts that eventually will fail simply because those parts are readily available. I would argue a knife that the anax design being a lot less involved would have much less chances of breaking in the first place so wouldnt that carry the advantage? And there have been instances where older micros in fact cannot be repaired. Anyone with a chameleon D/A with the defective sear issue can attest to that.

Greg told me that the CMTX-5s were the ones with the sear issues, not the Chameleons.

I've had an Ultratech, a Mini UDT and an L-UDT have springs replaced by dealers who had them back to me within a week with no service fee. When the button failed on my Halo III I had a new button machined for it for a small sum, and the knife was back in my hands within a week as well.

With autos like those, a spring replacement is usually all you need.

When you have to deal with liners, framelocks and such it's more complicated than that. Your CMTX5 example is a good one. 10 years from now the liner on your custom CMTX5 has worn to the other liner and you have lock rock & play. You think Microtech will be able to give you a new liner or a new knife? You think they can do it for free?

Even some production knives using liners & framelocks might as well be one-off customs as far as the lock is concerned as each blade is fitted individually to each lock. ,

Many times with autos you don't even have to use springs that were intended or manufactured for the knife they're going into.

Like I said I prefer the completely handmade knives, but there's something to be said for customs that utilize production components. I love Bob Lum's and Phil Boguszewski's knives but one thing that is keeping me from getting one is the fact that if I were to ever have a problem with them I would be totally out of luck. I'd have to go to a knifemaker for repairs & replacement components - and the new components wouldn't be identical to the originals anyhow, destroying the appearance, collectibility and value of the knife.

 

[Lost Cosmonaut]

I have collections of customs that I am keeping for my son, I'm talking the old school badass hand satin grinds not the orange peel 220 grit and stonewash (machine ground) that makers are calling custom and still getting ridiculous prices for.

It's all goop gobbling flavor of the week stuff IMO.

I have a couple Anax and think Tony did an amazing job with this knife at a excellent price point for what you get, now if he wanted to be like everyone else he could have added a flipper tab on the blade but he didn't need to he still sells everyone he makes.
Great knife IMO if you can get yourself to appreciate a conventional opener.

Some of my favorite knives are non-flippers. TAD Dauntless, CRK Umnumzaan, TSF Gorgon, etc.

 

[egally08]

Where did you get the impression that Emerson, Strider and MT have machine ground blades and that hand grinding produces a greater variance in grind?

The most even grinds I've had on a hand-ground blade was on a Terzuola. My Marfione customs & Emerson customs didn't have grinds as even. I honestly doubt that they use machine ground blades on their customs.

I should have been more clear - I don't necessarily believe they all use a machine or special fixture to grind them, or that they are machine ground for sure. I believe it is a possibility based on my observations, experience with true custom knives, and my knowledge and experience with the makers themselves. I've also never seen a video or known someone to have ever seen one of them grind the bevels on one of their knives.

Mick Strider has a youtube channel that I've went looking through, and while he's shown using a grinder many times, he's never shown actually creating the bevel by hand. Which most everyone would want to see. The most involved he gets on the video with a grinder is sculpting a handle by way of vertical groves with a small wheel...all while grinding into the fasteners because he's doing it to a handle that's still put together. I don't pretend to be a great knife maker, and it's hard to get my grinds even, but I just find it hard to believe that kind of work is coming from the same person that's capable of producing the complex, perfectly ground nightmare grinds.

This is just my opinion, and like I've said, I'm probably wrong, but this has just been something I've thought about from time to time.

 

[asdf12345]

I should have been more clear - I don't necessarily believe they all use a machine or special fixture to grind them, or that they are machine ground for sure. I believe it is a possibility based on my observations, experience with true custom knives, and my knowledge and experience with the makers themselves. I've also never seen a video or known someone to have ever seen one of them grind the bevels on one of their knives.

Mick Strider has a youtube channel that I've went looking through, and while he's shown using a grinder many times, he's never shown actually creating the bevel by hand. Which most everyone would want to see. The most involved he gets on the video with a grinder is sculpting a handle by way of vertical groves with a small wheel...all while grinding into the fasteners because he's doing it to a handle that's still put together. I don't pretend to be a great knife maker, and it's hard to get my grinds even, but I just find it hard to believe that kind of work is coming from the same person that's capable of producing the complex, perfectly ground nightmare grinds.

This is just my opinion, and like I've said, I'm probably wrong, but this has just been something I've thought about from time to time.

Other than knives explicitly using production components, what about an Emerson or a Strider isn't "true" custom?

I can see where you can argue Marfione customs not being "true" custom. But I would think that it would be cost and time prohibitive to manufacture every chassis and mechanism by hand stock removal, not to mention horribly inconvenient - can you imagine selling a hundred OTFs each with handmade, slightly different, non interchangeable mechanisms? Can you imagine the time it would take to do that, and the impossibility of servicing them in a timely manner? And for what purpose?

Again, I have personally seen more variance in grind evenness on Marfione & Emerson than on makers you mentioned such as RJ Martin, Southard, Rexford, Rassenti, Terzuola and Mayo. I've also noticed variance in the grinds of similar model knives from Marfione & Emerson - no two grinds on the same model appear to be exactly alike. Do you really think it's possible that those deep mirror polished hollow grinds on Halos could possibly be done by machine, or that CQC-9s or Rhinos could possibly be ground by machine? Do you really think it's possible that those makers 1) possess machine equipment capable of amazing and varied types of hollow & compound grinds, 2) calibrate & program the machines to do it slightly differently every time to fool people into thinking that the blades are hand ground and 3) keep this equipment a secret from everybody and only use it for a very limited number of knives?

 

[evltcat]

Autos are right out for me (nanny state. I've owned them, but I'm never comfortable carrying them) and none of Microtech's other offerings really speak to me other than the Socom (if I could find a plain edged in OD or FDE) or the Matrix (despite the fact that it's a ZT knockoff, I like the blade shape a little better on the ones with the reverse tanto type blade).

Some of my favorite knives are non-flippers. TAD Dauntless, CRK Umnumzaan, TSF Gorgon, etc.

I live in a Nanny State too, and I'm really happy to see a non-auto from Microtech that's actually available. Seems like most of their production capacity lately has been devoted to autos exclusively. The DOC's just don't sing to me, and I've been looking at the Anax since it came out. Now that there are Anax models available that are in the $700 price range I'm considering getting one. It looks like a solid design with a nice blade steel, and if speaks to you, I'd pick one up. :thumbup: