Tops mil spie-3

Mistwalker

Mistwalker

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2007
Messages
18,964
The study in compact but sturdy survival knives continues. I thought considering the nature of the woods I live in...hot, humid and muggy nearly six months out of 12...it might be a good idea to have a good stout small knife that had some corrosion resistance for both long term storage and for wearing close to the body. In looking around I settled on the TOPS MIL SPIE 3. It has an over-all of just a hair under 8 inches, a nearly flat/ hi sabre grind blade with 3.5 inches of cutting edge. It is made of 3/16 154CM stainless steel and the heat treat was done by Paul Bos. I'm going to go ahead and get this out of the way...I've never been crazy about metal belt clips but as far as they go this one isn't bad. It does hold the sheath securely on the belt and I have no real issues when drawing or sheathing the knife other than my thumb does rub the edge a little when trying to quietly draw the knife. For my purposes the is of no consequence as I intend to carry it on a neck lanyard anyway so I'll just remove the clip. The sheath retention is very good and it will be fine for tip-up carry.

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The handle is a lot more comfortable than I expected with the scales on, though I do intend to remove them and wrap the handle. It really handles well in various grips.

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I really like how the guard itself is left wide so as to protect the finger in plunge cuts.

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I took it on my last camping trip and played with it some to see how it handles in real use. I used it to start a fire the last night there and as my knife for my evening meal and it handled the tasks very well.

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The nearly flat sabre grind and very sharp edge did a great job at whittling shavings from some dead hardwood branches.

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As the name implies it is a knife meant for military applications there for it does have a matt black coating to keep down reflectivity. Because of this it does not throw the greatest sparks using the spine as a scraper but the blade throws some awesome sparks from a fire steel.

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There was practically no effect on the blade other than a couple of tiny spots on the very edge that polished out quickly on a ceramic stone and a little discoloration that wiped off on my pants leg.

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and it did a fine job as a steak knife as well as slicing some Gouda...even using a skillet for a plate!

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Then later I decided to see how it handled a little rough use, and how the edge would fair in some hard rich fatwood. It came through with flying colors.

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So far the edge is still holding up really well.

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I'm fixing chicken for supper tonight, so I'll see how it handles processing a whole chicken and a few vegetables :D



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So what was for lunch? It wasn't easy to see on my phone. Looks like a nice little knife.
 
Rockywolf said:
So what was for lunch? It wasn't easy to see on my phone. Looks like a nice little knife.
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Ribeye, fried eggs, gouda cheese, and some bread :D

Yeah, it handles well. I'm gonna see how it does without the scales soon.
 
that's a pretty little knife... i guess we don't really need a big camping knife if a small knife like this can handle all these chores :D

great review and awesome pictures man!!!
 
carspidey said:
that's a pretty little knife... i guess we don't really need a big camping knife if a small knife like this can handle all these chores :D

great review and awesome pictures man!!!
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Thanks man, glad you liked the pics!

Well...it's not going to do a lot of good in the chopping dept...but I have a larger TOPS knife I'm working with too that handles chopping just fine :D
 
Nice review. I really like the blade shape on those. Stout and useful for sure.
 
Rockywolf said:
Do you expect it to take the place of your ESEE 4?
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No, not replace, it's more like it's being teamed up with it. It will in instances where I would only have the one knife and corrosion resistance is the major issue at hand... as in salt water ( My father lives in Tampa) or in discrete carry against my body when I'm really hot and sweaty, plus it will require less maintenance if stored long term in a kit in a vehicle here where the humidity is often VERY high.

I'm still more of a hi-carbon steel person at heart as I have a lot more experience with it but I can see advantages to having a stainless for some of my carry methods and this one has a great utilitarian shape and feel, plus my few experiences with 154CM have been good ones.

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tknife said:
Nice review. I really like the blade shape on those. Stout and useful for sure.
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Thank you, definitely a great blade shape and over-all size for an all around user knife. It's definitely nice and stout, should survive my rough use just fine :)

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Sounds like a good knife for use in a bag. I do prefer carbon, but when you don't access it often that stainless can help out a lot. Cool review :thumbup:
 
TheGame said:
Sounds like a good knife for use in a bag. I do prefer carbon, but when you don't access it often that stainless can help out a lot. Cool review :thumbup:
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Thanks TG, glad you liked the review.

That's where a lot of my thinking is with this. I like to keep some kits packed and ready at all times. I've learned the hard way what ill effects long term storage can have on a hi-carbon knife in the hi-humidity here. With me having more than one job and also having a young daughter who keeps me mentally occupied most of the time I'm bad to forget some things....this way the knife will be one less worry. I've tested it enough to know I can trust it and with it being stainless if it is a few weeks between uses I don't have to worry about finding it covered in rust.
 
It's great to see threads of knives in use instead of people just saying that they own such and such a knife.

Thanks!
 
Honestly when I read the thread title, my mind said :barf:"Ugh, another thick ground tacticool knife from TOPS" so I passed it over a few times. Glad I looked inside.:foot:

Nice review MW :thumbup:, It does look to be a great allround utility knife.
 
Varg Lobos said:
It's great to see threads of knives in use instead of people just saying that they own such and such a knife.

Thanks!
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Glad you liked the review, I don't own any safe queens :)


Marcelo Cantu said:
Honestly when I read the thread title, my mind said :barf:"Ugh, another thick ground tacticool knife from TOPS" so I passed it over a few times. Glad I looked inside.:foot:

Nice review MW :thumbup:, It does look to be a great allround utility knife.
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Thanks Marcelo glad you came in, actually TOPS makes several that are neither thick ground nor so much tacticool...that just seems to be the main ones that have been seen. There are a few other TOPS blades with full flat grinds I have my eye on ;)
 
Thanks for posting this. I thought it was 1095, didn't catch that it was 154CM when looking at it the other day.
Love the blurred batoning pics-makes it look like you're really going to town on it!:D
 
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