XM-18: To Fatty or Not to Fatty?

A

AlphaDog86

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Mar 30, 2015
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Which do you prefer, the Fatty XM-18 or regular 3.5” XM-18? For those of you that own/ed both your input would be appreciated. Thanks
 
Just sold a Fatty. The Fatty Spanto is cool.

But adds almost no thickness to the tip compared to the XM 3.5 Spanto.

Therefore. Besides the cool factor it's not a win for me regarding durabily. It's more of a loss in cutting performance for pure awesomeness :)

I find the Standard 3.5 Spanto is the best. Thick tip with the same cutting performance as a spearpoint.
 
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BellaBlades said:
Just sold a Fatty. The Fatty Spanto is cool.

But adds almost no thickness to the tip compared to the XM 3.5 Spanto.

Therefore. Besides the cool factor it's not a win for me regarding durabily. It's more of a loss in cutting performance for pure awesomeness :)

I find the Standard 3.5 Spanto is the best. Thick tip with the same cutting performance as a spearpoint.

@Tacticaltater

Whatcha think?
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Thank you for your reply. I’m currently contemplating picking up a Gen 6 Fatty wharncliffe because I missed the previous run of 3.5” wharncliffes and my biggest concern is the cutting performance. I guess with the thicker blade stock this confirms it.
 
They look great.... but simply aren't great cutters in my opinion. I had a couple and sold them all.
 
I'm not a fan of the fatty, my 3.5" spanto is plenty thick behind the edge as it is, and I couldn't imagine how thick the fatty is. I had an XM-24 (which has the same stock thickness as the fatty) for a while, but sold it when I got my Fulltrack because I like the cutting geometry of the Fulltrack better.
 
Silent H said:
I'm not a fan of the fatty, my 3.5" spanto is plenty thick behind the edge as it is, and I couldn't imagine how thick the fatty is. I had an XM-24 (which has the same stock thickness as the fatty) for a while, but sold it when I got my Fulltrack because I like the cutting geometry of the Fulltrack better.
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Another great reply. Thank you for the information:thumbsup:
 
Skinny. Better knife in every way I personally define a knife... for cutting. Fatty seems cool on some level, but the regular XM 3.5 is plenty fat enough IMHO.

FyNXjlk.jpg
 
Personally about the only time I can tell much of a difference between the Fatty and Regular XM-18 3.5" is when I am cutting up an apple. Outside of that they both perform about the same in my daily task of cutting up boxes, tape and the occasional rope.
 
whitty said:
Personally about the only time I can tell much of a difference between the Fatty and Regular XM-18 3.5" is when I am cutting up an apple. Outside of that they both perform about the same in my daily task of cutting up boxes, tape and the occasional rope.
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It’s good to hear that there’s only a slight felt difference between the two as far as cutting. I understand that Hinderers are not very thin behind the edge to begin with (POU). Does the Fatty deploy slower due to the thicker, slightly heavier blade stock?
 
I've never had a Fatty and likely never will as a thicker RHK blade holds no appeal for me at all. I currently own 4 Hinderers and have re-profiled two of them--XM 3.5 Spanto and MP1--to make them better cutters. My HalfTrack will get the same treatment when it's time for a sharpening. My XM24 Spanto went off to Josh at REK for a radical re-grind and came back with a large-radius high hollow that cuts like a lazuh now.

I'm pretty happy with the RHKs I have now, but should I get another it will almost surely be a Skinny!

...and just because I never tire of showing this one off....

YNsrX30.jpg
 
I had a Fatty, a couple regular, and a Skinny XM-18. The Skinny is the only one I kept. The Fatty didn't add anything over a regular XM-18 in terms of tip strength, as noted above, and it just wasn't a good cutter in general while adding additional mass and thickness. Plus, I found that my fingers could touch the tip of the blade while I reached past it in my pocket, probably due in no small part to the additional space between the handle scales.

The way I see it, if you want a splitting maul of a blade, why not just buy an SR1 and be done with it? If you're looking for something for non-knife tasks, you'd be getting a design that's probably more tolerant of abuse and that comes with well heat treated S35VN, similar blade geometry, and a Triad lock for a lot less money. I like Hinderers for their ergonomics, build quality, and overall design as a cutting tool, so to me the Fatty just doesn't really make sense when you can obtain one with substantially thinner stock and a thinner edge in 20CV steel for the same price.
 
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ChazzyP said:
I've never had a Fatty and likely never will as a thicker RHK blade holds no appeal for me at all. I currently own 4 Hinderers and have re-profiled two of them--XM 3.5 Spanto and MP1--to make them better cutters. My HalfTrack will get the same treatment when it's time for a sharpening. My XM24 Spanto went off to Josh at REK for a radical re-grind and came back with a large-radius high hollow that cuts like a lazuh now.

I'm pretty happy with the RHKs I have now, but should I get another it will almost surely be a Skinny!

...and just because I never tire of showing this one off....
Click to expand...

I had a regular 3.5" XM-18 spanto and had to full-convex the primary and secondary bevel to get it to cut decently. I can't believe how thick those things are behind the edge. The convexing helped thin the edge, but I think a hollow grind would have been better.
 
I always thought of the fatty as a sort of collectors piece rather than a practical Hinderer.

If you LOVE heavy titanium pocket bricks then it is great but to me the regular Hinderers are already an “overbuilt” knife.

The fatties are like a Hinderer that spent too much time in McDonalds and has put on a bunch of useless weight.
 
^The Fattie is only 0.22 oz heavier than a regular 3.5” XM-18. I’m more concerned about the cutting performance.
 
I just went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Fatty that I’ve been looking at. I figured I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity again and who knows if/when they’ll produce another regular 3.5” in the configuration that I’m looking for. And if for any reason I don’t like it resale isn’t too bad:):thumbsup:
 
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