Just opened a box with my long awaited ZT 0180 inside.
The knife feels great in the hand, it's not too big but not too small, it's just right. The blade is around 4.25" in length, from thick stock. The blade seems narrow, and has a subtle clip point. I've never seen a finish like this before, it's like a black stonewash and looks very cool. The blade has a high sabre grind with a swedge, and the back of the blade is thickest at the tip where the swedge ends so it shouldn't chew up a baton too badly. The blade has a bit of jimping on the back, but not enough to be annoying and it isn't sharp at all.
The handle is thick, hand filling G10. It has finger grooves at the top and bottom, but they aren't too deep and they do not confine my hand to a particular grip. This knife is very secure in the hand. The tang extends through the bottom with a lanyard hole. The G10 is dropped near the jimping, not sure if it affects anything realistically but it looks good. The only fit and finish issue I can find is where the G10 handles stick up a bit around the tang.
The knife is a bit handle heavy, it could use another 1/4 or 1/2" of length, or the removal of some material under the handles to balance it out perfectly.
The sheath is horrible, for this knife at least. It's SpecOps standard small or medium sized sheath. The knife wobbles around in the loose plastic insert and the thumb snap. The plastic insert isn't deep enough for this knife, so the knife bottoms out and sits crooked in the sheath and kind of rotates around in the super wide opening until you close the nylon snap holder thing around the handle. The knife is handle heavy, and in the sheath it wants to tip outwards. I think this will be great in a rigid kydex sheath with a Tek-Lok.
The "just right" size combined with the narrower blade makes it feel like a Bushcrafter type knife in the hand, but with a tacticool style.
Anyone else have one of these yet? What do you think so far?
The knife feels great in the hand, it's not too big but not too small, it's just right. The blade is around 4.25" in length, from thick stock. The blade seems narrow, and has a subtle clip point. I've never seen a finish like this before, it's like a black stonewash and looks very cool. The blade has a high sabre grind with a swedge, and the back of the blade is thickest at the tip where the swedge ends so it shouldn't chew up a baton too badly. The blade has a bit of jimping on the back, but not enough to be annoying and it isn't sharp at all.
The handle is thick, hand filling G10. It has finger grooves at the top and bottom, but they aren't too deep and they do not confine my hand to a particular grip. This knife is very secure in the hand. The tang extends through the bottom with a lanyard hole. The G10 is dropped near the jimping, not sure if it affects anything realistically but it looks good. The only fit and finish issue I can find is where the G10 handles stick up a bit around the tang.
The knife is a bit handle heavy, it could use another 1/4 or 1/2" of length, or the removal of some material under the handles to balance it out perfectly.
The sheath is horrible, for this knife at least. It's SpecOps standard small or medium sized sheath. The knife wobbles around in the loose plastic insert and the thumb snap. The plastic insert isn't deep enough for this knife, so the knife bottoms out and sits crooked in the sheath and kind of rotates around in the super wide opening until you close the nylon snap holder thing around the handle. The knife is handle heavy, and in the sheath it wants to tip outwards. I think this will be great in a rigid kydex sheath with a Tek-Lok.
The "just right" size combined with the narrower blade makes it feel like a Bushcrafter type knife in the hand, but with a tacticool style.
Anyone else have one of these yet? What do you think so far?
