I am not immune to a good impulse purchase, and that’s exactly what happened with this knife. I saw it pop up in my email, and clicked through, was impressed by the price so I clicked order. That was quite some time ago, and I’ve been using it since.
This isn’t going to be a go to knife for me, but certainly does have some interesting attributes, and is quite well made. It’s a good value given the overall fit and finish, with the blade being quite the slicer.
Specs and Materials
A quick run down on the specs with this knife:
- Blade Length: 3.38″
- Blade Steel: M390
- Handle Length: 4.26″
- Handle Material: G10
- Weight: 3.6 oz
- Slipjoint
All of that is made in China by Reate. The fit and finishing on this knife is really quite good. The scales, liners, and backspacer all line up perfectly and have no lip on any which I can feel or see. The blade is perfectly centered on my model. From the factory the edge was damned sharp too. There is zero blade play, and half stop and full open have a robust and strong retention on them both. It is quite nicely done.
In Use
A lot of slipjoints these days focus on being small and light, preferring to leave the large and heavy knives to have locking mechanisms. This is not that. This knife is quite large and quite heavy with a narrow and long blade, and overall substantial size. Which means that this knife is something you are choosing to carry because you don’t want, or can’t have, a locking blade with you.
Let’s go over the pros on this knife first:
- The blade shape is really nice. While it’s a drop point design, the overall size of the blade is thick, but not tall. Which lends itself to finer work really nicely. It comes to a wicked point as well, giving you good puncture abilities — though it’s a slipjoint so careful with that.
- The factory edge on this, as I mentioned above, is sharp as hell. I have not had to touch the blade edge up at all, and it’s remained quite slicey.
- M390 feels like the right choice for this knife design, while I’d prefer something fancier, this is a really good steel for a slightly more gentlemanly folder, and I am happy to have the edge retention here.
- The grip is very comfortable. It’s long and has enough bulk to it that you can use it for extended periods of time without fatigue from the handle. The butt of the handle is much wider, without having any hotspots, allowing a good secure grip, with less overall pressure nor excessive grip strength needed.
- The G10 scales are fantastic here. They look and feel closer to carbon fiber than G10, and this effect works wonderfully. They feel spot on.
- The overly long nail nick, and how the blade sits in the handle, makes it fairly easy to open without actually needing your nails.
It’s not all rosy, here’s some things to know which I am not quite sure are deal breakers or not:
- As mentioned, the knife is really heavy.
- That heaviness shows itself as the knife doesn’t have a pocket clip on it. This has lead to the knife shifting awkwardly in my pocket when I was going about my day, and sliding out of my pocket on several occasions.
- This knife feels and looks like it should be a locking blade front flipper — but it’s not. Which means this is not the sort of knife which will make people feel more comfortable — it stands out and looks stabby and very knifey.
I’ve carried this off and on. I love cutting open boxes, and actually using this for any of my daily knife tasks. The blade is wonderful on this, and it’s a very comfortable and well balanced knife to hold. At the same time, I really do not like carrying this in my pocket. It’s quite thick, and quite heavy to have floating around in my pocket.
Good to use, poor to carry.
Overall
I procrastinated on writing this review for quite some time as I could not figure out how I actually felt about this knife. And then it hit me: this is a really good knife for someone who wants a very capable knife, but lives in an area where locking blades are prohibited. It’s a great knife for someone wanting to keep something on their desk, or by the door for packages.
It’s extremely capable, but slightly annoying to carry.
This is a really nice knife, not for me in the long run, but still quite nice.