ugaarguy
Member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2006
- Messages
- 13,828
I went to Blade in Atlanta yesterday, with three primary goals in mind. 1. See hso from here on THR at the Knife Rights booth, 2. Meet in person Gary Wheeler and Kim Breed, who did the awesome group buys for us earlier this year, and 3. Get my hands on a few Spyderco knives I've been eying.
Those three things were accomplished rather quickly, and the focus shifted to walking around with my buddy and helping him find his first quality folding knife. Part of that took place at the same time I was looking at Spydercos.
My friend is an early 20s 2nd Degree black belt in Taekwondo, so it was a very cool coincidence that Michael Janich was the person who was helping us at the Spyderco booth (on the first visit).
Friend ended up with a SOG knives Access Card 2.0. This is the first SOG that's impressed me in quite a while. The finger grooves actually give it a nice grip for an ultra thin knife, the short blade is substantial, and it's very well put together. The Arc Lock is pretty darn nice - not quite an Axis or Bolt Action Lock, but easier to manipulate than Spyderco's excellent Ball Bearing Lock. It also fits perfectly in the watch / coin pocket on a pair of jeans. They run $50-$60 online, and he got it for under $50 out the door. With the VG10 blade and quality Seki, Japan manufacturing this is a very nice little knife.
We then went back to the Spyderco booth after hearing that they were displaying the Sam Owens (that's THR moderator Sam1911) built prototypes of the Shirley-Owens (that being THR moderator JShirley) collaboration ARK neck knives. These things are tiny, light, tough, and have a ton of grip for such little things. I hope Spyderco puts these into production. I can now say that from what I've seen (Not that I had any doubts about the reviews of Sam's blades posted here by other members) that Sam knows how to make a knife. If you can be patient with his busy schedule, he's a truly talented guy who will make you a great blade.
While there Eric Glesser was helping us (me really), and on a whim I asked if there were any plans to make a full flat grind standard Manix 2, since both the Translucent Manix 2, and the Manix 2 XL are FFG only. He told me that not only are there plans, but they're about to discontinue the hollow ground 154 CM blades entirely, and switch to FFG S30V blades on the standard Manix 2 models. All of this will happen with no price increase. I really like Spyderco's FFG leaf shaped blades, so this news will likely not be kind to my wallet. Not my cup of tea (only because I like the BB lock already on them), but I also got to handle a totally unmarked late stage pre-production prototype of the lock back Manix 2. If you like lock backs over the Axis, BB, and similar locks; Eric said these should be in production soon.
The Benchmade booth was super crowded, so I didn't get to see much there. Nothing at Kershaw really jumped out at me, but maybe that's just me. I did get to handle a CRKT Tighe NIRK Lock folder. I don't know how well it would hold up to hard use, but it was a fascinating design, and some very trick engineering and production.
Over at Buck we both played with the Lux in Pro and Select trim (they were sold out of them in Avid level trim). These are very nice knives, and at about $84 online the Select level with it's S30V blade and real carbon fiber grip inlays is a steal. The Pro at half that price with Buck's (anything but) standard 420HC blade and basically the same handles less the carbon fiber is another screaming deal.
Lastly, Gary Wheeler and Kim Breed are great guys. These two gentleman are totally down to earth, regular guys, who happen to make incredible knives. Their prices are also very reasonable. Look back at the recent group buys here, and you'll see examples of a couple no nonsense hard use blades from Kim, and a couple of beautiful yet rugged knives from Gary. From personal experience with one of Gary's knives, and what I saw at Blade, either one of these gentlemen can make just about any fixed blade you can imagine, and do it at prices very close to those of production knives made of the same materials.
Those three things were accomplished rather quickly, and the focus shifted to walking around with my buddy and helping him find his first quality folding knife. Part of that took place at the same time I was looking at Spydercos.
My friend is an early 20s 2nd Degree black belt in Taekwondo, so it was a very cool coincidence that Michael Janich was the person who was helping us at the Spyderco booth (on the first visit).
Friend ended up with a SOG knives Access Card 2.0. This is the first SOG that's impressed me in quite a while. The finger grooves actually give it a nice grip for an ultra thin knife, the short blade is substantial, and it's very well put together. The Arc Lock is pretty darn nice - not quite an Axis or Bolt Action Lock, but easier to manipulate than Spyderco's excellent Ball Bearing Lock. It also fits perfectly in the watch / coin pocket on a pair of jeans. They run $50-$60 online, and he got it for under $50 out the door. With the VG10 blade and quality Seki, Japan manufacturing this is a very nice little knife.
We then went back to the Spyderco booth after hearing that they were displaying the Sam Owens (that's THR moderator Sam1911) built prototypes of the Shirley-Owens (that being THR moderator JShirley) collaboration ARK neck knives. These things are tiny, light, tough, and have a ton of grip for such little things. I hope Spyderco puts these into production. I can now say that from what I've seen (Not that I had any doubts about the reviews of Sam's blades posted here by other members) that Sam knows how to make a knife. If you can be patient with his busy schedule, he's a truly talented guy who will make you a great blade.
While there Eric Glesser was helping us (me really), and on a whim I asked if there were any plans to make a full flat grind standard Manix 2, since both the Translucent Manix 2, and the Manix 2 XL are FFG only. He told me that not only are there plans, but they're about to discontinue the hollow ground 154 CM blades entirely, and switch to FFG S30V blades on the standard Manix 2 models. All of this will happen with no price increase. I really like Spyderco's FFG leaf shaped blades, so this news will likely not be kind to my wallet. Not my cup of tea (only because I like the BB lock already on them), but I also got to handle a totally unmarked late stage pre-production prototype of the lock back Manix 2. If you like lock backs over the Axis, BB, and similar locks; Eric said these should be in production soon.
The Benchmade booth was super crowded, so I didn't get to see much there. Nothing at Kershaw really jumped out at me, but maybe that's just me. I did get to handle a CRKT Tighe NIRK Lock folder. I don't know how well it would hold up to hard use, but it was a fascinating design, and some very trick engineering and production.
Over at Buck we both played with the Lux in Pro and Select trim (they were sold out of them in Avid level trim). These are very nice knives, and at about $84 online the Select level with it's S30V blade and real carbon fiber grip inlays is a steal. The Pro at half that price with Buck's (anything but) standard 420HC blade and basically the same handles less the carbon fiber is another screaming deal.
Lastly, Gary Wheeler and Kim Breed are great guys. These two gentleman are totally down to earth, regular guys, who happen to make incredible knives. Their prices are also very reasonable. Look back at the recent group buys here, and you'll see examples of a couple no nonsense hard use blades from Kim, and a couple of beautiful yet rugged knives from Gary. From personal experience with one of Gary's knives, and what I saw at Blade, either one of these gentlemen can make just about any fixed blade you can imagine, and do it at prices very close to those of production knives made of the same materials.
