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Pros: Blade Material, Blade Sharpness, Ease of Opening, Handle Feel, Handle Material, Lock Ease of Use, Lock Type, Overall Quality, Pocket Clip, Weight
Cons: None
LOOK WHAT I DID... SOG KIKU XR LTE RADICAL
So... like every review here says, this is a truly outstanding knife that does NOT get it's fair share of accolades, except from those that own one. It is by far the best knife in my large collection. My personal SOG Kiku Radical is totally customized and made from both a Kiku XR AND a Kiku XR LTE. It has the linen micarta scales and satin Kiku blade from the XR, BUT it has carbon fiber liners from the LTE and a ceramic bearing kit with hardened stainless washers. It's lightening fast to deploy and still retains the feel and sound of a stock knife with significantly reduced weight. Now here's the stuff they don't tell ya... The SOG XR Bar lock is NOT like any other bar lock on the market ( ie Benchmade or Spyderco). When you pull back on the XR lock, it stages the blade, meaning it causes the blade to pop out. Also, if you let go of the lock it retacts the blade into the fully closed position. NO OTHER BAR LOCK DOES THIS. It allows lightening fast deployment and retract when you get your timing right, and you will play with this for hours on end. One could call it a fidget knife, but this feature is actually quite functional. NEXT, This knife has 3 distinct ways of deploying the blade: 1, Flipper tab. 2, Flicking open while pulling back on the bar lock and 3, Finger flick hole (which is the only form over function thing on this knife- the hole is smile shaped and doesn't fit your thumb or finger very well).LASTLY, this is the only knife I've ever owned that has an incredible sound which changes depending on how you deploy the blade. Using the flipper tab for deployment gives a normal snap of complete lock up as the blade contacts the stop at open position. The coolest sound IMHO comes from flicking the blade open while pulling back on the bar lock. If done correctly, it sounds like pulling the bolt back on a nice rifle. No other knife I have does this. When deploying the blade via the thumb hole, you get a more metallic sound like when putting a clip into a Glock. There is a staggering amount of clever design going on here which none was overlooked. KUDOS TO KIKU!
