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Pros: Ease of Opening, Pocket Clip
Cons: Weight, Lock Ease of Use, Lock Type
Uninspiring
If you are like me, you are looking at this knife thinking it might be a good, cheap foray into the world of OTF automatic knives. Please, rest assured that it is not. Good OTF autos cost a fair chunk of change for a reason, and I think this knife handily demonstrates why. The Good:Gotta start on the high notes. The blade came serviceably sharp from factory... err, at least, half of the blade did. The user facing edge was rather dull and couldn't cut paper out of the box. Perhaps this is a safety feature, and not a defect! Another positive is that I do find the knife to be aesthetically appealing. Another reviewer said it was the least Transformer-like of the M&P lineup and I agree. The deep carry pocket clip is actually fantastic. It makes the knife basically disappear except for the glassbreaker, but it has an incredibly flat, low profile on the handle itself so that it doesn't interfere with one's grip. It may be the single best thing about this knife.The Bad:To start with, this thing weighs a good deal. Think Buck 110 kind of heft, but clipped to your pocket. Not surprising given the all-metal construction, but you carry that weight without the benefit of feeling like the knife is correspondingly sturdy. This is primarily due to blade play so severe that you can rattle the deployed knife like a maraca. It has horizontal play, it has vertical play, it even has play along the axis of blade deployment. Full 3D blade play! This feeling of fragility is compounded by the rather thin piece of AUS8 steel being fired out of the business end. Not only does the lack of general toughness and edge retention come into play, but the quality of the heat treat feels questionable as well. I've never felt a knife dull while cutting cardstock quite like I experienced with this cheap little auto. I'm not exaggerating when I say it went from cutting the paper to tearing it in less than 10 cuts. But hey, easy to sharpen, right?The Ugly: If you daily this knife, you will almost certainly cut yourself while closing it. This is because the genius(es) who designed it placed the lever to unlock the deployed blade in such a way that you slide your thumb TOWARDS the cutting edge to disengage it. If you simply engage the lever with the pad of your thumb rather than the tip, odds are you will contact the blade. Another ugly bit is that the blade has a retraction thumb stud (single action auto, manually retracted) which attaches to the blade via a groove in the handle. This blade retractor travels right where you would naturally rest your fingers while gripping the handle, meaning you cannot deploy the blade from a closed grip as you would a usual OTF auto. You essentially need to use the same grip as you would use for a side-opening auto. The final ugly bit may be a bit nitpicky but you already made it this far. This bad boy, despite seeming like it would be ambidextrous, is actually a right hand favoring model in disguise. While you can fire the knife easily with either hand, the position of the unlocking lever and the retractor thumb stud are positioned favoring right handed operation. While it's possible to manipulate with the left hand, the action is far more awkward. In conclusion, this inexpensive little OTF doesn't really seem made for anyone. It doesn't have the steel or the confidence in build quality for tactical use, EDC, or for first responders. It doesn't have the fit and finish for gentleman carry or for knife collecting. It feels like it would break in a self defense situation, while the blade length and automatic action combined make it illegal to carry in public for a vast number of casual consumers. The glassbreaker suggests car knife but the anemic blade quality and the legality concerns suggest otherwise. If it were a double action auto, it would at least have a bit of a fun factor but as it stands I can't see myself ever using this knife.
