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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
Cons: Weight
Better than Expected
I had high hopes for this knife for a couple of reasons: first, it avoids the things that annoy me about a lot of knives like lanyard holes and really grabby pocket clips. I also have a bit of experience with QSP’s approach to detent, and figured they would handle that well on this bar-style lock. I wasn’t disappointed. Things I’m not crazy about: First, it’s a little heavier than what I generally carry, but that hasn’t bothered me. If you care about blade/weight ratio in the abstract, you can see that this is a little off, but it feels really good in the hand, so the weight just hasn’t been an issue for me. Second, reverse flicking is a little awkward for me because my index finger tends to fall on the lock release lever. It’s doable, but not a lot of fun, although that’s affected by the fact that I keep my fingernails a bit longer on my right hand for guitar playing. The last odd thing is clearly visible in any of the pictures: the heel of the knife. I’m not sure why they didn’t flatten it off level with the top of the pocket clip and the rest of the butt of the knife. If you look at it just right, you can see how it rises continuously, but the notch cut out for the pocket clip interrupts this enough that it looks like a mistake. Those are all pretty minor to me, and this quickly became my favorite knife. I love the aesthetic, the way it melts in the hand, and the machine feel of it when opening and closing. One surprise for me was the contrast between the belt satin finish on the main part of the blade and the tumbled finish around the logos and the blade steel mark. I think that looks really nice. The fit and finish is great overall, and it’s just a really well-made knife. Very pleased overall.