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Folding knife - ZT Hinderer
Ah, the folding knife, or pocket knife has been around since around 500-600 BC, not quite as long as we have had pockets but getting there!
They can, in my opinion, be broken down into various sub categories, and I will do so before I review the one I am talking about here:
The first category is obviously single blade or multi blade, easy enough, now the multi blade knife can be further subdivided into thee categories, actually I think it is two categories and a sub category, the sub category being the multi-tool, like the leatherman, the reason I think this is a sub category is that I believe the leatherman is more of a tool, than a knife, not that a knife is not a tool, just that the pliers on the leatherman takes precedence over the blade function, and I will do a review at a later date on my Leatherman.
So that leaves the other two multi blade and the first is the Swiss Army Knife or SAK, (if we were being technical we would say the Victorinox SAK, as they also own, and have just dissolved the Wegner brand). The humble Victorinox Swiss Army Knife is the most produced knife in the world, as in the company is the largest foldingknife company in the world, producing more knives than any other.
Also I think they are great knives, I have lost all of mine, and I have a had a few over they years, and I will get another at some point, they are well made, have good blades, and there big advantage over all of the multitools I have used is that they have a corkscrew, now a lot of wine has gone to screw caps, which is why i have not replaced mine yet, but some wine, particularly European wine still have good old corks and there need a cork screw to get to the goodness inside - yes yes I too have chopped off a neck, hammered in the cork and tried other methods of getting the wine out but nothing works as well as a cork screw. SAK's are small, light, brightly coloured and have a good variety of tools, some of them have way too many tools, but generally they make an excellent knife, they cheap knock offs are not as good, but still fall into this category.
The other type of multi blading folding knife is the non-Swiss army knife, of which there are quite a few, Case, Buck, Gerber, Cold Steel, Kershaw - enter your knife maker of choice here - most companies produce them, good simple knives, usually with two blade, one each end of a different shape, some have forks and spoons as well (and are horrible), this is your garden variety folding knife, the sort my grandfather had in his pocket almost everyday of his life (and we
buried him with it), some are good, some not so, and I would tend to use a SAK, rather than one of these, my opinion, yours may differ.
Now that we have dealt wit them lets look at the single blade pocket knife, and there can also be divided into different categories, I will start wit the banned ones:
Flick knives, either out the front or out the side, I have used these, they are now banned and for no good reason as for the most part they are junk, the steel is usually poor and soft and they type of lock in them is damn near worthless, supposedly they are dangerous weapons, I think they are dangerous tools - to the user. You push a button and a spring flicks the blade out.
Gravity knives are non spring version of the above, you depress a button and the knife can be inverted and the blade can slide out, of if you push the button and flick your wrist the knife can also slide open.
Balisong, a little more esoteric, a fishing knife from the Philippines I think, quite an ingenious design where the knife is enclosed between to handles, like a sandwich, open the handles and the blade is exposed, usually he'd open with a little piece of metal on the handles, makes for a good solid knife thats easy to clean, unfortunately people like to play with them and spin them around and so they got banned - might was well ban yoyo's as well...
For the most part folding knives are either lockable (and they types of locks are almost innumerable) or non locking. and they are either opened by a small digit in the side of the blade where you slip a finger nail or by some more innovative means.
Svord Peasant knife, for instance does not use a lock but a pice of the rand or back of the blade rotates when you push it forcing this into the handle and swivelling the blade out, by holding the handle closed you prevent the blade from moving, its a simple net design as there is nothing to fail, no spring or indent or lock that could get fowled or gunged up. Simple yet elegant.
Spyderco use a hole, its pretty much there in every knife they make, even there fixed blades, which you put your thumb meat into and swing the blade out of, its a really neat system, and Spyderco make some really good knives, they make a variety of different blades and knives for every budget, from high end models made in the states with the design being breathed upon by Custom knife makes, to much cheaper one made in Taiwan, and they use a variety of steel and handle material and lock. I think one of their best models is the Paramilitary 2 model, which despite a wanky name is a fantastic blade and very stong, with an amazing lock and good handles.
Emerson is a custom maker, who now produces blades out of a factory, like a lot of other custom makers I will talk about, he makes well renown blades they are a little different, oven they are chisel ground, as he thinks that makes them stronger, and he has a patented opening system, a little hook at the base of his blades that look a lot like a bottle cap opener, but are designed to catch in the material of your pocket as you take the knife out of your pocket and force the knife open as you pull it out, reach in pull out and thunk the blades open, very fast deployment, there is also a thumb stud (the opposite of a syderco system), in case you are wearing your speedos...
Chris Reeve, another Custom maker with a factory, makes some famous knives, what many consider to be some of the best folding knives available, his most famous model being the Sebenza line and he also invented the frame lock, which is one of the strongest pocket knife locks out there, now copied by many knife makers.
Strider - makes high price knives with a very tactical aspect, if Chris Reeves make gentleman knives then Strider make knives for non gentleman, they tend to be tough, have tiger stripe blades and camouflage handles, not for everyone but very good.
Ken Onion, used to make knives, not just designs stuff and lets the big companies make them, still had good idea though.
Rick Hinderer - famous knife maker, has his own factory as well, his most famous knife is the XM-18, don't worry if you have not heard of them or him, its almost impossible to get his knives, they are so sought after by collectors they the blades are pretty much all snapped up on pre-order way before they are even made, let alone finding one in a shop, also they are stupid prices, he doe not charge that much form them but the shops do, I was interested in getting one but could not just spending around a thousand US dollars to get a life I had not seen...luckily he has started making designs for an American company called Zero Tolerance, which is owned by Kershaw aka KAI USA.
My one is a Zero Tolerance Hinderer Design 0566, its a single blade, steel framed with a frame lock and a G10 scale on the other side, an assisted flipper bade with a drop point shape made out of a new Super Steel called Elmax:
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I know that was a lot of gobbledegook even for me, so I will break it down a little, first off though some specs:
weight 153 gms
length closed 114 mm
length open 193 mm
length blade 82 mm
Now one side as I eluded to is G10, its black and checkered, is an artificial material that a cross between fiberglass and plastic, its impervious to mud, blood, water, petrol, grease...pretty much anything which is why its a great knife material, this time its been roughened up to profile good grip, so for instance if you were gutting a deer it won't slip in your hand when covered in blood, but not so rough that it would irritate your hand, the other side is stainless steel (a lot of this type of knife, like the XM-18 that this is based on are titanium), with a clip that can be mounted in four different position (tip up, tip down, G10 side or stainless side), it comes with a really bomb proof frame lock where the whole side of the knife form the lock and you need to move the frame to unlock it (which is easier than it sounds and can be done one hand but is easier with two), it also comes with a Hinderer designed improvement to the frame lock which prevents it overextending - again this feature is used by all makers of this type of frame lock now. The frame is held together by four pins and the bolt holding the blade in place but there is no fillers, meaning that dust and mud can easily get in, but that you can just dunk the thing in a steam or under a tap to clean it out, or blow air through it. easy peasy.
Ok, now the really interesting stuff, and the reason why I wanted the XM-18, but happily paid much much less for this, is the flipper, see that little piece of metal sticking out the from looking like some sort finger guard? Well when closed it sticks out the back of the blade and if you hold the knife and put your finger (or thumb) on it and apply downward pressure the blade swivels up and pout and locks open, how fast? snap you diners) that fast, yup really, you can also flick or wrist to add momentum, but you don't need to and i don't, you just pull and press at the same time and it opens, there is a bit of a knack to it and it took me a www weeks to really get it down pat, and for the skin on the font of my finger to develop some callouses as its a solid bit of metal you are pushing. Its also spring assisted, yes a tiny spring (or lever), is built into the the frame, (and can easily be removed if you want - in fact it was designed to be able to removed it as a lot of people do not like them) assist your pull, well at first it hinders it-helping keep the knife closed, then, once you overcome that the spring flicks open helping the blade deploy, it also has thumb studs as you can see but they are really just stops for the blade, making sure it can not overextend, although some people can use them to open the knife. Its a really nice design and the blade ones with a good thunk, allowing you to open letters with speed.
There is some jumping on the handle and the back of the bade, as well as big hole for a lanyard if you want one.
The actual blade shape is a modified drop point, an excellent utility blade shape for all sorts of tasks and this one is great example, slicing with ease and with a good solid tip that feels strong, the actual steel is what they call a super steel which is just a buzz word, but it is Elmax, which is, from my poor understand of metallurgy, a steel that is powdered then heated up and melted into bars, apparently this process allows all the little bit and pieces to align better in the metal casing no weak point but making for very tough a corrosion resistant steel, the down side is that is hard to sharpen but if you persist it takes a wicked edge that is very strong, its my first foray into super steel so far i like it but I still think O1 is my favourite, although its nice to have a blade that won't rust. The blade has been stonewashed which gives it a dull, as opposed to shiny, look and came sharp, out of the box, although the edge, on mine was a tad rough.
So overall the knife is built like a tank, its perfectly put together, the blade is centred and although stiff to open at first it now opens with ease and technique, there is no way it would accidentally open, and the frame lock means that there is no way it would accidentally close either. While a folding knife is never as good as fixed knife, this feels close, or at least as good as a folding knife could get.
Shelley
