- Joined
- Jun 8, 2005
- Messages
- 4,761
Well, there have been a few trials and tribulations to get this knife, but it's finally here and it's a lot of fun.
And, surprise of surprises, I'm reviewing a knife that's not some discontinued limited production 500 piece knife that's going for 150% MSRP on eBay for once--yes, you can actually go out and buy one of these for about $120 from a retailer.
The first thing anyone's going to notice about this knife is its blade shape. I've been flamed in the past, quite thoroughly, for referring to this as Strider's famous "nightmare grind." Accordingly, I'll do it again throughout this review because I'm nothing if not stubborn.
So what is this nightmare grind? Well, according to me, it's a recurve tanto. Essentially, it's a more or less conventional tanto point with a recurved belly hitting the beginning of the tip with a very sharp point--in essence, all Americanized tantos have TWO tips, and this is no exception.
Well, what would such a crazy blade shape be useful for? Tantos are generally used for piercing, as they were throughout ancient Japan (although this, of course, has relatively little to do with a traditional tanto shape). Their tips are very revealed, yet robust as you travel down the blade. Thus, they offer relatively little initial penetration resistance without sacrificing in dimensional rigidity. That much is established.
But what's the recurve part of the blade for? I've always used it for cutting flexible materials. I get a piece of rope, string, or so on, sit it inside the belly of the recurve and pull. The rope gets grabbed by the increasingly widening edge like one giant serration and it cuts much more efficiently.
Additionally, it looks super cool. And it's made of S30V. Which is good, because this blade shape looks like a PITA to sharpen. That early tanto point, not the tip, tends to get rounded in sharpening in my experience, and add that in with the complication of the recurve and...it won't be a pleasant experience.
Unfortunately, the blade isn't totally perfect--it's not particularly sharp. Indeed, I'd say it's a little dull. Now, this might be due, in part, to its weird shape causing me to mess up my normal paper cutting tests.
Now as to the ergonomics, they're excellent. It's been years since I held a Blur and I had forgotten what the grip stuff inside the handle felt like. Indeed, in my memory, this was more like sandpaper than rubber--I remember being slightly annoyed at how abrasive it was.
Regardless of whether my fond memories of the Blur and Storm are accurate, the current stuff is reasonably gentle and almost rubbery. And, it does its job--it's grippier than your standard flat textured G10. It's placed right along where the tips of your fingers touch the handle so it offers maximum smoothness.
Curiously, there is none of this stuff applied to the locking scale. It's a simple smooth coated slab of aluminum. I imagine this was to decrease the friction between the clip, your jeans and the griptape, but I wonder why they couldn't have just put two spots where the clip would contact where there would be no griptape, sort of like the steel dot on the g10 of the old Avalanche.
But, no matter, I actually really like the look of the clean slab and the knife offers plenty of grip. As to the actual SHAPE of the handle, if you've held the 0300 or 0200, this is more of the same--this is Ken Onion, after all--and that means it feels great.
Now, onto the fit and finish: it's great. Somewhere in between Kershaw and getting to me, my knife had acquired some number of scratches on the back scale. At this point you should be thinking: but Brett, I don't see any scratches--are you high? No, I'm not high, and there's a reason you don't see them: Kershaw fixed it for me despite it almost certainly not being their fault and it being cosmetic.
So now how is it? Other than the so/so sharpness, it's great. The lockup is perfect, the speedsafe slams hard and the blade is centered. There are some VERY, VERY minor scratches that no one other than myself and a diamond dealer would notice in the coating on the blade. Other than, I'd say this is a flawless example.
The blade looks ever so slightly off centered that, but I assure you that it's my terrible photography and not the actual blade--and given my photography so far, I doubt there will be any skeptics.
The knife carries pretty well, although only about as well as its much bigger brother the 0300. That's a bit surprising given how much thinner, shorter and lighter it is--essentially it's smaller in every dimension. That said, it does carry plenty well and it's the second smaller KO folder in ZT's lineup, obviously behind the 0350--I'd imagine it's comparable in length to the 0551, but I haven't seen one yet to compare.
But, for me, this is an ideal size for a "full sized" tactical EDC. The 0200 is way too big for me and the 0300 is somewhat too big for me. If I were designing the dimensions for this blade, I'd come out with the same numbers KO did.
I did my usual pseudo-spinewhack test, which in my experience is more realistic than the real spinewhack and, additionally, far less dangerous and harmful on the lock. On tactical folders, on hit the spine of the blade against the bones of my forearm which provides a little cushioning. In the real world, don't slam the spine of your blade against trees. That's not what locks are meant for.
Needless to say, the lock worked fine.
Ultimately, what do I think of this knife? Well, I don't think it's a game changer--I don't think I need to scream from the mountain tops to sell your collection and buy these, like I felt with the RAM, MUDD and recently the Ripple.
But that said, it's a very good knife. And it's a reasonable value at only $120 as well. But the main reason I bought this knife, and why it's staying in my collection (notice the 0300 has checked out and I suspect the 0200 is on its way out as well) is due to two factors: first off, this thing is unique--I have nothing like this in my collection, its strange blade shape and handle design--and slightly less importantly, this is just a better everyday size than most of the other ZT line.
So I recommend it. If the design appeals to you, I'd go ahead and buy it.
I really like mine--I'm pretty surprised how much it has outshined the theoretically superior 0300 and 0200, at least, in what I carry.
EDIT: It's been 24 hours or so since writing this and I realized I didn't really include enough of my subjective feelings towards this knife. I was mostly objective here, but playing with this knife, I realize that while it might not be the "game changer" I alluded to earlier, but I love this knife. It's gorgeous and it's one of a kind. This is one of my EDCs not because it's some objectively superior blade, but because it really is just so unique and special. It makes me wish they had anodized the steel in the liners because that's the only "default" part of this knife. It reminds me of the old Benchmade Gravitator in that there is just no way to look at the knife and not see something special. But, unlike the 0400, even the Gravitator's titanium liner lock is beautiful. But overall, the 0400 is a much more attractive knife--I just wish they'd gone that extra 2% to give it some flair. Purple anodized barrel spacers and liners.
And, surprise of surprises, I'm reviewing a knife that's not some discontinued limited production 500 piece knife that's going for 150% MSRP on eBay for once--yes, you can actually go out and buy one of these for about $120 from a retailer.
The first thing anyone's going to notice about this knife is its blade shape. I've been flamed in the past, quite thoroughly, for referring to this as Strider's famous "nightmare grind." Accordingly, I'll do it again throughout this review because I'm nothing if not stubborn.
So what is this nightmare grind? Well, according to me, it's a recurve tanto. Essentially, it's a more or less conventional tanto point with a recurved belly hitting the beginning of the tip with a very sharp point--in essence, all Americanized tantos have TWO tips, and this is no exception.
Well, what would such a crazy blade shape be useful for? Tantos are generally used for piercing, as they were throughout ancient Japan (although this, of course, has relatively little to do with a traditional tanto shape). Their tips are very revealed, yet robust as you travel down the blade. Thus, they offer relatively little initial penetration resistance without sacrificing in dimensional rigidity. That much is established.
But what's the recurve part of the blade for? I've always used it for cutting flexible materials. I get a piece of rope, string, or so on, sit it inside the belly of the recurve and pull. The rope gets grabbed by the increasingly widening edge like one giant serration and it cuts much more efficiently.
Additionally, it looks super cool. And it's made of S30V. Which is good, because this blade shape looks like a PITA to sharpen. That early tanto point, not the tip, tends to get rounded in sharpening in my experience, and add that in with the complication of the recurve and...it won't be a pleasant experience.
Unfortunately, the blade isn't totally perfect--it's not particularly sharp. Indeed, I'd say it's a little dull. Now, this might be due, in part, to its weird shape causing me to mess up my normal paper cutting tests.
Now as to the ergonomics, they're excellent. It's been years since I held a Blur and I had forgotten what the grip stuff inside the handle felt like. Indeed, in my memory, this was more like sandpaper than rubber--I remember being slightly annoyed at how abrasive it was.
Regardless of whether my fond memories of the Blur and Storm are accurate, the current stuff is reasonably gentle and almost rubbery. And, it does its job--it's grippier than your standard flat textured G10. It's placed right along where the tips of your fingers touch the handle so it offers maximum smoothness.
Curiously, there is none of this stuff applied to the locking scale. It's a simple smooth coated slab of aluminum. I imagine this was to decrease the friction between the clip, your jeans and the griptape, but I wonder why they couldn't have just put two spots where the clip would contact where there would be no griptape, sort of like the steel dot on the g10 of the old Avalanche.
But, no matter, I actually really like the look of the clean slab and the knife offers plenty of grip. As to the actual SHAPE of the handle, if you've held the 0300 or 0200, this is more of the same--this is Ken Onion, after all--and that means it feels great.
Now, onto the fit and finish: it's great. Somewhere in between Kershaw and getting to me, my knife had acquired some number of scratches on the back scale. At this point you should be thinking: but Brett, I don't see any scratches--are you high? No, I'm not high, and there's a reason you don't see them: Kershaw fixed it for me despite it almost certainly not being their fault and it being cosmetic.
So now how is it? Other than the so/so sharpness, it's great. The lockup is perfect, the speedsafe slams hard and the blade is centered. There are some VERY, VERY minor scratches that no one other than myself and a diamond dealer would notice in the coating on the blade. Other than, I'd say this is a flawless example.
The blade looks ever so slightly off centered that, but I assure you that it's my terrible photography and not the actual blade--and given my photography so far, I doubt there will be any skeptics.
The knife carries pretty well, although only about as well as its much bigger brother the 0300. That's a bit surprising given how much thinner, shorter and lighter it is--essentially it's smaller in every dimension. That said, it does carry plenty well and it's the second smaller KO folder in ZT's lineup, obviously behind the 0350--I'd imagine it's comparable in length to the 0551, but I haven't seen one yet to compare.
But, for me, this is an ideal size for a "full sized" tactical EDC. The 0200 is way too big for me and the 0300 is somewhat too big for me. If I were designing the dimensions for this blade, I'd come out with the same numbers KO did.
I did my usual pseudo-spinewhack test, which in my experience is more realistic than the real spinewhack and, additionally, far less dangerous and harmful on the lock. On tactical folders, on hit the spine of the blade against the bones of my forearm which provides a little cushioning. In the real world, don't slam the spine of your blade against trees. That's not what locks are meant for.
Needless to say, the lock worked fine.
Ultimately, what do I think of this knife? Well, I don't think it's a game changer--I don't think I need to scream from the mountain tops to sell your collection and buy these, like I felt with the RAM, MUDD and recently the Ripple.
But that said, it's a very good knife. And it's a reasonable value at only $120 as well. But the main reason I bought this knife, and why it's staying in my collection (notice the 0300 has checked out and I suspect the 0200 is on its way out as well) is due to two factors: first off, this thing is unique--I have nothing like this in my collection, its strange blade shape and handle design--and slightly less importantly, this is just a better everyday size than most of the other ZT line.
So I recommend it. If the design appeals to you, I'd go ahead and buy it.
I really like mine--I'm pretty surprised how much it has outshined the theoretically superior 0300 and 0200, at least, in what I carry.
EDIT: It's been 24 hours or so since writing this and I realized I didn't really include enough of my subjective feelings towards this knife. I was mostly objective here, but playing with this knife, I realize that while it might not be the "game changer" I alluded to earlier, but I love this knife. It's gorgeous and it's one of a kind. This is one of my EDCs not because it's some objectively superior blade, but because it really is just so unique and special. It makes me wish they had anodized the steel in the liners because that's the only "default" part of this knife. It reminds me of the old Benchmade Gravitator in that there is just no way to look at the knife and not see something special. But, unlike the 0400, even the Gravitator's titanium liner lock is beautiful. But overall, the 0400 is a much more attractive knife--I just wish they'd gone that extra 2% to give it some flair. Purple anodized barrel spacers and liners.
Last edited:
