I couldn't help myself and I bought the bullnose venturi prototype from Darrel the other day - two days later, I find myself gleefully tearing into the little box that arrived. (one false alarm the day before when my knifekit arrived... mmm.. ddrII..).
Anyway, it is a *fantastic* knife, not very surprisingly, I guess.
I spoke to Darrel on the phone for the first time the other day and he was extremely nice and we chatted for awhile about the venturi and balisongs and stuff. This bullnose profile is very reminiscent of a scimitar, a little more wavy - and when I brought it up Darrel told me the inspiration for the style.... the three stooges! Apparently he was watching an episode where one of them was running around waving a scimitar around and thus was born the bullnose.
So this knife is sweet, talonite blade that is *sharp* - cut a strip of cardboard with it just for kicks and it really outcuts my tachyon. It has a lot of similarities to the tachyone too, sandwich construction, the handles have surprisingly similar dimensions - but I had to check that three times before I'd believe it - the venturi just looks and feels a lot slimmer than the tach.
Flippingly speaking, it was difficult to put down. It is quiet like the tachyon, but a little more so. Smooth - the handles are rounded at the edges and it feels very nice.. sort of soft, in the hand.
A lot of nice touches, on the handle without the latch he has put a little dummy cap in so there's no hole to disrupt the lines. The bottom of the handles are gently rounded. As has been mentioned, there is a very favorable blade to handle ratio, way better than the bm's and better'n the tachyon's. He plans to push that out even further. I could see him squeeze another 1/4" of blade.
Ah well.. here's a picture of the knife:
there are some more at this url:
http://slim.deasil.com/~felix/balis/vp/
on a random note, you probably can't see it in the pics very well, but something strangely satisfying is watching the spine of the blade (while the knife is closed) fade smoothly into the recesses of the handle. The backspacers are much smaller in the venturi making much more of the spine viewable. In case you couldn't tell... I like this a lot. If this is a prototype, the done deal is going to be amazing.
Anyway, it is a *fantastic* knife, not very surprisingly, I guess.
I spoke to Darrel on the phone for the first time the other day and he was extremely nice and we chatted for awhile about the venturi and balisongs and stuff. This bullnose profile is very reminiscent of a scimitar, a little more wavy - and when I brought it up Darrel told me the inspiration for the style.... the three stooges! Apparently he was watching an episode where one of them was running around waving a scimitar around and thus was born the bullnose. So this knife is sweet, talonite blade that is *sharp* - cut a strip of cardboard with it just for kicks and it really outcuts my tachyon. It has a lot of similarities to the tachyone too, sandwich construction, the handles have surprisingly similar dimensions - but I had to check that three times before I'd believe it - the venturi just looks and feels a lot slimmer than the tach.
Flippingly speaking, it was difficult to put down. It is quiet like the tachyon, but a little more so. Smooth - the handles are rounded at the edges and it feels very nice.. sort of soft, in the hand.
A lot of nice touches, on the handle without the latch he has put a little dummy cap in so there's no hole to disrupt the lines. The bottom of the handles are gently rounded. As has been mentioned, there is a very favorable blade to handle ratio, way better than the bm's and better'n the tachyon's. He plans to push that out even further. I could see him squeeze another 1/4" of blade.
Ah well.. here's a picture of the knife:
there are some more at this url:
http://slim.deasil.com/~felix/balis/vp/
on a random note, you probably can't see it in the pics very well, but something strangely satisfying is watching the spine of the blade (while the knife is closed) fade smoothly into the recesses of the handle. The backspacers are much smaller in the venturi making much more of the spine viewable. In case you couldn't tell... I like this a lot. If this is a prototype, the done deal is going to be amazing.
