How tough is the Military?

R

RickdelM

Joined
Jan 22, 2000
Messages
65
I just bought my first Military (though I am already waiting on a forum 2000 model). I am very impressed with how light and slim it is. For a knife as large as this it is very easy to carry and just has a great blade shape.

I know that if I use this as a knife I will not have a problem, but if I were in a survival situation where I had to use it to pry or twist or bend how strong would it be? My Wegner with its steel liner looks much stronger than the thin G-10 scales of the Military, but I know that appearances can be deceiving. I assume the greatest point of lateral stress is the point at which the pivot pin bears on the G-10 scales. Any experiences with stress in this area? Would you trust it to take the place of a fixed blade?

Thanks,
Rick
 
The weakest element in the Military is the CPM 440V blade. The steel is fantastic for cutting and holding an agressive edge. The steel is also very brittle. I snaped my new Military blade right across the spyde hole with a very nominal (for other knives) pry force. The blade just snaped, no bending at all. The knife has a plain edge and was 1-2 months old with very light use, until the break. In fact this is the first knife I have ever broken.

The positive side of this story is the knife was returned to Spyderco and I spoke with the customer service people who stated the steel or heat treat was not defective and offered to replace the blade for a very reasonable fee. The knife has returned and is perfect in every detail. My second favorite Spyde, first is the original design Moran with polished blade.

Military is a cutting machine, for survival or heavy duty use,,,,,not recommended!

Regards,
FK
 
OUCH!!
frown.gif
I've been carrying a serrated Military for more than one year. Great blade to have in hairy situations, but I wouldn't recommend you to pry, stab or dig with it because it was not designed to do so... Always bear in mind that folding blades, no matter how tought the manufacturers claim they are, IMHO ~ should not be considered as a heavy-duty workhorse...
biggrin.gif


Sam

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have spydies
will travel...
AKTI Member #A001148
 
I used mine to cut two 2be4's in half.

With gentle impacts, no edge marks at all.

With a bit more force, the edge rolled in two places, but returned with a light steeling (a friends steel, just got my own!)

IMHO, my use for my Military is for a defence and cutting tool at work. I would use my M2 710 or Nimravious for heavy camping and chopping work.

The knife lock up is great, no blade play at all. The CPM 440V is the weak point of this knife, it is more function specific than many steels out there. Some consider steels like 154CM to be to brittle as a knife steel!

I cut with my Military, do the same and it will go and go and go! A great knife, pity it is not in CPM 420V!

W.A.

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"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto

A few useful details on UK laws and some nice reviews!
http://members.aol.com/knivesuk/
 
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