Lionsteel ROK - New M390 Blade Lionsteel Solid Knife

Nautique said:
Ho

How's the clip retention while clipped to pocket?
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The spring isn’t very strog so it depends on the pants. Tried it on jeans and khakis that have a decent pocket seam and it held much better than I expected. It has a small lip on the inside that keeps it held when there is a noticable seam, but for wool slacks I don’t think it would work very well. That said it is a relatively heavy knife so for wool slacks this wouldn’t be what I would carry. The issue is deploying the clip while trying to pocket the knife; you have to push on the button without holding the clip and there isn't a lot of space there. I think that makes the design a bit less useful.
 
NWEash said:
Just wanted to reiterate how strong the lockbar action is on my standard Ti model. Finger was very sore after two days of frequent deployment. Thumb also gets sore trying to open the lockside to close the knife. Action has mildly smoothed out but the lockbar on mine just has that Ronnie Coleman strength. I tried adding some oil to the detent with minimal benefit.
Seems like there’s just not enough cutaway on the lockbar relief. There’s also some burrs and unfinished tool marks on the inside of the handle.

Clip is like reported, very weak. Knife is heavy and I’m not sure what activity would do it but running or something could definitely make it fall out. There’s nothing on the inside of the clip to grip your pants. I’m sure it’s fine for 90% of us regardless.

Blade shape and steel are awesome. No complaints. Cut open some cardboard with relative ease. Might have too thick of a bladestock for more slicing tasks.

The knife is literally a rock in your hands. It’s as solid as any knife can feel when deployed.

The sound, if that matters to you is very muted. You’re not going to get any sort of Rassenti Integral handle lockup sound if that’s what you’re hoping for. (I was). It’s about 50% as loud as my average frame locking knife.

I’m still on the fence. I love the design and aesthetics of the knife but the deployment is bumming me out so far. Hopefully it breaks in more. I’ll be sure to update if it does.

I’m also curious if any aluminum users have an easier time With their deployment.
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I have the Al version, a little stiffer than my Ti SR-22, but not anything I would call excesive. Lock is about the same as the ST-22 when closing with the exception that the detent seems to creat a slight catch as it passes the lock bar when closing. Have not lubricated or anything, straight out of the box. Still contemplating returning because of the clip deployment when pocketing. But have to say fit and finish are up to Lionsteel standards, and the feel in hand, with no clip out, makes it feel more like a fixed blade in use (and of course you can lock the blade out so it effectively is).
 
mikeh85 said:
Ok now I am confused. Is the Damascus model actually m390 Damascus?
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Lionsteel website states: "The blade is made of M390 steel from Bohler, obtained with powdering technology, with a 59-60 HRC hardness."

Damascus Scrambled Chad Nichols

So my guess would be aeb-l

How would that compare with m390?
 
I sent lionsteel customer support an email asking.

From what I have seen aeb-l can take a sharper edge because of the smaller structure of the steel internally, but m390 would have much better edge holding and toughness.
 
Clearly there has been some miscommunication somewhere. A M390 damascus steel variant would be BIG news in the knife world. There is no such thing yet.
Also those web editors aren't knife guys like us, and they have no idea they just entered a non existing steel in the knife record.
 
It looks like M390 core Damascus is actually a thing. Marifone / microtech make at least one, the Combat Troodon Bowie. The way that blade looks I'm fairly certain the ROK is not M390 Damascus. But I'll update when / if I hear from Lionsteel.
 
mikeh85 said:
It looks like M390 core Damascus is actually a thing. Marifone / microtech make at least one, the Combat Troodon Bowie. The way that blade looks I'm fairly certain the ROK is not M390 Damascus. But I'll update when / if I hear from Lionsteel.
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M390 core damascus seems a forge welded San Mai (Can I use that word) variant, not a true M390 dmascus.
I thought - correct me if I am wrong - that these modern powder steel supersteels should not be forged as they are intrinsically mixed and prepared for designs made by material removal.
Forging supersteels may even alter their specific engineered composition structure, and would probably be a pointless thing to do.
At least, I never heard of a forged M390 blade, or a damascus steel containing M390 as one of it's components.
Then again, it's not because I never heard of it, that it doesn't exist...
 
I have the Damascus Gold version. I have to say it is a solid feeling knife. I love integral frame. A few things I ran into, one the machining on the frame is a little rough on the inside to the point where every time I swabbed the dust out with a qtip little hairs would get stuck inside with no way to get them out. So I ended up acid etching the frame and anodizing as the gold finish was way too slick for my sweaty hands. The acid etching took that rough machining down to a smoothness like it should have been.
Two, the damascus blade is pretty rough on the deployment. Maybe that is just the nature of the steel, but it has taken about 3 weeks of continuous flipping to get that rough mechanical action down to barely noticeable. I had to take this knife apart to anodize it, they have it running on steel ball bearings so I switched them out with ceramic bearings. And the detent hole came with a pretty thick burr on it, so I ended up sanding the burr down the best I could.
Three, the flipper is super uncomfortable. When I first got it I had to give my finger a day or two rest because that straight flipper tab is poorly designed in my opinion. They could have rounded off the end better so it doesn't dig in, but I've got a pretty good callous built up now to where it doesn't bother me too much.
And finally the clip. It's a very slick design I will admit that. You have the button, under the button is a spring that slides onto the button barrel, under that is a brass collar that fits into the frame, the brass collar acts as a flush stop platform for the clip. All in all it is good, slips into the pocket just fine. But over about three weeks I've noticed it....clicks. Everything is put together just fine but it wiggles just enough side to side, that it allows the end of the clip to lift up ever so slightly that it juggles up and down giving off a click sound. Which is fine, but I would have liked to have seen it designed....more solid.
Last, the blade is some thick ass blade stock. This adds to that solid feel but this knife had not tip, it was more of a blunt point and cut poorly, So I threw a fairly steep edge on it and sharpened the tip to give it a little more stabbing ability.
I love the knife and it is slowly growing on me, but for the almost $500 for the damascus version I think there is several issues that should not exist at that price point.
 
S ScaryTerry How did you manage to get the stop pin removed if I might ask. It seems to run in a slot in the blade and I can't tell how it's secured into the handles. I have some grit the bearings snag up on occasionally that I need to clear out and haven't been able to get without disassembly.
 
Have any of you guys tried putting a stronger spring in the ROK to increase the tension for the clip? I figured it would probably be pretty easy to swap them out.
 
dynatoi said:
S ScaryTerry How did you manage to get the stop pin removed if I might ask. It seems to run in a slot in the blade and I can't tell how it's secured into the handles. I have some grit the bearings snag up on occasionally that I need to clear out and haven't been able to get without disassembly.
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I took a small screw, for me a benchmade pocket clip screw worked well. And lightly screwed it into the stop pin screw until I felt a little tension and than pulled it out.
 
Thanks, that worked great! I hadn't seen the threads on the pin and thought it was press fit in. Turns out it was just some suction from the oil holding it.
 
ScaryTerry said:
I have the Damascus Gold version. I have to say it is a solid feeling knife. I love integral frame. A few things I ran into, one the machining on the frame is a little rough on the inside to the point where every time I swabbed the dust out with a qtip little hairs would get stuck inside with no way to get them out. So I ended up acid etching the frame and anodizing as the gold finish was way too slick for my sweaty hands. The acid etching took that rough machining down to a smoothness like it should have been.
Two, the damascus blade is pretty rough on the deployment. Maybe that is just the nature of the steel, but it has taken about 3 weeks of continuous flipping to get that rough mechanical action down to barely noticeable. I had to take this knife apart to anodize it, they have it running on steel ball bearings so I switched them out with ceramic bearings. And the detent hole came with a pretty thick burr on it, so I ended up sanding the burr down the best I could.
Three, the flipper is super uncomfortable. When I first got it I had to give my finger a day or two rest because that straight flipper tab is poorly designed in my opinion. They could have rounded off the end better so it doesn't dig in, but I've got a pretty good callous built up now to where it doesn't bother me too much.
And finally the clip. It's a very slick design I will admit that. You have the button, under the button is a spring that slides onto the button barrel, under that is a brass collar that fits into the frame, the brass collar acts as a flush stop platform for the clip. All in all it is good, slips into the pocket just fine. But over about three weeks I've noticed it....clicks. Everything is put together just fine but it wiggles just enough side to side, that it allows the end of the clip to lift up ever so slightly that it juggles up and down giving off a click sound. Which is fine, but I would have liked to have seen it designed....more solid.
Last, the blade is some thick ass blade stock. This adds to that solid feel but this knife had not tip, it was more of a blunt point and cut poorly, So I threw a fairly steep edge on it and sharpened the tip to give it a little more stabbing ability.
I love the knife and it is slowly growing on me, but for the almost $500 for the damascus version I think there is several issues that should not exist at that price point.
Click to expand...


Little thread revival, I just got a bronze titanium ROK with that same bur issue. I'm gonna take mine apart and knock down that bur as well. What did you use on the bur?
 
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