Mad Dog Knives

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https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-03-bk-1657-story.html .

Longer review of McClung's book -


"While other boys were tinkering with their Tonka trucks, 6-year-old Kevin McClung was redesigning a toy rifle so that it would emit a 50,000-volt bolt of lightning. The invention was one of McClung’s few failures, but it set him on the road to a CIA nether world from which he says he is only now, at age 33, recovering.

McClung’s desire to take gadgets apart and then amplify their power was encouraged by the innovative Mentally Gifted Minor (MGM) program of his Bay Area school, which gave him the resources to build dozens of projects for individual study. By age 13, he was experimenting with lab-number generators, simple computers, powerful pneumatic rifles and telephone-answering machines.

Strangely, though, these gadgets began disappearing from the lockers where McClung and his friends stored them overnight. Kevin suspected that the thieves might be the turtle-necked, Ray-Banned adults who sometimes silently observed the kids at work. To find out, he embedded audio components into a neoprene wet suit, which he put on underneath his clothes. Then, he sidled up to the teacher’s office to eavesdrop on the visitors.

McClung was caught and his equipment confiscated, but not before he overheard one of the observers say: “The Agency’s got over 200 scientists, but most of them’ve been in the bull pen for 20 years. They’re stale. These kids are pure; they’re liable to come up with things our people’d never think of.”

About a decade later, while working for a Silicon Valley weapons contractor, McClung sees a near-replica of his body-hugging neoprene eavesdropper in a classified CIA catalogue illustrating surveillance equipment available to operatives. The mysterious visitors of his school days, he discovers, were actually government agents scouting out promising spy technologies as well as bright kids for possible CIA recruitment.

In “Dark Genius,” this seemingly made-in-Hollywood story is presented as a clear-cut tale of exploitation, but McClung is actually anything but a passive participant. He admits that he was drawn to the weapons contractor (referred to by the pseudonym Amida ) because he knew its real name referred to an ancient Chinese cult of assassins. And he is thrilled to discover that Amida’s founders may be working in covert intelligence.

Amida supposedly sells police products, but its ambitions are in the high-tech end of international arms trade. Soon after hiring McClung, they ask him to craft their first signature product: a fountain pen that can fire either a projectile or a toxin.

McClung’s creation is based on a much less lethal, silent and versatile Iranian version supplied by a consummate middleman named Abe Haddad. Haddad gives the pen to Amida’s leaders in the hope that they will reciprocate by involving him in their new business. Later, McClung is put to work designing such prototypes as a remote detonating device, which is sold to Col. Muhammar Kadafi. The company also supplies untraceable semiautomatic rifles, grenade launchers and shoulder-fired rockets to South African security forces as well as to right- and left-wing rebel groups, mercenaries and drug dealers.

Amida is nevertheless on the verge of bankruptcy, for Haddad and other middlemen have been promising product orders they don’t have, while Amida is guaranteeing weapons it hasn’t yet designed. (The latter practice is now so common in Silicon Valley that the hypothetical products have been given a name: “vaporware.”)

McClung and his co-author, Stephen J. Rivele, are comfortable using some real names--among them, Reagan’s national security adviser, Richard Allen--but the main characters and companies in their story are unacknowledged pseudonyms. Why? In his preface Rivele states that “a mentality . . . designed programs so illegal and immoral that they had to be concealed not only from the public but from the very government officials who were supposed to be in charge of them. This chronic secrecy has compelled me to fictionalize parts of this story . . . “

Nevertheless, the authors’ disguises are thin--Abe Haddad, for example, is clearly Albert Hakim of Contragate fame, while Intellicom is Tactronix--and their decision to mingle fact and fiction only diminishes the moral force and historical value of their book.

Are the tales told here credible? There’s a sloppiness in this text that gives one pause. For example, Amida’s offices in downtown San Jose are said to have “a view overlooking the soft brown hillsides of the the San Joaquin Valley.” They mean the Santa Clara Valley.

Yet around Silicon Valley one can find confirmation of some of this book’s most seemingly preposterous stories. Sworn depositions by Albert Hakim in a Tactronix lawsuit, for instance, provide ample parallels for their allegations about Intellicom.

Probably McClung plays loosest with the facts when posing as an innocent. Rather late in his tale, as he’s designing high-tech thumb screws and electrical shocking batons, Kevin “discovers” that he’s surrounded by “crass profiteers and mean-spirited opportunists.” “Dark Genius” is thus framed as a contemporary “Treasure Island"--as if Kevin is a Jim Hawkins who only discovers John Silver’s crooked nature once they’re both at sea. While Hawkins overhears the pirates plotting while sitting at the bottom of an apple barrel, McClung taps his boss’ office and discovers their plans to fire him because they feel they can no longer afford him or his changing attitude.

But Kevin is closer in character to the pirates than to Hawkins. Drawn to Amida because of an obsession with pistols, cutlasses and cannonballs, he wants to experiment at the edge of lethality without worrying about limits imposed by ordinary minds and morals. His obsessive drive is supported by a cold technological Darwinism persuading him not to waste pity on people weak enough to become targets.

After Amida’s various attempts to entrap McClung fail, he hides out for two years in the Sierras, where he has “mystical” insights about the sanctity of life. Readers are lucky that these insights led to a book-length confession, but the piercing strength of his epiphanies becomes suspect when we read the biographical note about his current occupation: “Kevin McClung owns a business in central California manufacturing custom knives and guns.” "
 
I like Mad Dog knives!

‘Course, I like hot cigars up my nose and getting my fingers slammed in car doors too...
 
It's funny because there are guys whose opinions I value and respect and they say MD knives are good.

Unfortunately historically there is so much bull***t around them one never knows what to believe insofar as their provenance is concerned.

Two things I definitely know.......Firstly the knives are ridiculously priced for what they are.
Secondly I own some fantastic $300-$500 knives from some brilliant U.S. niche manufacturers and while they may not have some mythical Silicone Valley CIA credentials, they are made from the finest materials money can buy and are heat treated perfectly.
Perhaps my knives are not as razzle dazzle as a MD but I have beaten enough of my knives to know they work, work well, and have brilliant warranty backup.
 
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"3-8k? GtFoH. It's a damn knife."

Yeah. O1 with a chrome plating. If a person is paying collector prices for them that's their business. To me it's a two hundred dollar knife if new. Better yet I'd get the same knife without chrome from Mission in A2 for $179 ( closeout price) and have a better knife
 
luethge said:
View attachment 1672538View attachment 1672539

I know little about why this makers knives cost what they do. There are many members here much more knowledgeable on this subject than myself.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, I’m actually pretty interested in this threads content.

What I do know is.. Mr Mad Dog made some knives that made it into production for a SEAL team, early to mid 90’s. If I remember correctly.. the knives were 01 tool steel that had been plated ( can’t remember if it was Nickel or Hard chrome ?) to resist corrosion in salt water / chemical environments. The blades had some kind of proprietary heat treatment and were described as nearly indestructible. I know very little about his knives, never handled one myself.

I remember seeing “Mad Dog”, “Busse”, “Strider” knives being described as the knives that can’t be broken.. cult followings, chosen by special forces etc.

(I do love INFI and will proudly support Busse - excellent customer service).

Why do these knives go for so much $$ ?

Also , what does para military experience entail ? Was Mad Dog enlisted Military at some point ?
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So, the problem with the Mad Dog knives which turned into a big fight on the old "knife forums" ( pre BF) and rec knives. The fight was over the use of O1 tool steel for a knife meant to be at sea. Yes, MD was chrome plating the knives. The problem with that is that, 1. Hard Chrome is not a vapor barrier and 2. A sharpened edge does not have any hard chrome. and 3. once corrosion starts at the edge it will work it's way up the blade under the hard chrome and 4. HC process can cause hydrogen embrittlement. Sea water is rough stuff on a carbon steel like O1, which rusts if you just look at it wrong. MD could not be made to understand this and continued pushing this process.

The ergonomics of the MD's was excellent. I had an ATAK for a total of about 5 months and I had to admit it was the best handle and balance of any knife it's size.

The military issue was a different story. Seals in coronado has made some purchases from MD, and MD was not delivering knives to them. Then a few seals ended up at one of the local socal gun shows that MD just happened to be at, selling ATAK's, the knife they were waiting for. You can imagine how pissed they were. The seals were better off buying the MIssion MPK Ti knife, anyway.

As for price, if someone is willing to pay it, then it's worth it. For me, no. I can see $500 to $1k to a fan of MD, but there is nothing that makes an MD special over other knives. In fact, I can name tons of other brands I would take over an MD, Fallkniven being one.

not2sharp said:
IIRC, It started with Cliff Stamp doing a simple friendly comparison test between several popular knives (the kind of stuff we see all over Youtube now) and Kevin McClung refusing to accept Cliff's performance ranking, which had his knife coming in third.....

n2s .
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Actually it started when Cliff broke the MD Tusk, and MD lost his mind. He was pissed because that was the same model that MD claimed someone had stuck in a File fire safe and stood on it and bounced until the knife came flying out and going across the room with no damage. Then Cliff breaks it with very little force, lol. Then he did it a second time with the replacement, lol.
 
Good point! Care to share what small brands $300-$500 you’ve beaten on and approve of?
Steven65 said:
It's funny because there are guys whose opinions I value and respect and they say MD knives are good.

Unfortunately historically there is so much bull***t around them one never knows what to believe insofar as their provenance is concerned.

Two things I definitely know.......Firstly the knives are ridiculously priced for what they are.
Secondly I own some fantastic $300-$500 knives from some brilliant U.S. niche manufacturers and while they may not have some mythical Silicone Valley CIA credentials, they are made from the finest materials money can buy and are heat treated perfectly.
Perhaps my knives are not as razzle dazzle as a MD but I have beaten enough of my knives to know they work, work well, and have brilliant warranty backup
Click to expand...
 
John Phillips said:
Good point! Care to share what small brands $300-$500 you’ve beaten on and approve of?
Click to expand...
I've used a multitude of Busse's such as the Basic 4, Skinny Ash, Boney Active Duty and several Smaller Swamp Rats. I've also edc'd several Bantang blades for years like his BT4 and Bowie, all brilliant.
I also have a number of CPK's, which I have yet to really beat on, but by all metrics they are fabulous knives and amazing value for money. All of these were under $500-00 new.

As I said in my post it's not that I think MD's are inferior in any way. I just don't see how you can justify almost $2K for a 4.5" O-1 basic fixed blade, let alone $4-6K for some of the bigger models.
 
1. I saw the name "Mad Dog" and I hadn't heard of him since the 1990s. Never bought his products. He made sure he had the publicity.
2. I did bite the bullet and buy a number of Ernie Emerson designed Benchmades at dealer pricing, put them aside for myself and years later reluctantly sold one at my dealer price to a mentor. And, NO, the rest are not for sale at any price.
 
There is a marketing technique for luxury products whose market you want to turn artificially exclusive. The latest top-of-the line Ferarris for example, aren't for sale to the general (millionaire) public. They're sold on invitation to media celebrities, sport celebrities, basically to an Hidalgo. If you're just an ordinary millionaire, you have to show you really love Ferarris, own one or to older models, that sort of stuff.
 
Back in the '90s I ran across Kevin in Fighting Knives Magazine. I gave him a call and we talked several times. He certainly was interesting, I ended up buying a Frequent Flyer. I recently sold some old correspondence from him, included knife photos, totally different than his later knives. I did own a few others over the years and do regret not buying a Panther at the then $900 price.
 
I was in the marines 90-94 I knew of mad dog knives but I never bought any. More of a sog guy back then. Now that I’m graying and chasing knives instead of skirts I’m poking around these old threads about mad dog knives.
Apparently MD McClung is back at it. New models too. I’m not well acquainted with the mad dog implosion around 25 years ago. The new stuff looks cool but after easing the old threads I’m slowin my roll on them.
 
Mad Dog knives are made for secret people, in secret places, who do secret things. Know how I know? That's a secret. Oh and Navy Seals too. I miss all of the macho posturing some knife companies used in the early two thousands. Hard-core, high speed, moonless night, sky dive, submarine...those were funny times.
 
El Jay said:
Mad Dog knives are made for secret people, in secret places, who do secret things. Know how I know? That's a secret. Oh and Navy Seals too. I miss all of the macho posturing some knife companies used in the early two thousands. Hard-core, high speed, moonless night, sky dive, submarine...those were funny times.
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It was a wild ad time. Everything was “Extreme”! Haha or Tac Ops! 😂 I wanna go back. Before iphones and social media. I found a mad dog knife I thought I couldn’t live from what I thought was the 90s but it turned out to be recent. Just don’t know about plunkin that much dough down on md
 
Texas Stax said:
It was a wild ad time. Everything was “Extreme”! Haha or Tac Ops! 😂 I wanna go back. Before iphones and social media. I found a mad dog knife I thought I couldn’t live from what I thought was the 90s but it turned out to be recent. Just don’t know about plunkin that much dough down on md
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Get the D.O.D to buy it for you. Black budget of course!
 
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