Kaizen1
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2006
- Messages
- 6,227
There's gonna be hella pictures in this "review", and unfortunately we're not gonna see pics of heavy (or any!) use or anything like that. Also, this isn't so much a review as it's me describing things I see and showing you pictures.
I can at least be honest with myself about the fact that I'll never put this knife through its paces. I have more plebeian knives at the ready if I want to break down some serious cardboard. No, its job is mostly going to be a fidget knife for doing internet things, or for small cutting tasks when I'm foolish enough to have only this blade while out in the concrete jungle. It'll mostly stay in its ivory tower, watching the little peasant knives working the fields, silently judging them.
I got this in yesterday and my first impression is - it's hard to not be impressed. The Arch Nemesis is a model from custom maker, Brian Nadeau. I've been following Brian's account on Instagram for some time now and prior to ever seeing his knives in person, it's clear that the execution on his knives are exceptional in the sea of growing custom/ individual makers. If you want one you should know this model isn't cheap and more importantly, it's not easy to find. The base model of this design starts at $1600 and the price can easily go over $2k if you fancy. If you see one of them out in the secondary market today, they don't tend to last long.
When I started to seriously consider getting one of these, I did what I imagine most of us do in this sort of situation - I looked for reviews. Spoiler alert, there aren't many to be found. That makes it kinda scary to think about paying for one. It feels a little dangerous, like this knife, or this review. When I was first trying to find one, the best video I could find was one at Blade 2017. More recently a new review showed up on YouTube, which i think would be super helpful to others considering getting one. I just found the video after mine was already in the mail. Oh well, I like to look at reviews after I buy too - it helps prolong the production of beta-endorphins as a superficial bandage to slow tf down.
Here are the specs from his site:
Let's see some pics:
It comes in a plastic snap-lock-ish container with Brian's card on it
Maybe it's a cognitive bias to help rationalize the price, but when I opened it up, it looked pretty legit.
Let's get to it:
Brian has his initials on the pivot on the non-locking side. The lines on the handle are polished. There are two different textured patterns on the handle. It's hard to see here, but there are vertical lines in the bolster area.
The lines are much easier to see here:
Better view of the lower handle pattern
Lock side has a custom pivot that looks like it needs a custom tool for disassembly. I love its aesthetic. The points of contact holding the frame together are the pivot and the 4 screws at the bottom of the handle. There are 2 on the lock side, and 2 directly opposite of them on the non-lock side, all screwing into a titanium backspacer. In addition to the other polished accents, the pocket clip is also polished/ brushed.
The attention to detail helps the wallet hurt less.
Stop pin
We can see the lockbar has a replaceable steel insert for the lock interface. The insert acts an overtravel stop for the lockbar. It's not easy to see, but the insert also has a protruding piece called the "SBD (no idea what that stand for) Integral detent" Not only does that act as the detent, but it provides a subtle feature that adds to the overall feeling that this design was all about the details. When disengaging the lock bar, most framelocks with a standard ball detent have 2 main properties that the user has to overcome: The spring tension on the lock and pushing past the ball detent. Subjectively, disengaging the lock feels like what I imagine CRKs with the ceramic ball interface feel like. The SBD Integral detent is shaped like a ramp such that once the lock disengages, it will smoothly close with no additional obstacles to push past.
This is a relatively long blade length at 4.25", so the knife feels solid, maybe a little on the hefty side, but not heavy. The way it felt, I thought maybe the frame slabs were solid. Nope, he definitely removed some material in there:
In the pocket:
The blade has a nice pattern on it and the double edge is polished. There's a nice blood groove down the center for aero-and-hydrodynamical tactics.
The tip looks pretty thin. Here are some comparison shots of the blade stock and tip of the knife next to a Koenig Knives Mini Goblin and a Spyderco Military
Left to right: Mini Goblin, Arch Nemesis, Military
Mini Goblin, Arch Nemesis
Arch Nemesis, Military
I can at least be honest with myself about the fact that I'll never put this knife through its paces. I have more plebeian knives at the ready if I want to break down some serious cardboard. No, its job is mostly going to be a fidget knife for doing internet things, or for small cutting tasks when I'm foolish enough to have only this blade while out in the concrete jungle. It'll mostly stay in its ivory tower, watching the little peasant knives working the fields, silently judging them.
I got this in yesterday and my first impression is - it's hard to not be impressed. The Arch Nemesis is a model from custom maker, Brian Nadeau. I've been following Brian's account on Instagram for some time now and prior to ever seeing his knives in person, it's clear that the execution on his knives are exceptional in the sea of growing custom/ individual makers. If you want one you should know this model isn't cheap and more importantly, it's not easy to find. The base model of this design starts at $1600 and the price can easily go over $2k if you fancy. If you see one of them out in the secondary market today, they don't tend to last long.
When I started to seriously consider getting one of these, I did what I imagine most of us do in this sort of situation - I looked for reviews. Spoiler alert, there aren't many to be found. That makes it kinda scary to think about paying for one. It feels a little dangerous, like this knife, or this review. When I was first trying to find one, the best video I could find was one at Blade 2017. More recently a new review showed up on YouTube, which i think would be super helpful to others considering getting one. I just found the video after mine was already in the mail. Oh well, I like to look at reviews after I buy too - it helps prolong the production of beta-endorphins as a superficial bandage to slow tf down.
Here are the specs from his site:
- Blade Length: 4.25 inches
- Total Length: 9.75 inches
- Blade material: All the good stuff
- Pivot: stainless ball thrust bearing
- Titanium 6al-4v frame & back spacer
- SBD Integral detent
- 3D Machined Clip
Let's see some pics:
It comes in a plastic snap-lock-ish container with Brian's card on it
Maybe it's a cognitive bias to help rationalize the price, but when I opened it up, it looked pretty legit.
Let's get to it:
Brian has his initials on the pivot on the non-locking side. The lines on the handle are polished. There are two different textured patterns on the handle. It's hard to see here, but there are vertical lines in the bolster area.
The lines are much easier to see here:
Better view of the lower handle pattern
Lock side has a custom pivot that looks like it needs a custom tool for disassembly. I love its aesthetic. The points of contact holding the frame together are the pivot and the 4 screws at the bottom of the handle. There are 2 on the lock side, and 2 directly opposite of them on the non-lock side, all screwing into a titanium backspacer. In addition to the other polished accents, the pocket clip is also polished/ brushed.
The attention to detail helps the wallet hurt less.
Stop pin
We can see the lockbar has a replaceable steel insert for the lock interface. The insert acts an overtravel stop for the lockbar. It's not easy to see, but the insert also has a protruding piece called the "SBD (no idea what that stand for) Integral detent" Not only does that act as the detent, but it provides a subtle feature that adds to the overall feeling that this design was all about the details. When disengaging the lock bar, most framelocks with a standard ball detent have 2 main properties that the user has to overcome: The spring tension on the lock and pushing past the ball detent. Subjectively, disengaging the lock feels like what I imagine CRKs with the ceramic ball interface feel like. The SBD Integral detent is shaped like a ramp such that once the lock disengages, it will smoothly close with no additional obstacles to push past.
This is a relatively long blade length at 4.25", so the knife feels solid, maybe a little on the hefty side, but not heavy. The way it felt, I thought maybe the frame slabs were solid. Nope, he definitely removed some material in there:
In the pocket:
The blade has a nice pattern on it and the double edge is polished. There's a nice blood groove down the center for aero-and-hydrodynamical tactics.
The tip looks pretty thin. Here are some comparison shots of the blade stock and tip of the knife next to a Koenig Knives Mini Goblin and a Spyderco Military
Left to right: Mini Goblin, Arch Nemesis, Military
Mini Goblin, Arch Nemesis
Arch Nemesis, Military
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