Thoughts on Artisan Cutlery

S

Saint Duck

Joined
Oct 16, 2021
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15
I just received an Artisan Tomahawk in blue titanium and S35VN and am thoroughly impressed. Except for the pocket clip. I'm getting ready to order an Artisan Megahawk in blue titanium with an M390 blade. I'm new to knives but am drawn to reverse tanto/ wharncliffe /sheepsfoot style blades. As a newbie I'm impressed with everything,finish,action,materials. Just wondering what you all that have been around for awhile thought about them in general, and any thoughts on the Megahawk in particular. It ticks all my boxes, larger knife, blade shape, and the M390 is just a bonus for under $200. Ant feedback is appreciated.
 
I bought 5 Artisans early on, all in D2 because I thought they were well designed and a good value. I still own 2 of them -- a Waistline and Shark -- both of which I still think are excellent knives/values at just under $60 (at the Knife Center, a BF sponsor).

However, Artisan faces a lot of stiff competition in the premium steel category and I personally would not pay what they are asking for the same knives in M390 because there are so many other options available in that price range.

But, if the Megahawk pushes your buttons and there is nothing comparable available, I see no reason for you not to buy it, since there's no doubt in my mind that Artisans are well made and, of course, it's . . .

your $, your choice. ;)
 
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Well I went ahead and ordered the Megahawk. the M390 version is on sale for $169+tax. at knifecenter. Only the blue one, which is the one I wanted. That was $20 cheaper than the S35VN version that wasn't on sale. And $60 cheaper than the other M390 versions. Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate hearing others opinions before I pull the trigger on certain things.
 
My first knives from Artisan were the Taiga and the Feldspar, when they first came out and were available on Massdrop. New from the box, both were dry as a bone with white residue. The Feldspar was actually stuck shut! Instead of going through the return process, I took them apart for a thorough clean and lube. It did a world of good and both were decent after that. However, there were a few little issues like crisp inner scale edges and an overly sharp corner at the top of a lock bar.

I later got excited about their AR-RPM9. Leading up to release, they really hyped it up as a new PM steel while keeping the formula secret. Then the formula turned out to be based on 9Cr18Mov. That's not a big deal but some people felt underwhelmed. I actually like 9Cr18Mov as a budget steel so I was still on board. Then we got some out for cut testing and the results weren't great. Performance under the test conditions was close to the average for regular 9Cr18Mov and significantly worse than WE's 9Cr18Mov in the Civivi and Sencut knives.

Accepting it for what it is, I ordered two more knives in AR-RPM9. The first was a present for my wife: a special edition of the Arroyo with patterned acrylic scales. The one I got had a real wet noodle of a detent and one of the scales was almost entirely lacking the pattern. I exchanged it and the replacement was okay. Then I got a Silax. The blade is nice but fit and finish on the scales was pretty bad. I tried to take them off for sanding but they appear to be glued on and I was wary of trying to force it. So I cleaned them up as well as I could and called it a day. At this point, I think I'm done with Artisan.
 
I bought one and realized i would never carry so i sold it. It wasnt a bad knife, just not my style.
 
I don't have any now, but I had three. One was a Shark which came with terrible lockup. A Zumwalt was good on lockup but felt rough opening. The best was a Classic which seemed solid and smooth, but it was heavy. Bestech I've had in budget models were superior by far.
 
I bought a few of the Smoky Mountain exclusives in copper and bronze.
All were under $60 and IMO they're very well made for the price.
The mini proponent in copper is my favorite. Looks like a broken sword, but it's a very useful knife.

ARTISANb.jpg
 
As far as the logo goes, looks fine to me. Over 7 billion people on the planet means over 7 billion ways to 'trigger' or 'microagress' somebody. Way too many for me to keep track of, so I don't even try anymore. I won't go out of my way to offend anyone, but conversely if/when someone gets offended by something that most of the other 7 billion could not care less about I generally just smile and go about my business.
 
Yo Mama said:
The logo has stopped me from buying any Artisan knives.
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Odd how some people only see what they want to see and go out of their way to see things that aren't there. There is nothing wrong with the logo, it doesn't look like anything but what it s supposed to look like, which is a kneeling man bending over a sword.
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JPD1998 said:
The mini proponent in copper is my favorite. Looks like a broken sword, but it's a very useful knife.
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I've got a pair of copper Proponents, large and small. Odd as they look the design is pretty useful. They are heavy though. The large version weighs in at around 18 oz.
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I also have a pair of Tomahawks, a large G10/copper and a small titanium with damascus blade. Both are fine knives with very good flip action.
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Chippa said:
Nice designs with great action but they use some terrible hardware
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This was my experience with the one Artisan knife I needed to disassemble.

Every screw had so much crud packed in around it that I couldn't get the knife back together, and the pivot was a real pain to unscrew. I was attempting to fix unsafe lockup (a gentle press on the spine would defeat the lock), and when I asked Artisan about warranty support they replied promptly, requested pictures...and then ghosted me despite my sending several follow-up emails.

I like some of their designs. The Proponent is an interesting knife, especially in its SMKW variations. The Biome is a superb little slippie. But when I consider my experience with them, and my distaste for their logo, there are just too many other players at Artisan's price points that don't have these issues. I sold all my AC knives and added them to my never-buy list.
 
Saint Duck said:
I just received an Artisan Tomahawk in blue titanium and S35VN and am thoroughly impressed. Except for the pocket clip. I'm getting ready to order an Artisan Megahawk in blue titanium with an M390 blade. I'm new to knives but am drawn to reverse tanto/ wharncliffe /sheepsfoot style blades. As a newbie I'm impressed with everything,finish,action,materials. Just wondering what you all that have been around for awhile thought about them in general, and any thoughts on the Megahawk in particular. It ticks all my boxes, larger knife, blade shape, and the M390 is just a bonus for under $200. Ant feedback is appreciated.
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For those prices I would rather go USA made like spyderco and benchmade
 
jill jackson said:
I don't have any now, but I had three. One was a Shark which came with terrible lockup. A Zumwalt was good on lockup but felt rough opening. The best was a Classic which seemed solid and smooth, but it was heavy. Bestech I've had in budget models were superior by far.
Click to expand...

I've had a lot of examples from a lot of different Chinese companies. Overall, Bestech has been much better than Artisan. WE, including Civivi and Sencut, has been the best by far.

Of the dozen or so knives I've had from Kizer, I've had just a couple of issues but they're generally happy to help. One was the older version of the Mini Domin that ran on washers. It was basically a bronze/polymer/bronze sandwich on each side of the blade. One of the polymer washers was mangled from the factory. I contacted them and they sent me two complete sets of replacement hardware at no charge. A few years back, I gave out the Tangram Santa Fe to a few family members for Christmas. One of my relatives managed to lose their pocket clip. Kizer charged me five bucks total to ship out a replacement clip.

Any of these companies are a much better choice in my experience.
 
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