Whats the story behind "Mad Dog Knives"

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RobertHankins

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I know they have been around for a long time but what is their story.
History is what I'm asking I guess.

Do the Blades live up to the reputation? Anybody use one?
Forgive my ignorance in this matter I have seen stuff on them but never heard any first hand accounts.
 
Hey Robert.

I have never seen a Mad Dog in person either. So I can ony offer heresay and opinion! Hopefully that will tide you over until someone who has used Mad Dogs (Steve Harvey? You out there?) can chime in.

I like the construction of these knives. Allen Blade made my first Ccustom knife, a MEUK. Though ALlen Blade isn't Mad Dog knives, he did work for Kevin for a while, and builds many of his knives the same way. Tangs are fully enclosed in g-10 type material (Mad Dogs), and guards are made of the same stuff too. Jeff Randall reviewed an Arizona Hunter for Tac Knives. He gave the knife extremely high praises. I would too, that knife looks awesome. Mad Dog uses 01 for his blades. I think they all get diff. heat treats and chrome plating for rust prevention. If you send kevin a few photocopies of your hand in certain positions, I hear he makes a knife that fits you like a glove.

Cliff Stamp reviewed one of the larger mad Dog models, and as far as I know, the blade failed. I believe it was a case of using steel with an edge too hard and with too high of a carbon content for the intended job, but I am not sure on that one. Check Cliff's website for more info. Kevin's grinds all look very clean.

And that is all I know about Mad Dog knives, really. Their forum is at www.tacticalforums.com They own the whole forum, and have their knifemaker forum on the bottom. There are a lot of people who don;t like Kevin, from what I've heard. And there are lots who do though. He also teaches knife fighting stuff.

The most educational search you can do on the forums is to search for Mad Dog and sit back with some food and a pepsi or 4. It takes a long time to read through all of those posts, but you learn lots about business practices, geometry, steel, etc.
 
Once upon a time there was a little known knifemaker named Kevin. He was of no importance until he was attacked and bitten by a rapid dog, which caused him to have delusions of grandeur. He became the leader of a rabid pack of true believers who founded a pseudo-religious cult known as Wholly Church of Voracious Tactical Truth. The prophet Kevin came down from the mountain of Bullschitt and revealed unto all the Ten Commandments of Tactical Truth.

Then the apostate Cliff managed to break one of Mad Dog's indestructible blades. Although it is well known to all (especially Cliff's parents), that Cliff is endowed with a supernatural ability to break Anything, some people were shocked and dismayed to learn that the only True Tactical blade was just a knife like any other knife. Like all True Believers, some members of the Church of Tactical Truth did not want reality to intrude on their faith and responded by spewing venom and anger at anyone who wanted to know the real truth.

Eventually, with the help of X-Ray vision, folks learned that this wisdom had something to do with alien abductions and a strange notch in the hidden tang of was revealed to actually be a key to the flying saucers.

After many initial skirmishes, the disagreements between devotees of the CTT and those who did not believe in flying saucers erupted into a gigantic conflagration known as the Mad Dog Flame Wars. Many folks died, some were burned beyond recognition, and others ran away to found their own sects, allowing only other true believers into the flying saucers where they were brainwashed into believing that there was only One True Tactical Blade.

This forum, like the Phoenix, was born out the smoldering ashes of this highly emotional battle for the hearts, minds, and money of the true believers. This forum's archives contain a voluminous record of the Mad Dog Flame Wars. If you don't take yourself or others too seriously, you may enjoy reading some of ancient history of the Mad Dog Flame Wars contained in the bowels of this forum. Try not to get burned or abducted by aliens. And cover your nose, the stench of rotting carrion can be overwhelming.

Paracelsus, telling a tale
 
Para that was great. We neeed to have a bladeforums folklore/legends section.
 
I worked part time at a gun shop here in Vegas that sold Mad Dog knives. Back then I was not into knives , good thing as I would have went broke. I will say that the Mad Dog knives sold themselves.
All we did was display them and they would just disappear.

I only wish I had grabbed a few when I worked there .Awesome blades and while I have never used one , they just felt right in the hand.

Good thing about knives is if you dont like one makers style there are plenty more to choose from .There will be a Mad Dog in my stable one of these days , I sure as heck have enough Gun Glove Holsters and mag carriers for my 1911's :D

Happy Holidays.
 
The MADDOG flame wars was the nastiest public frying we have ever hosted on these forums. Do a search and you will find 3 solid months of knife testing, testimonials, ethics debates, x-rays, documentation, and thousands of opinions (some were even relevant).

In the end Kevin ran away with many of his followers and founded their own forum where negative commentary can be corrected with the expiditious use of a delete key.

n2s
 
Paracelsus has it pretty well covered.

A good knife with way too much hype. Don't offer anything but praise without asbestos underwear. Mad Dog threads generate some of the most venomous mean spirited posts I have ever seen.

Mad Dog knife reviews and threads in general are some the most biased you will find - either blind faith to the Church of Tactical Truth or you are labeled an ignorant dolt not worthy of such enlightenment.

There are a few Mad Dog owners who do not share such blind fanaticism to the CTT and Mad Dog and, actually own the knife for valid reasons they can explain - most just re-spout the hype.

Sid (former Mad Dog owner - I'm glad to be rid of the knife)
 
Sid, just curious...why are you glad to be rid of the knife?

I am well acquainted with the Mad Dog wars and it is a shame that such things have been preventing good discussion of the actual knives over the years (e.g. the posts above talk more about the controversy than the knives!)...I have a Panther on order and I am really looking forward to it! I would hardly label myself a "fanatic"...all I can say is that the few MDs that I have handled were very well balanced, had nice grinds, were D@MN sharp, and seemed to be quite tough! I do wish that Kevin would explore other (especially stainless) steels though...

RL
 
...all I can say is that the few MDs that I have handled were very well balanced, had nice grinds, were D@MN sharp, and seemed to be quite tough!
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All true. I especially love the handles and find them very comfortable to hold on to. The problem is that life has moved on and there are dozens of makers making knives of equal or better quality. Something which the true Maddog groupie seems unable to accept.

It was a knife test against a Busse Basic that ignited the debate the last time. How dare anyone report that a knife had performed as well as the Maddog. To the true Mad Dog follower, that is heresy, and whom ever utter the words is lying.

You might feel the same if you had invested large dollars in an excalibur only to discover that it was one of many pretenders.

n2s

Yup, overly hyped.
 
Sitting here with an ATAK II in my hand right now.

I live in Norway, and US made knives are damn expensive here. As is everything else :) Anyway, I wanted a large(ish) do-it-all blade for camping/general survival/SHTF/you name it, and instead of going with the traditional Sami knife (which are used by Norwegian Jäger troops for example), I thought I'd go with a US made knife. Looked around a bit on the net, and found I could import a MadDog for about the same price as buying a Cold Steel Trailmaster in the local shop. Sure, I could've imported a Trailmaster and saved a lot of money, but hey ... :)

Wanted an ATAK, found an ATAK II at Les Robertson, and that was that. Nice touch: shipped as "camping tool", "value $20". :D Saved me a heap of money on toll and taxes.

So I now have a unique knife that not many others own here in Norway. That could be reason enough, but I really like this blade. It's heavy enough for very light chopping, but with really nice balance. It sorta flows in the hand. I'm sure it could make a decent fighter if that was what I needed it for. The handle fits my hand very nicely, and seems to do so for everyone who handles it. I'm no expert on steel, all I can say is it's sharp and works. :rolleyes: Sorry, wish I could be more eloquent on that subject, but all I know is it cuts, gets sharpened and cuts some more. Just like all my knives. It has never been put to any real hard test, so I can't say how it takes abuse.

My MadDog does however have that distinctive confindence-inducing feeling of a tool well made. I like that feeling.

I am also sure I would have been very happy with a Sami knife, a Fallkniven, a Trailmaster, a Busse (:D) or any of the many fine knives found today, though.
 
Whoa!!!
Last thing I wanted was to open old wounds.
I will do my search and probably enjoy a few good laughs at the Maturation levels of some of the posts. Hopefully there will besome usefull info somewhere.
 
While I don't know if this may answer your question, try this link to get a better insight about the "history" of MDK http://mdk.idv.tw/mdhistory.htm
Be sure to read the legendary MEMORANDUM about the "SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION FOR ADVANCED TACTICAL ASSAULT KNIFE, (ATAK)" http://mdk.idv.tw/c_ataktest.htm . Note the other knives.

Krizzard, out.

"...Whoever kills with the sword must be killed by the sword... "
- The New Testament, Revelation 13:10
 
Last thing I wanted was to open old wounds.
Click to expand...

well, that's exactly what you've done. I'm with BF for coupla years now and can't thank it enough for all I've learned here. I would say, 90% of all posts here contain unbiased info, but there are two or three words that should never be mentioned in a subject line. The words like Mad Dog, Sebenza, Cold Steel (used to be, not anymore). The amount of knowledge in these threads is close to zero so I'm just trying to stay away from them... on the other hand, if you like to spice it up, then go for it.
 
Never owned one, couldn't afford it. But I've played with them. They have excellent balance and feel. I've heard testimonials that the integral handles and hardcrhome finish of some knives can really take a beating. There are too many satisfied customers who really beat their knives for the anti-Mad Dog hype to be fully correct. You can't find a lot for sale on this forum, and that says those who have em, keep em. The few I've seen used at knife shows were used hard and still fully functional. However, Mr. McClung is a promoter and showman and thus you need to take his hype with a grain of salt.

The Mad Dog flame wars of yore were really funny, complete with X-rays, tales of stolen blade blanks, mad/bad apprentices, etc. Some people's true colors really came to the surface. If you take this place seriously, it was shameful, but if you don't, it was still a great excerise in people-watching. Kind of like what happens now if you say one of the sacred cows may have flaws.
 
The author of this post has asked me to delete it. He had no intention of opening a fiery can of worms. Since we do not edit or delete unless it is absolutely necessary, I an going to close it to attempt to honor his wishes. Hopefully it will walk down the "scroll of death" without causing any hard feelings. ;)
Dave
 
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