Wilson Tactical/Darrel Ralph folder

Darryls answer from the main forum:

Most of the requests were from Military and police. The comments were that using the knife in salt water conditions even with the coating will
allow the edge to rust on D2. The 440c will not rust as easy and the coating is to help protect the whole blade where salt water would hit it and stay on the blade. All stainless with carbon in it will rust after some use in corrosive situations. We just wanted the most protection we could get.
Regards
Darrel Ralph
Click to expand...

Braces and a belt, enough said. Since winter has finally decided to drop some long overdue rain on us here in the Golden State I guess we'll see if it makes a difference compared to my knives with bare steel blades.

Thanks for the reply, and thanks to Darryl and Ryan for getting mine out in time for Christmas!
 
Bio
Call me
740 965 9970.
How's that!

Notice
We are now taking orders for s30v blade upgrades.
For folks who have knives already the upgrade price will be $50.00.
We will adjust the retail of the standard knife to reflect the same price difference.

Any and all what want the upgrade can email me.
When the time comes for the upgrade blades we will send an email.
You knife will be upgraded fast and returned to you.
We have changes in the line for 2003.
1. We have the 3g model now.
They are green handles with g10 inlays black blade.
2. Green handles on the auto..
3. The 154cm blades for the auto will be out soon. Check with Spark!!
4. LOOK for the 25th anniversary model from knife and gun set from WILSON COMBAT. The sets will be marked and numbered! SWEET
We are working on a smaller folder for those who want a slim strong small carry.
This knife will be out mid summer to fall time.
 
"We are working on a smaller folder for those who want a slim strong small carry.
This knife will be out mid summer to fall time."

Can the smaller knife be bought with s30v or will this be an upgrade, too?
 
*laugh*

I'm telling ya... between the new thumbers, and the ability to call the DDR shop... This is the kinda service I don't mind paying for.

If mine comes in with dopey thumbers, don't worry I'll be on the phone!!

;)

Mmm.. smaller? Like a Baby R/W Tac Elite? Or smaller like in new design? What kind of blade length? 3.5"? 3.0"? 1.995"???

Thank you sir.

-jon
 
Here is the link to our new site!
www.combatelite.com
It is just getting up and going.
We will be posting new product and upgraded versions of the knives there soon.
We will be making runs of 10 knives that will be numbered etc!
 
I like the 3.49" length. It's legal for 3.5" areas, and it's the smallest length to have comfortable handles, and I have small hands.

My $0.02: the < 3.0" size should be relegated to backup, gent's folders, and for areas where it's not legal to carry anything longer than 3.0".

-j
 
I have one of the current models (a level IV). It's very comfortable as an edc. For me a lot of the appeal of this knife is the scale of it, how it fills my hand, how the blade shape and handle work together when you are using the edge or the point.

I would think that making the blade small (e.g. ~3") you would almost be better off building a different knife rather than scaling the Combat Elite down that far.

If someone is worried that the ~3.5" blade length would be too large, I'd suggest finding one of the current size and try carrying it for a few days. I'd think you'd be reassured that 3.5" would be fine for both carrying and using.
 
Gaben,
The new model will be differnt than the current model.
I feel the 3.5 will be good for an EDC...
 
Oops. Rereading this thread I realize you didn't say it would be a smaller version of the Elite.

In that case, as long as you are asking for suggestions, how about:

- making the blade and handle as thin as possible
- making it DA
- having a clip pouch so you can leave the clip off the knife and also not be worried about it firing in your pocket

Alternately instead of it being DA you could have some wave-like feature that works between the clip-pouch and the knife. I'd think that could be made more reliable and easier to trigger when you have a pouch designed for it rather than pants.
 
... and a Timascus option.

I saw further up this thread that you were talking with people about Timascus, but it doesn't look like you've used it in any of your knives. Is there a reason for that or are you just waiting for the right application?

Gabe "Why Stalk Ash When You Can Stalk Darrel Instead" Newell
 
Got mine in.

My thoughts:

Ergonomics, build, production:
Excellent heft and ergonomics. Solid lock, doesn't move when you push on it. No problems with any spine-push or spine-whack tests.

I respectfully disagree with other opinions that the thinness has lost the "tank-like" feel; this is definitely as solid as most equivalent framelocks when locked open (Seb, SnG) and better than virtually all linerlocks described as tank-like (MT LCC, S2k, Buck/Strider).

It doesn't have the "bulldozer carved from a billet" feel, but the tradeoff is a nice, hefty, but inconspicuous carry. The lock doesn't "thwock" as loudly as the others (SnG, particularly) but I may need to disassemble and tighten the lockbar.

I'm guessing it loses out to thicker framelocks (CKT Brend, Tom Andersons) but I can't give a definitive answer.

The teflon washers seem to be moving with the blade -- hence, rotating against the Ti slabs, rather than the usual way I've seen which is holding against the plates and rotating against the blade.

Also, the washer on the obverse side is squeezed so hard it actually is popping and separating away from the slab where it's not between the blade and the slab. Very odd. Why was this done instead of having a smaller washer like on the lock side?

The action is, however, incredibly smooth. Smoother than a SERE2k, a Seb, the Microtechs... quite impressive. It's not loose, but rather, a measured smoothness.

My thumbers are crappy as hell, too. All beat up around the edges. Extra comfy -- almost as good as a disc (my personal benchmark) but beat up.

The Ti surface looks like some kind of small glass beadblast. Comfy, but it picks up and adheres to sweat, leaving a slighty distasteful "sticky" feel very quickly.

I might have gone with some light surface ridging to improve the grip. The G10 version is nice, but too expensive and I'm not too fond of inlays (had some bad experiences with the MOD CQD Mk II's grip tape).

General finishing is on par with CRK -- i.e. midtech or semi-production quality. Far better than production-grade and to some degree more precise than some customs.

Blade, edge, and point:
Good point, wish it were a little stabbier. Great belly and high hollow grind for cutting smoothly. I'll have to put it on the EdgePro and see what kind of edge the 440C-OS takes.

Obviously I'll not be doing any prying with it.

That's all for now. Very well executed blade for the market.

-J
 
More thoughts...

- Took the edge angle from a little above 24deg down to 21deg on the EdgePro and it's cutting a LOT better, not surprisingly. I wonder how well the 440C-OS's edge will hold up compared to 154CM, D2, or S30V.

- I disassembled her and bent the lockbar over so it was tighter. Amazingly, it didn't affect the smooth action at all, and significantly improved both lockup as well as detent holding. A little bit of "sticking" on release, which is reassuring.

- The Armor Tuff coating is doing some strange things. All I've done is cut a few boxes and sharpen it on the EdgePro, and weirdly enough, near the edge the coating appears lighter, and it doesn't wash or rub away. I'm wondering if it's wearing away or smoothing out!? Either way, not too fond of it. BC or DiamondCote with chrome is far preferable.

Edit >> Cleaned off the blade with WD-40. A LOT of black stuff came off. Thought it was the coating at first, but instead appears the "burnished away" lighter area came off and left the blade black again. Very, very, weird.

Also, it's not scuff resistant at all. A very light brush with a 600-grit stone completely removed the coating down to the steel. Not terribly fond of this stuff at all.

On the whole, a great knife.

-j
 
Biogon,

Thanks for the honest assessment of the knife. What you say about the overall package has been echoed by others. Your comments about the finish on the handle and the blade coating are very informative - I have been looking closely at this knife.

:)
 
Two pictures that you don't often see from this knife:

The lock (perfect engagement; shows wear-in room and slab thickness)
rawil-lock.jpg


The back (shows tip-up configuration and stippled/beadblasted Ti finish)
rawil-back.jpg


Size comparison (Microtech LCC, Spydie Native, EKI La Griffe (for giggles). It' s about similar to the EKI CQC8, and larger in visual mass compared to the BM 710.
rawil-size.jpg



If a mod could snag and reupload these, I'd appreciate it. I can't leave them on my server too long.

Thanks!

-Jon
 
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