Mcusta Tactility, a Japanese pocketsized folding sword.

Before I was really into knives (Into as in, learning about steel types, knifemaking etc) I was into straight razors.

My knowledge was limited to two steel types (carbon and stainless) and all I knew was that you needed to get them up to Rockwell 61 or so to make a good razor.

At that time I was a member (and still am) of a Straight Razor forum. (www.straightrazorplace.com). On there at one point someone talked about the fact that he'd gotten a new pocketknife. That was a Mcusta MC-1. (picture borrowed from Amazon.com)

From there on I decided I wanted something in Damascus and I started digging into what makes a good knife a good knife and it all went down (or up depending on your viewpoint) hill from there.

Well, it's YEARS and years later and I still didn't have a Mcusta despite wanting one for all this time. Then....while my wife was in labour....and we were bored waiting for a doctor or something to come I was playing around on my smartphone and noticed that someone had a Mcusta Tactility up for sale (this was around last October...the 5th to be precise) for a price that I just couldn't resist.

So a couple of days after one of my favourite gifts ever ( Zoey Ellen Noot) arrived, my Mcusta arrived, after wanting one for around 5 years or so.

So let's get into the nitty gritty of things:

Materials:

• Blade: VG-10 steel
• Handle scales: Black Micarta
• Liners: Stainless steel (don't know the composition)
• Pocketclip: Stainless steel (don't know the composition)
• Washers: Nylon

All materials that belong on a quality yet not super high end knife. Perfect materials for an Every Day Carry knife. The steel is a mid/high end stainless. Micarta looks nice, has a nice feel to it, will hold up in almost any use and yet won't break the bank.

Size

• Bladelength: 8,5 cm (just under 3.5")
• Overall length: 20,5 cm (just over 8")
• Closed length: 11,5 cm (just under 4,5")
• Blade thicknedd: 3mm (just under 1/8")
• Weight: 105grammes (around 3,5 ounces)

It's quite a sizeable knife. It's however not very wide which makes it feel a little smaller than it really is. Will fit just fine into almost any pocket and is a nice handfull to work with.

Build Quality

When open this knife you'll have a hard time believing the sticker price. The smoothness and yet tight movement that it has makes it feel like it should

1. Be much more expensive
2. Probably has bearings or something.

Well, it's not and it doesn't. It's one of the very few knives that I've gotten that I was able to thumb flick open without any wrist movement the moment I got it. Now I got mine secondhand. But it was unused and I've seen a LOT of reports from people that got theirs straight out of the factory that experienced the same thing.

Other than that there are no sharp edges where they shouldn't be (more on that later in the Design portion), the micarta is nicely polished and the clip has the perfect amount of tension to both clip it IN the pocket and take it OUT of the pocket. In my opinion this is possibly one of the most perfect production knives that I've seen around.

Sharpness

As I've said before, there are three factors to sharpness

1. Out of the box sharpness
2. Ease of sharpening
3. Edge retention

Out of the box sharpness is A-MAZING. I think the is most likely the sharpest knife I've recieved from any factory and sharper than I've seen from many custom knifemakers. It would shave hair easily and cut circles in printer paper without any effort.

It's fairly easy to sharpen. Nothing horrible. The initially very sharp edge means that most sharpening is just upkeep really. A few passes on a very fine stone or loaded strop and it's right back to hair popping. If the edge had been obtuse from the factory this'd been more of a rough time. But with the initial edge this good keeping it sharp is a breeze.

Edge retention is good. VG-10 at Rockwell 58-59 is good stuff. I found a short video demonstrating a guy cutting through a 2x4 with his tactility and still slicing printer paper easily afterwards. Just don't ask me what he's saying because it appears to be in russian.

Comfort

As you can probably see in the video this knife (although it'll stand up to it) is NOT designed for hard use. The man in the vid switches to wearing a glove on his knifehand within minutes. The grooves although they work great for traction, just isn't all that great when gripping the knife hard and you WILL develop blisters if you go out into the woods with nothing but this knife.

In the pocket it's great. The profile (slender) of the handle and the blade mean that it's not never really all too obvious in the pocket. And the thickness of the handle also means that you'll still feel it's reassuring presence.

The Deep carry pocketclip (which can be switched to left or righthand side) means that it's never a worry that you'll lose it.

Design

The design is very, for lack of proper description, Japanese. And that can be a good or a bad thing depending on where your tastes run. For me that's a good thing. The styling of the blade and handle are very reminiscent of Japanese style swords and shortswords. I know I know. The point isn't the same. But it makes me think of that nonetheless.

The handle grooves while really improving your grip aren't all tha comfortable. You'll have no fear of losing this knife when gripping it. Yet at the same time I really wouldn't want to use it with a deathgrip for an extended period of time. It makes me feel like the knife it probably more designed with short burst functionality in mind....or self defense purposes. Which would make sense given the name "Tactility", tactical, covert operations, eliminations. They all just kind of lie in the same thoughtrange.

In order to improve grip even more there's some jimping on the liners alone. Now I'd never seen that done before but I really like it. You don't even really notice it untill you get a good grip on the knife. It's even to be found near the butt of the knife where your pinky finger normally rests. And since, when gripping a knife hard, almost most of the force it put near the rear end of the knife this makes perfect sense.

Price

The tactility range is in Mcusta's midrange of knives. What this means is that although they're not the cheapest they make (that would probably be their "Basic" series in VG-10) they're not the most expensive either. You can find this knife in internet stores for under $120 no problem (if you're in the states). Which considering the fit/finish, size and materials used isn't all that bad. If you're feeling a little bit more fancy you can get versions with Corian handles, Cocobolo or Chinese Quince as well. And if you're feeling superfancy you can even find damascus clad VG-10 versions that don't have the thumbhole but a thumbstuf instead which range up to about $170 or so with that same choice in handle materials.

(Some pictures of various versions borrowed from Amazon.com)

Corian and VG-10

Cocobolo and VG-10

Cocobolo and damascus clad VG-10

(from JSburlys.com)

Quincewood and VG-10

When it comes to quality/price. I think this is one of the most overlooked GOOD knives.

 Conclusion

Of of the most overlooked knifemodels on the market when it comes to "tactical" blades. Especially when you consider the fact that they also make upscale damascus clad models that'll double as larger gentleman's folders. They even make a smaller version of the damascus clad ones for those who would prefer a smaller gentleman's folder.

Prices outside of the US are (as usual) a lot higher. (This knife goes for €150 or around $200 in a local store) and therefore when buying over here they might be a bit harder to justify. Because when you get into that kind of money the competition is just crazy. But even then it wouldn't be a  bad purchase.

And offcourse there's the cool fact that they come just CRAZY sharp out of the factory.....and dangit....now I want one of those damascus clad version EVEN MORE!!