Okay, the title says it all. I am not a english major, so don't ridicule my composition skills.

This blog will be my outlet for honest opinions and facts of knives that I found intriguing enough to buy for myself. With that being said, let us begin.

6/4/2013  Coming soon another rank amateur review.  Subject: Corneta Wotan

What aspects should I highlight? Any particular tests you want performed? I plan to beat the heck out of it anyway.

Let me know soon. I would like to conduct these tests over the weekend.

9/28/2013 Okay, alright! 4 months later and now I have time to beat up the Wotan. I will start off with specs today with a thorough report of the testing on Monday.

Knife  - Corneta Wotan - a collaboration with Knife maker Peter Hammer and Corneta of Brazil for contracted sale to Brazilian Police Special Forces Division

Material:

Drop forged 1/4" 52100 Ball Bearing Stainless steel with integral Guard (57-58 HRC)

Textured Kraton handle

Matte Black Epoxy resin coating 

Ballistic Nylon sheath with a pivoting snap closure for ambidextrous carry (nice touch)

Dimensions & specs:

Blade - 6" from tip to guard, 5-1/4" Hollow grind cutting edge

Handle - 4-3/8" from guard to butt of handle

OAL - 11"

Weight - Knife = 14.2 oz, Sheath = 4 oz

First Impressions was it is a brute of a knife that felt good in the hand with the textured Kraton handle ensuring a good grip. The balance seemed a little forward of the guard, but having researched the requirements for the contract that was awarded for this knife explains that away. The sheath is efficient to the task of a quick withdrawal, although the constant testing I did forced the snap cap to remove itself from the pull tab. I was being really aggressive for this to happen.

I did proceed to put an edge on the knife that I like, the edge may not be suited to the testing I plan but I can adjust for that back to the one that came with the knife.

I will be back on Monday with test results and Pictures.

9/30/2013

The testing is done & the results are in.

I will say the testing was limited to what I had on hand at my house, Scraps and junk. But that is not to say I couldn't come up with some decent tests,

Entrenching, Chopping/notching wood & sharpening stakes: For this I used a real world Urban application, Dry pressure treated wood used for planting stakes and dried Bamboo. 

• Entrenching applications, all I did here was thrust it into my back lawn 50 times, (My kids watched this through the screen door and are wondering why I don’t like my lawn.)
• Chopping and notching was a breeze, I even feebly attempted to “fuzz” the end of the stake, nice little curls were the result. 
• Sharpening wood stakes was effortless, even though the wood was hard and dry the pointing was easy and made for extra shavings for a fire starter,
• Sharpening of Dried Bamboo was also easy.
• Used the tip to drill a hole in a piece of Sch 40 PVC pipe, start to finish was 45 second. 
• Pry bar testing was done this morning with a pallet, no problem.  

Cesar gave me this list of review testing ideas, one is for:

Combative Testing

•  Being that I am out of practice & the fact that there is no one willing to spar with me, the testing is limited.  So the limited testing here was done with “Shadow sparring”.
• The weight of the knife is not so heavy that it is unwieldy; it would lend assistance in downward thrusts and pommel strikes.  This was tested using a piece of 3/8” thick piece of HDCB (High Density Card board) that was a part of a long forgotten Crib. 
• The integral Bolster was key in the manner that I did not worry about my hand moving forward of the handle during thrusting and downward strikes.
• The final test was defense from another knife or blunt force weapon. I assumed from its experience with wood and PVC that this left only to test it against another knife. Unfortunately for the Wotan, my carry yesterday was the Benchmade Contego. Now to be fair the Contego blade is made of CPM-M4 hardened to 64 HRC. The 52100 Stainless Wotan is only hardened to 57-58 HRC, it  didn’t have a chance. I used the spine of the Contego to chop down on the spine and cutting edge of the Wotan. This caused damage to the knife, denting the spine and creating divets in the edge.

My personal opinion and rating-

Being what it is, a purpose driven Combat/tactical fixed blade, I really like this knife. I had reservations about the steel, but during the testing I was constantly checking the edge by curling paper and it kept curling paper until the Contego bit it. It is still going into my bag, but it will make a trip to the Sharpener first.

My Rating 1-5 (5 being the highest) = 4.8 Because nothing is perfect and this could only improve by using a higher end steel and better protective coating. 

Recomendation- Since I traded a Case Mid Folding Hunter for this knife, I am not aware of the MSRP of this knife. But, I am extremely happy with that trade. I figure if it MSRPs around $150.00 get it.

More Reviews as the interesting knives roll in.

11-03-12

I picked a Mantis Vuja De from my local knife dealer.

Specs:

As far as I can tell the measurements from the Mantis website are off by 1/8". But, I am an amateur and possibly measured incorrectly.

My findings:

OAL - 5-7/8"

Closed - 4-3/4"

Blade - MvX (Mantis' Proprietory version of Mv3?) 1-7/8" Measured from handles straight out to farthest point of blade spine.

sharpened edge - 1-7/8"

finger loop - 7/8" ID

Handle - Textured Black G10 over skeletonized stainless liners.

Pocket clip - Stainless "Deep carry" style, Right/Left Tip up carry.

HRC - I plan on sending this for a HRC testing in the future to see the accuracy of the HT.

My first impression is that of course it looks wickedly cool and only $80 to me, which is why I bought it. The flipping action is pretty fun too. The spring loaded latch that flips outward when unlocking is designed to be in position to lock the knife open as the handle has flipped it's full rotation. This takes a little practice to get it to consistently lock up in one motion. Downside is although it can be opened by one-hand, it takes two hands to close it. As you must manipulate the spring loaded latch around to lock into the closed position. The pocket clip is mounted to position the finger loop just above the pocket line for easy withdrawal.

The Vuja De locks up tight in both positions, no blade play was observed. It was paper slicing sharp out of the box and I am going to love this knife come Christmas, because it penetrates & pulls through 200 lb test cardboard like nothing. My daughters get a sh!tload of toys with cardboard packing every year, I may be able to fit all of it into the recycling can for one pick up.

Fit and finish: It is sharp and shiny where it should be and comfortable in the hand in both forward and reverse positions.  The G10 is textured enough that it won't fray your pockets, which is the first thing I checked for.

Overall Opinion is that this knife design is really cool and quite functional.

Would I recommend this knife? At $85, yes if you can afford it. It is well worth the money and you will find it hard "not" to carry.

Now all you Mantis haters can flame on if you want, but I own or have owned many knives from every reputable manufacturer. I have based my review on what I know about knives and their construction. I'm not saying Mantis is a bad manufacturer or hasn't had clarification issues before. I'm saying I like this knife and I won't regret buying it.

Brad