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Deadlock otf11/6/2022 ![]() ![]() I have touched it up on a strop, but only twice since August. It cut through wood, paper, cardboard, cheese, apples, bread, and all sorts of other stuff with ease. In the Marksman, I have nothing to complain about with this steel. Given the assist function and the size of the knife, I wouldn’t be inclined to pop this open at Target, but it’s not so big that you feel like you’ll lose your pants.Ī word about 154CM: it’s still a very competent steel. The simple profile and hollow grind are very nice and the size, while bigger than my preference, is still manageable. Finally, and most importantly (because this is, after all a knife, and not just a knife shaped yo-yo), the blade is great. It also happens to be both cheaper than titanium and lighter than both titanium and steel–an excellent choice on Buck’s part. Aluminum (standard aircraft grade aluminum) is probably too soft for a lock face, such as in a framelock, but here, as just a base for the strap itself, it works fine. ![]() The aluminum handles are perfect in this role. Either way the interaction between the lock and the flipper is mesmerizing. I am not sure the user adjustable feature was design as that or as a way to tweak the knife post-assembly. The locking system requires very precise cuts in the rear tang of the knife, and all of the cuts have to align perfectly when all of the pieces are together. As a blueprint, this knife is quite complex. From just about every other perspective, this thing is downright avante garde, especially compared to the boring…er…traditional Buck line up. Designįrom the perspective of the blade shape this is a very conservative design. When I got home I continued to mix the Marksman into my testing regime. It was quite good in those roles, though being an August vacation, I was wearing shorts a lot and a knife of this footprint isn’t great in shorts, especially if, like me, you prefer smaller and lighter blades. Deadlock otf full#The Marksman was my annual vacation knife purchase so it got a full week of exclusive use outdoors hiking, doing food prep, and hanging out around the ocean. Once dialed in, I found that the lock remained secure and in place over months of carry and use. The lock is user-adjustable, one of only two production knives that I know of that offer the feature (the other is a Viper knife called the Technocut Free). The blade is a hollow ground drop point design similar to, but larger than, the one found on the underrated Buck Vantage series.īecause of the handle material, the entire knife is quite light for the size, hitting four ounces on the nose. The knife deploys with either a thumb hole or a flipper. It has an aluminum handle with a deep carry, over the top pocket clip. Their 420HC that has undergone the Bos heat treat performs very well, more like AUS-8 or even VG-10 than other 420HC steels, such as those from Kershaw or Leatherman. The 154CM has Buck’s very excellent Bos heat treat, which, in my experience, makes steels punch well above their chemistry. The Buck Marksman is a midsize folding knife with a 3.5 inch blade made of 154CM. The question is whether this feature makes the knife a gimmick or just a slick part of a very good knife. Such a blade could come only from the mind of the Hawks. This is an assisted opening and closing knife. Here, the lock is not only super strong and super secure, but it is also used to propel the blade open and to propel it closed. The strap-style lock has been done in other ways, first by Pat Crawford, then scaled up to production levels by AG Ru ssell (with Crawford’s blessing) and more recently by Andrew Demko with his AD-15, but the Hawk take on it is completely different. The Marksman is their first collaboration with Buck, and boy is it a crazy knife. In the past they have done collaborations with ZT, Kershaw and Christ Reeve (the Ti Lock is slowly moving up my list of knives I need to review). ![]() They are really the closest we have to an Edison. ![]() From the MUDD (a knife with a sealed pivot) to the new Deadlock OTF Switchblade (with zero blade play, an OTF first), the creativity the father and son team have displayed is unmatched in the knife world. The number of unique designs and innovations that pour out of the Hawk’s design studio and workshop in Idaho is staggering. If Thomas Edison made knives, he’d be Grant and Gavin Hawk. ![]()
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