Lightning OTF - Is This Knife Still Worth Buying?

what's going on YouTube metal complex here and today we're gonna be talking about a knife that I have already talked about once on this channel this is the lightning OTF or out the front automatic switchblade most of you watching this video will be very familiar with this knife if you are not familiar with this knife this is a budget OTF dual action they run about thirty to thirty-five dollars on grind works and other places you can get lots of different blade shapes lots of different blade finishes and just any color you could imagine and they also offer print I've seen like flames and skulls and whatever there is a flavor out there for just about anybody and this knife has become ridiculously popular over time and has a cult following and you know just for people who like to collect them and and you know here recently I've got this example and many others many other examples of this knife actually proving me wrong you know I'm approving my words from my last video wrong so I wanted to address this I wanted to do a video on this and I wanted to give this knife up fair you know review as far as how my current setup is back then I was just kind of whatever I think I did it on my coffee table so I want to give this a fair review and give my current thoughts on it if you want to go watch the old video you can I waved these off as novelty toys and that there was nothing special about a an automatic blade being deployed out of the front of the knife and you know I was saying the same stuff but I always do that that like knives that flip you know deploy just as fast and whatever it's you know I was saying there's nothing special about that it's if you buy these is just it's just for the cool factor it's just all you know look the blade deploys automatically and I kind of didn't do the justice that this not deserved you know I didn't I didn't give this knife the justice that it deserves and I wanted to talk about it again because that that video has 12,000 views and all those people are getting my old opinion on this so this is my brothers I got my brother and my sister each of these each one of these knives three years ago for Christmas and both of them still use and carry these I got my dad one two years ago and the one that I showed on the channel was my buddy Casey's he bought the knife off my recommendation he said he wanted a good cheap OTF and which is that was still my opinion at the time that this is a good cheap OTO and he's had that thing for like four or five years now and it's just been beaten to the ground my brother uses this knife every single day for a whole bunch of stuff in fact it definitely needs a new edge so these have impressed me way beyond the point that I thought they would when I did that first video so we're gonna talk about all that let's go ahead and get a measurement on this guy from tip to the back of the scale here we're looking at 8 inches on the blade length we're looking at three and a half cutting edge we're looking at honestly about three and a quarter there's a pretty large sharpening toil up front you can see there that's what's causing that to come back and then you can see the end of the scale here if we measure up there by that tip you're probably looking at again three point three inches something like that closer to the blade length sorry about the lighting here this is a bizarre setup that I've got I've got to tilt my my table a little bit because the red on this knife wants to turn orange and yellow and so I have to kind of dim the lights to get the right color but still have the definition so you guys aren't looking at a blurry image or as a sharp image in a sharpened image as possible up against the Ontario rat one you can see their rat one coming in at eight point six inches overall up against the p.m. 2:00 p.m. - coming in at eight point three inches overall up against the hinder X M 18 X M 18 coming in at eight point two five inches overall so we're close to X M 18 sighs how about the benchmade group two leaner in this case the Ritter hog eight inches overall exactly so you're looking at the exact same length as a bench made group Tilian on this knife which makes it a really good size in my opinion how about up against the Spyderco Delica Spyderco delica coming in at seven inches so bigger than the Spyderco delicate let's go ahead and weigh it give you an example the action here since it's a dual action knife that's kind of that works there 3.92 ounces just under four ounces how about the other side 3.88 so three point nine ounces basically is what we're looking at hey by the way you guys see my old logo there on my scale which will probably remain the same but you've probably noticed my channel logo has changed a little bit a really good buddy of mine on the Instagram if you don't follow me on Instagram you can go follow me on Instagram and I posted and gave him a shout-out he designed me a new channel logo and he put a lot of work into it and added some like cool little things if you go look at it right now the word says MC the black is actually this texture that you're seeing in the background he found a way to add that in and there's two versions of it there's just that havin to see and then there's one that actually says metal complex where he made the T the sword which what I thought was really cool but he just kind of added his own touch in there and he there are some in the the sheen of the sword there's some pocket knives that he has kind of symmetrically added on either side of the sort it's really cool really detailed so I just really I wanted to say thank you again for him doing that and that will remain my permanent channel logo anyways back to the Lightning so as I said I have four examples of these things now being used pre you know my dad brother and Casey all use them pretty hard I think my sister just keeps hers in her purse which is fine and she uses it here and there but the one in front of you definitely gets used every single day and does not have somehow he managed to get dirt on the blade in the shape of a capital R that's funny but yeah the blade has been really beat on definitely and the thing is I asked him I said has it ever misfired he said no never misfired no the screws have ever come undone this is about three years now he keeps it in his pocket and this one has way less pain coming off the outside than some of the other ones I've seen but he said yeah you know I put it in my pocket and really the only thing that ever comes in contact with anything is just a blade so hiss is in pretty good shape but he definitely uses it now you know you're you're kind of kings of this territory of the OTF right now is Microtech now they're being challenged a little bit by benchmade and hug and I think heretic knives is actually part of micro days it's the Tony Mar Fiona's or Murphy own son I don't know but there are more automatics out there kind of challenging the the King Microtech for the u.s. mate or the hyper premium versions now with this type of knife absolutely comes you know just the desire to have a pocket knife that deploys this way you know these used to be totally tab basically if you carried one of these doesn't it didn't matter where you live if you carried it switchblade like this you were definitely a bad guy you were a criminal now here in Kansas in the last five years or so they've changed laws and you can carry whatever you want as is the case with a lot of states in the United States a lot of us are able to legally carry these automatic knives there are still places where you cannot carry these knives so this this video is pointless you know to unfortunately to people who can't carry them I think that's silly I don't I I think that is a product of people being just afraid of things like this and not understanding them I don't I don't think there are too many people who are you know setting out to do harm you know or that there's a there's any distinct correlation between people like that and knives like this to me I see I see a tool with a different means of deployment than say the Spyderco delica it is a the Spyderco della is simply delica is simply a more manual tool and the lightening OTF is a more automatic tool that's the way that it is but we also are not going to be able to stop people from seeing weapons when they see still I mean some people are just always going to see a weapon that's just that's how it is anyways that aside hopefully that changes over time but that aside there is a draw to these and not everybody can afford you know in my opinion the best you know the best us automatic knife that's that's kind of reasonably priced is probably the micro tech Ultratech those still run I want to say 225 to 240 dollars and that's still way too much money for a lot of people so a lot of people turn to budget OTF now there's a lot of them out there under especially they under $100 point there's a ton of them 99% of them are absolute crap but the most resilient of this group seems to be the lightning and it's been that way for a very long time now as I stated in my previous video or what I said in my previous video was they're still not made as well as your us micro tax which is true and the part was wrong though is that they were my said they were mostly novelty and that there were you know eventually they they would break even even being as as tough as they were you know and actually I kind of I gave credit today I said these things I think my exact words were I gotta hand it to this little guy it really seems to be standing up to everything that's being thrown at it but the mistake that I made or the thing that I want to correct is saying that they're absolutely novelty my brother and all of his co-workers apparently they all use this knife he will leave it in his desk when he's not there and the other guys will use it when he is there he use it and they all love it they use it all the time I think this is 440c steel that's what people are telling me told me in the comments section is the other one so it's got a decent regular stainless steel nothing special about it the handle scales are aluminum it's got a decent pocket clip you know and it fires the same way that any dual action automatic knife fires what my brother and everybody else has told me is it's it's cool but after a while the cool factor kind of wears off and it just becomes a tool you know he said it's nice to just pull out of my pocket and push that button pull it back and you know when you're done with it and go I have said Malta times in my videos the best type of pocketknife and actually I I stole this line from Nicks bass because I agree with them the best type of pocketknife is one that you can keep in your pocket and not worry about at all it is absolutely 100% a tool and when you go to reach for that tool you barely even have to think about it you know as little brainpower as you as you can apply to that tool to get it to you know the blade to deploy so that you can use it and then use it and put it away that's an optimal tool because your brain is still focused on the task at hand and not whether or not you're gonna put a scratch in your beautiful pocketknife you know whether or not you're gonna be able to get it to deploy completely while your other hand is busy blah blah blah I was totally wrong about this being novelty this is extremely convenient and extremely utilitarian and given the fact that this is about a $35 knife and it's still going after three years of being used probably for a bunch of stuff I mean look taking a look at the blade here I'm guessing he uses it for stuff that it's not supposed to be used for and probably he's cut into staples and things like that these things are amazingly tough and I mean I get that you know they've got it they've got to open a big package or get a bunch of zip ties undone he pulls it out they use it or whatever he puts a bit you put it back in your pocket you don't have to worry about what's a good example you know blade you know whippin it whippin it down I don't know if the pm-2 is gonna do it there you go oh I whipped it too hard now I gotta push it back into place I mean that's not that big of a deal but you know if you're trying to you're busy at work you're trying to do something and you're having to mess around with your knife to get the blade back in properly and then you gotta put it you know after that you gotta put about your party this just seems so simple I mean there's one movement to deploy it one movement to detract or retract it and then you just put it back in your pocket I know I'm not gonna get you crazy in depth with this video the handle scales are made well this is clearly meant to represent and/or be very close to the mikrotik scarab which is a fantastic well made us switchblade they're very expensive they're over $500 close to 600 now I think which that's a whole different story about whether or not they're they're worth it there but if you want an OTF and you've got like 50 bucks or less to spend this is the one this is the only one that I would recommend and I honestly think it's a great knife I don't know that it'll last a lifetime maybe it'll last you 10 years you know but geez an automatic knife you pay 35 bucks for if you if you just kind of take care of it and it lasts yeah I'd say anywhere between five and ten years boy I'd say you definitely got your money's worth out of it absolutely the the handle skills you know allow for a plenty good ergonomic shape I mean it's not the most ergonomic thing in the world it's kind of a brick but everything's rounded off there's no hot spots the pocket clips in a pretty good position you've got kind of an area where you can you know brace your thumb back here on the switch so there's a little bit of a bracing point there if you got a hammer grip it you're in a good spot there no problem there's blade-play but there's always blade play on automatic knives other than the I think it's is it the deadlock or what's that like thousand-dollar automatic or $1500 automatic I don't know Jim Skelton has a video on it I think makes you Boz does too that one doesn't have blade plate this one yeah it does but has it affected this knife or any of the other light neo tf's that I have access to currently no not at all it hasn't it hasn't changed anything they all of my friends and family who have these and have been using them have been able to continue to use them without any issues my sister's had something that got lodged in she couldn't figure out why I wouldn't deploy there was a chunk of something that was rolling around in the bottom of her purse that got stuck underneath the scale in the switch mechanism and I was like oh you know dannion you know maybe it's broken well I took all these screws off and pulled the plate off and then found the little peel I think was a little pebble and just pulled it out and it was totally fine it was absolutely 100% totally fine sorry I got a crack my door back open a little bit pressure in the house is causing it to want to close but anyways all of these knives have been great they're easy to disassemble I would recommend not disassembling them because in the inside that rail system in the spring is kind of it can kind of be a mess but they do go back together and the best way to maintain these if you're wondering you can see those two holes back here spray it out with REM oil that's what mikrotik uses at the factory just give it a I wouldn't say you know don't drown it in REM oil but any access will come out of the bottom here but that'll keep all the parts lubricated it'll keep a little leave a little bit of Teflon behind which is actually good for all those parts on the inside and it should last for a really long time you know just take care of it but honestly I think this knife is an excellent sorry about that people always text me during reviews but I think this is an excellent knife it's I'm absolutely going to put it on my most recommended knives playlist if you have not had a chance to handle one of these or not had a chance to own one and you kind of you like going through you know all of the most recommended budget knives that people you know say hey this is a good knife yes 100% picked this knife up I've got too many examples of this thing just being an absolute tank you know it's not the prettiest thing in the world it's not gonna have perfect fit and finish the blades not made out of anything special but man if you want a reliable OTF that's got a good slate shape just a plain drop-point blade with an upper swedge three and a half inches weighs under four ounces carries easily isn't too thick see the thickness here compared to the PM - just a little bit thicker than the PM - how about the XM 18 same thickness as an XM 18 X MIT might be a little bit thicker I don't have a problem carrying the XM 18 and that one weighs two ounces more than this one two and a half ounces give the Lightning OTF a shot these are awesome and I now apparently I need to get one again for myself I have one and then sold it because I just thought NASA great but I was wrong these are these are really really great and I think they're I think they're truly excellent knives so anyways guys that's gonna be pretty much it for today's video if you enjoyed this video please leave a like if you'd like to check out my other content I do of course have lots of videos of knives that are either expensive or inexpensive that I do or don't like so please check those out and if you enjoy all my content then please subscribe to my channel because there is definitely more coming thanks again for watching everybody and have a great day

Channel: Metal Complex

Views: 34,973

Rating: 4.7563453 out of 5

Keywords: Lightning OTF, Switchblade, Automatic knife, lightning switchblade, china switchblade, china otf, chinese otf, lightning knife, edc, edc knife, best otf, best knife, Microtech, Scarab, Scarab OTF, How to, Tutorial, Overview, knockoff, metal, steel, blade, usa switchblade, lightning otf dagger, lightning otf tanto, budget otf, best otf under 100, Leatherman surge, lightning otf, boker kalashnikov, spyderco manix 2, zt 0562, lightning otf knife, benchmade 940-2

Id: WaZ97b7jqcc

Length: 18min 12sec (1092 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2019