Microtech Socom Elite Conclusive Analysis.

hey guys what's going on so I have a video today on the micro tech SOCOM elite 2018 version so this is the latest version to come out from micro tech both of them I have our clip-point blades my favorite blade shape they make I think they only do two blade shapes the other is a tanto tanto tanto whatever so I like the clip I think it's more versatile for what I use a knife for so getting into it this knife is incredible it really is I mean it's it's not competing with companies like Spyderco it's not competing with benchmade where I put this knife is among the ranks of Strider hinderer chris reeve i think the quality on these is just that good now I think this might be the best beater knife on the face of the earth at this moment that is still in production this knife is if you don't okay if you don't mind using your knives and you I mean if if you don't use this knife this is one of the few knives where that you know the Gen 4 hinderer if you don't use your knives this move you might not get that much out of this I mean this one this example happens to be super smooth perfectly built it's one of the best Gen fours of hand this is a knife where whether you use it or not you will be able to appreciate it it's almost like if ZT went midtech I mean this is an m3 90 blade on ball bearings and it's [ __ ] beefy as hell this is basically if ZT step their game up and stop making [ __ ] I mean I think ZT might may have at one point been my favorite knife company and now it I mean it's below just about everything so get this started with a size comparison here it is it gives the chris reeve i'm noms on and chris reeve Sebenza 21 i can't wait to do a video on this by the way it is against and I'm 18 so it's bigger than all of these Benchmade Spyderco military yeah she guys look at that just one more that compared quite favorably to it and I think they're basically two different companies to take on the same knife so these are this is the protec tr4 incredibly well built knife this thing is insane it's my first pro tech and I have to say this blew me away but if you look at what they're trying to do they're really going for about the same idea just executed a little bit differently so it's a it's a four-inch blade aluminum handled tactical or hard use knife and tactical is one of those words it doesn't really mean anything unless it has a context I mean it it really is sort of meaningless word a tactical knife I mean tactical for what I don't know maybe it's me but these knives are absolutely incredible so you can see there is quite a bit of wear on this blade towards the tip you can see coatings worn off I don't know what this coating is I don't know if it's like a CEREC out it almost feels like how do I explain it almost like bench maids coding a little bit it feels like a more satin version and all I mean by that is it reflects light a little bit more version of micro tax like seracote feels kind of like the emerson coding as well for those of you that have handled Emerson's yeah so big big beefy blade on this you can see so this is basically a PM to stock it is thicker than a PM to buy probably a half a millimeter so this is for no thick at its thickest it's four point five super beauty tip to while still being precise and super useful so another thing that is absolutely amazing about this knife is and i know it's not so much of a misconception these days with people like neuro knives and super steel steve around but this is one of the thinnest behind the edge large folding knives from a production company that I've encountered so this one I actually bought from neuro knives we're in a group chat all of us and threw a bunch of stuff up and I saw this and immediately I wanted it so I'm glad I got this but yeah so this one is super thin behind the edge it's thinner than a PM 2 and for those you that own these new Striders it's a little bit thinner than these behind the edge so and these are really well done to talk about blade stock ground then these new Striders are exceptionally well done so yeah what they do rather than go with a super shallow grind so you can see the quraían height of this knife is far higher than that of the micro tax but they do it at a obviously a shallower angle I mean if they went at the same angle this would be a zero grind at the width that it is but what they do is they go at a super shallow angle and they leave the knife pretty thick behind the edge I mean really there's not too much of a reason for a knife to be thicker than a military behind the edge at least a folder I mean I I just I don't see a benefit to it I think these new steels can take quite a beating and people say s9 t v-- is chippy I encourage those people to go out and use s9 TV I've hit staples and all kinds of things so if this brittle steel can handle it I think just about every knife should be ground at least this then minimum but with another delicate chippy steel on 390 we have an even thinner grind so now that thin grind is really at its thinnest right around here it does thicken up towards the tip and if you're using a fixed angle system let me see if you used one on this I think he free handed this because yeah he definitely free handed this this is actually a really nice consistent dowel he did cuz I don't think you could use a fixed system and get the bevel that even so what ends up happening let me see if I have a knife that I can show you guys so if you look at this Sebenza here this one appears like it was sharpened at a fixed angle system I don't know if it was I just got this from super steel Steve but you can see how down here it's super thin or the bevel says its thinnest and then as you go up towards the tip it thickens up same deal with these SOCOM but this is actually one of the biggest variances between like this thickness down here and up towards the tip that I've seen in quite a while the only companies that really have a big problem with this are ZT and it might just be ZT no love for ZT in this video guys yeah I think it is just CT but yeah if you sharpen this on like a kami at 15 degrees per side it's gonna be super noticeable I think 17 degrees per side is really the way to go with these so comps I think it just cuts exceptionally well I did use this for a lot of work so for a while I was helping helping a buddy renovate a house that he bought that he was gonna flip bamboo overgrowth in the backyard the guys planted bamboo for whatever reason and it just took over the whole backyard I chopped so much [ __ ] bamboo at this knife first off m390 is not chippy if you can chop bamboo with it you're probably gonna be fine day to day and this grind is exceptional so really it what you're left with is a stout beefy tank of a knife that is extremely rigid and it's lock up both up and down and side to side and I'm gonna get into that in a sack but you have such a great functional useful and desirable in my opinion of a grind on this knife and you can really get a lot of cutting bit like you can cut a ton with this knife without exerting a lot of force just because of how then that grind is moving on this knife is super solid and it's locked up it is a titanium liner lock it is on ball bearings but these are ceramic bearings I think neuro knives had a video where he [ __ ] you took some of the bearings maybe you pop one out and tried to break it with a pair of pliers he was unable to do so so I'm gonna say that the bearings in these are pretty tough I guess we'll swap these out kind of like the way yes don't wash blade looks yeah so bearings aren't gonna be popping on you I guess really the only concern I would have is be careful with the amount of tension you put on these pivots the last thing you want to do is put way too much tension and believe me you really have to torque down on these so a good way to know if there's too much tension just grab the blade by the tip and if you feel like bumping you should probably loosen it a little bit so this one I took apart today I tighten it down super [ __ ] tight just to see and I mean I don't think the bearings were turning too much and at one point I tightened the anthem pivot way too much and it actually stopped the bearings from rolling so it were like a nice channel in the titanium but super beefy nonetheless what are these blade stops now I can't quite prove anything in terms of these being stronger than a traditional stop in these are screwed in I believe and they do the job super well micro tech has machined a little area for these to fit into perfectly to spread the force out nice and evenly so good to go in my opinion what else a lot of body screws on this so some some knives get points for you know being super simple if you look at the UM nums on it's a great example it's a blade a pivot a handle and one handle screw so with the SOCOM you're looking at six screws just for the body and a pivot that's a lot of screws definitely make sure that you are at least at some sort of a relatively flat surface before you disassemble this I mean I definitely wouldn't be on the concrete disassembling this knife it's just kind of a disaster waiting to happen [Music] moving on yes we'll talk about ergonomics for a little bit prettier gunawan say that I think it's as organ amma caz a lot of other people say it's very good and let me tell you why i think that is so when you take a knife and let's look at all right why don't we do the protec so you take a knife and you put all kinds of contouring all kinds of finger grooves to tell the hand exactly where to go it feels good when I'm holding it right now it feels really good I could really can't complain about it you know and then I'm thinking about oh well I would cut like this I'd but when it comes down to reality it's the way you think that you cut with your knife and the way you actually hold your knife when you're cutting are two completely different things so what we have with the SOCOM is basically a straight handle a very small little what is that like a Choi almost and then a swell which I mean really choke back on the knife really can't get too mad at that one thing that I wish they did with this I wish they came out with a sort of like a 3d like contoured like a strider CC version of this i think that would be really neat i don't know how they do it I also think an integral version of this would be [ __ ] awesome but again not sure how practical that would be this knife is not a knife or you can just you know take the pivot screw out and pull the blade out the ball bearings actually keep it locked in the handle so kind of a tricky situation right there but virgos are very good these inserts here they they might look cheap and I understand not liking the idea of them however in reality they're not prone to holding onto material like this these have to be new the whole knife looks basically new I know Vinnie has about five of these or narrow knives whatever you know him by so these are worn a little bit never had an issue working in the dirt I took it on the beach so it's very similar to what the Kershaw blur uses for a handle insert it's a little bit more a little bit less tactile and a little bit like harder so it's really not it doesn't feel like a nail file white but it's closer to skateboard tape than it is to what Kershaw uses but it technically falls into the neither category so that's to keep going jumping on this is sort of a non-issue in my use I know I complain a lot about jumping you know like the Hinderer I love the knife but the jimping is and not so good but I think the aluminum is a pretty softly jimp at least this one is Chuck here yeah this one is about the same so not too much of a hot spot I did do a rope cut test with this the m390 coming out of micro attack this one is decent and I had another Stone wash not this one that was extremely extremely well done so I don't know I mean there's variance in everything I was just having a discussion today about variance in Rick hinders heat-treat in his production knives it's something that unfortunately is kind of a non-negotiable I mean it shouldn't be that way however at the production level as it stands right now at the time these are being produced there's a lot of variance in he tree and then 390 happens to be one of those Steel's where you need to nail it perfectly every single time where you will [ __ ] it up you know and that's not just on through 90 20 CV is an analog steel meaning it's basically like a generic I don't know if you guys are familiar with like a pharmacy or anything like that but like this this is some of the best 20 CV m390 I've ever used in my life this this knife right here it is exceptional I think it beats out that's 90 V from me in terms of what I'm steel to do but oh no can't complain it's basically it performs like from what we've seen m390 when it doesn't perform well performs like s30v which is not a bad thing in fact I like s30 but it's just it's one of those things that unfortunately at this time you can't really at this point in time it's a work in progress we'll leave it at that so let's talk about the clip who tipped down only [ __ ] those of you that want to leave because you can't figure out how to carry a knife tip down I'm gonna give you a second to click out of the video because you're not gonna buy the knife all right cool so I was just talking to neuro knives about why they do this so this knife much like the military was designed to go in a combat situation I have never been in combat but a lot of the guys I talk to a lot of my friends have been in combat and they tell me a lot of stuff about it but I was talking to somebody and he said it's probably because so I was explaining to him why people don't like tip down because regular people don't understand stuff like that so if you care about the orientation of your knife to buffer tip down you're for sure a knife guy so welcome aboard thank you thank you for qualifying by joining the debate but he said it's probably just meant to go on like one of the combat vest pockets like you know like a magazine pouch almost I mean they have them again I've never been in combat but if you plucked a knife out of that pouch and it's mounted basically to your chest I mean you're not carrying the knife in your pocket in a combat situation so that's sort of just some clarification that I got from him and that was his best guess why now I get it [ __ ] when it's in your pocket can get in that pivot you know with the pivot exposed to the outside if you're in a dusty dirty grimy environment like you know I don't know like construction zone or combat it might be an issue for me it's not too bad I'm not always in the cleanest environments but I'm also not in the dirtiest so let's talk more about the clip this is one of the best clips I've ever gotten the pleasure of experiencing reminds me a lot of Chris Reeves clip so you can see that secondary retention hump kind of Midway that is so perfect it is so well done it just it blows my mind it really does such a well done clip it retains well it carries super deep carries deeper than most of the knives I own and if you guys don't know tip down knives are best carried in your back pocket that way if you're right-handed like me the blade goes right up against the pocket or the seam of the pocket and there's no chance it's gonna open and it's out of the way so you can throw your phone in there a lot of times these bigger knives will crack your phone I get up against it you know stuff like that and you don't want that happening but this clip is really well done the knife carry is deep in jeans pretty much every up like kind of pants I have also guys say the glass breaker I don't know anything about that I mean I guess the way it's executed it's not hurting anything and yeah probably could break glass I'm not gonna try it unless I need to but yeah probably could break a windshield out let's see yeah I mean not too much left to say I've kind of talked a good chunk of time I mean really if this knife is too big for you and that's the reason why you're holding off from getting it you're in luck you're not out of the water you still have to get the SOCOM mini so what that is it's gonna be a three and a half or three point four inch blade it's gonna be about this size a lot smaller so it's gonna be way more manageable I'm going to be picking one up for sure and reviewing it for you guys Oh action action is good it sounds like a a pistol slide being racked it's awesome you don't need any wrist it just flies out it almost like people think that these are autos and there's so much weight in this blade that it kicks it has a recoil I've never had a knife have a recoil it is one of the most satisfying knives to flick open it's just incredible this one like I said is new so lockup is early has been used and abused and lockup is early so what else is there to say not too much flow through construction kind of just really nice construction overall super beefy pivot great I mean you could pry with this know if you can pry really hard to I actually ripped a bathtub compatible wall using just this knife so it can be done if you're willing to use then I thinking it can handle it so price I think I mentioned this is about 300 bucks use you can find them for about 250 maybe 220 at the lowest it just depends on where you look so trying to think there's anything else I can before I close out I mean really it's it's a knife as soon as you take it out of a box you're like ready to to buy a new like at least I was I've been taking a break from buying guns for you know a couple months now and as soon as I got this I was like I need a sig p320 to match it's just it's an incredible knife it's so well built it kicks open like a mule it's beautiful depending on the weight finish you get you know large dress knife I mean well maybe not a dress a knife but it can do it can it can do both so it can do tactical and it can do pretty also the weight on these it's definitely under 6 ounces I think it's 5.5 which is only an ounce heavier than the CF military right here so for those of you that don't know this is literally 90% carbon fiber with a blade so and a very thin liner yet still quite effective yeah I'm gonna say that if you're looking at other competitive like options if you will I mean these are really your big big - right here I think yeah I mean really this knife is incredible I put it right up there with strider hinderer and crk for sure I think it's the fourth member of the trifecta it's unfortunate that these will be discontinued eventually I'd love it if these were in production for a while but I know it's not the case so definitely jump on it before they discontinued them once these guys are discontinued you'll see them going for four or five hundred bucks on the secondary so definitely get in while you can I'm probably gonna pick up another honestly I know I hate to hog up knives but I used the [ __ ] out of this one and then once I wear through this if I ever do you know I just want to have a backup and it would be nice to have a Tonto or one of the different colors like the brown or the OD so with that I'm gonna conclude the video thank you all so much for watching means a lot to me that you guys actually watch my stuff and you know you subscribe and you hit me up on Instagram and you know it's it's cool interacting with you guys so I appreciate the [ __ ] out of all of you and you guys have a great night and I will see you in the next video

Channel: Sharp Thinking

Views: 10,693

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Id: qa_cv2wGe6A

Length: 31min 41sec (1901 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 10 2019