Microtech Socom Elite: Rambling Review

what's up guys trying not to say right after I say that somebody pointed out that I go what's up guys in every single video uh it's one of those useless words that we were Erica that we were taught not to say I actually had a class that hit on this in college I forget what class it was anyway they tell you not to use useless words like and okay and you know it's very very hard not to do if you're accustomed to doing it so I'm trying to break myself of that so if you hear a long pause it's because I'm trying to figure out what to say next without saying um so somebody wanted me to do a SOCOM elite review as you can see I love these knives they are not just micro tech folding knives and that's it I mean they're not popular in my eyes just because they're micro tech and they look tactical and in all that crap these knives are extremely high performance extremely high performance emphasis on extreme people think that well I guess you could think that these are just self-defense blades they have a lot of good characteristics for self-defense or tactical use I guess that's not really me I don't carry a knife for self defense at all probably would not even use it as a last-ditch effort if my gun can't defend me then I'm probably going to D a the area and try and get out of the danger zone probably not gonna pull a knife or try and like fight some dude with a knife in my hand that's a good way to get yourself hurt and put everybody around you in danger in my eyes unless you're trained to do it I probably wouldn't do it but if you want to carry knives for self-defense that's your prerogative I hope it works out for you if you ever have to use it so I don't do it these are purely utilitarian to just used to cut things and be a good EDC blade which it does extremely well I have two generations of this sitting here these are all 2011 and this is a 2012 we need to go over the differences and those first first I want to show you the three different variations that it comes in you have coated blade so you have this coating very similar to seracote and feel it is a little bit tougher than seracote in my experience just comparing it to something like an emerson coating which is in fact seracote it's it's just a tad bit tougher next you have their satin finish which is satin flat up here and then satin ground lines on the primary bevel very very adept adept very prone to getting fingerprints as you can see but it's still beautiful I mean that's a very beautiful blade all three of the black ones are 20 CV as well which is an amazing steel in this knife it's an amazing steal this steel and this blade geometry has outperformed everything else I've ever tested including an RJ Martin in s110v this is the stonewashed version which you still have the satin flats it is Stone wash but the satin shines through more than stone washed then you have on the primary grind you have stonewash finish which doesn't take fingerprints or anything like that this is my user1 just because it's the first one I got and the first I want to put on my pocket now the 2012 I have is black coat as well so there's nothing to show there the grip tape insert models come with standard Torx screws like you see they're just standard Torx construction the carbon fiber inlay versions come with micro Tech's proprietary screws don't know why that is guess there's just something different he want you to stay out of the I guess I don't know but there are some differences in the 2011 versus 2012 models and I'll show you now first and foremost you have a thinner lock bar on the newer model not very noticeable but it is there I mean it's probably half a mil thinner in addition to the thinner lock bar you have lower weight this is a quarter of an ounce lighter than the 2011 model could be a combination of the smaller lock bar the thinner lock bar and the carbon fiber inserts I'm sure they weigh a little bit less in the grip tape that's probably all that constitutes that different difference in weight the glass breaker is just a little bit different the glass breaker on the 2011 model is more pointy sticks out a little bit further the glass breaker on the 2012 is more squat and closer to the handle something I have noticed on four of the three of the four 2011 models I own the glass breaker rattle and made noise on three out of three 2012 models I handled my own the glass breaker is stationary so it doesn't rattle it doesn't make noise nothing like that so that's an improvement in my eyes what are the largest improvements that they've made is the 2011 model did not even have washers in the pivot you can't see through there you're just gonna have to take my word for it there are no washers and the 2011 model that I know of you can just see a little step out on the aluminum where the washers would be but it is part of the scales and then the blade just rides directly on on the aluminum there's nothing wrong with this this is smoother than a lot of knives that I've owned I mean it's in readily smooth to have no washers there could be a tiny tiny thin washer in there but you can't see it just because the blade mates up to the aluminum so closely there's a good shot of it right there you can see that the blade is budding right up against the aluminum there's really no gap for a washer there so there could be a super thin little washer in there but I don't know I haven't taken the 2011 models apart the newer version the 2012 has a thrust bearing system in it so you see the gap in there that is the thrust bearings very similar to kvt KBT isn't a new technology Kershaw just took a page out of [ __ ] Facebook and named it something fancy this technology isn't new at all Brad Sotherton for me of that so just the same old thrust bearing system that has been used for a while in addition to that new bearing system the detent got boost so the 2011 s all had week to tense every single one of them week to 10th week to 10th this one's a little bit stiffer so 2012 you can hear hear that click now when you overcome the detent the blade just flies out I mean it Rockets out of there so the detent plus the bearings makes for a nice that opens extremely quickly there's not many autos that are faster than this and I'm not putting much pressure if you really want to get on it you can sling it out incredibly fast so the new detent plus the bearings are a huge improvement in my eyes although the 2011 version is not bad at all I mean I have three of them I do wish that you could get 20 CV in this blade or this indle style I do much prefer the colored aluminum with the carbon-fiber inserts over black on black with grip tape it is just much more attractive in this package than that although I can deal with it aesthetics aren't really super super high on my priority list but it does matter to everybody it matters pretty much it for the differences in the generations now I'm just going to jump straight to the review of the knife if you carry knives to cut and that's pretty much it you don't care about prime car doors open or spine whacking or anything like that which this would probably take it you're gonna love the SOCOM melee it is ground thinner than just about every other knife that I've only saved for the benchmade onslaught this is point zero two inches at the edge which is about half a millimeter so it is ground extremely thin at the edge so much so that it cuts better than just about everything that I own except for Kylie's wand AutoFix blade that I got CKC knives this knife all of them will cut better than anything you've owned previously I would imagine if you've owned just run-of-the-mill spotter codes and bench maids and Kershaw's this will outperform those knives almost guaranteed depending on the knife that you have I was honestly really really surprised with how well these things cut just because it has a 5 mil thick blade but they the flat grind tapers down to an extremely thin cuts well that's the gist of what I'm trying to say if your push cutting paracord I mean it goes right through a slicing rope which is something really hard to get through this knife has no problem cardboard zips right through it if you carry a knife to cut well this thing will do that extremely extremely well I would honestly say get one of these and try it just for the cutting performance even if you don't like the knife get it try it out and sell it they honestly hold their value extremely well so if you end up not liking the knife sell it but you do need to experience how well these things cut for how thick the blade is I mean it's it's pretty amazing the the geometry that he was able to get on these knives despite the thick sticks bond the knife is light this is for four and a quarter ounces these are four and a half that's really really like for how big this knife is you have a four inch blade I think I can't remember the exact specs but I'm gonna call this a four inch blade with a pretty generous handle and it's honestly a big knife compared to Spyderco military they are not too far off in size if you line up the handles back here not too far off given the Spyderco is light as well but thanks to the aluminum and pretty much the aluminum handles this thing is extremely light for the size it's built really really well the fit and finish is great despite what you may hear about Microtech when people talk about micro text quality a lot of them are parroting what they hear on the forums I really strongly urge you to get some micro techs yourself and then try them out because I live close to one of the largest micro tech selections in the United States and I've held almost every one of them that they carry and they're all built extremely well I've never had one with a funky grind or a lock that was had lock rock or anything like that they are more consistent than Benchmade Spyderco and Kershaw combined that's just my opinion but I've handled over a hundred of micro Tech's just in the past couple months over 100 new ones keep in mind they constantly buy and sell these knives so they get more in constantly every single one of them have been spot-on and really consistent and they're fit and finish Microtech may not have the best customer service but they're fit and finish is great there's really no denying that there may be one or two that slips out with some grind lawns here there but they never send out a non-functioning knife or a knife that's just unacceptable in my eyes sure I'm sure they've sent out knives it didn't work maybe you've heard your cousin's best friend's brother got a Troodon or something that didn't fire but on the whole their QC is what everybody else should be and that's just my opinion but I've handled more microtext than you have I promise you safer maybe somebody that sells them for a living and their quality control is spot-on Bayer phoning might not be the most popular guy for the moves he made with a triple 7 but if you look at the knives themselves they're great moving away from the philosophy of it all the lock bar it is a liner lock although it's pretty much a stick as a frame lock it is steel so it's not titanium it's not gonna wear any appreciable amount over the lifetime of the knife this one I flicked I would conservatively guess five thousand times and the lock has not moved from the spot but it came to me stock so they are very long wearing knives the lock bar is actually replaceable in this knife you can see under the clip huh something new I just noticed on the 2012 you could see the lock bar on the 2011 on the 2012 it's gone so they've hidden the lock bar that's another another update on the 2011 s or the 2012 2011 s are held in by us crew and actually index into the scale 2012 the lock bar is I don't know what it's held in by something internal still functions the same way the lock bar is a separate piece from the scales it's just a piece of steel that has no cut out so it's full thickness all the way down to where it hinges and the spring tension is provided via a coil spring down in the handle you're not going to be able to see it because I don't have a flashlight in handy well yeah a lot do you see if we can see the spring down in there yeah you could see it so there is the coil spring some people have taken issue with this setup say that a spring is going to be less reliable if it wasn't a coil spring I would probably agree with that statement but you have to think oil Springs have been used in firearms for hundreds of years and there are firearms that were made a hundred years ago with coil springs that still function I would have to imagine that our metallurgy is better than it was a hundred years ago and if they could make coil springs that last a hundred years I'm sure that mare phony use high quality Springs it will last even longer than that the the coil springs and firearms usually take much more abuse than this knife will ever take forget so I really would err on the side of never worrying about the coil spring I would worry about you sharpening the blade away before the coil spring spring broke and I've actually never heard of an instance where that spring broke so pretty much safe to say that it it won't break for a long long long time there's really not much to say about this knife I don't want to run off specs it's just a great great EDC knife that performs exceptionally well if you use paramilitary twos and militaries and think they slice well well they do slice well but it's nothing compared to this knife I know that's a shock to some people they see these full flat grind and they think well that's going to slice way better than this just based on the grind but it's actually not that way this is like point eight millimeters behind the edge and this is 0.5 and that is enough of a difference to tell when you're cutting trust me it makes a big difference the taper of this grind is just excellent and it cuts very very well so if you want to carry a knife that cuts good cuts well get this thing it is tip down only right hand carry sorry for you south pause but that's the way it is just due to the design of the knife I don't think you could ever do tip up but maybe you could drill and tap it for left hand probably a lot of work though more than it's worth just a good good knife all-around good knife it is spendy late $270 on the internet but it's worth it I mean it's something that that you can carry for a lifetime and and used for a long long long time something I didn't touch on is the steel choice the 2012 models right now are being made with s35vn they do the best s35vn that I've ever used and I've used a bunch of companies just due to the debacle I had with it before this s35vn cuts better than a lot of other manufacturers higher-end steels like zdp and m4 they're s35vn outlasts a lot of those knives go check my cut test I'll probably put it in the description the 20 CV does perform a little bit better a much better actually on the long term but they don't make these anymore and they're commanding a premium now so do not feel undergunned with the s35vn because they do it better than anybody else I know of right now save for probably some custom makers I'm talking about production they do it really well I'm gonna go ahead and say that their grind these blade shapes and blade geometry would probably make any steel perform really well I'm sure HC r-13 mov in this platform would probably outlast a lot of higher-end stills when you put s35vn in this shape it just lasts for a for a long long long time if you go watch my cut test you'll be surprised at how long it keeps a fine edge I imagine anyway I've rambled about this for a long time now one of my longest videos sorry for that but for the person that wanted the SOCOM elite review I hope this was good enough I don't do the same kind of reviews that that most people do maybe they're useful hopefully anyway thanks for watching guys and I'll see you next time

Channel: Jdavis882 - Knife Sharpening and Reviews

Views: 15,899

Keywords: microtech, socom, elite, 20cv, S35vn, steel, jdavis882, knife, knives, blade, bearings, thrust, KVT, flipper, aluminum, titanium, liner, lock, glass, breaker

Id: fCsKGafNc00

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Sat May 26 2012