Wicked Steel

I've had an interest in gravity knives for some time.

I like the pure, simple form in which opening a bale or depressing a button allows the blade to simply fall out of the handle. Usually, releasing the opening mechanism locks the blade out. I'm not a fan, to put it mildly, of those knives that take a powerful wrist snap to flick the blade open. I've seen too many of them skid across the practice floor, followed by an "Oops!"

Wicked Steel   The knives seem to come in two sizes

I just got one from Wicked Steel at a knife show. It's a simple design, point the knife downward, slide the top of the grip open, and the blade falls out. Close the grip, and the blade is locked in place.

It's a bit more complicated, but only slightly.

The blade is D2 steel, not quite stainless, but pretty close. D2 is an air-hardening tool steel developed in 1927. We have a solid grasp on its properties and how to maximize its properties, and D2 is undergoing a rediscovery in the knife industry. By 1934, the formula was refined to include about 1.5% Carbon, 12% Chromium, 0.25% Vanadium, and 0.8% Molybdenum.

Closed knife with silver toggle in locked position

My Wicked Steel knife has a D2 blade is 0.1 inches thick and 2.5 inches long, a straight point with a slight false edge, and a saber flat grind. The knife has very good lock-up for its type. The total open length is 7 inches.

Seperate the top of knife from bottom....

The handle is anodized aluminum with black G-10 friction inserts on both sides. Maybe the noticeable thing is the bright silver lever which locks the mechanism both in the open and closed positions. The reverse side sports a low-profile, polished steel clip. As with most folding knives, the handle length controls the blade length.

Let the knife blade fall out...

 

In use, it's pretty simple.

A: Point the knife downward,

B: Pull the lock switch back,

C: Hold the top half of the handle against your fingers and let the heavier bottom separate,

D: Let the blade drop out.

E: Return the handle to its closed position and push the lock closed.

Close and lock the knife.

Closing the knife is pretty simple, too. Point the knife upward and repeat steps B, C, D, and E.

The steel slides against anodized aluminum, so I'd lube it with a little graphite or dry moly disulfide. You want the slide to stay as clean as possible. This is a shortcoming of all knives that have the blade contained within the handle. The blade sliding closed brings crud in and traps it along the slide path. Keeping it clean keeps the knife working, and a dry lubricant helps that.

I like the fact the knife works without springs or sophisticated mechanism. It is the kind of knife I'd pack in a 'get-out-of-Dodge' pack. I also like the way it opens. It's not flashy, not visible, but a simple, practiced move that opens and locks the knife with very little movement on your part. I like the expression that contact weapons were meant to be felt, not seen.

The clip on the reverse side 

As of now, the company doesn't have a social media presence. Their card doesn't have a phone number or address. The owner muttered to me something like, "It's coming up to fishin' season and I ain't puttin' 'em in storage."

If you want one, you'd better buy it as soon as you see it.

Two to Show

As luck would have it, I had a chance to pick up two new knives. 

The first is the OSS Dagger by WE K’nife.  I've always been interested in the small ‘James Bond secret agent’ knives.   I have heard about a replicate kit of special knives made for the OSS, but I have never seen one.  Perhaps it is just urban legend.  In any case, a small concealable dagger would be part of that kit.

Whenever I think of the OSS, I remember "You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger" by Roger Hall

The WE OSS dagger is a tribute to those days.  The knife is made from CPM 20CV steel.  CPM20CV is considered one of the super steels with amazing edge retention.  The formula is 1.9% carbon, 20% chromium, 4% vanadium, 1% molybdenum, and 0.6% tungsten.  But this only tells part of the story.  Heat treatment and edge geometry can make or break any steel.  In this case, vanadium and chromium help create fine-grain carbides and allow for sufficient chromium for stain resistance.  The downside is that 20CV can be extremely challenging to properly sharpen.

A lot of bulky Kydex for a secret concealed tool

The OSS Dagger has a flat back, making the knife less than 1/8 inch thick.  This allows the knife to sit snuggly in tight places.  The two-inch blade is sharpened on both sides, as fitting a dagger.  The flat grind slopes upward to a groove in the knife's spine.  The edges flow to a thin, sharp point. 

Face it, it's a weapon

A depression for the thumb has ridges of G10 to improve grip.  There isn’t a guard on this knife.  I have to remind myself this is a soft target weapon.  The handle has a lanyard hole, and if it is in use, I'd suggest a short lanyard.  The cord, or leather ribbon, can then be threaded between your fingers for additional grip.  A flexible cord could aid you in drawing the knife, depending on your hiding place.

The OSS Dagger comes with a Kydex sheath.  The sheath has a very nice spring-loaded clip to secure your weapon.  It is removable, and WE provides a ball chain to convert it to a neck knife.  You could also sew the sheath in to a pocket or jacket sleeve.  The knife weighs less than ¾ of an ounce.  The sheath, unfortunately, weighs more.

Let's stop kidding each other.  This isn't wartime.  This knife isn’t being issued to people dropping behind enemy lines.  It’s just a paean to one specific tool used by the OSS during WWII.

But I’d find some thinner Kydex and make a smaller, lighter sheath if I needed this last-resort weapon.

Olight is best known for their flash and weapon lights.  They are a relatively new company, founded in China in 2007.  They are not without their fans and critics, with some justification.  In November 2017, a man was killed by an Olight flashlight that exploded due to improper use after placing it in his mouth.  Late in March 2022, Olight recalled 215,000 flashlights because of a defect that caused the lights to accidentally turn on and sometimes burn the owners.

Not my first zombie knife
https://knifesearch.blogspot.com/2023/12/zombies.html 

Despite this, I snatched up one of their Nettle 2 Zombie knives.  The blood-splattered (really, just red coloration) green handle speaks to me.

The 2.8-inch blackened blade is a high-shoulder flat grind.  It is fashioned from  154CM  steel.  Crucible Industries 154CM is a modification of 440C, a martensitic-type stainless steel to which molybdenum has been added to improve its physical properties.  However, this is not the powder metal form. 

The challenge coin was a suprise!

The handle is an aluminum alloy, which lets the knife weigh in at 2.5 ounces.  The handle is set up with a reversible clip and comes out of the box, right-hand tip-up, my favorite way of carrying a knife.

The knife has a button lock, which allows two ways of opening the knife, actually three.  The first is the blade flipper, which rotates to become part of a finger guard when the blade locks open.  The second is using the lock button and allowing gravity to open the blade.  You can also flick your wrist if you want that tactical click.  The last way is using the tiny opening depression in the blade to pinch the blade open.  That’s the polite society way; it doesn't alarm anyone.  Ask me how I discovered the need to open a knife this way, and I'll tell you about a pizza party at work.

Mettle 2 Zombie

 

I don't think I'll be carrying either knife.  Both knives will become part of my collection.