After my Schrade review yesterday, some viewers might be concerned that there’s something
wrong.
Well I’m here to say if you think that’s what rock bottom looks like- you might have
never heard the name Okapi!
The knife maker from the same country that brought us world renowned spelunker and submarine
expert Elon musk.
When I did my traditional international knife video a while back, a few of you were thought
I had overlooked Okapis cheap ring folders- is that what they’re called?
I’m here to reassure you I didn’t.
But before we go any further let’s take a look at the dimensions of these two more
popular and large in the Okapi cheap street gang murder weapon category.
Like the overall length and weight.
The one with the plastic handle was $8.63 shipped and known as the Big Sable Wood Handle.
Blade size and cutting edge.
Big Sable Wood Handle is South African for plastic.
Handle Size and grip area.
The other one is the wood handle keyring straight lock wood handle, and the handle is real non
plastic wood.
Spine thickness and handle thickness.
Ok maybe the first one was a bad eBay description.
Tallness.
Much like the Douk Douk and the Mercator, the Okapi knives has a nefarious reputation
known my anyone who reads the wikipedia description, as being associated with street gangs, hoodlums,
Rude boys, youtube knife dudes, probably the Russian mafia, cats that look at you before
knocking things off the table, and junk drawers.
The most popular of them being the ratchet one with the ring, and the other one here
because I don’t have a lot of self control and we’re all on an adventure together so
let’s hold hands.
The classic ring knife here or ratchet knife features a let’s say clip point blade with
a wavy grind, the kind of grind that in some places looks kinda flat and some places looks
hollow.
To be fair if I made a knife it would probably have that grind.
The plastic handled one also has a similar blade style but not quite as big of a clip
area.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say both have the same blade shape, and the clipped
area is a standard production variation- or a black eye as Chris Reeve calls it.
The blade is purported to be a carbon steel, and it’s thin blade stock and nearly flat
grind should make it easy to sharpen.
Remember keep the bland lightly oiled if you don’t want to to rust from the blood of
your enemies.
Which is really you when accidentally cutting yourself.
Deployment.
Let’s assume deployment on both under normal circumstances is two handed.
Hold the handle with one handed and boringly pull the blade with the other, then yawn.
The thumb knick is a familiar addition, but the blade is large enough that it’s mostly
a thumbknick for visual flair because you can easily pull the blade out.
Alright let’s put the plastic one aside for now.
And play dress up tactical movie star guy and flick the ring knife.
The ring is there for a few things, one to add to a keyring for a bathroom in a gas station.
Two to twirl it around on your finger, so no one talks to you at office parties, and
three to keep it in your hand when you fling it downward and pretend your in a street gang.
For motivation there’s one of your dealers in front of you who gets high on their own
supply.
This isn’t hard to do just put your ring through the finger and filling out and away
from your body real hard, you have to do snap out your wrist kind of.
See.
The ring doesn’t really function as anything but a lanyard, so you don’t have to pull
it as you fling or anything complicated, just force.
You can stand in front of the mirror and feel cool.
You do need to pull up on it though when you release the lock to close it, just a light
pull.
The metal loop on the plastic one doesn’t offer and lock functionality really, even
though it looks like it does, when you close the knife it lifts and moves.
The plastic handlesd one has more tension from the metal plate on the back and is a
harder pull open- it’s not possible to fling out.
There are smaller 3 inch blade versions of these knives, but I went big and got the standard
size.
The wood handled one is made from a right and left piece of wood, glued together it
seams.
There was a pun there had you seen the script I used an a instead of an e.
The handle on the wood one is kind of sharp on the bottom, so you might want to hit it
with some sandpaper.
The wood seems to be stained or sealed with something.
The outside has metal inlays on one side of moons and stars and shit, and looks mystical.
The plastic one is boring and has nothing but fake molded wood grain.
The plastic handled one is slightly more comfortable.
Both are large and could accommodate bigger, more tactical hands than mine.
No pocket clip although you could maybe lanyard something on the ring or loop.
Or maybe not.
Comparisons.
First the Okapi ring knife with the plastic one.
I think I prefer the metal ring one, because you can fling it.
I can’t say anything about long term durability right now, but I’d put my money on the plastic
one being to hold up to abuse more.
We’ll stick with the wood one though from here on out…
they make 3 inch and 2.5 inch bladed versions too of the non ring knife, and a plastic handled
version of the ring one.
Now the Large Douk Douk.
I got this one a while back, and like the larger one better than the smaller one, not
enough to use it much though.
If there was a good low profile pocket clip solution to these I might.
The collectors knives slip clip wasn’t super pocket friendly for me.
Now the Mercator.
This one is also a street gang knife according to the internet.
That’s cool- probably my favorite of the whole bunch.
And yes everyone I am aware of the pocket clip version of this that’s over $100 US
dollars shipped to the US.
The maker of those must have seen what people pay for after market clips here on our folding
knives and said hold my beer.
Spelled B-I-E-R.
What else.
Spyderco Caribbean, my current favorite large folding knife.
However this is about $160 instead of $12 because the developed world has no ceiling
on the ridiculous prices they’ll pay for basic hand tools they barely use.
We’re done are we done.
I’m a bit more of a Dork Douk or Mercator guy if I want to pretend I’m a criminal-
like when I go 10 over the limit.
Those knives feel a bit more solid in the hand, and durable.
However the Okapis are huge and light, maybe thats why they feel cheaper.
The reviews of these are mixed online.
Ive had them for months now and don’t really use them much.
Anyway, if you like this sort of review, subscribe to the channel- give the video a thumbs up,
leave a comment, check out my Patreon linked below that allows me to afford high end pieces
like seen in this video, and maybe buy them from my Amazon links below if you need something
else for the junk drawer knife collection- thanks for watching.