As a well adjusted adult male in his 40s posting what’s best described as knife essays, to Youtube,
well I like me a good switchblade. (Slower as I think about the words). Like me a good
switchblade. LIKE. Me? A good switchblade. I’m great hanging out with the dog at parties,
I pretend to care about hearing what someone does for a job when they pretended to care
by asking me about mine, then afterward I can make awkward jokes that that just hang heavy in the air
between fading smiles like a stale fart. Just your normal dude, who in his spare time films
himself playing with pocket knives. Anyway since a guy like myself can’t just have one switchblade,
I bought me another from Protech, the California based switchblade company,
that makes their knives in California. I got me the Brend 3,… or the Brend 2. I mean it’s
definitely not the brend 1. Ok going to look it up right now. Yep. Definitely the 3. It’s
a biggun. How big though? Glad you asked because it’s the dimensions part. It’s a pretty big
but light knife, due in part to the aluminum handle and the distal tapering on the blade.
The Brend 3 features a big 3 and 3 quarters inch blade made from the
154-CM stainless steel. A steel that doesn’t impress the super steel crowd as it did in the
golden age of the cutlery lover, but could Protech interest you if they covered in Rose gold PVD?
You like? It impressed me- the classy gold accents remind me fondly of cross earrings
dangling in front of mullets and towel racks from a comfort inn in 1992. Both separate events.
The blade has an impressive tapering, I don’t know if you can quite call it a false edge up top but
it has an incredibly thin spine, and a pointy tip for your balloon popping tactical missions.
The lockup. This is your standard badass switch blade, that is single action out the side. Press
the button, pop, and immediately your hollow eye sockets will light right up! It may sound counter
intuitive to non knife people, or extremely tactical minds, but auto and assisted knives
are only as fast as a good manual opener and are harder to close. Switchblades when you get down
to it are fun fidget knives, and make you feel cool- like say… a gangmember from a musical,
but can be less convenient, reliable, and a bit more fragile than a good manual open knife.
Tactical cosplayists hanging out in Youtube comment sections may argue that you haven’t
trained enough with them and gloss over that there are potentially springs to break, and buttons to
gunk up. But the truth is if you can’t open and close a spyderco para military 2 faster than
just about any switchblade then you’re a chump. Having said all that- I love my switchblades,
even when most have some side to side blade play. While I don’t fight with them or train in front of
my couch on Youtube, it’s hard to imagine spring loaded knives with blade wobble are better at any
situation than a good manual knife. The Brend here is now well broken in and locks up a good
portion of the time. When I first got it I put some nano oil in the button, and kept working it.
It felt like the blade hit too hard and the button hole had some anodization in it, and it didn’t pop
as fast as the blade did. So after working the button a lot and working the lube in, it
still had the problem, and I finally I said eff it. When you deploy it blade opening and handle
parallel to the ground and facing downward that’s when most of the lockup problems occur. You get a
solid 5 out of 7 locks. Then say if you orient the Bolster area, and blade tip pointing to
the ground, 5 out of every 5 times. Blade and handle facing skyward in a parallel fashion,
usually 100% of the time too. Which my hesitation makes it sound like not 100% of the time.
The handle is smooth neutral, large, and comfortable. It’s made from two slabs of
screwed together 6061-T6 aluminum, which is about one of my favorite alloys. The anodization gives
it a nice smooth feel, while giving it a touch of friction for your martial arts.
The pocket clip is deep carry and murdered out. And when you think about it, it’s the only right
answer? There’s a good amount of tension to keep in it your pocket during your sweatin' to the
black ops class. The clip while a little tight shouldn’t chew your pocket up, smooth underneath
with recessed hardware. The position is not position-able. And for righties
it’s oriented at it’s most tactical, tip down blade backward in your right pocket.
Comparisons. I’ve had this knife about a year and a half now, and there’s one guy that has
been asking me to review it so I hope he’s happy now. Technically, and emotionally speaking,
it’s a good knife. This trim will set you back about 220 when it’s available. It’s ain’t now
but give it some time. It’s neutral grip, fits my regular sized crusty flaky hand, and it would fit
other crusty or lotioned up hands even larger than my own. And it has a nice unique look. I’m glad I
own it. And I’m also glad I own the Don. Remember that review? This $280 knife is good knife too,
it and most people seem to like Protechs. I mean not most people, overall- but like
switchblade bros. I like the flair of the handle anodization and micarta inlay too.
This one doesn’t have a pocket clip but it allowed me to buy a cool clip slip for it.
The fit and finish on protechs and the unique colorways they come in, make them appealing.
My favorite autos are my hawks like the MUDD here. This one is kinda in limbo right now.
Will they ever make them again? Who knows. Reminds me of an anchovy sometimes, but in a good way.
Lockup and pivot on a hawk is superior though, no blade play at all and 100% lockup,
fully sealed mechanism. This used to retail for about $390. If I had to get rid of my collection
I’d find a way to keep my hawks. Turn tricks as a sandwich artist? Sounds like a detail un unsolved
mysteries. Imagining Robert Stacks voice. Whatever it takes. My Hawks like the deadlock here.
An out the front, with also a solid lockup, hefty price tag at 1350. The protechs are reasonably
priced at 200-300 comparatively. The difference is as soon as you buy a hawk from one of their
drops it immediately appreciates in value. Let’s see how about a cheap Ganzo. This one is long
gone, but cost about $20. It’s solidly made, I reviewed it many years ago,
and locks up every time. Wanna see a Kalishnakov. This locks up 100% of the time too, costs about
$40 and is pretty light weight. Kinda ugly though, but I don’t have a ton of room to talk.
Wrapping it up. A person might complain a protech costs too much, you know because that how it
works. Someone’s giving away free ice cream, and someone’s complaining about the traffic.
You know I guess you have Kershaw autos made in the USA that cost around $100, but
you can find some protechs on the secondary or new that cost between 100-200.
Microtechs make a lot of OTFs and some standard autos that start at 200- and the sky is the
limit. There’s also Guardian Tactical. Although protech doesn’t make any double action OTF,
just the one single action dark angel… they make some of the cleanest designs out there.
They do have a lifetime warranty, for workmanship- as long as there is no evidence of abuse. As an
expert in knife abuse, and without ruining my beautiful switchblades- aluminum is a soft metal,
and the steel stop pins that rest inside the aluminum can deform the softer aluminum around
them when whacking things or batoning. You hit blade, blade hits stop pin, stop pin deforms the
aluminum. Anyway if you like this video subscribe. You’ll find sometimes Protechs seem to be out of
stock everywhere that’s because Protech does batches on models. So every so often when the
knives sell out, they’ll make a new batch. It’s usually months or years between reruns. Kinda
like great eastern cutlery. Anyway, buy a tshirt from me to support me. Say Hi to the patrons. Some
of whom are no longer with us, but let’s honor the memory that they gave me some money once,
to continue making this bullshit. I mean they’re not dead- they had just had their fill of the bro.
Like, subscribe, follow me on instagram- where you kinda can get an idea of the knives I have
but I haven’t reviewed yet- then ask me about them repeatedly. Thanks for watching.