Hey, everyone.
David C. Andersen here coming at you from the KnifeCenter, and today we’re taking
a look at the KnifeCenter worldwide debut of the new MKM Isonzo pocket knife.
Let’s check it out.
The Isonzo is made by MKM, which is a consortium of knife making entities from Maniago, Italy.
In the case of the Isonzo, Mikita is the one that handles the production.
Now, there’s a few different blade shapes available with this knife, but if you’re
at all familiar with his style, you can instantly tell that this is a design by Jesper Voxnaes.
It’s kind of a cross between the CRKT Pilar, the Fox Suru, and several other of his designs.
In addition to different blade shapes, which we’ll go over in a second, we also get different
handle colors, and a few different finishes on the blades as well.
We appreciate that diversity in the lineup, and we also appreciate that it’s a very
nice and compact EDC folding knife; less than three and a half inches when you have it folded.
As far as the shapes themselves, we get three different profiles, including this clip point,
as well as a cleaver profile, and both of these come in at just under two and a quarter
of an inch long.
The Isonzo also comes with a hawkbill option, and that’s just over two and a quarter inches.
All of the blades are flat ground, and they’re finished very nicely, made from N690Co stainless
steel.
We’ve got chamfered edges on the spine to keep it nice and comfortable to use, and broad
jimping a little further out towards the tip.
This is a great place to rest your index finger to give you fine control of the end of the
knife, especially on the cleaver blade, because the jimping is a little bit further out than
the other profiles.
It makes this a great knife for scoring or cutting on a surface.
The clip point, of course, is great for general utility, whether you’re opening up boxes
or packages, or any other smaller things you’re doing day to day.
The Hawkbill is great for opening things up.
You can get under pallet straps or zip ties very easily with that tip, you can cut rope
very well, or any kind of aggressive cutting, thanks to that recurve shape near the tip.
The hawkbill can even be good for rescue needs in a pinch, especially the black version.
This is the only option for a serrated blade across the range right now, whereas the satin
hawkbill comes in a more typical plain edge.
Speaking of the blade finishes, on all the colored handle knives, we get a stonewashed
finish, which is a fantastic working finish that’s going to minimize scratches, whereas
the black handled knives come with a black Idroglider finish.
This is a nonstick PTFE coating that’s going to maximize corrosion resistance and protect
the blade steel underneath.
Now, depsite the small size of this knife, we still do get a ball bearing pivot to provide
great opening action.
There’s a wide slot cut out of the blade for easy opening of the thumb, and it’s
even long enough to do the middle finger flick too, which is impressive considering the small
size of the knife.
The hawkbill versions go a step further, and they also get an additional flipper tab, which
works very easily, whereas the other blade shapes make do with only the blade cutout.
The blades are held open with a nested liner lock, and you can actually see the ceramic
detent ball residing there as well.
We also get a nested skeletonized liner on the front side, which adds strength without
adding too much weight.
That low weight is an important part of what makes this micro knife special.
They wanted to keep it highly pocketable, and, to that end, they’ve used lightweight
FRN for the handles.
We’ve got blue, black and green colors across the range of blade shapes, and it has a subtle
imprinted M pattern for a non slip texture, which is taken from the Mikita logo.
Now, I can get a three finger grip on the clip point versions of this knife, but it
is wide enough that I can still get a solid hold on the knife.
The hawkbill and the cleaver shapes get more grip, though, thanks to a finger choil you
can use for choking up right here at the heel of the blade that turns it into a three and
a half finger design.
We have a prominent aluminum backspacer on this design that holds the scales together.
They are anodized different colors, and they coordinate with the pivot collar on the front
side of the knife.
The green FRN comes with a cool metallic olive drab anodization, the blue handles come with
a nice orange color, and we get a really sharp looking blue to go with the black handles.
You can also see that the backspacer forms a wide hoop that gives you plenty of space
for a lanyard, or even a carabiner, which could be appreciated by mountain climbers
or ultralight hikers.
Most of us are going to carry this knife in our pocket, however, and to that end we get
a wire deep carry pocket clip.
We get silver on the color versions of the knife, and black on the black handled versions.
This doesn’t hold the knife super deep in the pocket, at least on the square type of
pockets that are typical of blue jeans, but they will fare a little bit better in pants
that have angled pockets.
It’s still easy to extract, though, especially because that hoop provides a great finger
hold when you want to deploy the knife.
I think the MKM Isanzo is a great addition to the MKM lineup.
It offers the same precision fit and finish as their other knives at a new, lower price
point than they’ve achieved before.
The fact that we get three cool blade shapes to choose from is even better.
So be sure to let us know what you think of the Isanzo in the comments.
Would you add this to your EDC rotation?
In the meantime, to get your hands on one, you can click the link in the description
to head over to KnifeCenter.com.