It’s quicklook time! Alright! Thank you sir for thinking of the audience. Hell yeah buddy, my
time is valuable. Gotta feed my cat. Just changed his diet, need to make sure his BMs
are coming out A-Ok. I do like knives though. More like quickish, no need to cry fellas. So
today’s quicklook item in the old crusties is the Justin Lunquist designed, and Kizer
produced front flipper the Feist XL! I mean it says XL but it’s Para Military 2 sized, as you
can see in the dimensions card here. You have the Para Military 2 dimensions memorized right?
You should. It’s very light for the size, slides in the pocket nicely, and been my main every day
carry for about 3 weeks now. I’m sure it’s XL for some hands, but to me it’s just a normal size.
Ok let’s start with the blade. This knife carries several firsts for me, my only knife with a 4V
steel and I still get butterflies when I touch the richlite handle. 4V is a tool steel, it ain’t
quite a carbon, and it ain’t quite stainless- somewhere in the neighborhood of M4. It took years
but someone showed up on an old D2 knife video of mine and said it’s not stainless! Well it stains
less than a typical carbon- check mate! I’ll link a knife steel nerds article below that kinda gives
you the rundown of 4V, because you’ll find no valuable information on this channel. So expect it
to slowly stain as you use it against more acidic fruits and vegetables. (Guy in background) What
about meat? Ok here’s some valuable information- Don’t ever admit you’re wrong because it’s a sign
of weakness. When someone calls you a sonuvabitch who’s never wrong that’s actually a compliment. 4V
can rust if you don’t wipe down or lube- but not as quick as 1095 in the GECs. Of course you know I
like a blade that acquires some character as it’s used, which is why I like carbon steels and the
tool steels. I’ve been cutting a fair amount of cardboard with it and been buttering quite a few
pieces of toast between passive aggressive emails and it has held up quite nicely to the toast.
Looks to me like a flat grind in a stonewashed finish.
Handle is made of a subgenre of micarta known as RichLite. And Richlite being a brand name. Where
as the standard micarta is resin imbued fabric here it’s resin imbued paper. It seems very
durable, and on the website they have a Youtube film that shows how it’s made. The blue is like a
navy blue, it seems a little lighter on the Render photo, but in the actual photo on Justin’s website
it’s more accurate. It has a very subtle texture if you run your dirty ragged fingernails over it,
but it’s fairly comfortable, rounded, and mostly smooth. And I know in the original
videos Westinghouse clearly pronounces it My-carta- but since I’m never wrong in this
house we call it micarta. Because at this point it feels right and drives some people crazy.
The ball bearing action on this is a dream. And if your wildest dreams are about knife deployment,
it’s time to get a new hobby- because that’s a stupid dream. It’s about as good as a front
flipper gets. It’s easiest to pop with a thumb swipe, but the index finger is also not too bad,
and the over the top pop is the advanced bro move. I mean It might fly out of your hand,
so make sure your cat ain’t around. The blade is a hair short of drop shut with just gravity,
but a twist of the wrist and it’s easily glides close without a flick. Drop shut
isn’t necessary but it’s always nice when you get it. You have black hardware,
and a skeletonized liner keeping it light, with a liner locking system.
Pocket clip is tip up blade backward in the right pocket and not flippable. And if I were a
left handed person, I’d just break my left hand to force myself to fidget with my pocket knives with
my right hand. It’s the only way. The pocket clip wears similarly to a spyderco black spoon clip,
so it’s gonna pick up wear, showing off the steel underneath starting with the
edges. Mine has after a few weeks. Deep carry, smooth, not a pocket killer but a tight clip.
Comparisons. First up the Kizer Feist XL. You are going to be hard pressed to find much better front
flipper action than this. Some people might be over the minimalist knife look these days
but I don’t mind it. It’s a nice looking well functioning knife with real good materials for
80-200 bucks or so depending on which version you get… some websites have premium steels
and titanium. Or the smaller version. Now the spyderco Para Military 2, flytanium G10 scales,
lynchclip. Good fidgeter good size, it’s my reference EDC. Not my favorite but easy to
recommend and like. Next The upcoming apurvis Rook. Preorders went live on December 30th on
his website. Nice looking front flipper- if you like it mark your calendars. Now the Sharp By
Design Mini Tempest, which is regulated sized. I know it’s grey titanium, but the handle and
blade and inlay just all work for me. Can’t get over how nice the blade profile is. And finally
the Arkona Nettle that Levon from the knife nuts podcast sent me. As smooth as the Kizer,
perhaps a little more touchy on the flipper jumping, but a very light Ana large knife
I feel this and the Kizer are my favorite balances of price size and good functional
EDCs in front flippers. The high end version is still on Knifenuts, get it while you can.
That about does it. This is a pretty good knife, I can’t think of really anything wrong with it-
a real crowd pleaser from the grip to the action. Kizer did a good job on this one. Thanks to Justin
for sending this to me for review. You can get these over there at his site for $90. Follow
Justin on Instagram. Say Hi to the patrons. We have a few new ones on board recently. Working on
paying off my new monitor and my Raid System. Thanks! Follow me on instagram, make sure you like
this video, subscribe to the channel, and every now and then treat yourself. Thanks for watching!
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