Since no one really asked, let’s do a Manly Wasp review.
Manly is a Bulgarian company, making functional knives with good steels, and apparently named
to appeal to the sorts of dudes, in which the decriptor “soy boy” is an important
component to their daily lexicon.
Here let me use it in sentence.
You soy boy metrosexuals don’t know shit about knives.
Let me tell you about the time I took my $50 knife and saved a horse strapped to an overturned
cart.
I wish I were making that up- however my “held for review” filter did me a solid and caught
that 10 paragraph masterpiece.
That’s the abridged version.
I mean just because I’m not making that up, doesn’t mean he’s not.
I know I should have screenshotted it, or is it screenshat?
But before we go any further let’s take a look at the dimensions like the overall
length and weight.
What’s the manliest thing you’ve ever done?
Ok I’ll go first.
Blade size and cutting edge.
Once I sat in my underwear with a 12 pack of PBR and played Morrowind for 8 hours.
Handle size and grip area.
Ok half of that 8 hours was walking to Dagon Eel from Ebonheart.
Spine Thickness and Handle thickness.
Didn’t feel like figuring out how many Silt Strider connections I had to make.
How about you?
what’s the manliest.
Tallnesses.
I didn’t get that entire fucking reference you millennial soy boy.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go watch my Matlock Marathon.
Ok that was a stretch I don’t know what Old guys do anymore.
So the Manly Wasp, on loan from Instagrammer jcoolg19.
Features a flat ground drop point satin finished made from S90V steel.
S90V is of course, a hard wearing steel, known for it’s stainlessness and scarceness in
sub $100 blades.
You can get the s90v variant like seen in this video for about $80 or a cheap $60 Sandwich
version.
Blade forums has a long running Manly thread, where people seem to genuinely like the knives-
I’ll link at the end in case you think I’m shilling on a loaner knife.
The blade is thin behind the edge and very slicy, and it should hold it’s edge a decent
amount of time because of the steel.
The blade also comes in Sandvik steel if you’d like to pay about $60.
The deployment and uhh… lock up?
Slip up?
Sorry I don’t mean to confuse you- because the knife doesn’t lock.
Ok I kinda like confusing people.
Slip joints, by design don’t lock.
They do have a backspring that gives the blade some resistance or tension when it’s open.
Slip joints are legal in a lot more places than locking blades- so that’s why they’re
popular.
There was a time not too long ago when no blades locked, and everyone was fine with
that.
You pull the blade, you’ll notice it has about 4 clicks till it’s completely open.
The pull on the blade is slightly easier than my LionSteel CK01, but only barely.
A 6 out of 10 on the completely arbitrary pull scale?
The thumb nick is kinda there for show, because it’s easy to just grip the spine and pull
it open.
That’s the walk, and the talk is when it snaps back.
You have to close it almost all the way for it to suck into the handle.
“Yeah suck is the right word here” (voice in the distance).
There is a decent amount of resistance keeping the blade from folding while open- a relatively
strong backspring.
The handle is nice and comfortable… a little small, but not bad.
The G10 scales aren’t super aggressive and give a ok amount of texture.
G10 is of course a type of fiberglass material.
The blade has a nested or hidden steel liner, that has skeletonized holes to save weight.
Fit and finish is pretty good… there are a few areas where the handle scales aren’t
quite 100% flush with the spine, but no real owie parts or issues that affect use and quality-
just the OCD of the knife nitpickers.
For me personally the knife and scale color choices are a little bland.
It doesn’t have quite the flare of a micarta handled knife, like my current favorite slip
joint- the Lion Steel CK01.
But you know some people use their knife more than look at and take pictures of it, and
in that case the Manly is great.
One thing a lot of slip joints forget today is a pocket clip.
Not forget, but omit.
The Lionsteel doesn’t have one, but I have a clip slip for that.
The Manly has a swappable, yet tip up, deep carry clip that allows you to slip it right
in the pocket.
It goes in easy, and isn’t too tight.
It’s more like a spyderco spoon clip than a cold steel, doesn’t take shit from anyone
clip.
It’s brushed, and has the word manly on it in case you need some sort of a validation
because your testicles aren’t quite enough.
Maybe there’s an aftermarket for clips that say “unfiltered cigarettes” “I like
boobs” or “I’m behind on my child support” Guess they’d have to change the font size.
Comparisons.
First the wasp.
Kinda boring, in a Spyderco Tenacious way- but a pretty good example of a modernized
slip joint.
Knife traditionalists might point out having a hard wearing stainless steel, and a pocket
clip ruins a slip joints.
That’s ok because their shitty opinions can sometimes try to ruin good ones.
Next the Lion Steel CK01.
Like I said earlier this has a lot of options in terms of handle material, and is a good
looking light use pocket knife.
I do prefer it over the manly because it’s a bit more compact, and closer in size to
say an old schrade or camilllus.
This one also has modern materials and a good blade steel.
The CK01 has been my main every day carry blade at work for the past several months.
Because it’s legal to carry and it’s pretty inoffensive if you have to whip it out in
front of coworkers.
Now the Summit knives half dome.
This is a locking blade, but when I shot this review I, most of my collection was still
packed away.
Look for an upcoming review of this… it’s small and compact as well- kinda ugly… but
the manly is kinda boring- so ugly and boring sound like good company.
Now the MUDD auto.
This knife shares little in common with any of these other knives.
I really like it a lot, and its a bigger knife.
So that’s swell.
This one is an automatic, and not legal to carry on your person in a lot of places- not
for any real reasons other than what is basically security theater.
This knife isn’t dangerous than any other locking knife- and really doesn’t deploy
any faster.
But the world needs more dumb laws so prosecutors can appear to be tough on crime before running
for office.
Anyway wrapping it up.
The Wasp is a good value for the blade steel it offers.
Reading through threads about manly’s it seems people are generally pleased with edge
retention.
Translated- it means that Manly probably uses the steel it says it uses.
It’s not really an exciting knife, but more of a working knife.
If you’re watching product videos on Youtube about knives, are you really interested in
“exciting” things.
Construction is very solid, and fit and finish is on par with spydercos under $100- and shit…
over $100 too.
Meaning if you look your knives over with a magnifying glass you can find some slight
flaws here and there.
However it must be said… if you look your knives over for flaws instead of using them
to find the flaws then you’re doing it wrong.
Sometimes I get comments where people like that I’m not a nitpicker.
That’s sort of true.
I look for legitimate problems in usage and construction.
If a detent isn’t perfect or blade centering is slightly off, then it’s not something
I really fret over.
How does it feel in the hand, how does it perform in use- those are things I look for.
Anyway if you like this sort of review- subscribe to the channel.
Feel free to leave a nice comment- or a mean one if you’re an asshole.
Remember assholes are here to make everyone else look and feel better about themselves-
so they’re valuable- and deserve your piss if they’ve gone up in flames.
Baton that like button.
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Thanks for watching.