For this review of the Hinderererer XM-18… the 3.5 inch and 3 inch versions I thought
it would be best to show you in my house where my Chris Reeve Sebenza currently is located-
the basement on a book shelf.
You’re like yeah cutting up stupid books!
I think it’s been there for several weeks or maybe a month- and I had the intention
of using it at some point.
It’s been a while.
If you saw that review- I didn't watch it- but if you did you may remember that I am
not the best knife reviewer to appreciate a production folding knife over $400.
I mean if you’re seeking confirmation bias.
Thankfully subscriber Frame Locks spent his own money and lent me these to check out.
But before we go any further lets take a look at the dimensions of the Hindererer 3 incherer
and 3.5 incherer.
Like the overall length and weight of both knives.
As you know per my knife preferences- the larger XM-18 is a little too heavy for pocket
carry.
Blade length and cutting edge.
I mean 5 and a half ounces ain't super heavy, but at work I carry my knives in my suit jacket
pocket.
Handle size and grip area.
Knives much heavier than 4 ounces tend to swing around in my pocket and hit me in the
tit.
Spine thickness and handle thickness.
My nipples are pretty sensitive.
And not in a good kind of way.
Tallnesses.
I don't want to brag but I don't think any other knife channels factor in nipple sensitivity
into pocket carry.
Do you know my average view duration is somewhere around 3 minutes 30.
Wonder why.
The XM-18 series has had many revisions and generations over the years- I think we’re
at the 3rd generation of perfection.
If they are not- totally my fault- remember like this guy who subscribes for some reason
says- these are more like demonstrations.
Thanks for the clarification bud!
It worked you got to show up in the video for passive aggressive trolling!
Good comment!
The XM-18 comes in 2 basic sizes the 3 and 3.5 inch blade model.
I like the weight of the 3 incher but the blade of the 3 and a half incherer.
I’m sorry that’s the last time I’lll do that.
The 3.5 features a blade made from S35Vn in a stone washed finish as does the 3.0.
Over the years many blade shapes have been available as have quite a few blade steels.
And the 3.5 here used the bowie style blade you know because it looks like a classic bowie.
What’s interesting about this knife- as opposed to the 6 or so other shapes of the
3.5 available is for fans of choking up on it.
The combination of the thumb sized spine slope, the choil and the finger groove allow you
to get nice and close to the blade.
Even if you hold it regular that spine has a nice thumb sized resting area.
The 3 incher here has the spear point blade style which really doesn’t have that thumb
resting area.
The bowie blade is actually nice, the curved shabby tip is great for opening packages of
hot dogs.
Deployment on both is handled by a flipper and locked up with a titanium frame lock.
If you like fidgeting with your knives these are a little lets call them manly.
Meaning they’ll toughen up your tender keyboard hands.
Lion Steel got it right on their SR-11A.
Flipper tabs don’t have to be textured, or have weird angles.
That one is completely rounded, and it’s easy to flip and my finger doesn’t slip.
A flipper tab can be smooth and still be flippable.
The XM-18 Flipper tab on both comes to a rounded point, it doesn’t make sense but I want
you to realize it’s not sharp, just a more aggressive angle than it needs to be…
Then there’s some jimping on the bottom… can’t say what it’s there for, I have
to hold the knife in an awkward way to touch it.
The 3 inch knife is a bit nicer to flip because it’s a lighter blade.
Both aren’t on bearings but aren’t creaky- deployment isn’t lighting fast but an ok
speed.
Faster than a sebenza.
Is that the saying?
The thumb studs are more like blade stops and aren’t great for deployment.
They’re too hard to get the finger in there and the flipper works better.
People still correct me about that on my ZT 0350 review.
They’re not thumb studs they’re blade stops.
Detent on both of the knives are strong and I can’t get them to fling open downward.
I know some of the earlier gens have weak detent.
But remember on a $400 knife its a feature and not a bug.
The lockup is handled by a titanium frame lock, it’s nice and easy and pleasant to
disengage on both knives.
It holds strong, and there’s an over travel disc there in the middle.
I have many knives with and without over travel discs or lock bar stabilizers and I’ve never
seen an appreciable difference one way or the other.
I feel like those are some things certain knives need and others don’t to function
properly.
I see people talk about it as a feature sometimes, I feel it’s more like oh hey it has one.
Apparently certain quote hard use situations might necessitate one… like vigorous knife
closing.
I read the story on the website and can’t understand how that happened, but I’m weak.
Other than prying or batoning what else is a knife going to go through.
And as a minor point the frame lock on the sebenza covers more of the knife tang than
the hinderer.
The handle.
The handle is comprised of titanium and G10… lock bar side full titanium, and on the other
side a titanium liner and G10 scale.
The shape of the handle on the larger one works well for my hand, and even larger hands.
I like finger grooves- both the larger and smaller handle have these, and they help give
you a nicer grip when gripping.
The large has plenty of room to spare the small well is a bit too small for me- it’s
not bad just smaller than I prefer.
Then there’s jimping…
Jimping here and there, it’s that half rounded half angled stuff that the Chinese love adding
to all their knockoff knives.
I find it a bit unnecessary really, but I guess it adds some tolerances or pretties
it up.
The G10 scale and nice texture adds enough grip for my tastes, and thankfully the handle
jimping is kind of out of the way for my style grip.
The finger groove on the G10 is kind of edgy, not owie just edgy.
The open backed design makes the knife easy to clean out but also makes the blade more
accessible to change and keys- my advice is to keep an open backed knife in a pocket without
other metal things.
I think the oversized standoffs look cool.
Thanks for that opinion bro.
The pocket clip.
The pocket clip is titanium and the right kind of springy, it’s easy to slide in the
pocket because of the smooth stonewashed titanium side.
It’s not deep carry and about 3/4 of an inch sticks out of your pocket.
It’s configurable to tip up or tip down, however only right handed people will get
tip up blade backward in the right pocket.
So quick draw lefties might just have to pull it out and deploy it at regular speed.
Comparisons.
First let’s do the 3.5.
It’s nice and big.
It’s in theory it’s the right size for me, remember it’s only a little bigger than
a 3 inch cutting edge though.
I have other larger lighter knives I prefer.
It’s well made, great centering, great tolerances- a thing that’s always a bigger deal in expensive
knives- you know if there’s not mammoth bone scales or meteorite inlays to help justify
the price.
The hinderer just isn’t comfortable enough in my hand for me to want to buy it.
Now the Benchmade crooked River.
This is a much more comfortable knife to hold- it has the clip point style which is what
companies other than hinderer call their blades that have their point clipped!
I will say though the Crooked River is kind of smooth so it’s a bit awkward when wet.
Much bigger cutting edge, same weight as the 3.5.
However blade centering and sometimes the edge grind is even on benchmades, which is
why people pay more for Hinderers.
Tolerances.
Now the Spyderco Caribbean.
Much lighter, bigger blade, I like the handle better, it offers grip without jimping and
it ain’t slippery.
I like the spine jimping on spydercos the best because it’s fucntional without being
uncomfortable.
And the Sebenza.
The Sebenza is a slow deployer and is kind of boring.
However it is light because it’s half carbon fiber and I beat the absolute shit out of
it, and it held up fine.
I mean I’ve beat the absolute shit out of a $20 Ganzo before, but that sounds sacrilegious.
Oh yeah the Lion Steel Sr-11A this one is lighter and flips easier- however its on a
ball bearing system and I believe some of the newer generations of the Hinderer may
have made the switch to a smoother bearing system.
If you’d like to pay over $300 for this one it comes in a heavier titanium version.
The small Hinderer.
It’s good and nice.
A bit small for my tastes and here it is next to the big one.
It’s less fatiguing to fidget with over the large, so that’s wonderful.
I like the blueish purple color.
Let’s look at it next to some other smaller but cheaper knives.
If you can call any knife over $100 cheaper.
How about the para 3 I prefer the Para 3 in comfort, deployability, figetablity, and overall
looks.
Did you see that review last week?
This knife is about $120-$150 depending on blade steel choice.
Now the Steel Will Cutjack… which kind of copies the hinderer look a little, it isn’t
made out half titanium though, but has a decent blade steel.
I feel similar about both knives.
Cut jack as a nastier flipper though, and is a much faster flipper.
The tab is kind of sharp.
This is about a $140 knife.
Ok one other.
The HEA desgins poison.
This one has kind of a stiff titanium frame lock, this is a tiny nearly $300 knife although
I paid a reduced reviewers fee that put it just below $200.
The lesson here is knives with titanium and s35VN are expensive even if they’re small.
So basically you’re paying $300 for a titanium s35vn made mostly by machines, and your paying
about $100 more for one made mostly by machines in America.
Is that it?
So frame locks gave me the ok to baton with these things, however it’s been raining
for several of my shooting outdoors days so cardboard is going to have to do.
I’m glad I got to check these knives out…
I know some of you are pissed that I compared the hinderer to a sebenza when a strider would
have been more appropriate however I’d never buy one of those.
The Hinderers are pretty cool.
If I could get one for about $200 I might bite, so I could say oh yeah I have a hinderer.
At some point people pay for what they like in looks and exclusivity.
There aren’t features a Hinderer has that can’t be found in a cheaper American Made
knife.
You can get a fluted titanium American made spyderco for about $230 in S30V… if you
need titanium.
Or a Para Military 2 in s35Vn… or if you need both the steel and titanium and also
made in America Zero Tolerance has a whole class in the mid 200s…
But it also needs to look like a hinderer.
Ok you got me… the only knife that looks like a Hinderer with titanium S35VN and G10
is a hinderer, or I’m sure there’s a Chinese fake somewhere, which even makes less sense.
Umm the tolerances?
Now these are users, and not safe queens whatever the hell that means.
So blade centering might not be like it once was.
The blade centering on the 3.5 is is great, and on the smaller it’s not perfect.
And since I’ve seen a few people complain that the grind on the spine on some of my
benchmades are horrible- not sure how that even affects performance as long as the edge
it fine… but these are both good, despite having some Swedges and shit.
Still not 100% perfect, but you need to really stare to see they’re not perfectly symmetrical.
Anyway if you really want a hinderer this review will do nothing to dissuade you I assume…
but I still stand by my original conclusion that I had after I purchased my Sebenza…
somewhere in the mid $200 dollar range knives cease to be about fit and finish, the materials
they’re made from, and the country in which they’re made.
If the Hinderer look is your thing, and you want the original it’s a great way to spend
your money I guess.
If someone offered me a ridiculous proposition like… hey you can trade this hinderer for
your spyderco military but you can’t ever sell it or get a new military- I’d say No.
I wouldn’t even trade my Sebenza for it because its a more comfortable lighter weight
knife.
When I buy a knife I don’t respond to higher end steels and exotic materials as much as
how it feels in my hands, deployment, and looks.
If you like this review, subscribe to the channel- give it a thumbs up, leave a comment-
sorry there weren’t more jokes- I had writers block this week.
Thanks for watching!