Long time viewers might know three key things about it.
First.
Even though it’s rather large for an intestinal parasite, I’ve learned to love it like a
child.
I have to, because I can hear it in my head.
Secondly that I’ve grown out my hair in an effort to hide a fully nude Morgan Fairchild
tattoo I got in a Russian labor camp.
I don’t even know who Morgan Fairchild is.
And finally I fell in love with HEADesigns design aesthetic when I reviewed the Poison
back in 2017.
Was I poisoned by the poison?
Heh heh we have fun here.
So now in the year of our Locusts 2022, Sam has tweaked and de-tanto-fied the slicker
than a horsepill look of the Antidote and Poison, and created the Venom and Elixir.
He asked if I wanted to review one, and I said yes.
Sam can feel free to use the blurb slicker than a horse pill in his promotional materials.
Since I went with the milled out design of the Poison last time, I decided on the clean
look of the Elixir this time.
Will I be cured?
Heh heh.
Where did everyone go?
Now for those that get their drinking time in while watching these- lets try and keep
it straight…
The Poison was updated to the Venom, and the Antidote begat the Elixir… and all is seen
here in my updated and hopefully it makes the review shorter dimensions segment.
I do love the twists and turns of my flowery prose though.
You’ll notice it took me years to perfect the technology to get it all on one screen-
but I managed to keep at least one of the blue lines.
Had to fire the whole graphics department.
Now the Venom and Elixir are going to come in 2 colorways each.
I use the future tense, because I’m working on this review ahead of time and the knives
are not live yet.
You can buy them starting June 7th 2021 for $269, which I believe was about the retail
for the original Poison.
Each will have a limited run of 50 pieces- just like the Falcon did.
Looks like the version of the Falcon I have is no longer available, and if you didn’t
get it I hope you have the FOMO.
Now you don’t see a ton of Tantos on this channel- frankly because I don’t like them
or their prying tips too much.
Every time Spyderco and Benchmade improves a design with a Tanto, I die a little inside.
And with any luck it’s probably part of the tape worm.
Or his proper name William as he communicated to me- just don’t call him Bill.
Being the exception to my no tanto rule- I bought the original Poison feeling the Tanto
was well integrated into the design of the knife.
However it is a nice change that Sam decided upon the cleaner looking spearpoint for the
update here.
The details on the s35VN blade are nice like the contoured spine, or the lack of a visible
plunge line like the prior version.
Plunge is always a word I forget that I can remember.
That change means that when the blade pivots the tang moves flush with the bolsters.
Blade play is non existant, although because of my fidgeting tendencies I did have to tighten
the pivot once as it had loosened and affected blade centering.
Make sure you pick up a good set of bits like a Wiha.
Did I pronounce that right?
I wouldn’t call the knife a super slicer out of the box, just a good general purpose
every day carry.
The lockup and deployment.
The original Poison and Antidote had pretty stiff lockups.
Cold Steel doesn’t do little baby frame locks, But I’m sure they’d nod approvingly.
And say something like you kinda remind me of myself boy, before I was banging chicks.
I heard from a few of the titanium boutique knife bros who didn’t like it.
So I guess Sam was bludgeoned by the power of a 1000 nitpicks, and eeeehhhs, and made
it slightly less badass.
I’d observe that tension has been halved and it’s much easier to disengage the lock.
IT’s a pretty good improvement.
Bearings and pivot are both smoother during close too.
It’s not quite a drop shut, but a well placed two to three wiggles makes it fall.
The detent like the original is strong and you can’t get it to open by flinging it
downward.
My guess is due to the pocket pecker posse, The flipper tab is shorter and rounder.
I didn’t mind the original much since it worked well with the design and I apparently
unlike others don’t carry other things in the pocket as my $280 finally textured and
anodized titanium jewelry.
So guys just throw your glock, your luxury car FOB, wallet, prybar, money clip, backup
knife, all in the same fucking pocket.
You have about 2 and half more millimeters to work with.
There’s still tab jimping but it’s not offensive, and it doesn’t bother me when
I fidget.
The handle.
Even though it’s a clean look there’s still a substantial amount of milling.
You’d tear up a little at all the leftover titanium on the factory floor.
This milling is in the form of lots of fine diagonal surface texture, contoured and rounded
handle slabs, internal milling for weight reduction, and the integrated holes in the
handle and titanium backspacer that brings it all together with a place for your sick
lanyard art.
The handles on my particular version are blue anodized 6A14V titanium, also a favorite alloy,
that has a subtle bead blasted stone wash.
The color changes based upon the light and your filthy oily hands.
I don’t imagine it’s quite as sensitive as the Slysz (Swish) bowie, but I really wouldn’t
know.
I am really happy for everyone that got one- I truly am.
The best part is I can finally forget that the knife exists again.
It’s a shame their aren’t more slightly ugly titanium frame locks on the market.
Pocket clip.
The hardware is hidden like the original.
It is not repositionable.
It’s tip up blade backward in the right pocket.
Or the stranger carry tip up blade forward in the left pocket The pocket clip is a milled
titanium clip, with a texture matching the body of the knife.
The look and basic feel between the Poison and the Elixir is the same.
It’s not deep carry, and has a medium sized pocket feel.
And as you might remember I’m not a person who carries anything else in the pocket with
a knife with such a high faluting finish.
Comparisons.
I have had 4 HEADesigns now.
I gave the front flipper hunter to Pete, it’s down under now.
You’re on ya phone.
It was a good knife but then I still have these three.
The Falcon is a great modern slip joint, that does not look like many other slip joints.
Sam knew a good slip joint needed an easy open and a crisp backspring- and this is that.
And then the Elixir and Poison here.
I know art knife is a term reserved for hand made one offs, sounds like something you’d
get in a park, like Michael Walker or Corrado Moro, but Sam’s Knives are also pretty well
designed production knives with a pretty distinctive design language.
Of the two, I think I may prefer the detantoed elixir.
I feel like I missed out on the green and yellow and purple and yellow color ways.
How about the Para 3.
Very similar size to the Elixir, got a similar blade and handle length ratio.
The Elixir is a more neutral handle, the Para 3 is more fidgetable because of the compression
lock.
I think I can see some lube buildup under the Para scale.
Wonderful.
However the Para 3 is a little snapper probably because of the large blade.
How about the 940-1.
I really like the 940-1 I think I should show it more.
Also very very fidget able.
It’s hard to beat a good axis or compression lock if they’re finely tuned and on the
right knife.
Very light and small in the pocket.
Wrapping it up.
I’m kinda picky when it comes to knife designs.
I think I like the Hawks even though they only have a few designs, Brian from Sharp
By Design, and Sam from HEADesigns.
Every new thing they put out just looks good.
Sam listened, watched, and made some nice revisions to an already good design.
It’s a little small, but it’s a good inoffensive work carry.
I would like if Sam would bring back some greens or full on purples though.
I miss those.
I am not a tactical black kinda knife guy.
For those new to HEADesigns, Sam is kinda HEADesigns.
He designs the knives and gets them made to his spec by an OEM.
The knives are made internationally, and the quality is similar to a Reate, We or higher
end Besttech.
Thanks to Sam donating this knife to the channel.
I think it might be time for another giveaway soon- too offset the things that are given
to me.
So follow me on Instagram where I give things away.
Say Hi to the patrons.
They’re really cool- don’t think anyone of them are murderers.
Definitely no serial killers.
I don’t attract that kind of audience.
They’re helping me on my 12 installments of my new iMac, that I bought because my current
iMac is going on 10 years old now.
Gonna probably get a
new camera later this year.
Learning Davinci Resolve.
Hopefully though viewers won’t notice and they’ll be the same mediocre quality knife
essay films- with a little better color.
Buy a t-shirt.
Designed a new one no one has touched yet.
So I have that going for me.
Like, subscribe, comment.
Thanks for watching !