Hey it's Chandler from KnifeCenter and we're here with Matt here to talk about
Microtech knives I know we talked a little bit about microtech I was wondering
like what you could tell me about microtech as a company microtech is a
company that's been around for over 25 years family owned and operated they
probably have 20 employees but tony's of the designer his wife handles
the business side his son also grinds knives and then works in the production part
of the company they put out great product
multiple bladeshow quality of the year knifes, knife of the year a few times and
they're a great company. Absolutely one thing that we were talking a little bit
about that i actually didn't know was that Marfione and microtech are
involved so kind of tell me how that came about if you know anything about
that what Tony does on the Marfione custom
side is what he does he comes up with the prototype he'll hand grind the
blades come up with the design and then what he usually does he'll do a few runs
of Damascus blades high polish blades different inlays and he'll run the
course with that and see how the knife does once it takes off he'll then move
it over to the microtech production side where microtech will do a basic
version of the knife same quality but not as many whistles and bells on the
knife. so one of the things is the SOCOM you talked about that being one of the
most common and favored and loved microtech knives and I completely agree
I think they're great and then you have the Marfione SOCOM
so it's kind of the difference between you know the two knives
okay the one here this is the auto from 2001 the older version had the rubber
insert right and they hire pocket clip okay
now the newer version they're using the skid tape they redefine the pocket clip
right on the manual they change the liner lock over some nice it's put a
glass break on there streamedline the handle a little bit so it seems like a
lot of the all of the changes are just a very small
differences that you won't really notice unless you know what you're looking for
which is one of the things that I'm learning so just kind of overall fit and
finish of the knife is a little bit better
well the fit and finish is the same still the high quality but it rides
a little bit better in your pocket the thumb studs are a little bit bigger for
easier opening the grip tape a little bit grippier than the rubber insert the
rubber insert used to wear down a little but the grip tape works well
definitely I love it I just been picking up these knives and
using a little bit today and they feel amazing really solid in your hand very
good ergonomics on the SOCOM's it just feels like a sturdy knife I've
never actually owned a microtech myself but you let me take this ultratech out
yesterday and I oh my gosh I just love it like it feels so much better in
your pocket like for me I'm used to carrying larger knives like um usually
I'll carry like a benchmade adamas or a spyderco Mannix or I'll carry something
a little bit larger a little bit more girth maybe um even a Strider SMG and
having this kind of just low-profile knife has been really great I think it's
a lot more comfortable to carry and from what I've experienced and it's just fun
to play with this this knife here is one of my personal knifes
it's from 2001 and I carried it for years and never had a problem with it
nowadays with the new model okay they changed the pocket clip around so you
get a little bit more stability on your pocket
they put a glass breaker on it a lanyard loop contoured the handle some which I
find would be very nice okay and one thing I noticed was that the newer
ultratechs have a different type of button yeah they textured the button a little
bit better I know I think that was a nice a nice little um little I guess
thing to do because I've noticed that when you first break open a microtech
they've definitely you can feel it the spring is got a lot of tension on it
which is good you know it's a solid no a lot of people worry about think that
they'll go off in your pocket but they have a design in it you kind of it's
like pulling trigger on the gun there's a little creep in at them once you hit
that that spot it fires off okay and inside the handle there's a cam up
top and the cam in the bottom that will lock the blade in place so the
spring always has tension in it for retraction and deployment. Now my
only experience with OTF knives outside of Microtech has been literally a
no-name OTF that I picked up you know I mean it was just a piece of junk from
China that I wanted it because I wanted it for you know I wanted an OTF
knife and that's kind of my understanding of OTFs until I started
really using microtech's and I gotta say I'm really impressed to be able to
see that microtech can make such a good knife because I mean as you said their
quality and their fit and finish is impeccable but all the other knives that
just kind of felt like jinky and like loose oh yeah and things like that but I
don't get that with this at all microtech's one of the most knocked off
companies in the in the country and in the knife industry the the china knocks
off have been coming in for years and you do get a bunch of wobble but with a
microtech knife Tony actually did a video this hammer and this through a
55-gallon drum so the the locking mechanism on this is unbelievable you
know they use premium steel but people do buy the Chinese knockoff then they
they determine later on that it was a bad value absolutely because just my
opinion from all that OTF knife that I had in the past versus this one is
completely night and day the other one was something I couldn't even use it was
it was just a toy yeah I mean it's literally what it was it was a toy to
have with me but this is an actual knife this is something that is nice and I
don't know about this ultratech but I know that I was looking at this one
earlier and it comes in m390 steel blade which is a very good blade one
that I've used quite a lot and it's it's a super steel it's amazing edge
retention and good durability well Tony they always tried to stay on
the forefront of technology so they always use premium steel sometimes steel
does switch back and forth but it's always a top grade steel any material
that Microtech uses in their products gonna be a premium steel and that's you
know some people don't want to pray the price but
the stories always told you get what you pay for mm-hmm and to try to get a
cheaper route out you won't get the performance out of the product
absolutely I mean I think in knives more than anything else on earth you can
kind of see the quality you get what you pay for
if you if you buy something that's not going to hold up it's not gonna hold up
if you buy something that's gonna have good quality good steel good materials
and then you take care of it and you use it properly it'll last you lifetime
it'll be something can hang down because I mean you were telling me that this is
something you bought in 2001 at 17 years old and I think it's impressive because
it feels like it's out of the box when it comes to what it does yeah the one
thing you want you don't want wobble in your blade because when you're when
you're doing actual work with the knife the one thing you can't have is a knife
close on you yeah that's the most terrifying thing about using a knife is
having your own knife cut yourself with and but microtech you can bang on you can
beat it you don't have to worry about it collapsing on you if it doesn't fire all
the way you just reset it with your hand some people have the notion that the
knife can go through a phone book or something like that that's untrue you
know it deploys under spring tension and that's about it it won't go through much
it has a derailler in it right that one when it hits something it'll it'll yeah
the spring yeah the spring just stops there okay and then you manually reset
it one of the things that I was under the impression of and something I've
seen kind of thrown around blade forums and different things I've experienced in
conversations have had is people don't really believe that
OTF knives make good work knives or good EDC knives because they're more of a
showpiece like what's kind of your stance on that. That's people that
haven't really used them and they feel that they won't deploy properly as long
as your microtech isn't nothing's in front of the blade it will deploy okay
from Time Time do you get too much Pocket lint in there it is best to blow it out
with some compressed air but I've never had a
a nondeploy situation happened to me
you can do whatever you do with the regular knife that knife will handle
absolutely I completely agree from what I've experienced with the ultratech that
you let me borrow I took we ran it through a couple cut tests you know cut
things with that open boxes cut paper the general you stuff that would dole
knife and I felt perfectly comfortable doing that you know cutting open
packages no problem and I'm excited and I would look forward to being able to do
more with it but I'm thinking you're gonna have to give make me return it so
I'm not super happy about that in Microtech the in the knife industry
there's a lot of different things going on but Microtech wasn't the first person
to do it but they they work with other makers to come up with designs you work
with Greg Lightfoot he worked with Walter Bream back in the day coming up
with different blade finishes about 22 years ago I went down to Vero Beach and
was hanging out in the shop it turned out that Walter Bream was there and tony
they were grinding looking back on that now it's something that very special
and you know this working with different manufactures and makers to come out with the best product
on of the things I've noticed about microech they're really trying to innovate and stay relevant I was looking
and I'm personally a butterfly knife guy a balisong guy when I saw they have a
couple of butterfly knives balisongs which are the same thing and just the
fact that they would take the time to go and branch out into different areas like
that I think is kind of impressive oh yeah they've they've done the Tachyon
they put it out probably fifteen years ago and then they retired it for a
little bit they brought it back they do a bunch of color configurations on it
yeah it's a it's a great knife that a lot of the flippers seem to enjoy.
absolutely now okay so like this is my big question
I know you personally and I know that you have an ammo can full of custom
knives on your desk yes and for every one he has an ammo can just full of
custom knives and it seems like all the custom knives you have out of all the
different things I always see you carrying a microtech. The SOCOM is truly
my favorite knife it will do whatever you need it it's not overpriced
fit finish the performance I've had I've had them for years they worked well and
I enjoy them there you go so well it's a little bit more about the fit and finish
like what what stands out to you about Marfione not Marfione what stands out to you about.
you can called Marfione because it's the same I still
consider him the same company okay for years micro tech when they first
started they had put out limited runs of Damascus blades high polished blades and
they they would just call is alimited run or and then at some point Tony broke off
and opened up Marfione custom knives but I still consider them microtechs so a
Marfione to me a customer call about a Marfione and I go it's a microtech
because I consider them one thing definitely thank you so much for joining
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