Popular in the knife culture these days is the squiggly. Used to be just knives, but
now a lot of pocket dump pieces are full of fancy random colors and lines- signifying
wealth and taste for people living above their means, in curated collections of things you
pretend to use more than you do. Purple by itself doesn’t cut it any more. A real fancy
knife usually pulls from at least one of the main squiggly groups, Damascus, Timascus,
marbled carbon fiber, Moku-ti Damasteel, there’s others I’m sure- so learn them all to sound
like an expert in materials. And if one of those squigglies is purple or pink, you’ll
have at least a few artisan paracorded wrists lining up to buy it. Like this knife here
from internet purveyor formally known as MassDrop- which dropped the mass- and now they’re
just drop. Get it? The Orca from knife designer Eric Ochs. Manufactured by Reate in China,
and pimped by the Drop. But before we go any further let’s generate some blue lines and
examine the dimensions. Like the overall length and weight. I thought about making this part
just a title card. Blade size and cutting edge. Leaving it on for a few seconds. You
could pause it. Handle Size and grip area. But I’m worried people are used to the pageantry
of the whole thing. Spine thickness and handle thickness. Also maybe I like new viewers asking
what the deal is with the blue lines, as if there’s something deeper to understand.
Tallnesses and flipper. I wish I had more time to squiggly the lines, that would have
been real nice.
So the Massdrop Orca is a real nice looking knife that comes in a few color ways. Last
year Massdrop asked me in exchange for featuring this knife on my Instagram they’d give me
a choice of a knife and a color. So I chose the purplest squigglies- because the proper
thing to do is order the filet when someone treats you to Sizzler. Do they have filet
at sizzler? Make sure you share your favorite sizzler story in the comments below. But I
think the posts may have been a little too on the nose for The Drop, and I haven’t
heard from them since.
So goes it with this channel, also the takeaway here is that it took me a year to do the review.
They never asked for a review, but I had some things that needed to be said. I’m only
a little sad I never heard back.
I bared my analytics for them! Ehh, not my problem. Anyway so the Orca features a whale
hunting friendly harpoon shaped blade in a flat grind. The blade is made from RWL34 steel.
Damasteel makes the steel, although it’s not one of their squigli-fied varieties. It’s
the only knife I’ve ever owned in the steel, and I’ll link Pete’s test on the steel
at the end of this video- because I never used the knife enough to have to sharpen it.
The steel is similar in it’s composition to CPM-154 though. If you’re not subscribed
to Pete and your subscribed to me you’re an asshole. Let’s be honest. Blade was sharp
and cut reasonably well, not amazingly slicey, more of an general purpose than a chef’s
knife.
Deployment. Often standard in the squiggly knives you get a ball bearing system, for
quick fidget friendly deployment. This is a flipper so you hit the tab and pop. The
tab isn’t sharp but I’ve felt definitely felt more comfortable tab geometries. If this
nit picking is annoying it should be. I feel like I’m missing an oversized wrist watch.
Anyone else feel this? The detent is strongish and it gives it a good pop when you hit the
tab. You don’t have to be a supplement social media bro to get it to open by flinging it
downward. Most knives don’t pass this test anyway. It’s smooth and consistent, and
I’ll be honest needed a little bit of lube to enjoy it more. Gave it a harder pop. The
thing that kinda sucks though is lock disengagement of the liner lock. It normally pinches your
finger. Not enough for a big owie or nothing, but more like a slight little pinch to your
finger that gets irritating with a little bit of fidgeting. Most knives don’t do this,
but this one does. It doesn’t hurt, but I could see someone really blowing it out
of proportion in the comment section at mass drop. The handle is a decent sized but average
to larger hands will need to use the aft section of the grip, post bump to avoid crowded fingers.
All around the handle you have a combination of squiggles and purple. Like the Moku-ti
pivot collar, and the purpled out titanium liners, and the marbled and partially stipled
carbon fiber handle scales. For a $350 dollar knife though there need to be a little more
attention to tumbling and chamfering. Be like Hawk Knives Reate. The jerks who buy these
notice these things! Nothing too harsh, but not as mellow of a hand fondling experience
as I’d like per the amount of squiggles.
Clip is nice and sculpted, and slides into the pocket smoothly and about 6/10ths of an
inch sticks out of the pocket while carrying. That’s fine you want people to notice your
fanciness. They probably won’t, but that’s not their problem. You’re the one who opted
for the extra $150 worth of purple squiggles over the standard model. The problem with
fancy knives with fine finishing is that that fanciness dulls once you start using it and
bumping into things and scratching the clip. That’s why you should never carry or use
your knives. Clip is very nice though, right amount of springiness and looks swirly as
hell.
Comparisons. Mostly in purple. First the Orca. There’s nothing terrible about this knife.
I think it’s good looking, and well made. Very good looking. I just happen to think
there are a few negatives about the overall knife that warrant consideration if you’re
gonna drop the kind of money. The pinchy part between the scales and the lock, and a little
more consideration to knocking down some harsh edges and tab geometry. So let me show you
some knives I kept and why I got rid of this one. The Para Military 2. See it comes in
purple and their are all sorts of fancy scales and steels you can get this in for $120-$200.
The thing great about this knife are it’s very comfortable handle, an attention to harsh
edges, and it’s extremely fidgetable knife. Since most use in modern knives is the non
cutting variety now adays. As in- how much fun are you gonna have with it before you
post a catch and release. Now the Benchmade 940-1. No purple, but light opulent carbon
fiber. Extremely fidgetable. About $250 bucks if you’re going with this version of the
940. It’s a great classic pocket knife and hard to beat. This one is a keeper for me.
Now the We knife made mass drop Keen. This knife is very purple, and well made. I really
like this knife and I paid about $140 for it. Probably never getting rid of this one
either. I have reviewed all of these other knives so check out the full videos for the
details.
Ok so let’s wrap this up quickly. Now you might think this knife is over priced… and
not worth it, and that’s fair- but the knife has extremely rich materials. Like if you
can find a knife with mo-tuki accents, titanium liners, and Carbon fiber scales for much less
than this you’re a liar. I wanted to buy a Moku ti clip for my Urabn Survival Gear
pen, but it was $80. For reference. This knife is priced pretty fairly when considering it’s
ingredients.
However a $350 knife needs to have it’s fit and finish and the locking mechanism design
flaws fully worked out for it to be worth the materials it’s made from. On the other
hand if the design really really spoke to me, maybe I’d overlook it’s flaws. That
said sometimes materials are more fancy window dressing than real durable structural design
choices. I guess titanium weighs less than steel liners, and carbon fiber is a light
weight choice for the scales. The pragmatist in my says a $350 production knife is overpriced-
especially when made at a large manufacturer like Reate. Spyderco says Hey Girl, you looking
at my $550 production Paysan over here. I’m a perfect knife I promise! Then Shiro whispers
something sexy in your ear. You can’t quite make it out, is it Russian or Chinese? Whatever
they’re offering it’s gonna cost you $700.
If you’re buying something solely for reliability, and doing work you can get by for a lot less.
No one needs Mo-kuti, unless they’re trying to grow their subscribers. Prybars with lanyards
work too. Anyway say Hi to the patrons, they’re saying Hi back. If you’d like this channel
follow me on Instagram and here. Like, comment, subscribe. Buy a tshirt or sticker or mug
if you want. Thanks for watching.