The feel of the blade moving from open to closed on this knife is just about as slick as it gets.Īnd the lockup is solid. The XM-18 has a reputation at this point in time, of being the definition of a “drop shut” blade, especially with bearings installed.
We’ll get deeper into the Tri Way system further down in the review, but in short, any choice in pivot style has a very smooth action. Giving the thumb studs just enough push to get the blade moving, is always enough to get the blade completely opened to it’s locked position.Īnd it’s smooth, too. Rick has gone through 6 generations of this particular model, and has come up with a very well tuned detent for each variant. This variant, being a non-flipper, has only the blade stops as deployment. Most Hinderer knives have a flipper tab for deployment, with blade stops solely functioning as a part of the lock interface. It’s a great blade, with a high end steel, and looks great, too.
Still a very respectable amount of sharpened blade, in this range of overall size. On this particular variant, the cutting edge is minimized slightly by the presence of a forward choil, that’s too small to be safely used, giving the blade an overall cutting edge of 3.13”. The blade thickness comes in at a beefy 0.16”, with a blade width of 1.13”. Sitting just below the jimping is the dual blade stops, which double as thumb studs for deployment.
#ARE STRIDER KNIVES IN KINGSMEN SERIES#
The spine of the blade also has some rather heavy jimping notches, which follow the overall “overbuilt” design of the XM series knives. Our variant is using CPM-20CV, a common high end stainless steel, with great wear resistance, decent toughness, and high corrosion resistance. The show side of the blade boasts Hinderer’s maker’s mark, and the lock side informs you of the blade steel. And the spine gains a swedge up near the tip, leaving a very hefty amount of blade material for light prying jobs. It’s got a flat grind, ending in a higher saber grind near the spine. It’s not especially thin behind the edge, but it’s good enough for most harder use pocket knife tasks. The spear point we’re focusing on today has a very neutral, simple look and design. Other available blade shapes are slicer, tanto, spanto (tanto grind with a spear point belly), sheepsfoot, harpoon tanto, and harpoon spanto. Our review knife is utilizing the non-flipper spear point blade, with the stonewashed finish. The hard part is deciding which blade shape to go with. The XM-18 comes in two sizes, the 3.5” blade featured today, and the 3” version, both of which are usually available in one form or another.
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