Flyweight UL backpacking knives!

[LogHiking]

Hey All,

I just received a knife from a small one man operation that I found on BPL. Mine is .5oz with a .27oz sheath for .77 total. Arrived perfectly at spec weight.

Here is the BPL thread: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...read_id=101273

Here are a couple pics of mine:

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I have no financial or other interest in this company. Just wanted to pass a long a unique UL option that I'm pleased with upon initial inspection.

[mattyoc20]

These look awesome. How does the blade hold up?

[LogHiking]

Well I literally received it in the mail yesterday so haven't put it to any use. With that said it is a .5 oz titanium (softer than steel) knife of a decent size, so it isn't exactly stout. I won't be batonning wood with it or anything. My understanding is it is designed to do the same cutting tasks people bring razor blades for. Chord, food, packaging, etc. It is just at a size that it is a lot more comfortable to use than a lot of the options people currently use. It is definitely much more stout than a razor blade and will surely do more cutting tasks, but if I needed to real cutting tasks like wood work I would bring a bigger knife.

I see you are in Philly. If you want to drop by Manayunk you are welcome to check it out in person.

[Walkintom]

Looks cool but not a piece of equipment I would carry. I like my small multitool, which admittedly weighs a lot more than this but has a LOT of uses, doesn't require a sheath and isn't likely to be mistaken for a weapon by anyone who doesn't work for the TSA.

[LogHiking]

Looks cool but not a piece of equipment I would carry. I like my small multitool, which admittedly weighs a lot more than this but has a LOT of uses, doesn't require a sheath and isn't likely to be mistaken for a weapon by anyone who doesn't work for the TSA.

I am not trying to sell anyone here on using one. Just passing along some info to people who want it. If you are happy with what you then that is great. It is an extremely specialized item for a specialized purpose. I don't expect everyone to want one.

[Walkintom]

I am not trying to sell anyone here on using one. Just passing along some info to people who want it. If you are happy with what you then that is great. It is an extremely specialized item for a specialized purpose. I don't expect everyone to want one.

Sorry if I came off negative about it. It does look cool.

[LogHiking]

I didn't feel you were trashing the knife I just figured if you felt the need to tell us why your blade choice is better than this one for you that you thought I was trying to sell it as an end all be all option for everyone. . If that is how my OP came off I wanted to clarify that.

ETA: I agree it is cool and frankly if I had to have one knife for all of my backpacking this would not be it. I also would not carry a razor blade but I know a lot of people do and figured this system would appeal to a lot of those people.

For me personally as someone who doesn't thru hike I'm able to tailor my base weight and subsequently my pack weight to specific trips more than a thru hiker will. My baseweight for a 3+ day trip can fluctuate between 6.5 and 11.5 lbs depending on what gear options I take. Fast and light hike where I won't have to do any wood work and likely won't even open a knife unless I need to cut a new guy line or open a stubborn food package, this one will come along.

[Hikes in Rain]

Very nice, and the price is certainly right. I want one! (Like I already don't have a pantload of knives....)

[LogHiking]

Yea at the price I got mine for I simply could not resist He has already picked up a lot of popularity on BPL and said he sold more knives in 2 days than he had ever sold in a month so hopefully he keeps the price point he is at.

[MuddyWaters]

Titanium knives are kind of cool.

[Boris Bush]

These look awesome. How does the blade hold up?

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I have had mine since December and it is so much better than all the negative you read online about titanium. The other side is carbidized from the edge to the spine and makes the edge micro toothy. Superb slicer. I only touched up the blade one time and since I touched it up it is actually more sharp now than after I was done. The carbidized feature really works very well. It weighs nothing. The edge lasts very long and I can do super fine slices with it. I even used it in the kitchen a few times to do some unreal thin slices after the regular kitchen knives failed at the task.

If if you can get ahold of one I highly reccomend one. It won't push cut, the edge on mine is sharp enough to shave hair right now but the carbidized toothiness will "grab" the hair and kinda pull some while others just pop right off. Even though titanium is pretty soft it is very tough, so it does not sharpen as easy as a steel of the same HRC.

I originally bought it because I wanted a titanium knife. It turned out to be far more useful than just dpsaying look at this odd metal knife.

image.jpg Carbidized side. Because of this feature you only sharpen the other side. The layer welded in is very thin, and very hard. It does not wear down. When the titanium wears the carbidized side does not, making the edge sharper the more you use it. I would easily pay twice what I did originally to get another one, but in the past few months the word got out. I will watch for more when they are available.

[shakey_snake]

Spyderco Bug - 10g

[Jake2c]

I'm sort of a knife collector and probably have a 100+ but not one made of titanium. Not a metal known for keeping a good edge, if you can get one on it. This looks like it may be ok for very light work. Personally I will probably carry one of my lighter Helle knives. Easy to get to a shaving sharp edge and maintain it. Handles are comfortable to work with. But I also have an old knife, a Victorinox, that has been kicking around the bottom of my pack. Heavier, sharp and holds an edge, not a lot of tools but the ones it does have are high use items. I just love a very sharp working knife. A good one is a great tool that can be used hard and can be relied on.

[Boris Bush]

I'm sort of a knife collector and probably have a 100+ but not one made of titanium. Not a metal known for keeping a good edge, if you can get one on it. This looks like it may be ok for very light work. Personally I will probably carry one of my lighter Helle knives. Easy to get to a shaving sharp edge and maintain it. Handles are comfortable to work with. But I also have an old knife, a Victorinox, that has been kicking around the bottom of my pack. Heavier, sharp and holds an edge, not a lot of tools but the ones it does have are high use items. I just love a very sharp working knife. A good one is a great tool that can be used hard and can be relied on.

when I bought my Ti knife I believed it would not keep a good edge. Fact is that is farthest from the truth. When I got mine it was already shave sharp. So it stayed that way for a long time. What I noticed was the carbidized side does not wear very quick at all. It wears at such a slower rate that when the rest of the edge does wear the knife gets more sharp. Then it reaches a point where it gets wet turd sharp. It took about 5 minutes on a fine diamond stone and instant shave sharp again. That was about a month ago and lots of use later it is still getting sharper with use as the carbidized side stays while the rest wears. It still shaves hair right now and I have used it for everything the short blade can handle. Infact the short blade is its only limiting factor right now. I've cut cardboard, food, shaved wood feathers (huge piles) rope and 550. The edge easily lasts 3x plus longer than a great carbon steel will. I'm speaking from experience btw, not, repeating what I have read. On top of that instead of dulling it actually gets a better edge on it. All you need to resharpen is a nice flat rock from a creek and get ready for months of use again as the blade keeps getting sharper.

I imagine the people who ham fist it will not be satisfied at the edge they get. You can not sharpen it like a steel knife. Sharpen it like a Ti blade and nothing around you is safe from being slashed or cut.

I also used the completely flat carbidized side to touch up my Hultafors craftsman plastic puukko and used it as a finger nail file. The blade is stiff and springs right back when flexed and will not break a tip or chip the edge. The Ti is just too tough. I am planning on getting a larger blade Ti knife in the future after my experience with this little wonder of knives.

Never rusting is is another nice feature when prepping food that even some stainless knives will do. No worry about a food prep knife. Honestly, the knife is over kill for food prep, but super thin slices of potato cook faster. Mine also strikes nice Sparks from a ferro rod.

I do do use my Hultafors craftsman for 90% of my woods work now though. That little tank can do it all and the steel in the blade is amazing. Holds the best edge of any knife I have and I keep a pure scandi edge on it, no micro bevel of any sort and even after batoning the edge never chips or bends or rolls. After things are set up though the Ti knife does the majority of camp chores and it loves every minute of it and I don't worry about it getting dull for months of use. There is not a single steel knife of the same size that could match what my little Ti knife can do.

[BrianLe]

I don't usually respond or look at the periodic threads about knives, but in the particular context of hiking in relatively populated areas in Europe (Camion de Santiago, that sort of thing), I have found it helpful to have a light and relatively long bladed sharp knife for cutting bread, fruit, sausage, etc. I bought a 37 gram (1.3 oz) knife that worked well for me in Italy recently; it has about a 4" blade. It's a Deejo Linerlock, the 37 gram version (there's at least one other size/weight of this knife available I think).

[Wanderingventurer]

Admittedly I am not a knife grugru and I usually use ceramic rods to sharpen my steel knives, but how do you “…sharpen it like a Ti blade …”?