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Blackfoot_Flash
80
Feb 18, 2019
I really, really wanted to love the Boos Smoke TM1.
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Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous knife with top-notch materials (M390) that's got an off the charts fidget factor. My issue is it just doesn't slice very well. The blade is really short (vertically) & not super thin, making it more of a wedge than anything else. On the good side, I really love the Civivi Praxis. What started as an impulse buy without any expectations see more pocket time than anything else. It carries a lot smaller than any 3.5" knife has a right to & I can't say enough good things about its slicing ability.
(Edited)
Hatuletoh
850
Feb 23, 2019
Blackfoot_FlashThats funny, i was just about to start a thread talking about how much I love my BB smoke. It's the first front flipper I've ever owned, and that took a bit of practice, but now I can get it out of pocket, properly seated in-hand, and ready to use faster than any other knife I own, save for maybe my Microtech OTF, and some but not all Pro-Tech autos. And as for slicing, I've found it to work pretty well, considering the geometry of the blade, which pretty much no belly at all. I do have to employ a different action to effectively slice with it than I'd use with a big, fatty drop-point--I'm trying to picture in my mind what I do differently when slicing with the Smoke, as I don't have the knife nearby at the moment, but I'm pretty sure the edge needs to be kept perpendicular to the material being cut, as close to 90° as possible unless the of angle of the cut or available space necessitates something different. That's not as comfortable as with a more dedicated slicer, but the long, thin handle of the smoke makes it not too onerous because at least there's plenty of real estate to grip, and the knife is so light that it doesn't tire the hand too much. Speaking of lightweight, that's a big reason I've been so enamored with this knife: for the weight and size in the pocket, I feel like I get a very, very effective blade. The fact that its M390 contributes to that; for example, going back to slicing, I've found sometimes it's better to draw the whole blade length through the material being cut, like playing a sustained note with a violin bow; other times shorter, more staccato strokes with lighter pressure work better. With a lesser steel that could leave one with a blade that was sharp in some places and dull in others, eventually ending up wrecking the blade (esp since its so thin) but with the glorious, glorious M390, it just stays sharp. When the day is done, I run it over the surgical black AK stone a few times, then my two strops with polishing compound a few times, and it's as sharp as when I first put an edge on it. Not that that is surprising given the reputation of M390, but I've used this blade more and harder than any other with that steel, so it's the first time I've really gotten to see what it can do. I'm not saying you're wrong, nor trying to change your mind (and if you still have that blue Smoke but want to get rid of it, we could talk; I have the green one and always like to have multiple variations of favorite knives), I'm just giving the counterpoint to your perfectly understandable perspective. That's one thing I love about knives: no matter what the "general consensus" is about any knife, there's always someone who holds completely opposite views on it. And there is also someone else who holds a view exactly in between those two extremes, and someone else who agrees with that person except for one point of difference, and so on, etc. Because although there are objective measurements of knive's qualities and usefulness, there's also a big ol' subjective element that few, if any, other tools are subject to (guns, perhaps?). And subjectivity makes for interesting discussion and debate.
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