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The lock: is very smooth, as smooth as my best axis locks. One-handed two-fingered closing is my preferred method, it's very difficult with one finger, by design. The break point from when it biases closed to open feels very similar to the break on my 710 axis. I stabbed the blade into some hard plastic and torqued it hard, no sign of lock play or accidental release. No problem with spine whacks. All in all, really well done.
Penetration: I had to adjust just a little bit ... I trained under Ray, and I think his mechanics are a little different than SN's, as evidenced by the knives Ray and his instructors have designed, versus the vastly different bladeshape SN favors. I made some small adjustments and then got great power and penetration into my target -- a bunch of cardboard with a 1/4" very-hard-plastic backstop, which I mounted both horizontally for forehand downward thrusts and vertically for pakal jabs. I realize this choice of backstop doesn't emulate a body at all, but it's tough to penetrate and so a good measure of how much power and penetration I'm getting. Since the whole target is on a backstop that compresses, it also forces me to get develop good speed and power and penetration angle -- too slow and it buckles without penetrating the hard plastic. With a little practice, I could get penetration all the way through the cardboard and plastic shield right down to removable wave, which I'm very pleased with.
The draw: I'm getting more and more comfortable with the draw. My hand seems to be developing the right movement without me consciously thinking about it ... right now, I can barely feel the roll into pakal, something I had to really concentrate on just two days ago.
Utility: It seems like an odd topic, but a lot of Spyderco fans are thinking about picking this knife up, whether or not they care about combatives or pakal, because it represents the highest-tech knife Spyderco has done so far. As reported earlier, I had very low expectations of how the knife would feel in a utility grip (sabre grip), but perhaps because my expectations were so low I was pleasantly surprised. With my middle finger in the small cutout and my thumb on top of the wave, it's secure and comfortable enough for occasional utility cutting. This isn't the knife I'd choose if I knew I was going to break down 20 boxes and cut lts of big lengths of rope into little lengths, but it is absolutely better-than-adequate for occasional utility cutting, no need to carry a second knife. In fact, as I was breaking down boxes for my target, I found I liked using the P'kal better than my 710, because of the P'kal's shorter hooked blade.
Penetration: I had to adjust just a little bit ... I trained under Ray, and I think his mechanics are a little different than SN's, as evidenced by the knives Ray and his instructors have designed, versus the vastly different bladeshape SN favors. I made some small adjustments and then got great power and penetration into my target -- a bunch of cardboard with a 1/4" very-hard-plastic backstop, which I mounted both horizontally for forehand downward thrusts and vertically for pakal jabs. I realize this choice of backstop doesn't emulate a body at all, but it's tough to penetrate and so a good measure of how much power and penetration I'm getting. Since the whole target is on a backstop that compresses, it also forces me to get develop good speed and power and penetration angle -- too slow and it buckles without penetrating the hard plastic. With a little practice, I could get penetration all the way through the cardboard and plastic shield right down to removable wave, which I'm very pleased with.
The draw: I'm getting more and more comfortable with the draw. My hand seems to be developing the right movement without me consciously thinking about it ... right now, I can barely feel the roll into pakal, something I had to really concentrate on just two days ago.
Utility: It seems like an odd topic, but a lot of Spyderco fans are thinking about picking this knife up, whether or not they care about combatives or pakal, because it represents the highest-tech knife Spyderco has done so far. As reported earlier, I had very low expectations of how the knife would feel in a utility grip (sabre grip), but perhaps because my expectations were so low I was pleasantly surprised. With my middle finger in the small cutout and my thumb on top of the wave, it's secure and comfortable enough for occasional utility cutting. This isn't the knife I'd choose if I knew I was going to break down 20 boxes and cut lts of big lengths of rope into little lengths, but it is absolutely better-than-adequate for occasional utility cutting, no need to carry a second knife. In fact, as I was breaking down boxes for my target, I found I liked using the P'kal better than my 710, because of the P'kal's shorter hooked blade.
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