Donnie’s been tinkering around putting together an occasional knife and this is his latest. Great looking combination of Damascus and Buffalo Horn.
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Cold Weather and Contests
It’s warmed up to -24F already this morning. That figures out to about $.65 – .70 an hour to heat the house. It had been down to -26 when I put the coffee on around 5AM. I just got back from sending out the mail and it actually felt pretty decent outside compared to yesterday. Yesterday we had 30k+ winds with a wind chill dipping into the -40F range. Pretty sad when -24 doesn’t feel to bad…..
Like most of the rest of the country, it has been miserably cold up here but at least we’ve missed out on the heavy snows and are actually below average for snowfall. As a result, the frost line is going lower and lower. The ice on the lake is still getting thicker. And the temps are supposed to stay below average right through March into April.
I had someone ask this week if there was going to be another ice out contest similar to last year. All I can say is I think so. Right now, I’m getting a bit concerned we may stay iced over through the summer!!!! I went back through the blog and we kicked off the contest on April 12 last year with around 33″ of ice to melt. I haven’t gotten an official ice thickness measurement yet this year, but I know we’re well below that level.
So start doing your research and study up on global warming. We’re still well over a month away from the contest kickoff, but….. gotta have something to look forward to!!
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A quick look at the Q-Tac 3L
More knives continue to show up from Queen and a recent arrival of note is the new version of the Q-Tac 3L. While I haven’t had a lot of time to use it and really make a serious analysis, a couple of things stood out that are worth mention.
Here’s the specs:
Blade Length: 3 3/4″
Back Spring Material: Stainless Steel
Blade Thickness: .112″
Blade Material: ATS-34
Handle Material: Black G-10
Blade Hardness: 57-59
Blade Style: Clip
Overall Length: 8″
Liner Material: Nickel Silver
Overall Closed Length: 4 1/4″
Pinning Material: Stainless Steel
Weight: 4.8 oz
Out of the box it’s a great looking knife with ambidextrous thumb studs, lanyard tube and Paracord lanyard finished off with some nice looking G-10 handles. The opening is smooth and the lock up is solid. One of the modifications they’ve made from the original is an easy open cutout in the handle to keep the thumbs studs short enough to stay out of the way yet still allow easy access. It works.
I noticed that the thumb studs are just finger tight so removal is accomplished (on the knives I received) without any tools. This is great if you plan on sharpening the knife on a system such as the Edge Pro where they can get in the way. A caution however, check them frequently to make sure they’re tight and consider a drop of finger polish or Loctite to keep them secure.
It’s really comfortable in your hand and the easy open cutout actually serves to function as a finger groove. With the cutouts on the top of the blade for your thumb to ride on, you’ve got a super secure grip. They’re not sharp to the feel, but really keep you’re thumb right where you put it giving you maximum control.
A minor issue that’s easily resolved is the lanyard. On a knife this size, (particulary with a pocket clip) the lanyard is going to spend more time getting in my way then getting used. So I took it off. Not a big deal. Likewise, I removed the pocket clip for a couple of reasons. If you look at the picture below, you’ll notice the pocket clip is very narrow with a gentle upsweep from the point of contact with the handle.
Compared to my old Benchmade (top) it’s doesn’t offer a lot of ‘gripping’ area in contact with your pocket lining. I carried one of the early Q-Tacs with the skinny clip and found it had a tendency to crawl out of your pocket if you were squatting, doing a lot of climbing or bending over. Even a small depression in the handle directly under the bend in the clip would offer a lot more holding ability on your pocket lining. I’d really like to see a wider clip were I to leave it on the knife.
Also relating to the pocket clip are the mounting screws. Most all modern knives in this category use either the Torx or star type screws for mounting hardware. It’s so much easier to tighten or loosen these types of screws without harming the head of the screw. AND, the slotted heads don’t do a thing to the overall look of the knife. Were I to use the pocket clip, I might consider replacing the slotted with Torx.
The worst criticism I have was the knife arrived incredibly dull. Not sure what’s happening in the sharpening rooms but I also received some GEC’s recently that evidently got rushed through the process as well. I’ve never been intimidated by a dull knife and it’s pretty unusual I don’t end up taking most new knives to the sharpener before I really spend any time using them but this one really needed it. It’s just one of those details that seem to get overlooked far to often. On the upside, I spent about 10 minutes on the Edge Pro and that ATS-34 came out absolutely razor sharp.
I’ve got one of the Q-Tac 3L’s in my pocket right now, sans the pocket clip and lanyard. It doesn’t feel excessively heavy or bulky and actually carries quite nicely for a knife this size. I’ve had great luck with the Queen / Schatt & Morgan ATS-34 in the past and have no doubt this blade will perform equally well. While it’s a bigger knife than I typically carry around the office, I’m anxious to see how it works out!
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