Mantis Knives MU3
Review by Phil Elmore
It was in early 2007 when The Martialist first took note of Mantis Knives, a brand that seemed to appear out of nowhere in dealer catalogs and knife magazine advertisements. Contacting a real, live human being through the company's website proved surprisingly easy. We are therefore happy, after a year of living and working with these knives, to present long-term reviews of this company's blades.
According to Jared West, owner of Mantis Knives, the company was
founded in late 2005 and debuted at the 2006 SHOT Show. "The
Mantis Logo came to me before the name did," Jared told me. "I
was sitting in an International Business class at the Hilton Business
School at L.M.U. in 2001. I was taking notes, and this logo just
hit me, so I scribbled it down. I revised it a couple of
times. Now it's the logo that you see on every Mantis Knives box
that ships out of our Anaheim Hills headquarters."
That headquarters is a 10,000 square foot facility in Orange County,
California. Some of the knives in the Mantis line are made in the
United States, while others are assembled in Taiwan from US-made
materials (sent by Mantis from Crucible and other sources). The
result is a line of affordable knives of decent quality for the money,
including the only brand of knives officially sanctioned by the United
States Catfish Anglers Tournament Series. "We're the only company
they endorse," Jared states. "We're [also] the only knife
company in the world to offer S30V stainless steel on a folder for less
than $100.00 [USD]."
Jared carries his own company's MK1 model when "hucking boxes and
working in the shop or warehouse." While out on the town, dressed
nicely, or in formal meetings, he carries "my MT2SC. It's slim,
lightweight, and elegant." Price, performance, and style are what
set his company apart from others, according to Jared. "Put our
knives to the test," he urges. "They endure. Every Mantis
knife has a unique, post-modern, industrial look to it. Ever
since I was young, I've been into strange angles and structures in
architecture and design. If I were to design a building, it would
look an awful lot like the Getty Center in Los Angels, or maybe even
the Walt Disny Concert Hall."
At just 27 years old, Jared is a young entrepreneur who seems eager to take on a competitive and often politically charged industry. Mantis' blade materials range from stainless steels like 420HC to more rugged alloys like BG42 and 154CM. Handle materials also range from unusual metal designs to more conventional G10 and carbon fiber slabs.
The Mantis MU3 "Picker" is a simple fixed-blade that could see use as a dive knife, a neck knife, or some other emergency blade. A single piece of 420HC steel with a 1.5-inch blade (it is just under 6 inches overall), the Picker has a plastic sheath that incorporates a large lanyard hole and retains the lightweight blade by friction. The blade locks into the sheath positively (it is a stiff fit out of the box). Both knife and sheath include texturing (dots on the sheath, with dots and grooves on the knife) to provide appropriate traction for drawing the knife and manipulating the blade once the knife is out of the sheath.
The ring in the handle is too small for any of my fingers, but I can insert a finger through the skeletonized handle itself for more grip and greater control. The serrated edge, which is ground on one side only, cuts extremely well through loose media like cloth and rope. The geometry of the tip means it isn't the best penetrator in the world, but it will get the job done (and this isn't intended as a stabbing/penetrating tool anyway).
The whole package is extremely flat, which means this knife could fit many places a more elaborate fixed blade would not. I can think of numerous applications, both emergency and "tactical," for which this little MU3 would be well suited. The simple but useful sheath and the clean design of the knife won me over right out of the box.
You ought to have one of these. >>