The MNK-1 is made from stock removal out of 1/8" thick cryogenically treated ATS-34 with a 1.5" blade and an overall length of 3.5". It comes with a Kydex neck sheath standard, a belt loop was added on request. The basic design has many possible configurations; the handle can be cord wrapped, white/black Micarta or Neoprene. The blade can be Wharncliffe or spear point with a chisel or dual grind. This one is Wharncliffe with chisel grind and cord wrapped handle. A shot of the MNK with two other knives for size reference :
From top to bottom; MEUK, Sub-Sniper, MNK . This picture was taken after the MNK and Sub-Sniper had been heavily used and sharpened.
UPDATE : the line of mini-neck knives have been discontinued .
The MNK-1 works very well as a neck knife. The printing isn't significant with belt loop and negligible with it removed. The sheath is only 5.5 millimeters thick at maximum and the blade weighs a minute 31 g including sheath which also reduces it tendancy to flop around. However the end of the handle was a bit sharp and would periodically dig into my chest. It was fixed with some polishing with a Dremel and some wet/dry sandpaper. The edges of the sheath with also contoured, mainly for aesthetic reasons.
Regarding belt carry, the loop is set for a cross draw and because of the small size the MNK-1 can be worn comfortably on the left and can be drawn and sheathed easily. The horizontal alignment also offers a very low visible profile as well as the sheath dimensions are 5.5 millimeters thick, 4.7 centimeters wide, 6.0 centimeters long. There cord wrap was also extended into a fob with also aids in drawning.
Because of the small size and mass the MPK-1 also makes a very funtional key chain knife. With the belt loop removed the profile was similar in dimension to large key chain tags. The blade retention is strong enough in the sheath that it can stand being thrown around on the sofa and floor with no problems.
The handle is only two inches which prohibits most normal grips. A pinch grip between thumb and index finger is enough for cutting paper, cardboard and light plastics. For fine point work, trimming up cardboard for example, the thumb and middle finger can be used for the pinch and the index along the spine for control. The spine has a grooved section which is prominent enough to prevent slippage but not rough enough to be abrasive, they can't scratch a thumbnail for example. The groves can however double as a light wood rasp to remove splinters.
The blade came with a decent polish and was scraping sharp for most of its length with a section about 0.5 centimeters long just under the tip that was a little blunt. This region could not catch on a thumbnail test and tended to slip rather than cut while slicing up cardboard. Stropping on chromiun oxide loaded leather, 150 strokes per side, made no improvement. A fine 800 grit ceramic rod was used for a couple of passes to make the knife shaving sharp except in that 0.5 centimeters region.
After carrying and using the blade for awhile it was fully sharpened to remove this blunt patch. After 15 passes per side on a fine diamond rod some damage was still visible. 75 strokes on an 8" x-coarse DMT benchstone were used to eliminate the damage. A fine DMT stone honed the edge which was then lightly polished with ten passes per side on a chromium oxide loaded strop. This left the MNK-1 push shaving sharp for the entire length of the edge. The straight line geometry makes sharpening very easy.
The blade profile is thin as the stock is only 1/8" , however since it is a chisel grind it tends to pull to the side on slices. To prevent this a little force needs to be exerted against the direction of movement. The Wharncliffe geometry turned out to be simply great for fine point work. As a more quantitative description of the cutting ability of the MNK-1 it was compared to a Calypso Jr.. Both are made from 1/8 "stock. Specifications :
| Model | Steel | RC | Blade | Bevel | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Width | Angle | Thickness | Included Angle | |||
| mm | degrees | mm | degrees | |||
| MNK-1 | ATS-34 | 59-61 | 16.3 | 9 | 1.0 | 34 |
| Calypso Jr. | AUS-8A | 58-59 | 24.8 | 3 | 0.6 | 32 |
On 1/8" ridged cardboard, in both stabbing and slicing cuts and slashes, both blades were similar in resistance to penetration and force needed to make the cut. While the Calypso Jr.'s larger handle made it more secure in the hand, there was still no trouble cutting up the cardboard with the MNK-1 including throwing the box up into the air and stabbing and slashing at it while it was falling. The cord wrap does offer enough friction to make a decently secure grip even with the very small contact area.
Both blades were also used to cut a pair of old sneakers in half. The MNK-1 could start cuts more efficiently with the very fine tip which could deeply score the rubber with little pressure. However on this larger grip on the Calypso Jr. allowed a more forceful cut to be made which made it possible, once the majority of the rubber was cut through (4/5), to just powering down on the knife doing a push cut through the remaining rubber. This could not be done with the MNK-1 as the grip is simply not large enough to provide enough hold. Similar performance was noted on thick rubber tubing.
After this work neither blade would shave but both would still catch on my fingernail. After some steeling (15 strokes) and a few passes on an 800 grit ceramic rod (5 strokes), both were push shaving sharp.
Using the blade for food preparation, the handle was the biggest limitation which made the cutting slower than with a normal paring knife. The only things that were not possible to do was make cuts that required deep penetration, slicing up a turnip for example. However you can cut up any vegetable that is under 3" though by making a circular cut around it. It does make a very nice steak knife. After some of the food cutting the cord was removed and rewrapped after rinsing to prevent contamination.
The steel is decently hard and abrasion resistant so holds an edge well on light work. However due to its small size, it will have a disadvantage over larger blades which can spread the work out over the longer area. No obvious problems with edge durability came to light, the blade could easily for example cut up a pop can, cutting the metal into strips (ten cuts) with no problems. The blade would no longer push shave but would still slice shave a little. There were no chips or deformations present in the edge and it was restored to a push shaving finish with 7 strokes on an 800 grit ceramic rod. This cutting did marr the finish on the blade a little. Later on the knife was accidently dropped from chest height onto concrete tip first and suffered no damage.
The MNK-1 was used to drill holes in a piece of 2x8" . A piece of wood was ran though one of the holes in the grip to make a handle. About seventy five quarter turns were necessary to go about 4/5 of the way through the board, and another twenty five turns on the other side to open up a hole about the size of coat-hanger wire. The blade was undamaged, just a little blunted and was restored to shaving sharp with a couple of passes on a 800 grit ceramic rod.
As a reference the wood drilling was also performed with an F1 from Fällkniven. This knife is much thicker than the MNK-1 and thus more power could be applised to the drilling. In seventy five turns a hole was made through the wood, and another ten turns on the other side opened up a hole large enough for a pencil through it. However in terms of comfort, the makeshift perpendicular grip on the MNK-1 was better as the wrist is in a stronger position.
About the oddest thing cut with the MNK was the teeth out of a Sharks's head found adandoned by some fisherman. The MNK-1 was lashed to a piece of wood using the cord from the grip to make a gaff to haul the head up. The teeth were cut out for my my nephew and the MNK took some slightly impaction during the removal, about three millimeters length of edge, which eventually came back to 100% after a few normal touchups.
After deciding to removal the choil notch, the blade was first used for some abusive work as the steel was going to be lost in grinding anyway.
With a hammer, the MNK was drove 0.5" deep into a piece of pine 2x4", and pushed sideways until the end was 1/4" off of center, the tip held fine. The blade took 1/2" sideways with no problems, as well as 3/4". However at one inch the tip broke 0.15" back from the point, the blade was 0.035" thick at the spine where it snapped and it was only 0.15" wide. The flex was about 15-20 degrees.
The blade was now reground to remove the choil notch. The blade was also formed into a but more of a sheepsfoot style to reform the point.
As a daily carry knife, this blade is a little small. The edge length isn't the main drawback but the shorter handle which has leverage issues. A dual primary grind would be an improvement giving greater control during cutting. Micarta would also be a better handle material, being more durable and ergonomic. The cord is however useful in and of itself when unwrapped and being easy to remove makes for some interesting utility applications as noted in the above. The Sub-Sniper is pretty much that exact blade.
Comments can be sent to : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com.
Lynn Griffith also has
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| Last updated : | Tue May 13 12:07:51 NDT 2003 |
| Tue Jun 6 21:35:30 NDT 2000 |