TwoSun Tuesday: TS426 "Kilij" Tepe Design in Ti & Micarta Inlay with 3.36" N690 Blade
Published: 1 year ago
This isn’t a brand new knife if you’re not familiar. This is a design that Tepe (Shan) had made several years back with a different OEM and sold through his website and knife shows. That one (from memory) had a carbon fiber inlay, an M390 blade and a wider clip with a ceramic ball.
This is pretty much a “production” version of that knife. The blade is quite stout with thicker geometry including the upswept tip. This has some offense connotations to it rather than a thinner grind like most EDC’s tend to have these days.
The detent is crisp as an Irish spring, but requires a fair amount of pressure before the blade releases. I don’t have issues deploying it, but my room mates do, so keep in mind some finger strength is needed.
What does make this thing frustrating to me has to do with the pocket clip mixed with the lockbar relief. It’s got a stepped or “crenelated” lockbar relief, which is usually my preference if it’s done externally. However, the pocket clip sits just over these, so those sharp edges of the titanium get dragged through your pocket material each time you put it in and take it out, leading to many worn out pockets. Moving the lockbar relief to the inside would have alleviated that, but wouldn’t abide by the original design. Maybe trying to recreate the original pocket clip would have helped in this regard.
Specs:
3.36" (85.3 mm) N690 blade with 4 mm stock thickness
4.46 oz / 126.5 gram weight
0.55" (14 mm) handle thickness (Ti & Micarta)
Frame Lock
Ceramic bearings & detent ball
This is pretty much a “production” version of that knife. The blade is quite stout with thicker geometry including the upswept tip. This has some offense connotations to it rather than a thinner grind like most EDC’s tend to have these days.
The detent is crisp as an Irish spring, but requires a fair amount of pressure before the blade releases. I don’t have issues deploying it, but my room mates do, so keep in mind some finger strength is needed.
What does make this thing frustrating to me has to do with the pocket clip mixed with the lockbar relief. It’s got a stepped or “crenelated” lockbar relief, which is usually my preference if it’s done externally. However, the pocket clip sits just over these, so those sharp edges of the titanium get dragged through your pocket material each time you put it in and take it out, leading to many worn out pockets. Moving the lockbar relief to the inside would have alleviated that, but wouldn’t abide by the original design. Maybe trying to recreate the original pocket clip would have helped in this regard.
Specs:
3.36" (85.3 mm) N690 blade with 4 mm stock thickness
4.46 oz / 126.5 gram weight
0.55" (14 mm) handle thickness (Ti & Micarta)
Frame Lock
Ceramic bearings & detent ball