CLIP
Initially I forgot to mention that, weirdly (for me), the Backlock is delivered in tip down configuration.
I am happy to say that it took me only a few minutes to reconfigure it in tip up with zero problem.
I read in another thread someone lament that the patch of G10 where the clip was affixed remains marred after you remove it. That's true if you look at it under the right light - you have to look for it (you will notice it does not show on the below picture).
If like mine, your Manix is a user, you won't care.
BLADE ACTION
I wrote quite a paragraph ref the rather stiff blade action as received. No grittiness at all, but what I would call a very tight smoothness if that makes sense.
First I treated the pivot with a few drops of Tuf Glide and worked the blade awhile. Slight improvement, nothing outstanding though.
Then I got a second Torx tip in the right size and gave a try to adjusting the pivot tension.
Complete success. No Loctite to break apparently (or maybe it's blue Loctite), I was able to loosen the tension easily. First a bit too much, easy to adjust back.
At this point the blade disengages by a few degrees when depressing the lock bar, allowing to securely close the blade with two hands, or with one hand pushing against the spine with my leg or anything available.
With a little flick when unlocking, the blade drops at 90° of the handle, the blade choil securely meeting my index placed in the forward position.
(My stubby fingers have difficulties doing the index-in-the-hole thing, it's really clumsy in my case, cannot get used to it).
So my main comment on the blade action stiffness still holds, but it's real easy to solve.
Even with the slight loosening of the pivot, the detent still holds strong: I am still not able to shake open the blade, however violent the shaking.
USING
Not surprisingly I used the Backlock for a series of standard cutting chores around the house and backyard with no issue and total satisfaction.
Lately I had to get rid of some tough thorny brambles that wanted to make their home in the angle of my terrace wall. With the original factory edge, the Backlock made short work of the task. With respect to the thorns I had garden gloves on but I had no problem taking the knife from my pocket, opening it, and closing it afterwards. Think I touched a water pipe doing it, which will be confirmed later on.
MAINTENANCE
The next day I checked the knife and realized that I had not completely cleaned some gooey stuff left from the brambles. Short cleaning with alcohol, no trace left on the blade whatsoever - good old S30V.
After the brambles episode the edge was not so sharp anymore. Still cutting, but not scary sharp. ("Scary sharp" in my book means, when feeling the edge with my thumb, the blade starts biting so eagerly at the slightest touch that I can feel hackles raise on my neck; I am sure you know the feeling.).
Initially I thought I would just do a quick touching up with the fine rods of the Sharp Maker like I did with the CF/Cruwear exclusive at the same point.
However, a quick examination with a magnifying glass showed me that I had slightly dented the edge the day before against that water pipe.
So I decided to start with the medium rods.
A touch of Sharpie in a few strategic places, and the first passes showed me that, with the rods at the 40° angle and the knife carefully held vertically, I was indeed perfectly working the apex. I went by the Sal book, 20 passes on the angles and then 20 more on the flats, and we were already back to scary sharp as per above definition.
I finished the work with the fine rods, maybe 15 passes on the angles and same on the flats were enough to finish the job.
I had not time to play with ultra fine or to strop the edge, so I decided it was "good enough to keep" and left it at that.
I will just add that one additional quality of the Manix design, in my opinion, is that the leaf shape of the blade with its very light belly makes it easy to sharpen even for non-pros of the sharpening like me.
CONCLUSION
One month later, and although I did not beat the living s..t out of the Backlock, I am sticking to my conclusions: strong knife, perfect finish, locking and detent, very comfortable to handle. The stiff action - which I did not rate as a defect anyway - is easy to adjust at your liking, so is the tip down position of the clip.
A great and above all very pleasant knife that is a joy to use in rotation with my CF/Cruwear.
Gerard
IMG_9828 by Gerard, on Flickr
