Presenting : SHIROGOROV HATI CF / ELMAX / BLUE Ti
Steel - Elmax
Blade length - 3.8"
Handle length- 4.5"
OAL- 8.3"
Edge length- 4"
Behind edge - .010" at heel to belly, thickens to .020" at tip
Blade thickness- .172.5"
Opening method - Flipper
CRK style pivot
**** guys, i think this is the knife, as in THE knife, at least for now.
Lets start with the Fit and finish-
Flawless
I mean seriously flawless. The previous owner must have lubricated it when he got it and the flipping action was hindered. Now there is a strange thing going on here, it flips better with the likes of CRC 5.52 and other thin (wd40ish) lubes, when I use nano oil, its slightly smoother, but the detent comes out of the hole easier. hah. So I am sticking with CRC, anyway thats beside the point. Running it on CRC , it flips flawlessly. The flipepr tab isnt one of those pointy uncomfortable flippers like the Hinderer XM18 or Curtiss F3, it is designed to not be a hot spot.
Lockup out of the box sat at about 10 percent and absolutely rock solid in both directions, blade falls shut when the lockbar is released, and when using nano oil, it will fall shut with gravity. - Here is the fun part- It isn't on bearings, its on washers. Its smooth as a ball bearing pivot . I have since tweaked it to lock up later-
The lock has an overtravel stop built into the steel lockface to stop it getting over extended when unlocking, and has an overtravel stop to stop it engaging too far, though its only bent in enough to engage the steel face only. I have tried spine impacts on it (not hard) and its secure as can be.
The pivot is set up like a CRK , You have the little collar in the pivot, so when you put it back together, you just crank it all up and its perfect. The collar is made from phosphor bronze as opposed to steel. Although upon reassembling and generally screwing with the knife, I had a hair of play, so I opted for adjustability and shortened the collar with a couple swirls of sandpaper. But thats just me.
THe machine work is flawless, I can NOT find a fault, even the small corner has a chamfer where the lock cutout transitions into the relief cutout ( it isnt actually the relief but looks like one)
The Carbon fiber has a beautiful swooping pattern that fattens out , then between the gaps the pattern starts again , hard to explain but you might be able to see in the next pics it makes it look like all the arcs go from front to back, but only half of them do.
