A sudden itch for V-Toku2

[Joey]

Thanks for your input on the matter.

[elena86]

Funny to see the Dragonfly look a big knife! Amazed that the 2 of them have the same length cutting edge. Obviously the DF is a better choice as an actual daily user though. Buying a DF would give my Chap LW a run for it's money as my small, daily folder. Thanks for that comparison photo.

No they don't ! Dfly has a 4 mm longer cutting edge which is quite longer for such small blades ! Dfly is indeed a little big blade... Manbug is just tiny.

[TkoK83Spy]

Funny to see the Dragonfly look a big knife! Amazed that the 2 of them have the same length cutting edge. Obviously the DF is a better choice as an actual daily user though. Buying a DF would give my Chap LW a run for it's money as my small, daily folder. Thanks for that comparison photo.

No they don't ! Dfly has a 4 mm longer cutting edge which is quite longer for such small blades ! Dfly is indeed a little big blade... Manbug is just tiny.

If lined up cutting edge to cutting edge, they look very close to me.

[The Meat man]

Funny to see the Dragonfly look a big knife! Amazed that the 2 of them have the same length cutting edge. Obviously the DF is a better choice as an actual daily user though. Buying a DF would give my Chap LW a run for it's money as my small, daily folder. Thanks for that comparison photo.

No they don't ! Dfly has a 4 mm longer cutting edge which is quite longer for such small blades ! Dfly is indeed a little big blade... Manbug is just tiny.

If you follow the curve of the blades you will find that they are virtually the same. The Manbug has a lot more belly to it which gives it more cutting edge than is readily apparent.

[Mom3ntuM]

The blade on the DF is longer, but the lenght Of sharpened blade seems pretty close.

[elena86]

We can all read so ... read the specs instead of throwing "it looks"or "it seems" !!! I own both and measured both ... Dfly has a 4mm longer cutting edge lenght so the official specs are spot on ! In my Newtonian world 48mm > 44 mm. Enough said.

[TkoK83Spy]

We can all read so ... read the specs instead of throwing "it looks"or "it seems" !!! I own both and measured both ... Dfly has a 4mm longer cutting edge lenght so the official specs are spot on ! In my Newtonian world 48mm > 44 mm. Enough said.

No need to get so defensive and act like a rooster about it. Jeeeez

[Mom3ntuM]

I still think their cutting Edge seems pretty close.

[Joey]

It is surprisingly close side by side. I’d have never guessed they were close in blade length (though to be honest I rarely look at size specs. I don’t have any knife restrictions.) Holding each in real life however, having the blade thickness and far larger handle on the Dragonfly 2 puts it in a whole new size bracket, even if only mentally. I need confidence in my tools before I use them, and that’s not something I can get from a manbug.

[Sharp Guy]

We can all read so ... read the specs instead of throwing "it looks"or "it seems" !!! I own both and measured both ... Dfly has a 4mm longer cutting edge lenght so the official specs are spot on ! In my Newtonian world 48mm > 44 mm. Enough said.

No need to get so defensive and act like a rooster about it. Jeeeez

I just used a piece of string and measured one of each. The Dragonfly is about 3 mm longer (.118"). Sure enough, the cutting edge on the Dragonfly is waaaay longer. :D

[The Meat man]

I stand corrected. I did the string measurement as well, but perhaps I miss read something. The Dragonfly I used for comparison had a slightly rounded tip which might have caused a discrepancy.

At any rate, they are more similar in edge length than one might expect from their relative overall sizes.

[BigKenbo]

I was having some serious problems deciding between the vtoku and the hap40. I read about everything i was able to find, and decided the hap40 would meet my "wants" a touch better. Having said that, i feel quite confident there will be a vtoku-2 inbound as well!

[TkoK83Spy]

Mine is due to arrive at my work tomorrow morning. I left some work behind today, in order to put it to use asap!

I'll post back with my impressions compared to HAP40, after a days work. I'm quite fond of my HAP40 Delica, wondering how this lil fella will stack up.

[The Meat man]

Mine is due to arrive at my work tomorrow morning. I left some work behind today, in order to put it to use asap!

I'll post back with my impressions compared to HAP40, after a days work. I'm quite fond of my HAP40 Delica, wondering how this lil fella will stack up.

Sounds good Rick! I will be looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[TkoK83Spy]

The Dragonfly has arrived! I knew it was going to be a small knife, but this thing feels tiny! I like that it's about the same size as the Chap LW, but totally different ergos. I do find the Chap more comfortable. I do like this lil fella though. If I choke up and put my thumb over the ramp and on the spine, it's much more comfortable and my fingers fit in the handle much better. That, or place my thumb on the side of the blade also works well. Of course neither will work if slicing through something, but great for opening packages or cutting banding, etc.

I also like the shorter wire clip on this knife compared to the Chap LW. When carrying the Chap in my coin pocket of my jeans, the clip is actually long enough to just touch my RFP at the hem line. For now, I'm going to keep the pocket clip on the DF. Doesn't seem to get in the way and is quite strong. Lots of tension.

So much for the rambling. Here's a few pics of the quite even laminate lines on both sides (which I can't wait to develop a patina!), and a side by side with the Manix 2 I was already carrying today. Just for a size comparison (for a very select few that may not be familiar with one or either of these knives) :p

[BigKenbo]

Mine is due to arrive at my work tomorrow morning. I left some work behind today, in order to put it to use asap!

I'll post back with my impressions compared to HAP40, after a days work. I'm quite fond of my HAP40 Delica, wondering how this lil fella will stack up.

Cant wait to hear what you come up with!

[BigKenbo]

The Dragonfly has arrived! I knew it was going to be a small knife, but this thing feels tiny! I like that it's about the same size as the Chap LW, but totally different ergos. I do find the Chap more comfortable. I do like this lil fella though. If I choke up and put my thumb over the ramp and on the spine, it's much more comfortable and my fingers fit in the handle much better. That, or place my thumb on the side of the blade also works well. Of course neither will work if slicing through something, but great for opening packages or cutting banding, etc.

I also like the shorter wire clip on this knife compared to the Chap LW. When carrying the Chap in my coin pocket of my jeans, the clip is actually long enough to just touch my RFP at the hem line. For now, I'm going to keep the pocket clip on the DF. Doesn't seem to get in the way and is quite strong. Lots of tension.

So much for the rambling. Here's a few pics of the quite even laminate lines on both sides (which I can't wait to develop a patina!), and a side by side with the Manix 2 I was already carrying today. Just for a size comparison (for a very select few that may not be familiar with one or either of these knives) :p


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Thanks for the update!

[TkoK83Spy]

Not a major test, but after the past hour of constantly cutting packaging tape, about 20 bands of plastic strapping and cutting away the 4 tops off of 18 boxes...my hand is a bit sore. I probably should have done this with the Manix instead haha. But, I wanted to put this steel to work. The DF being such a small knife, did the job well. I just think for purposely going into my little test as cutting machine, it was a bit much...not for the knife, but the size of it and ergos for my hand.

The blade/steel itself handled it like a pro! I started to feel a slight drag as I got towards the end of the box tops and has dulled a bit, but is still fairly sticky. Nothing 10 minutes with the Sharpmaker can't fix later. Considering the size of the blade and lack of cutting edge, I'm quite impressed honestly. I think if I had V-Toku2 in a Delica/Endura/Stretch that it obviously would have been much easier and I would have been able to utilize more of a cutting edge. One thing I learned from cutting cardboard with my Delica HAP40, was how easily it scratched. So, with the DF when cutting the tops off the boxes, I pulled up on the top ever so slightly as I was cutting through so it was just the edge cutting into the cardboard...no scratches on the laminate :)

Comparing it to HAP40 is a bit difficult for me, because I have different models in these steels. It seems like the V-Toku2 may have a bit more bite left on the edge compared to a similar test I did with the Delica HAP40 a while back. It's tough to remember, but they both still cut through paper afterwards, though not cleanly.

Can anybody else give their thoughts on a comparison between the 2 steels, maybe with more similar test models?

[Joey]

I wish I still worked in a warehouse as you do, would be nice to put steels to use. I have profiled edges on my stretch 2 and Dragonfly, and found the steel easy to work with. Fun/easy to patina, and gets seemingly very sharp compared to the small number of steels I’ve sharpened. I hesitate to say “gets scary sharp so easily” because I hear it a lot, but my V-toku2 steel knives are easily among my sharpest that have been sharpened by me (admittedly not a very good point of reference, but it’s something).
That’s interesting though, I have heard Hap40 is a harder steel. I imagined you would wear out the V-toku2 edge faster, but it seems the tests werent super technical and were spaced out.
So to answer your question, no haha! Just wanted to share what experience I had with the steel I have.
That said, thanks for the update and initial review! You give people crap for not reporting their findings, so it’s nice to see some feedback come from your new knives being used (especially since there isn’t much experience being shared with V-toku2).

[TkoK83Spy]

Warehouse work (I'm a shipping/receiving coordinator) is a great job to have if you want to be able to use knives! No complaints here, I actually love my job.

You are right, it certainly wasn't a technical test and was done rather quickly. When I did the same thing with my Delica, that was a good 8 months ago so my memory is a bit foggy in terms of the sharpness after the testing. That's why I was hoping others could chime in as well, as I didn't want to throw out incorrect info to anybody reading this looking for answers or insight!

Yeaaaa, I know I can be a bit forward and kind of rude at times. It just irks me a bit when we have a knife with a new steel come out and seems like people just want to collect it or flip it instead of using it. Then we don't have any reviews or anything to learn or compare to, just some pretty pictures of flawless knives! (I know, to each their own what they do with their knives)

So last night I couldn't wait to put a patina on this baby! I let it sit in white vinegar overnight. I made a bit of a mess and cleaned up the vinegar with a paper towel and thought a patina would look cool with the paper towel prints on it, so I wrapped the blade in the vinegar soaked paper towel. I like the way it looks, a bit different. Gives it some character...but, stupid me...allowed the logo to get soaked and it pretty much faded it all away besides a small spot in the middle of the logo :o

Anywho, here's a couple pics with the new patina and along with the GB2 for the day.