I came across Montana Knife Company while listening to Josh Smith on the Dave Ramsey EntreLeadership podcast. He had some interesting insights about building a brand focused on high-quality, American-made knives. The designs look impressive, but I haven't had a chance to use one myself yet. Has anyone here tried them out? I'm curious about their performance in real-life situations.
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Anyone tried out Montana Knife Company knives?
- Thread starter Alan
- Start date
I do not have one, nor have I seen one in person. But I do know a lot about knife making, knife steel, and other related topics so here's my honest opinion.
Honestly, a knife is a knife when it comes down to functionality. Who makes it has little to do with whether it is "good" or not, outside of appearance. What matters is steel type, quench method (if that company hardens it themselves) and handle durability (hinge strength if necessary, clips if applicable, that sort of thing.)
From looking at their website, it seems that they use magnacut, and their blades are fixed and go into a scabbard, and either use paracord or pinned and screwed scales for handles, depending on the model. Being that they don't advertise cryo quenching, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they are machined post hardening. I could be wrong, but that's my guess.
Their steel is MagnaCut. I have worked with that steel extensively, and it is simply put, the best there is. It lasts longer before it needs sharpened, it's not too prone to chipping with realistic sharpening angles, it is relatively difficult to sharpen unless you use diamond stones, but diamond stones are so cheap these days it's really not worth not using them these days. A diamond kit on amazon can be had for under $20 now.
Their handle design looks robust and replaceable/repairable given that it appears they're using screws to attach them. Their blade shapes look well designed, some are a bit sharper at the point than they need to be for hunting, but that shape is useful for other things so I'm not judging. Their Elkhorn Skinner is a good shape for gutting and skinning larger 4 legged game (antelope, deer, elk, etc), with it's point being sharp enough to poke when needed, but won't penetrate too deep on accident when you're reaching up into the chest cavity blind getting the lungs detached from the ribs.
I think they're pretty pricy personally, but I bet if you buy one and don't lose it, it'll last most of a lifetime. Maybe 2 lifetimes if you don't use it as much as I use my knives.
I have a lot of knives in various shapes and steels, and I'm a woodworker by trade so I also have chisels in various steels (often which are the same steels as knives) and nothing holds an edge longer than magnacut, period. If you're interested, choose the shape that best suits your needs, and don't look back. I bet the worst that could happen is that the scales are loose or poor quality, in which case their screw on pinned design would be pretty simple to make new, prettier handles. But based on the image they're trying to make for themselves I bet it's at least adequate if not pretty decent.
As long as you're comfortable sharpening a knife, and tightening a couple screws, I simply cannot see a possibility of buying one and being disappointed.
I'm not in the market, but if I was I'd consider them based on their nice blade shapes and magnacut steel alone.
Wish I had one in hand to give you more in depth and accurate info, but from my background knowledge that's the best I can provide for now.
Honestly, a knife is a knife when it comes down to functionality. Who makes it has little to do with whether it is "good" or not, outside of appearance. What matters is steel type, quench method (if that company hardens it themselves) and handle durability (hinge strength if necessary, clips if applicable, that sort of thing.)
From looking at their website, it seems that they use magnacut, and their blades are fixed and go into a scabbard, and either use paracord or pinned and screwed scales for handles, depending on the model. Being that they don't advertise cryo quenching, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they are machined post hardening. I could be wrong, but that's my guess.
Their steel is MagnaCut. I have worked with that steel extensively, and it is simply put, the best there is. It lasts longer before it needs sharpened, it's not too prone to chipping with realistic sharpening angles, it is relatively difficult to sharpen unless you use diamond stones, but diamond stones are so cheap these days it's really not worth not using them these days. A diamond kit on amazon can be had for under $20 now.
Their handle design looks robust and replaceable/repairable given that it appears they're using screws to attach them. Their blade shapes look well designed, some are a bit sharper at the point than they need to be for hunting, but that shape is useful for other things so I'm not judging. Their Elkhorn Skinner is a good shape for gutting and skinning larger 4 legged game (antelope, deer, elk, etc), with it's point being sharp enough to poke when needed, but won't penetrate too deep on accident when you're reaching up into the chest cavity blind getting the lungs detached from the ribs.
I think they're pretty pricy personally, but I bet if you buy one and don't lose it, it'll last most of a lifetime. Maybe 2 lifetimes if you don't use it as much as I use my knives.
I have a lot of knives in various shapes and steels, and I'm a woodworker by trade so I also have chisels in various steels (often which are the same steels as knives) and nothing holds an edge longer than magnacut, period. If you're interested, choose the shape that best suits your needs, and don't look back. I bet the worst that could happen is that the scales are loose or poor quality, in which case their screw on pinned design would be pretty simple to make new, prettier handles. But based on the image they're trying to make for themselves I bet it's at least adequate if not pretty decent.
As long as you're comfortable sharpening a knife, and tightening a couple screws, I simply cannot see a possibility of buying one and being disappointed.
I'm not in the market, but if I was I'd consider them based on their nice blade shapes and magnacut steel alone.
Wish I had one in hand to give you more in depth and accurate info, but from my background knowledge that's the best I can provide for now.