(Article originally published on All Outdoor)
When you take a classic form and change it, there are bound to be complainers. And when Chris Reeve changed the Mnandi, altering the nail nick, I was one of those complainers. But the look of the knife so enticed me that I got over the nail nick and bought one.
After a few months of pretty regular carry, I can say that the knife is still a classic, still one of the best designed and finest made production knives on the planet. And, in the end, the change wasn’t all that big a deal. In fact, one of the other two major changes, improving the design of the pocket clip, is probably more than enough to make up for the smoothed out nail nick.
Description
The Chris Reeve Mnandi (here is my review of the old nail nick version) is a high end production knife. It is probably most often used as a gentleman’s knife or as a compact EDC knife.
The blade is a clip point blade of S35VN. The blade is thin and hollow ground to an extremely sharp cutting edge.
The handles are titanium with large, natural material inlays. In the case of the review sample here, they are snakewood inlays. Snakewood, on a board foot basis, is one of the most expensive woods in the world, with very small amounts available commercially. There have been a number of different inlays over the years, but not all are currently available. The other inlays currently in production include bocote, box elder burl, and ebony wood. Special editions also run mammoth ivory.
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(images courtesy of alloutdoor.com)