http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSrlvqrZQKY

And so this video was kind of an eye opening experience. This video without any doubt show how 4 by 4 pine was cut through and then same knife shave clean. All process is on tape, No interruptions, knife is always seen - very good done video, clear evidence of what 1095 is capable of. This make me to start thinking about this steel. I was thinking to get same knife, but I do not like skeleton construction. Also I was thinking about top grade heat treatment. Also I had some unsuccessful attempts to get second knife from Yuna and finally give it up. So I was looking for custom folder Ti+G10 frame lock (simple and affordable) and I was looking for 1095 steel too. So when I checked TAD Gear  (I am doing this on a daily basis as well as some other sites) and see new manufacturer there Sniper Blade Works all this desires found just perfect match!

They have two models LPC and Mini LPC in tan and green. With titanium and G10 scales and Mini LPC had 1095 steel blade, not just 1095 but differentially tempered, with hamon - area of higher hardness around edge. It is debatable, does it make sense or not on 3 1/2" blade or it needed only for long swords - for me it is sign of highly skilled blade smith. So this is like a signature, meaning that whoever did this blade skilled enough to use this technic on the blade. And he is - Jody Muller blade smith and member of ABS, so this make me confident that I will have best 1095 I can find. Here you may see hamon best, hamon itself, shadow of hamon... - everything indicate that this is done properly:

But when I convince myself and decide to make an order - I found that those knifes already sold out at TAD Gear! Well, I come to Google for help. And Google did help as usual! I found this page Sniper Blade Works... I talk to both Jody and Lance, told them what I am looking for. And in less then a month have this beauty done for me! Jody sent me pictures of it just to verify that everything is like I want - everything was just perfect and in few days I have it in my collection! It was extremely quick, for knife made by my specification, I was really impressed. With Yuna it took more then 6 month for first knife and for Dozier it take 9 months or something like this. But with Sniper Blade Works it take almost no time. 

Knife has big blade, wide and longer then you may expect with this handle. This is my favorite blade shape - being reasonable short, it still strong also with almost full  flat grind it make it excellent slicer. It is also much easier to use it for digging (in dirt or ...in caned beef as well... this feature turns out to be major plus for Russian specnaz - see RosArms Utes review reprinted in Tactical knives July 2008 from my website). Blade is polished by hand and etched a little bit. This polish prevent it from rust. Blade made out of good old 1095 carbon steel but properly heat treated and with hamon - as a signature of skilled blade smith. blade has solid choil and ricasso with Sniper Blade Works label. It has clip point shape, edge is not very curved - I would add - very easy to sharpen. It has thumb studs on both sides and no flipper - I think it is possible to made flipper there in theory.   length 3 1/2" 90 mm. width 1 7/16" 36 mm thickness 5/32" 4 mm weight 4.81 oz 136.6g Knife was undersharpened, I would say out of the box - I see clear nice burr on one side trough all edge length. However edge was accurate - in many cases edge has little variation in angle and depth, which is not really seen on "thoothy" edge, but require quite an effort to flatten. This knife did not give me any troubles during initial sharpness and I got my hair whittling sharpness. And later when I did intensive testing(cut manila rope 1200 times total) it was easy to resharpen back to shave hair. However, it did not loose really too much sharpness during that tests (see details beloew). Steel is good old 1095, used for generations for knives - famous KaBar made out of this steel. It is very simple in composition carbon steel, C=0.90-1.03  Mn=0.30-0.50 very malleable, plastic, flexible - good for smith work (unlike stainless steels) and cheap. I guess last property lower a lot it's chances to became modern popular superstgeel. However it does perform extremely well as you may see on  BLUNTRUTH4U video and as my tests also shows.

Handle is - lock side titanium and other side only G10 (no metal liner), same as it was for early Military. It has long titanium spacer which holds all handle construction with four screws. Handle is pretty thin and this is also sign of high craftsmanship - hole for blade is pretty thin and there is not room for it to be out of center, but it fits just perfectly, right in the middle, I would say mathematically right in the middle - Jody was jeweler and watch maker for decades, so no wonder that knife's mechanics is so precise. I choose orange handle - hard to miss color. Some prefers only black, but I am not in "assassin guild" or whatever they play in and I am sure no one will doubted my gender even if I have not orange but pink handle for my knife... I also like to have red or yellow knife. It is widely used for other tool, because it is just much easy to find bright tool in the grass or in the dirt or it the snow, then I guess more mannish black.

Shape of the handle is for the handle is pretty comfortable. I found that it does not matter too much for most use, for light cuts arm will hold any shape somehow - we have five fingers, after all, with one opposite, this is what differ us from other animals. But for power cuts, where handle need to project a lot of force to cutting edge - handle geometry is extremely important! At first it should be safe and prevent hand from slipping into edge, when power is involved it is harder to control knife, time is faster and cut may be very dangerous. Second it should be comfortable, other wise hand will be hurt and this also limit freedom of use, because I have to use knife with additional caution. For this knife I may identify two major power grips. One is "tactical" with thumb on the handle spine and pointing finger in the lock grove. Second is "working" with pointing finger on choil. Both grips are pretty safe and comfortable - most of handle spine is covered by spacer. For this two grips handle is anatomical and fits palm very well. I think this is what Lance brought into this company - deep, hands on knowledge of "tactical" world.

Frame lock is solid and getting stronger over use. After I cut 1/2" manila rope 40 times it take some effort to unlock it. Access to lock it good - had no problem with it. There is not any stopper for lock, except may be titanium clip, which is right where I like it to be. However it is only one position possible. Handle has lanyard hole - I am going to tie proper lanyard to it. Handle titanium is processed somehow, but I do not know was it bead blasted or this is something different. Whatever it is - I like it. Handle is smooth - I ask for it intentionaly, I like smooth surface and prefer anatomical geometry then rough surface for handle.

With all those nice features, however, my main reason to have this knife was exceptional cutting performance demonstrated so colorfuly by BLUNTRUTH4U on his video. I wish to be as strong as he is to cut through 4" x 4" pine and then shave my arm... But I have my own well established method - manila rope cutting and thread statistical sharpness test. This is also gave me some idea how this steel may fit into rating for other steel I already have. I decided to change my method a bit, do less sharpness tests then usual, but increase final number of cuts to 400 (twice), I also decide to repeate same test session 3 times, just to see how consistent results are. Results I got from 1095 steel Mini LPC knife by Sniper Blade Works was amaizing!

Cuts     Oz.   Oz.  Oz.
 00 -  .5  .5  .5
 01 - 2.0 2.5 1.5
 10 - 3.5 3.5 3.0
 50 - 5.0 4.0 4.5
100 - 4.5 4.0 5.0
200 - 4.0 4.5 5.0
400 - 4.0 4.0 5.0

Check for yourself:

Cut ZDP SDV M-2 D-2 S30 AU8 O31 SG2 FD2 3G  SRS SwR R3V INF RUS 10V dD2 Boo 420 110 B42 S30 154 kD2 ZDP M-4 Slv 1095
000 010 015 015 020 015 015 020 020 015 020 020 020 020 020 020 020 015 020 015 020 015 020 015 015 010 015 015 005
001 015 030 035 030 025 040 030 035 030 035 035 030 030 035 045 020 020 030 030 030 025 030 020 025 015 025 030 020
010 040 060 045 050 050 070 050 065 065 065 050 045 045 050 070 035 025 060 055 045 040 040 035 035 030 035 045 035
040 055 085 070 090 065 090 065 085 080 095 060 050 060 070 090 045 040 075 065 060 050 050 050 045 040 045 050 ...
050 ........................................................................................................... 050
060 055 095 075 085 070 095 075 085 085 080 065 040 070 070 095 050 040 085 080 060 045 060 050 045 050 060 050 ...
100 055 100 095 100 070 095 085 100 080 105 070 045 075 080 100 055 040 075 070 060 060 060 050 050 050 060 060 045
200 080 105 080 120 075 110 095 110 085 100 070 055 070 075 100 065 040 085 080 055 055 065 060 055 050 055 050 040
400 ........................................................................................................... 040

Result is best among 28 knives with different steels, only Dozier has same results, but I did not tested it up to 400 cuts! This is what I was looking for after I saw that video - and I found it! I am planing to repeat this test at least two times, to see how stable results will be, but even now it is clear that this is best my performer at least best performing folder!

This is comparison shot with well known Spuderco Military (old one which also has one side of the handle G10 only):

And this is another folder with same design style (Ti+G10 introduced by Strider if I am not mistaken):