Field Strip of the Extrema Ratio A.M.F Knife

The Parts of the Extrema Ratio AMF Knife

Ok so Extrema Ratio indicate that the AMF is field strippable. What does this mean? Well it means if you have access to a 3mm Allen key wrench otherwise known as an Allen Key, commonly used for socket head bolts, you will be able to disassemble the AMF Knife in the field or of course at home in order to clean it if it gets submerged in salt water or any kind of fluid.

Here are the pictures, they are self explanatory I believe.

A 3mm Allen wrench is required to disassemble the Extrema Ratio AMF Knife

Once the stainless steel socket bolt has been removed, all the parts can be stripped from the tang.

The front guard is not symmetrical and can not be put on incorrectly (why it has been milled out in the centre, I do not know. I would have thought that hilt of the blade should have sat slightly recessed within this thick guard, but this is not the case. If it is milled because of a weight saving, then little weight is saved like this. BTW the black marks are from oil present from manufacturing and assembling (I cleaned it off).

The Allen bolt screws into (what appears to be a hardened) a female thread nut, which is retained within the end of the knife tang by friction. One must be careful not to loose this part, should it come lose, otherwise it will be very difficult (but not impossible) to keep the handle on. Ordinarily however, no outwards pressure is directed towards this bolt and fixture.

One thing I noted was that I felt based upon the machining workmanship of all of my other Extrema Ratio knives, the AMF's front guard could have been made with slightly better tolerances. It's not a huge big deal but still, this is purely based upon all of my (and it is extensive) experience with Extrema Ratio edged products.

The tip of the tang protrudes slightly above the Forprene grip, this then slots into the rear guard preventing the rear guard from twisting/rotating. The Socket head bolt sits shy of the butt cap in order to avoid damage to the head of the bolt if you strike the pommel onto hard surfaces.

The Tang of the Extrema Ratio AMF isn't full width but of course this would make the knife incredibly heavy and it would not be practical to put a handle on such a large knife with a full width tang. The tang however, is very very beefy and as you can see has not been milled out like on some "full width tang" knives whereby lightening the knife but at the same time weakening it's construction.

Stainless fixing hardware on the Extrema Ratio AMF.

Hi all I forgot to say something about all the parts and what they are made out of. Well placing a Neodymium magnet next to ALL parts EXCEPT the blade results in very little attraction- they are magnetic but exhibit poor attraction to powerful magnets. This is an indication of a low magnetic stainless steel grade. I asked Extrema Ratio and they did tell me that the fixing parts including the guards and pommel were of a Stainless grade. My guess is low low magnetic 300 series? Anyway the blade of course is strongly magnetic since it's N690.