RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK 2 An Excellent Design

RAIDOPS  Black Tiger MK2. 
preview by BushCampingTools

RAIDOPS BLACK TIGER MK2 made in Italy

 The RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 features an almost full flat grind, clip point in a practical designed knife which comes in 4 models to suit everyone. 

Anti- reflection black teflon coating, with serrations

Specifications of the RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2

Blade length: 4.56" or 116mm.
Total length (Knife in scabbard) 9.68" or 246mm
Weight: Knife only 212grams (7.5Oz.)
Total weight: 299 grams (10.5Oz.)
HRC: 58-60
Spine/tang thickness: 5mm/0.2"

Shown here a size 8-9 hand, easily closes over this comfortable, zero hotspot grip/knife handle of milled G10 composite. Note the presence of vertical grooves to help reduce slippage when pushing or pulling this blade into materials.

or without serrations 

Non- serrated version of the Black Tiger MK2 (Image courtesy of RAIDOPS)

and a stone washed version no serrations.

Stone washed Raidops Black Tiger MK2 (Image courtesy of RAIDOPS)

Spines eye view of the Raidops Black Tiger MK2 (Image courtesy of RAIDOPS)

Made in Italy mark, RAIDOPS Design (Image courtesy of RAIDOPS)

RAIDOPS are getting this model made in Italy (Viper make some of their folders) in the very nice N690 cobalt stainless steel. IN FACT IT IS FULLY PRODUCED IN ITALY,

As the name says: LASER engraved into the tang: "Made In Italy". Note the precise fit of the G10 scales

Including the very well-made scabbard from VEGAHOLSTER.com in Italy.

VEGAHOLSTER use a rotating locking "switch" on this well-designed belt clip

VEGAHOLSTER.com is an Italian family run business in the production of premium grade holsters. You can see some of their stuff here.

No stone has been left unturned in the production of this design from RAIDOPS's Andy Kim.

The Made in Italy mark appears upon the tang. Even the edges of the scabbard have been polished smooth!

As shown here, the belt clip can be varied for a different carry. Here I have change it to provide a near horizontal carry, slightly angled upwards (dependent upon how one wears their belt)

Raidops The tactical advantage

The steel of the RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2

Böhler's N69Zero has been around for a while now in the cutlery industry and some very fine knives are being produced with it, especially out of Italy where it is clear that the Italians (and Russians BTW) have definitely got it right with heat treatments of this Austrian martensitic stainless steel tool steel. 

The RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 is being produced in Italy with Böhler's famous N690 cobalt stainless steel.

Böhler's N690 is very good for field knives. At hardnesses up to 60 it still retains a very good resistance to corrosion. At BushCampingTools we've tested many Böhler N690 knives in sea water and this steel alloy rocks! Remembering the higher the HRC the less soluble Chromium present to help combat corrosion resistance-all things being equal. Whilst Böhler's N690 was designed as a high speed stainless steel tool steel capable of operating at high milling temperatures (hence the significant Cobalt component) and being able to maintain it's hardness; this tool steel has become a very popular choice for both manufacturer's and consumers in the cutlery world. To further aid corrosion, the RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 has been surface coated with a Teflon product.

It's no surprise the RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 looks very tactical and military-like. The RAIDOPS headman is ex military. 

Combine this with Andy Kim's great track record for producing some very nice edged tools design. However, this comes as no surprise as he has had a military background and there is a great following of many of his previous products, and some which are now very much sort after collectors items.

The scales of the RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 are G10 composite and there features a "persuader"/glass breaker pommel forming an interesting design where the pommel is both flat and not flat! In other words, unlike its predecessor, the glass breaker is off set from the main axis.

In a push grip, the glass breaker faces away from the user. This is exactly what one wants to avoid user injury during this type of motion. having the Glass Breaker offset in this very well-thought out design is simply great and very much welcomed.

The Raidops Black Tiger MK2 features an overall sleek design including the ergonomic grip of milled G10.

The RAIDOPS Blacker Tiger MK2 shown here has a Teflon treated blade to reduce stray reflections, as mentioned and shown above, the Black Tiger MK2 also is available as a stone washed model (no serrations offered as yet in the stone wash model).

The actual glass breaker is offset of centre. This latter design is an important one so as to help avoid any possible injury to the carrier of this model.

For the reverse grip, the pommel features some gimping on the thumb surface to aid grip and reduce slippage. The Black Tiger MK2 can easily be retrieved from the scabbard in a reverse grip. This is an important feature for military/combat applications. (so i'm told). The design of the scabbard does not occlude the depression in the grip for one's little finger to easily grasp. The reverse draw is fast too!

Using the Black Tiger MK2 to strike a glass surface, there is less bending of the elbow and wrist due to the offset tip. This makes a big difference believe me. 

The Black Tiger MK2 has a sleek but robust design featuring a 5mm thick spine, with generous thumb/finger gimping. 

The RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 features a 5mm/0.2" thick spine of Böhler N690 cobalt stainless steel.

The inner surface of the guard even features nicely placed gimping

For a knife of this size, 5mm/0.2" is perfect. Anything over that would simply add unnecessary weight and only work against  practical applications of this tool in the field, especially if one is already carrying loads of stuff. Notice I said the field and NOT the bedroom/garage/backyard etc. ALL knife designs will work well in those places but only well-designed knives will work in a practical way in the field.


The grip profile is narrow and this will aid in resisting a twisting motion in wet hands or under intense action.


I own the blackened serrated model, as I'm a very big fan of serrations for rapidly cutting  ropes and cords. Plus serrations excel in the production of feathers for tinder (if used as a bush craft type of knife). Although I would note there is "handedness" in serrations for this application of tinder shaving. And in my case LOL, the serrations are ground for a left handed person, ie holding the knife in the right hand the concave serrated surface appears on the opposite side. This would make the knife (using it for feathering only) a left handed knife. That being said the knife of course in itself is ambidextrous. 

Can u feather with it? Of course you can! The RAIDOPS Black Tiger M

Cutting up meat, no problems to slice though the rind of meat.

The RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 features a narrow profile for a super sure grip which is resistant to sideways twisting. There are two well-placed thumb grooves for the push stroke from either left or right handed users. The spine gimping continues slightly into the handle for added security.

25mm or one inch of shallow serrations to improve cord/rope cutting ability is offered on the "serrated version" (my model). Notice there is no traditional  choil and the serrations end with an unsharpened blade section. On the stone washed version the blade is sharpened all the way until a small choil is encountered (see above) , so from that perspective the stone washed version offers about another 5mm plus of cutting surface. Much of a much really and personal choice is given here as the extra cutting surface is probably equivalent to having the serrations in some respects.

The well-made heath is Kydex and features a quick release "Tek Lok" style belt clip produced by VEGAHOLSTERS.com in Italy.

There is an excellent point to this knife, which is a slight clip point in design, so one would expect this. All good military knives should be multipurpose and the Black Tiger MK2 is no exception here. 

The knife is well-balanced with the centre of balance, ie the fulcrum sitting within the index finger indent. Here we see perfect balance. This fact also tells me the knife is a full tang, without me having to remove the securely fixed scales anyway. Despite this the knife does not feel rear heavy.

Overall initial feelings/opinion

The design of the RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 did not disappoint me once I had this very nice piece of cutlery in my paws. The first thing I noticed was that my hands simply closed over the grip with ease! No juggling around in my hand. I would say off hand that a size 9 hand would be the maximum hand size for perfect comfort with this medium sized blade.
The scabbard of course, goes without saying, is well-made. VEGAHOLSTER clearly know what they are doing- check their website (see link above). 
I'll be looking at the possibilities of different carry positions of this sheath and as usual the durability of the edge after working on seasoned woods, as ALL knives can cut green stuff.


When I hear the words "Mark Two" or see "MK2", I expect a big improvement or refined design implementation on the "Mark One" what ever it is, car, boat, knife, tent etc.

Of course in reality I have no doubts about the RAIDOPS Black Tiger MK2 as it was some time in the making and a through design which can truly be called a "MK2" showing  improvement and refinement of the original Black Tiger model in several ways, none aesthetic, all functional improvements.
Some quick background concerning the original Black Tiger Mk1: It came with 2 scale options, one, simple milled G10 with a flat surface texture the other option was lacking  the vertical milled grooves and a completely different rear end  and thumb push indents were not like the current Black Tiger MK2. The blade was CPM S30V and was hollow ground and coated with a textured coating. The RAIDOPS MK1 is no longer in production, although I see it may still be possible to buy from some dealers old stock?

You can also visit RAIDOPS here:

I have no reason to doubt that this handy sized blade can very well be at home in the wilds as in other more demanding  arenas. 


Stay tuned and I'll be bringing you a full on field review BushCampingTools style in the coming months!

BCT




Review out now, watch it here at BushCampingTools

Why buy an old Strider when you can own a brand new current model Extrema Ratio Fulcrum Bayonet NFG? 
or simply a followup review on this knife! by BushCampingTools

Cord and rope cutting made easy with the serrations

The Extrema Ratio Fulcrum bayonet NFG cuts double stranded barbed wire easily. Nobodies fences were sabotaged in the testing of this application.

Double stranded barbed wire no problems to cut with this tool.

Easy to carry on any pack or webbing

The Fulcrum Bayonet NFG is one hard core knife. Why wouldn't it be? it's just a modified bayonet design. 6mm thick N690 Cobalt stainless steel blade, western styled Tanto, no curves, dead easy to sharpen, wire cutter hole, T.N.S. (that's Take No Sh*t) scabbard and well-stitched light weight carry system.



I always wanted one of Strider's big knives but now of course they are no more so the likely-hood of this happening is about zero unless I pick one up from ebay, no not likely. Besides that, about half a dozen emails never replied to from Mick Strider, I gave up, especially as I was one of his very first supporters, mmmmmm, get famous and forget about those who supported your products from the start. No biggie, I still have one of his knives and love it. But I wouldn't swap my ER Fulcrum NFG for one of his big tantos now, or would I? 

The Extrema Ratio Fulcrum Bayonet NFG IS a hack about knife ready for action in all conditions, like making a fire in the rain.

A simple cord wrapped full width tang does have it's strong points, no pun intended. But when that cord gets wet with salt water it stays wet and isn't easy to take off and rewrap in the field unless you happened to have a vice close by. Forprene does such a great job of helping to alleviate any shock to the hands and doesn't to any practical purposes absorb water.

I've slightly modified my ER Fulcrum NFG now:

Cut up credit card inserted and used Loctite to glue a small piece into the inside of the scabbard to help prevent the blade from cutting into the (already tough) fibre reinforced scabbard. 

"Credit card" insert super glued/Loctite to inside of scabbard to reduce scabbard wear.

I did the same thing with my FKMD Combat Survival knife, as it's scabbard is similar. Lots of insertions and removals with these types of scabbards can result in (over the years-so it's not exactly quick) a groove being cut into the scabbard. That small piece of credit card (replaceable) will prevent this.

 I've also done the "Mossy Oak" camouflage tape thing as the stone wash version of the NFG is only at present available with a "Desert camouflage" scabbard, which sticks out like a sore thumb away from those desert sands!

Mossy Oak camo now covers all of the scabbard.

 Of course I was careful NOT to cover the diamond sharpening plate on the rear of the scabbard!
Ok so is there anything i don't like about this knife?

Yes but it is just nit picking really. I would have liked to have seen the butt cap also made of hardened N690 instead of relatively soft 300 series stainless steel. WHY? because the acute edge of the butt would hold up a lot better when using it to strike a ferro rod, as 300 series is soft and the edge is affected but then again these days the fire steel-well it's always been for me, a secondary emergency way to start a fire. The windproof lighter such as a high quality Windmill lighter is the way to go for serious fire lighting.

Chopping logs, no problems either

This is a seasoned (like as in 4 year dead) Elm log/tree. There is plenty of weight in this big blade to hack away. Yes it isn't a hatchet or better still an axe for a quick job but there is zero shock transferred via the Forprene grip.

Strong, actually VERY STRONG tip of the Extrema Ratio Fulcrum bayonet NFG

What did I find in terms of negatives about this take no sh%t knife??
Now as in all honest reviews, what are any negative points about this knife? Well I guess they aren't so much negative as rather things one should be aware of. The butt cap is held in place via a 3mm Allen bolt. Under normal use for a knife, that is no bashing the bejeezus out of it but rather using it for cutting tasks, then what i'm about to say is irrelevant.

The tension upon the 3mm bolt is partly due to the elastomeric properties of the Forprene handle. That is one can continue to screw the butt cap down until deformation of the handle begins. This is totally unnecessary but the question is how much should one screw down this bolt? And rather why? Well if you have been using the knife for about two weeks plus and have NOT previously adjusted this cap bolt then it may work loose when the grip moves a bit due to the above mentioned elastomeric properties of Forprene. One could use semi permanent "Loctite" /thread locker on the bolt and this would fix that, so that when necessary, an Allen driver could be used to remove the butt cap to clean the tang (if immersion in sea water happened). What I did instead was to use some el cheapo nail polish from the wife to "lock" the head of the bolt into the butt cap, 

Yeah pretty pink isn't it??? For all you ladies out there reading this, it happens to be a Maybelline product according to the wife LOL! But seriously, for all you blokes out there reading this one can see how this stuff functions here, essentially a "el cheapo" thread locker semi permanent/no permanent. I put a red mark to test this out that the screw does not move at all when this is done. Of course it will not move at all either if one doesn't do it but one needs to check the screw once in a while and the easiest way to do this is to mark it as I have shown above.

by simply using the nail polish as a semi permanent glue. This works just fine and no amount of vibration will cause the bolt to come loose. Because if you are not carrying an Allen driver with you in the filed (highly unlikely) then you will not be able to tighten the butt cap. Now unlike Extrema Ratio Models which feature a single fixing bolt in the middle of the tang, even if it comes loose and is lost, all is not lost as a simple bit of cord from anything tied into the lanyard hole will prevent the handle coming off......bet you didn't know that eh????


***Finally, I would like to see Extrema Ratio precision press fit the guard onto the tang and not simply slipped onto the tang. The reason being that it moves. Not much but it moves and can make a clicking sound when the knife strikes something. The sound won't alert your enemy. You could use the guard when removed for something but I shan't say here as it's probably a dangerous use for it but none the less in a dire emergency it could be imagined as  kind of piton? Did I say that?? Ok u get my point. But don't say i didn't warn you.



*** This information is only for entertainment and undertaking any outdoor activities is at your own risk.

BCT

The role of a “Survival Knife”

Reality check!

1/ Use your knife to make other tools.

This helps to lessen the need to sharpen what could be your only knife.

2/ Do not use your knife to dig with. This is only for TV stars getting paid lots of money to say and do what TV Producers tell them.

3/ Always immediately re-sheath your knife after using it! Don’t put it on the ground.

4/ What’s more useful than a knife? A digging Stick! A digging stick can be used for:

Finding grubs/worms/insect for bait or eating

Bashing unconscious fish

Bashing thrashing through the bush- there is NO chance of cutting yourself with a stick.

A baton if need be

Cracking open seeds/crustacean/making flour by pounding

Bringing down an animal safely-getting reach.

Digging up edible roots and plants

Proven tool for thousands of years!