Half Breed Blades MIK-05P Half Breed blades Medium Infantry Knife, NEW and in Böhler's K340 ISODUR - Review

 

Well it only seems fitting that an Australian reviews an Australian company's product and that company's product is none other than Half Breed Blades MIK-05P, their new medium sized Infantry knife being manufactured from that TNS* Böhler K340 ISODUR 8%Cr alloy cold working tool steel. But briefly K340 ISODUR is also utilised for ballistic armour!

Now I have to say that my personal experience with K340 is that it totally rocks as a hard working tool steel capable of cutting numerous objects and still holding an exceptional edge and resistant to chipping, even when encountering bone! So it's no surprise to me that K340 ISODUR will be another notch above K340. The process is an air melt then a remelt for a more "accurate" compositionally alloy.

Ok, so let's get started!

Im my experience when I see a very well presented product, ie the box the thing comes in, it tells me straight away that such a company is producing quality from the start. It's a hefty feeling box of very good construction with 2 magnetic catches securing the lid. It's not flimsy at all and yes, most of the box is recyclable if this is a worry. However, this box is something else. But let's not dwell upon the box too much. One other thing, this knife carries a Life Time Warranty! That speaks highly of the manufacturer's confidence in their products.

A simple sticker on the outside immediately tells you what product was/is inside the box (see below).

Sneak preview!

The MIK-05P comes in a range of colours. I chose OD/BLK, ie Olive Drab and Black!

Ok so inside we have several goodies: velcro moral patches, a certificate of authenticity, stickers and a sheet detailing the knife's specifications. I'm not going to repeat those statistics here, as you can easily take them from their website here. Instead I'll give you some information you can't get from them unless you already have one in your paws right now.

The MIK-05P knife has some interesting features, such as:

There are zero hot spots on the blade or handle. It has been very well finished in all dimensions. Gimping occurs in the right place for one's thumb. (remember, this is NOT a bush crafting knife, where one might expect some part of the spine to have an acute angle- there are zero acute angles here).

 The handle features a deep scalloped set of G10 scales (USA made) which a totally non slip even without wearing gloves.

There is a double fuller and the spine is 6mm thick and there is a Teflon coating over the entire blade to enhance corrosion resistance.

The tip is thick but not too thick and shows good penetrative power. Here (above image) I dropped it from about a metre into a hardwood log. Of course the knife wavered but the tip did not break.

What came in the box? (other than paper work?)

Malice-type clips (see below) for Pals/MOLLE pack mounting, 

already fitted to the very well made** Kydex (USA sourced) scabbard (the over moulding is very good, with excellent knife retention/grab and zero rattle)

and a Tek-Lok style belt clip for those who want this carry option.

I'm a big fan of tanto blades-and drop points (not saying I don't like other styles but these are my favourites) and this tanto really gets my approval. ALL knives with exception of rescue type knives just have to have a good tip and the angle here on this MIK-05P is great. 

Hardcore!

Easily chop

Easily gather wild food (Clitocybe geotropa)

Easily feather

Ok, enough chit chat let's put this thing to the test!

Of scenes to come.....

* Take No Shit

** Only negative (and I can def live with it) there was no drain hole at the base of the scabbard. I'm sure this is just an oversight.

 Out of bounds!

Gutting fish

Ready For Action? let's talk about End USE.

 Ready For Action?

Below are, 2 knives, two different manufacturers and 2 different designers

Zeke Menacho Desinger, Knife: "Little Evil Fighter Small"

Manufactured by Work Tuff Gear.

Weight without scabbard is: about 440gm. Two sided fuller for keeping the blade weight down along with 5mm sheet being used of Böhler K329, a modified 8A alloy of 8%Cr, 0.52% C enabling 58-60 HRC to be achieved.

The second knife is the MIK-05P, ie the Medium Infantry Knife-05P manufactured by Half Breed Blades (designer, not listed).

The weight of the half Breed Blades MIK-05P is 369gm, using as stated above, Böhler's K340 ISODUR (6mm sheet), essentially a more refined Böhler K340 (K340 is a refinement of K110 -D2 on steroids!)

Both knives are of similar length.

Ok, so  what's the difference? Well everything of course!

The Little Evil Fighter is light in the blade but handle heavy, the MIK-05P is heavy in the blade but light in the handle!

The Little Evil Fighter Small (from now on referred to as the LEF), has a pommel that is more akin to a hammer where using it to strike a blow would benefit by out and out smashing blows, the pommel will not damage the user, whereas the MIK-05P has a definite "persuader" type pommel, more akin for close quarters combat/control techniques. Both knives sport a lanyard hole which IMHO is a total necessity for any knife marketed for military usage.

The Half Breed Blades MIK-05P will be much easier to sharpen as it only has 2 perfectly straight edges. The LEF small will require skill in sharpening techniques, however this blade design could also be used for skinning game if needed, whereas the MIK-05P blade design would make things a little difficult but not impossible. This latter knife is definitely marketed towards military personnel and as such is not intended for any sort of bushcraft. That being said, it has some distinct advantages from it's tanto-esque blade design lending it to be very adept a certain tasks, eg gutting fish and other game along with "drilling holes" with it's sturdy tip and stabbing game in the event of no other "tool" available.

It's clear that the LEF can be used for "survival" type applications if one had to live off the land, how about the Medium Infantry knife from half Breed Blades? Sure, it's a balde and skill set that comes with the user will dictate this at the end of the day.

In summary, both knives have specific applications with cross overs. For the MIK-05P these applications may not be immediately obvious if one is not familiar with the virtues of a tanto-esque blade design.

But clearly performing feathering, collecting wild foods etc. are easily performed. Now let's check out and discuss the Half Breed Blades MIK-05P in action in the field for some more arduous tasks!

Work Tuff Gears Little Evil (Small) Combat, Field knife in Böhler's K329

 Work Tuff Gears Little Evil Fighter (Small) Combat, Field knife in Böhler's K329

The Work Tuff Gear Little Evil (Small) Fighter Combat, Field knife in Böhler's K329, is a smaller version of the "Little Evil" designed for combat carry. The blade thickness is not 8mm S600 but 5mm thick Böhler K329, an 8% Cr steel, a modification of A8, which is 1.2360, a 0.52% C steel which can be hardened from 58-60 HRC dependent upon the tempering protocol (approx around  100C-500C).

There is a fuller present on both side of the spine to keep this 6.5" blade nimble.

The Work Tuff Gear Little Evil (Small) Combat, (a Zeke Menacho design) features a recurved blade onto a deep belly and as he describes it a kind of "Syringe" shaped blade tip.

Compared with it's big brother, this smaller version feels much more nimble in the hand and the grip is well-suited to a large hand and feels quite weighty.

Böhler K329 is a sort of "semi stainless steel"

The tip is very good at penetration of tough objects.

Strong coffee, watches and knives LOL! Note that highly polished edge that Victor applies!

There is a concealed lanyard hole. In order to place a cord (in this case some 550 paracord) I used a bent paper clip to retrieve the inserted end.

The pommel is designed so that one can also place the palm of their hand against it without suffering.

OK so stick around for my field tests, coming soon!

Zentron Technology ZentronOutdoors ZEN Q635 Thermal Imaging Rifle Scope WOW!

ZentronOutdoors

Model (ZEN Q635) Thermal Imaging Rifle Scope WOW!

Ok back in May 2024 I visited IWA in Germany specifically to see what were the latest hot products coming out in the field of outdoor pursuits such as hunting and fishing, specifically, but not limited to hunting (yes that's where I brought to you the latest images of new gear from Extrema Ratio in Italy and you have no doubt either got now, or have been watching my videos and reading my blogs here about this product. 

The show was huge as always and did not disappoint at all!

Needless to say, with technology like it is progressing, there were many manufacturers showing off their latest thermal imaging devices, some obviously familiar names, like one of the main show sponsors, name beginning with "P"! 

Now I did the rounds over the entire duration of the show, for you guys, not just breeze in and out for one or 2 days or a few hours because the show was so huge and so much planning involved to actually get to meet and speak with manufacturers. 

So being a hunter from way back, 

I was very interested in checking out what was to be had in the latest technology/models of thermal imagers. There were needless to say many manufactures all competing against one another and the crowds competing against one another to get their hands on products for some in show testing.

However, amongst these manufacturers,  products from the company ZentronOutdoor whose thermal imaging rifle scopes really stood out for me. 

Business front end of the Zen Q635 Thermal Rifle Scope is a F1.0 35mm front element, robust and compact design.

I spent nearly half a day at their stand in total after thoroughly examining the thermal imagers they had on show. 

Let's break it down on what I was looking for:

A product with easy to read menus (in device) and navigate to all the main features without having to be constantly pulling out and or referencing the manual. So therefore, I closely examined the GUI (graphical user interface) and to determine if it was "user friendly" and of course this meant "intuitive" to  use. 

So when I picked up one of their scopes it was plain to me that anyone who can read could navigate easily through their diverse menus and obtain access to quick menus/shortcuts quite easily. 

All of the buttons and knobs are located in just the right positions.

The Zen Q635 is a stand alone Thermal imaging Rifle scope (with the included rail mount shown below)

Rifle mount adaptor included

which can also be used as a simple thermal imaging scope (off rifle), comfortable enough to be held in the hand and small enough to fit in a jacket pocket as well!

How about power management? 

The units are run from x2 CR123A batteries (Rechargeable), easily obtainable and or tethered from a USB power bank. Approx run time (battery dependent) easily 3 hour constant operation. (note: like ALL Bluetooth devices, if you run bluetooth constantly it only help to drain the battery!)

IP67 weather proofing of the Zen Q635 . Screw down battery compartment shown above (all weather sealed). It takes X2 CR123A type batteries.

The Technology and Specifications and Overall Handling

Zentron Outdoors are using a VOx chip for the detector of the thermal imaging scopes.

If you don't know there are several chip types around and Vanadium Oxide (VOx) is one of the best semiconductors to use for such devices. With their chip they state they have <25mK NETD, that's  "less than 25 milli Kelvin Noise Equivalent Temperature Difference". 

Now, in the thermal imaging world, the NETD is how one "rates" sensitivity of thermal scopes and to give you idea of what this means in terms of practicality, any values less than 40mk are ok, less than 35mK is going to be very good. Any values less than 25 mK NETD  are going to be excellent! 

Of course there are other environmental considerations always to take into account for ANY thermal imaging device, fact, however these specifications of theirs certainly rank right up there with the market leader's top of the range devices, (I've checked!).

At present they offer: a 12 um pixel size

17.6m FOV (for the model I tested) ay 35mm F1.0 front element.

The chip isn't cooled and I noticed it was totally noise free and it does not overheat under prolonged usage.

 The image quality is spot on and combine this with a very nicely textured and fine tuning focusing knob that goes from 2m min distance out to infinity, it is very easy to focus so your images are very sharp.

The Zen Q635 has an identification range out to 550m and a detection range as far as 1800m!

The Zen Q635 is designed for both field and forest usage and we have tested it across both, especially under heavy forrest and with light fog as well! We found the detector very very sensitive.

(note there are other models in the ZEN Series and can be seen here: see here:)

Super bright OLED Display (example image from the real world, no Photoshop!)-White Hot color palette being used in a very low IR background environment.

Conditions:

Dense bush, slight fog, wallaby (kangaroo) at approx 60m. It's bending down feeding Head can be clearly seen. (camera/Thermal Scope: Zen Q635, stills image capture).

The Zen Q635 copes very well with quickly changing IR environments, ie when moving rapidly** with the scope. 

**What do I mean by moving rapidly? I mean normal movements one would expect to make out hunting and tracking their quarry and or simply scanning the scene with the scope. 

Eye Relief is excellent! and the OLED screen is great to look at with a 1280X1024 screen! (Zen Q35 is 600X800).

Fully Coated optics Removable rubber eye cup

What about all you spectacle wearers???

Diopter correction is also excellent and has a range from -5 to +5! this is seriously great for all those (who like me now) have to wear spectacles.

Construction and Aesthetics

Other than extremely well presented in the box* (*see my unboxing video if you haven't already), the Zen Q635 came in a very nice and practical carry case, (padded shoulder strap not shown).

sporting YKK weather proof zippers, 

and box tacked well-stitched nylon components.

Now to the body of the Zen Q635 Thermal Rifle Scope

Excellent construction and attention to detail, ie Magnesium aluminium alloy housing (strong and robust and helps to keep the weight down to 410g!) 

All threaded holes are tapped with stainless steel threaded inserts for robustness and durability.

Note, this is a very small unit! My hand size is only 8.5/9!

The Zen Thermal imagers are all assembled like some high tech scientific pieces of equipment but not looking like some university Heath Robinson construction; smooth lines, nice to hold and more importantly, all buttons and knobs are in the "right position" and can be used easily with gloves on or off! 

The units are held together with Allen bolts, not Phillips head screws. There is a robust, and again easily actuated front lens cap to protect the outer "business end" lens from accidental damage. 

IP rating IP67 Weather sealed push buttons and knobs along with the a weather seal over the USB C port. 

Yes that's right a USB C port. This is the kind of port I want to see nowadays on technology because I know they will last being able to see many insertions and removals of USB male plugs; not these designed to fail mini USB A type connectors, I hate them!

Easy Firmware updatable: Zentron Outdoors have just released their latest version of the OS, at time of writing this article, Ver Q635-V0.97

Navigating the Software

Zen link software (down loadable from the web) easily allows one to connect these devices to either a mobile phone, tablet and or computer, connections can be made also via the supplied physical USB C cable. The user interface is, as I have already mentioned very easy to navigate and using a tablet or phone can hasten any setup changes simply by having a very large screen on hand; however, changing menus simply using the device is dead easy in the field.

I noted too that one can also use any Android app to transfer images and video to ones Mac computer such as Android file transfer (at least working just fine on OSX 11.5.2) if not using a PC.

Here are The Key Features of the Zen Q635 Thermal Rifle Scope are the following:

F1.0 35mm front element

A 12 um NETD <25mK 640X512 VOx chip

Accelerometer and Digital Compass

A 1280X1024 OLED display

Dual Band 2.4G/5G WiFi and Bluetooth

USB C connectivity (as well) and power options.

The scope "kit' also includes some "air activated cicular heating pads for scope calibration. ie you expose them to the air and they heat up, these will give you a more than adequate IR target signature for reticle calibrations.

So Much to say!

There is just too much to say about this very cool thermal imager, like all the great features with false color palettes, reticle choices, optional accessories like LASER range finders, ballistics calculations,  etc., etc. to fit into this blog; so stay tuned for much much more!

Now!

Stick around to see my un boxing video and then later videos of the Zen Q635 Thermal imaging rifle scope, coming this Friday evening on @BushCampingTools 

Example stills images (White hot color palette being used, this is the best choice when hunting in a low background IR environment) IMHO.

Feral cat at 40m

Cattle at approx 30m

BCT