So a week or so ago I decided to sell a Strider MT-10 I have had for a bit. It had been sitting around and not getting any use, reason being that while it has a cool blade design, the paracord handle is uncomfortable as can be and the knife has never felt "right" in my hand.
The knife itself is pretty cool, it's an older Strider MT-10, before they started putting the Chuck Mawhinny signature on the blade. It's ATS-34 steel, heat treated by Paul Bos, and back then the tiger stripes were actually made by sand blasting off sections of the blackening on the blade caused by the heat treat process. Newer S30v, S35vn, etc, are all artificially blackened as these steels do not change color during the heat treat process. You can see the "Bos" stamp here:
So, getting back to my story- I posted the knife up for sale and was looking at replacement options on Monkey Edge when I found VZ "Frag" grips for sale. Every other VZ product I have had has been awesome, so I did a bit of reading. Turns out VZ makes these exclusively for Monkey Edge, and most Strider have a standard handle size and hole pattern. Grips for my MT-10 were right in stock, so I ordered a set and took the knife off the market.
I'm glad I did! It feels like a totally different knife now. The top to bottom grip dimension is smaller, resulting in thread handguard actually helping retain the hand, the grip pattern is actually effective, and the knife is actually comfortable in every grip position I have tried. I went with the green canvas micarta and I am glad I did, it has more of an organic feel than G10.
Thought I would post this up in case any of you have a Strider and hate the paracord handle!
-Bob
The knife itself is pretty cool, it's an older Strider MT-10, before they started putting the Chuck Mawhinny signature on the blade. It's ATS-34 steel, heat treated by Paul Bos, and back then the tiger stripes were actually made by sand blasting off sections of the blackening on the blade caused by the heat treat process. Newer S30v, S35vn, etc, are all artificially blackened as these steels do not change color during the heat treat process. You can see the "Bos" stamp here:
So, getting back to my story- I posted the knife up for sale and was looking at replacement options on Monkey Edge when I found VZ "Frag" grips for sale. Every other VZ product I have had has been awesome, so I did a bit of reading. Turns out VZ makes these exclusively for Monkey Edge, and most Strider have a standard handle size and hole pattern. Grips for my MT-10 were right in stock, so I ordered a set and took the knife off the market.
I'm glad I did! It feels like a totally different knife now. The top to bottom grip dimension is smaller, resulting in thread handguard actually helping retain the hand, the grip pattern is actually effective, and the knife is actually comfortable in every grip position I have tried. I went with the green canvas micarta and I am glad I did, it has more of an organic feel than G10.
Thought I would post this up in case any of you have a Strider and hate the paracord handle!
-Bob
