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MPT Fixed Blade (SD Standpoint) Author: Tuhan Jon Holloway Date: October 28, 2007 Source: www.albokalisilat.org Posted with permission Upon first examination of the MPT, it is easy to see that it was designed for “serious social purposes”. It looks purposeful and businesslike. The black “tactical” sheath is well designed, holds the knife snugly and securely, and has multiple holes for the attachment of cords for lashing the knife down to gear, the attachment of cords or chains in order to use the tool as a neck knife, the use of the included Tek-Lok device for affixing the knife sheath to the belt, or for other means of carry. The blade has the brushed satin finish that I, in general, prefer on most of my knives. The drop point, reinforced tanto blade, with its recurved edge geometry is an interesting design. The recurved belly effectively increases the length of the cutting edge without increasing the overall length of the blade. The point is acute enough to be a great piercer, is aligned with the long bones of the forearm for maximum utility in thrusting when held in the crab/pincer or forward hammer grips (just as is the case with the Boker Trance), and the tanto style grind provides a reinforced point that should hold up to about anything you could reasonably expect to throw at this tough little guy. The thick spine indicates the strength of the blade and gives it some heft which can be utilized in snap cuts and chopping motions. The jimping on the spine of the blade, immediately in front of the handle, give purchase to the thumb when utilized in the Cancer/crab/pincer grip and provide some “non-skid” gripping surfaces when the back of this sturdy fixed blade is utilized to trap or hold an opponent’s arm. The choil keeps the hand from skidding forward during powerful thrusts and the jimping on the choil is a nice touch, as it gives immediate tactile feedback as to the placement of your index finger in any of the forward grips, or the placement of your little finger in a reverse grip. The handle of this knife is perhaps its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. First, the negatives: the handle does not allow a person with medium or large hands to obtain a full grip, nor does it allow the knife to be used in the reverse edge in/pakal edge in grip. When I first picked up the knife, the grip was completely lost in my moderately large hand. My wife, who is on the petite side and with proportionately small hands, could not obtain a full grip on the knife either. As for an edge in reverse grip, not only is the knife uncomfortable in this grip, but, for a man with moderately large hands, the flesh of the palm will overflow the choil in this grip and be dangerously close to the sharpened edge of the blade. In my opinion, edge in pakal or reverse grip should never be attempted with this knife, as it is a dangerous and insecure grip for this particular blade. It is important to realize that this knife was never designed to facilitate a full grip. Just as is the case with the Glock “mini guns,” the G26, G27, and G33, in order to maximize the ease of concealment, the handle is not designed to have any place to rest the little finger (when gripping the knife in a forward grip). Now, in reality, I have never much cared for the mini Glocks, and have, in general, when choosing small, concealable handguns, choose those that allowed a full grip or almost a full grip to be obtained. There are many who swear by the mini Glocks, and they do facilitate concealment, and can be quite accurate. Similarly to the Glock mini guns, when I first received this knife, I did not care for it. The handle completely did not appeal to me. Interestingly, like an eager puppy, this knife would not let me continue to dislike it. The more I played with it, wore it, and did defense oriented drills and training with it, the more I came to appreciate this blade. One of the first things that started to win me over in regard to this knife was its balance. With a fairly thick spine and a blade far longer than its handle, I expected the knife to be quite blade heavy. This is not a huge problem with a large fixed blade knife with a full handle which allows the palm and wrist to exert some “back pressure” to keep the blade point in balance as it points at an opponent, but I felt that this particular blade, with its short handle, would be a bit slow and sluggish in the hand due to its balance. By incorporating a full tang on the knife, and, judging from the view through the lanyard hole, a tang that is as thick as the blade spine, a certain Hawaiian knife designing wizard has been able to make this blade balance directly on the choil, the perfect point for a knife of this size to be quick, lively, and neutral handling. A few practice cuts, slowly building in speed until I was whipping through multiple cuts and thrusts in less than one second, had me thinking that this thing actually handled pretty well. The handle itself, though small, is slightly “tacky.” It is not as sticky as some rubber handles, but has a slight give and the ability to stick to the hand a bit. Unlike some stickier materials which I have seen used on knife handles and handgun grips, this material does not stick to cloth and either bunch up or print through a concealing garment. It is a very secure and comfortable handle, once you get past the fact that it is so short. If you carry this knife as a neck knife, then the short handle helps concealment somewhat. Where this handle shines is when you affix the Tek-Lok and put the knife and its carry system on your belt. Carrying a fixed blade on the belt, especially when carrying a lot of other gear on the belt, such as a holstered handgun, magazine pouch, flashlight, etc., as I do, can present some problems. When standing erect, everything is fine. When sitting, if the knife is carried on either the strong or weak side, either the handle is pressing up into your ribs, or the bottom of the sheath is gouging into your leg, butt, car seat, desk chair, or the like. Because I have a fairly small waist and have gear on my belt already, and because of the general discomfort of wearing a fixed blade on the belt, I don’t often wear a fixed blade on my belt, and, if I do, it is often worn in the small of the back. The small of the back position allows quick access to the blade with either of my hands, eliminates a lot of the poking and prodding problems, but eventually the handle pressing up on the spine can become annoying. With the MPT, however, I was able to mount the Tek-Lok low on the sheath, keeping the toe of the sheath from prodding me when I sat down, and the short handle does not gouge the ribs. All of a sudden, carrying a fixed blade knife for my average 10 to 12 hour workdays became relatively easy and painless. Drawing the blade, with either hand and while the knife was carried in a variety of positions, was easy. With a larger handle I may have been faster, but with a larger handle I could not have carried the MPT in some of the locations where I concealed it. In comparison with a folder, deploying the MPT is faster than greased lightning. In my opinion, based on my years of experience with bladed weapons and the time I spent testing the MPT, the handle of the MPT does not negatively affect the security or speed of the draw or the security of the resulting grip on the knife after the draw to any significant degree. This is really not surprising, as a savvy examiner who has seen other Chad Los Banos designs will immediately notice the family resemblance between the Boker Trance, Subcom, and the MPT, and, as I have said many times before, a small yet secure and very ergonomic handle is a hallmark of Chad Los Banos designs. As I stated earlier, the MPT is not suited for edge in pakal/edge in reverse grip. This is not surprising to me. Neither the Lava, Subcom, nor the Trance are suited to this grip either. I utilize this grip very rarely, as I do not feel it is one of the better ways to grip a knife for real combat, so, for me, this is a complete non-issue. In the forward grips it works very well. In the edge out reverse grip it is also very good. Personally, I find the MPT to work the best and feel the best in the forward Cancer/crab/pincer grip or the edge out reverse “ice pick” grip (with the thumb resting over top of the end of the handle and on top of the index finger). One advantage of the MPT, as opposed to longer handled blades, is the fact that it can be utilized in the old Filipino technique of the “double thrust” or “palm thrust.” Held in a forward grip, the end of the handle nestles against the heel of the palm. If the arm is snapped out in a thrust, the blade is inserted into the target as normal. After the blade has penetrated, however, the hand opens slightly, the palm and elbow snap down, and the heel of the hand holding the knife executes a palm thrust to the end of the handle of the knife, driving it very deeply into the target. Alternatively, instead of the palm and elbow snapping straight down, the elbow and wrist spiral inward, moving the blade 90 degrees and enlarging the wound in a coring motion, then, as the palm turns upward, a palm strike is executed on the end of the handle, driving the knife deeper into the target. In summation, this knife has won me over. Initially, I did not care for it. However, its excellent balance and ease of carry, blade geometry, good fit and finish, and overall handling qualities have convinced me that this is a viable defensive tool. Anyone who has spent some time with me as my student or as a law enforcement coworker knows that I take my blades very seriously and that I have no problem with “telling it like it is” when it comes to combat/self defense items. I have been known to tell people that certain treasured $500 knives were great “tactical pocket jewelry” but were overpriced pieces of crap when it came to self defense. I recommend this knife. It is going to be added to my list of “frequent use kit,” and will pretty much replace a highly touted fixed blade from a rival manufacturer which I have used for about a year. This blade shaved hair out of the box, displayed decent edge bevels, good blade grinding and polishing, and an overall quality, considering the actual “street price” for the piece, which was excellent. I would like to see a version with a full handle, with the last quarter inch of the tang being exposed steel. This version would allow for some interesting combative uses of the butt or punyo of the weapon. In addition, though the current small handled MPT will cut well, if it is utilized as a police utility knife as well as a self defense tool, under heavy cutting “hot spots” and blistering can develop on the palm where the end of the handle presses. If a full handled version is ever contemplated, it would be interesting to see it with a more pricey, premium steel, though its AUS-8 blade cuts well enough as it is and, considering its intended uses, should exhibit more than sufficient edge retention, corrosion resistance, and toughness properties. Due to the ease of carry and its handling qualities, even if a longer handled version was made, this one would probably be the favorite and would, in fact, probably be carried even by me more frequently than a bigger version. This knife can handle most law enforcement general and light cutting tasks, such as opening evidence boxes and envelopes, cutting crime scene tape, and the like, quite well. Although it can perform some emergency and general utility cutting tasks well enough, its primary role, in my opinion, is as a self defense tool. It fulfills this role nicely and is definitely a “keeper.”