TERRAIN 365 Invictus-ATC Titantium Edition

[RevolverRob]

If you know of Patrick Ma, then this design will be very familiar to you. But if you don't, quick background. Patrick founded his first gear company, Triple Aught Design (now TAD Gear) back in the early 2000s. Without getting into all the details, he left TAD, and eventually went on to found Prometheus Design Werx (PDW); which he still runs. About 2.5 years ago, Patrick joined Michael Vagnino and together they founded TERRAIN 365, a cutlery company that builds knives primarily for outdoor/water use. Their primary blade material is a dendritic cobalt called Terravantium. Which, as near as I can tell is just a marketing name for dendritic cobalt much like Stellite.

As part of PDW Patrick has been releasing runs of the various 'Invcitus' folder designs, which is a nice drop point blade with a wide belly, useful for general utility. But it's also a little big at 3.5-4" blade lengths. For the past decade, I've rarely carried a knife with a blade over 3" for daily use, because I work in an office environment and larger blades tend to make the natives a bit restless. When Patrick designed the 'Badger' a 'baby Invictus' I lusted after one, but missed the initial PDW run for them. Two years goes by and in late January Terrain 365 announced that they were doing a limited release of the 'Badger' as the Invictus All Terrain Compact (ATC). Pro-Tip - if you're friends with the designer it helps because then you find out in advance of the run. These were dropped and within a few hours had sold out, but one of them, a Titanium model made its way into my shopping cart and eventually here into my hot little hands. I definitely like this knife.

Short specs: Ti framelock, bronze and ceramic capture roller bearings, blade made out of 'Terravantium' dendritic cobalt (it is sharp and seems to hold a nice edge), 3" blade, the little glow in the dark beads in the thumb stud where kind of cute, but I removed the right hand one, because I kept feeling my thumb slip on it. The slightly sharper edge of the stud now makes opening very positive.

This knife will now be my 'office' knife. Because of the nice fit and finish and the ability to talk to people about the design, etc. I'm very fortunate to know Patrick and admire his designs, ethos, and work ethic. It's actually quite nice to finally have one of his designs in my hands/pocket every day.

Without further ado:

[JCS]

I’m very intrigued by this knife. Especially the terrevantium steel. Curious do you have a Sebenza or any other high end folders in the price range to compare the build quality to?

[WobblyPossum]

That’s a great looking knife. I could see carrying something like that as my go-to everyday folder. I think it would easily be capable of doing all the mundane things I do with a pocket knife while looking nice enough that I’d probably stick with it instead of rotating through a stable of folders.

[RevolverRob]

I’m very intrigued by this knife. Especially the terrevantium steel. Curious do you have a Sebenza or any other high end folders in the price range to compare the build quality to?

I don't have a Seb on hand to directly compare with. But I've handled enough high end knives to give you some feedback.

The fit and finish overall are on par with the price range. The blade was centered out of the box and there was no discernible lock-rock, blade play or otherwise any quality issues. Lock-up occurs on the first third of the blade stock, so plenty of good lock up, but with also plenty of life.

The only issue I had is the oil that Terrain 365 shipped with the blade and had put on the blade in advance. It probably works just fine in California where Terrain 365 is based. But it came out of a freezing postal truck on a 0-degree day here in Chicago. The 'oil' had the viscosity of syrup and the consistency of it too, so the blade was difficult to open and close. I disassembled the blade and cleaned the oil off, replaced it with some Tuff-Glide which I find works very well at lower temperatures and the blade snapped open and closed cleanly. Blade comes apart easily (three Torx screws) and I did not have to fight anything. When I reassembled, I put a smidge of blue loctite on the pivot screw, but that was precautionary on my part, not necessary.

Side note - I oafishly damaged one of the caged bearings in the process of doing this (pliers are not necessary to remove the bearings, and if you use them you might squeeze the bearing out of round...). Even with the damaged bearing the blade slides open cleanly, but I managed to introduce some lock-rock. This suggests to me that the tolerances are quite tight overall. I 'fixed' this with an O-ring, to space the bearing out a bit and make everything nice and solid, while I wait on some new bearings to come in. This had nothing to do with Terrain 365 and everything to do with me being dumb. So I won't hold it against the knife or the company. In the process of spacing out the bearing, I ended up with a slightly off-center blade. I'm not concerned about this, because I know the root cause of it.

All in all, I would say the quality is there for the price range. I can't give you a tremendous amount of feedback on the blade material yet. But to so far, I've found it cuts extremely well and cleanly. I've done a few cardboard boxes, some foam, package tape, etc. But nothing substantial yet. I do have to tear down a number of cardboard boxes for recycling this weekend. Enough that I usually have to touch up the edge on a steel blade. I will report back how it turns out.

Knife Center appears to have gotten in and grabbed a few of these from both Terrain and PDW: https://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/s...ch=Terrain+365

[Default.mp3]

Especially the terrevantium steel.

FYI, due to the lack of iron, it's just an alloy, not a steel. Supposedly not a great slicer, due to having a toothy edge, but because of that, will hold it's edge for a long time. Not sure about toughness, but if it's anything like Stellite (which is likely what this basically is), it should be good enough for use in a folder.

[RevolverRob]

I dunno what necessarily determines good slicer from bad slicer.

Out of curiosity though, since I'm sitting in the lab transferring files and not otherwise doing anything important, I took a sheet of yellow notepad paper from a 6x8" note pad, and dropped it from head high and swung at it with this blade.

It didn't slice all the way through...but it did okay for something I just took out of my pocket and haven't touched the edge on at all, except to cut things with it.

[Default.mp3]

I dunno what necessarily determines good slicer from bad slicer.

Out of curiosity though, since I'm sitting in the lab transferring files and not otherwise doing anything important, I took a sheet of yellow notepad paper from a 6x8" note pad, and dropped it from head high and swung at it with this blade.

It didn't slice all the way through...but it did okay for something I just took out of my pocket and haven't touched the edge on at all, except to cut things with it.

Blade material plays a pretty big role, AFAIK (along with geometry). Dendritic cobalt is usually considered toothy due to its low hardness but high carbide count. Whether you need a great slicer that can do push cuts easily is another story; seems to be that most folks prefer at least a little bit of bite on their edges for EDC blades, as typical stuff being cut is usually cardboard or meat rather than newspapers or tomatoes.

[Totem Polar]

Cool knife and OP, Rob.

[BillSWPA]

The blade material should also have very good corrosion resistance.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JCS]

FYI, due to the lack of iron, it's just an alloy, not a steel. Supposedly not a great slicer, due to having a toothy edge, but because of that, will hold it's edge for a long time. Not sure about toughness, but if it's anything like Stellite (which is likely what this basically is), it should be good enough for use in a folder.

Yes, thank you for the clarification! I didn’t know exactly what to call it.

I dunno what necessarily determines good slicer from bad slicer.

Out of curiosity though, since I'm sitting in the lab transferring files and not otherwise doing anything important, I took a sheet of yellow notepad paper from a 6x8" note pad, and dropped it from head high and swung at it with this blade.

It didn't slice all the way through...but it did okay for something I just took out of my pocket and haven't touched the edge on at all, except to cut things with it.

I think the grind and thickness behind the edge plays a big part in how much of a slicer it is. Even when the edge gets dull can it still cut through cardboard or does it rely only on the edges sharpness to cut. That’s my personal criteria. I wouldn’t expect this knife to be a great slicer but man do the ergos look amazing!

Blade material plays a pretty big role, AFAIK (along with geometry). Dendritic cobalt is usually considered toothy due to its low hardness but high carbide count. Whether you need a great slicer that can do push cuts easily is another story; seems to be that most folks prefer at least a little bit of bite on their edges for EDC blades, as typical stuff being cut is usually cardboard or meat rather than newspapers or tomatoes.