I’ve often said that we live in the golden age of EDC and field knives. There is an overwhelming variety of knives to choose from depending on your budget and needs. The nice thing is that there are a lot of great knives available for good prices. You don’t have to spend a ton of money to get a quality knife that you can depend on. The Eutektik series from Liong Mah is a great example of that.
Liong Mah started as a professional chef, so he has spent a lot of time working with knives to know what works, and what’s comfortable to use for long periods of time. He translated that knowledge over to EDC blades as well, and his designs are always sleek and practical. He makes some amazing folders, and most carry price tags in the $300 to $600 range. I understand that’s not a range everyone can spend on a daily EDC tool, or is willing to. I get it. If you’re reading this here on The Truth About Guns, you’re primarily a gun guy or gal, and those are getting up into gun prices! Liong Mah has folks like us covered, though, with his production Eutektik line of EDC folders. You get all of his design experience and expertise in a production folder made from great materials, at a very reasonable price. Let’s take a look at a couple models I’ve been working with for the past few months.
Eutektik EFD
If you look at the Eutektik EFD you can see that it shares a lot of design cues from Liong’s higher end offerings. The EFD brings the cost down through the use of less expensive, but still excellent, materials.
The 3.5-inch, drop-point blade is flat ground and is made from Swedish 14C28N Sandvik steel. It comes with either a Stonewashed or Blackwashed finish. 14C28N is a great steel. It’s stainless, and has excellent corrosion resistance and good edge retention, but is still easy to sharpen. It works great with a leather strop too to keep the edge tuned so that you don’t have to sharpen it as often too.
The EFD handles are G10 with a steel liner lock and pins, and are available in a variety of colors including basic black, OD green, orange, denim blue, purple and Natural Jade. The open frame design is easy to clean and allows crud and pocket debris to drop through and not get trapped in the frame in the first place. My EFD had OD green handles and a Stonewashed blade. A lanyard hole is also available at the butt of the knife, although it’s a little small for paracord.
The blade opens with a front flipper or by using the elongated opening slot on the blade. The blade opens smoothly and locks up tight by means of a liner lock mechanism. I’m not great with the front flipper style opener, but the elongated opening hole works great for me. Being that we’re seeing more and more front flippers, I probably should practice with it more, but since the EFD has options, I don’t really need to.
The EFD carries flat in the pocket with a reversible deep carry pocket clip. I’m pretty picky about pocket clips and have drawers full of knives that I like, but don’t carry much because of the clip and how they ride in the pocket. That was definitely not an issue with the EFD. It’s a good design that carries the knife discreetly and allows for an easy draw, while still giving proper retention so that you don’t lose the knife from your pocket.
The factory edge on the EFD was excellent, and has held up to months of typical EDC work like opening boxes and packages, cutting cordage and tape, and even light food prep. It cleans up easily too. The G10 handles are wide and hand filling, and fit my mid sized hands well. They have a texture that provides for a solid grip, but isn’t overly aggressive and doesn’t cause hot spots during use. A finger choil on the blade lets you choke up for detail work or just gives you some extra space if you have really big hands.
The EFD is a comfortable knife to use, and carries easily with its flat profile, excellent pocket clip, and weight of only 3.92 ounces. The 3.5 inch drop point blade is a perfect size and style for EDC use. The EFD has an MSRP of $85, which I think is pretty reasonable for the materials used and design expertise that’s gone into it.
Specifications:
Blade Length: 3.50″
Cutting Edge: 3.15″
Closed Length: 4.50″
Overall Length: 8.00″
Blade Material: Sandvik 14C28N Stainless Steel
Blade Thickness: 0.125″
Blade Style: Drop Point
Blade Grind: Flat
Blade Finish: Stonewash
Handle Material: Black G10
Handle Thickness: 0.458″
Locking Mechanism: Liner Lock
Pivot Assembly: Bearings
Pocket Clip: Deep Carry Stainless Steel (Tip-Up, Right/Left Carry)
Weight: 3.92 oz.
Designer: Liong Mah
Made in China
MSRP: $85.00
The Eutektik Trinity
The Trinity shares many of the features of the EFD. It uses the same steel lined G10 handles, and 14C28N stainless blade, and is available in the same array of handle colors. Like the EFD it has a reversible deep carry pocket clip and lanyard hole. It has a thinner overall profile though and a longer 3.75-inch clip point blade. My Trinity had the blue denim G10 handles and black stonewashed blade.
The Trinity uses a more traditional back flipper, which I’m much more used to. I can operate it much faster and more intuitively than a front flipper. With the EFD I generally used the thumb hole for opening, but on the Trinity almost exclusively used the flipper.
I rotated the Trinity with the EFD for carry and found them to perform similarly. You get a little more blade length with the Trinity and a bit finer point with its clip point shape. The Trinity is comfortable to use, and gives you a slightly longer handle. That coupled again with a finger choil might make it the better choice for really big hands but honestly, they’re close. MSRP on the Trinity is the same $85 as the EFD.
Specifications:
Blade Length: 3.75″
Cutting Edge: 3.25″
Closed Length: 4.75″
Overall Length: 8.50″
Blade Material: Sandvik 14C28N Stainless Steel
Blade Thickness: 0.125″
Blade Style: Clip Point
Blade Grind: Flat
Blade Finish: Black Stonewash
Handle Material: Denim Blue G10
Handle Thickness: 0.463″
Locking Mechanism: Liner Lock
Pivot Assembly: Bearings
Pocket Clip: Deep Carry Stainless Steel (Tip-Up, Right/Left Carry)
Weight: 3.46 oz.
Designer: Liong Mah
Made in China
MSRP: $85.00
Final Thoughts
Although I know my EDC blade is mostly going to be used for mundane tasks, after over 20 years as a cop, and over 30 years of carrying concealed, I always keep in mind a knife’s capability as a back up or weapons retention tool. I think either the EFD or Trinity would work well in that role. They are easy enough to carry that you’ll actually have them with you, and can be set up to carry so that they’re accessible with either the primary or alternate hand. The handle texture and position makes drawing them decently fast, and opening is quick with either the flipper or elongated blade hole. the 3.5- to 3.75-inch blades will do fine for getting someone off of you. I might not pick a sub 4-inch blade as a dedicated fighting knife, but then again I don’t really want to get into a knife fight in the first place. It’s plenty to let someone know that you’d rather them not be in your personal space, however.
You can tell a lot of thought and experience have gone into the Eutetek designs. They’re a practical blend of size and features, and they’re made of quality materials. I think we sometimes get overly obsessed with the latest steel crazes, and forget that our ancestors got by just fine using their blades a lot more than we generally do, and for a lot more serious purposes. They didn’t have much beyond basic carbon steels and they got by just fine. 14C28N is a great steel and if that saves me some bucks up front I’m okay with that. With an $85.00 price tag I’m getting a quality knife, but not one so expensive that I’m going to be devastated if I lose it, or the TSA confiscates it.
Between the two Euteteks, I tended to gravitate towards the EFD a little more. Although I preferred the back flipper of the Trinity for fast opening, I liked the handle width and shape of the EFD a little better. I’ve always been partial to a classic drop-point blade too. Both performed well, though, and I wouldn’t hesitate to slip either one into my pocket. In fact, if you run into me out in the wild, there’s a good chance you will see one or the other sticking out of my pocket. I test and try a lot of knives, but I have a small stable of regular users that I rotate through, and the EFD and Trinity are going into that line up.
Liong Mah’s Eutetik folders are available directly through his website or from a number of online retailers.
