Camillus turns up the HEAT™

Over the last 10 years, old reliable Camillus Cutlery has freed itself from the chains of producing boring knives. That’s right, boring. Except for wartime, this great American knife making firm produced such ho-hummers like reams of grandpa’s yellow handled whittlers, Hopalong Cassidy’s original lucite handled jackknife, and stacks of rubber handled filet and hunting knives that appealed to the more parsimonious enthusiasts.

The changes at the sleeping giant began with the introduction of the CUDA Quick Action tactical folders. Although innovative and timely, the Quick Action line was a flash in the pan, although long gone, they opened the eyes of Camillus management that the “Tactical” knife market was not a fad and may actually have some legs. Since then Camillus has collaborated with Custom makers like Bob Terzuola, Rob Simonich, Jerry Fisk, and Darrel Ralph to add some spice to their conservative line up of tried and trues.

The latest and best effort is the Heat, a Darrel Ralph design manufactured in Taiwan to Camillus specifications.

The Heat is a fairly unconventional pocket knife. It has zytel scales, but fully hardened stainless liners imbedded underneath for strength. It is a conventional liner lock, but the lock face is folded over to provide 100% greater lock surface area, and the assisted opening mechanism is fast and sturdy. Some other thoughtful features like a thinly ground AUS-8 blade, reversible pocket clip and ambidextrous flipper/guard set it apart.

The Heat came to me nicely packaged with a grossly oversized and therefore rather useless cordura sheath, spare allen wrench and extra pocket clip screws. Nice (I guess)!

The satin finished blade is perfectly ground and polished as is to be expected from our staunch allies, the industrious and quality conscious Taiwanese. Keep in mind most of Asia has newer and better equipment that the old factories of the USA. This and the incredibly low labor rates will always give you more bang for the buck in the sub $100 tactical folder market. That is plain fact, not speculation. There is a reason that Benchmade, Spyderco, CRKT, Camillus, Kershaw, and others have lower-end knives made there despite the long, arduous journey back to the states.

The Heat carries well (with its high-mounted clip) and cuts better than most high end custom tactical folders. The blade geometry and sharpness are excellent and so are ergonomics. The handle shape is ideal for a heavy use folder and the flipper provides and excellent guard.

The assisted opening mechanism on this knife is very fast. Either you like this kind of opening system or not. I do not find it essential, but I sure do think it is fun. The Heat mechanism is proclaimed to be different by the folks at Camillus who designed it. Let me just say that Ken Onion is a friend of mine and certainly one of the top three tactical folder makers in the world. From what I have seen inside the Heat, it is somewhat different than Ken’s SpeedSafe mechanism. What does that mean? I don’t know. Camillus does not believe they are infringing on the mechanism and there is no current litigation, so they may be correct.

What’s not to like? Well as usual, the zytel handle feels, well like plastic! Camillus should take a clue dropped by CRKT and Cold Steel and look into some of the weave patterns that mimic G-10 or carbon fiber for their molded plastic handled knives.

In addition, the black finished version I have been testing has developed a bad case of the zits after cutting some heavy cardboard and rope.

The Heat is usually available on the street for about $60. This makes it a steal when all of the features are taken into account. I think it is one of the best inexpensive tactical folders on the market, assisted or otherwise, and in fact I think in some ways it is a better knife than the titanium handled Ralph-designed Camillus Dominator ($200+) that it was designed to mimic.

To discuss this review or see more images of this knife, please follow this link to access the forum thread at: Forum Thread

Let us know what you think. Take a look at the Heat at www.camillusknives.com