Amtacblades.com’s first foray into the blade arena is the Northman blade, which was developed to meet the American Tactical Shooting Instruction’s (amtacshooting.com) owner and lead instructor, Bill Rapier curriculum. Unlike almost all other concealed blades on the market, the Northman blade is designed to be carried in the front pants pocket. This provides an additional level of capable response to a deadly confrontation without going for your waistline and from an inconspicuous hand position. The Northman blade concept evolved from a combination of backcountry application requirements and the concept of replacing the traditional pocket-knife from a folding knife (or a pre-broken knife) to a fixed blade pocket knife, which after a thorough development process, showed great capability and viability for combatives applications.
Overall length: 6.875"
Weight of blade: 4.2oz
Weight of empty sheath: 1.6oz
Weight of blade in sheath: 5.8oz
Overall length: 6.875"
Weight of blade: 4.2oz
Weight of empty sheath: 1.6oz
Weight of blade in sheath: 5.8oz
The grip is about 3.375" easily fits into any hand from large to small and has a tail designed around single finger drawing from the pocket. The scales are cut in such a way as to help you hold on to the blade in wet or aggressive circumstances. It is made of G10. It has a single hole and two handle retention screws.
The blade is a drop point design made out of M390 steel in the 60-62 HRC range. The spine of the blade is roughly 3.5" and is designed around having the enough girth to exceed many different and varying applications which a blade of this design may be required to handle.
Every Northman blade is serialized, this adds in value, as well as, exclusivity.
Every Northman blade will have an etched designation on either side, one saying Northman and the other amtac. The level of detail is very nice.
The live blade sheath features an outlet for liquid in case your blade is wet, so that it does not get rusty or stuck in the sheath.
The carrying sheath which it comes with is a very well built and designed sheath. The quality of the kydex is above that which you normally find with kydex sheaths. This sheath was clearly made through a CAD mold and done so to exact specifications of the production blade. This alone already puts the blade well above most others in the concealed blade field. The sheath features small gold eyelets which are standard on higher-end concealed blades, such as the headhunterblades.com Rat (and others). These small eyelets allow for the blade to have a very small footprint which is absolutely required for the application of a sheathed blade which can be placed into the front pants pocket.
Every sheath will have the AMTAC Blades logo on it.
Every sheath will have a built-in ferro rod - 2.625". This is because every man should be able to start a fire, which is extremely important to have the capacity to accomplish repeatedly for survival. With fire you can have light, you can have warmth, you can cook food, you can do things you are not capable of doing without fire. You know, like doing things a man should be capable of doing.
Every sheath has a premium thick hook/loop double layered material. This material is specifically for carrying additional items which you may need in your daily life or for specific circumstances in the wild. You can carry one or two vaseline soaked cotton balls, money, handcuff key, lock picks, and/or anything else you can fit there and it may appear small but you could probably fit most of the items I listed in some combination.
Every Northman Blade comes with a full size trainer in blue anodized metal. The blade length is slightly shorter than the live blade due to training requirements.
The training blade is also etched just like the live blade, this attention to detail is extraordinary.
The training blade comes with a training blade sheath, which features a folded over design and small gold eyelets as well. This is a must have because you are required to store your live blade somewhere when you are using the training blade, and the storage of the live blade has to meet certain requirements. In the event you lose the live blade sheath you can retrofit the training black sheath with some 550 cord and use it as an improvised live blade sheath.
If you did not figure it out just yet, this blade is a complete game changer to, not just the training industry, but the outdoor industry. Just the blade and sheath would have been an industry crushing concept, but Bill is a veteran of complex training concepts and knows the requirements for the correct application of, everyday useable, and concealed blades, alike. The Northman Blade is designed around Bill’s personal requirements for an everyday carried concealed blade. It surpasses every single requirement of a modern day EDC pocket blade while not being limited by any of the fundamental flaws of folding knives. There is no other blade package on the market that does what the Northman Blade is capable of, and there aren’t any that even come close. The greatest supplement to this blade, or conversely, to Bill’s Integrated Combatives, among other classes Bill teaches, is the ability to have a blade specifically designed to meet and exceed the requirements of the real world.
Go to amtacblades.com to find out more!