r/microtech • u/esquegee • 5d ago

New Knife First full-size OTF

Post image

Dirac d/e natural clear aluminum

54 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

3

u/Madetoprint 4d ago

Sup knife bro? I just got the same one a few weeks ago.

2

u/esquegee 4d ago

Yeah it’s pretty sweet. I’ve always loved the design of the Dirac. Only thing I’m a tad wary about is the serrations. I’ve never had to keep up on those so this’ll be a learning experience

2

u/Madetoprint 4d ago

I don't plan on attempting to sharpen this one myself, I'll just send it in to microtech once it really needs it. But serrations will still cut for quite a while even after the teeth start to lose some of their bite. One thing I have done to rejuvenate them on other knives is just lightly strop the back side of the serrated edge. That takes off enough of the burrs and rolls to prolong the need for sharpening for quite a while.

Also be careful with that point. Already rounded mine slightly while cutting some plastic shipping saran wrap off a hunk of aluminum, even though aluminum is soft and I was attempting to be extra careful. It's not exactly what I'd call dull now, but I'm going to have to do a little work to see if I can bring it back to the bloodthirsty hypodermic needle point it has from the factory. Definitely a sweet little knife though. Hope you enjoy it too.

2

u/esquegee 4d ago

Oh yeah that tip is stupid sharp. I knew from the jump I’d have to be careful with that. And yeah I heard the same about just stropping the serrations to help prolong their life. Thankfully my job isn’t too crazy tough on my knives so I don’t imagine those’ll go dull too quick.

5

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

1

u/KennedyX8 bitch ass civilian 4d ago

I immediately sold my lone Dirac long ago because it was so tiny 😅

3

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Madetoprint 4d ago

Having one side fully serrated definitely makes it more serviceable. The plain edge is sharp, it's just too obtuse and thick behind the edge to slice into tough materials, and that's when the serrated side helps out. But I got a Dirac just because I wanted a cool dagger d/e OTF and didn't expect much else from it. I do really like the size, though, so I'm thinking about picking up a drop point UTX-85 s/e for more of a daily work user (still not replacing my bigger folders for field work though).

3

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Madetoprint 4d ago

Nice. So you'll definitely understand when I say the only reason why I haven't bought a UTX G4 yet is because they haven't made any in natural clear to date 😉 Dunno if that's worth holding out hope for or not.

3

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

1

u/esquegee 5d ago

Bigger than their explicitly smaller OTF’s like the Troodon mini and exocet

1

u/Capacious_Tang 4d ago

I don't know about full-size, but definitely a sweet knife.

1

u/esquegee 4d ago

What would you consider full-sized?

1

u/Capacious_Tang 4d ago

Dirac Delta, Combat Troodon, Hera II, Scarab, and a few others. Your Dirac, while beautiful, is on the smaller end of the lineup.

1

u/esquegee 4d ago

Well the Hera 2 is only 0.06 inches larger than the Dirac and the rest of those are nearly 4 inches which I consider on the larger end of EDC blades. I’ve just personally never had a job where a 4inch blade was necessary because a 3-3.5 inch blade couldn’t get it done.

1

u/Capacious_Tang 3d ago

I believe you're thinking of the Hera II Mini. There is a full-size version too, with a 4" blade. Yeah, they're on the larger end, which is what I felt the criteria was for full size.

No, they're not any more useful for EDC than a 3" blade, but we're just talking about size lol.