Father's Day Gift Suggestion #7: A Fighting Knife (Perhaps an MP01)

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HTM Master Proven MP01 - 6Is there a huge likelihood you will ever need to go Full Athos and Porthos on someone with a fixed blade in a back alley? Probably not, and if there is you should rethink the route you take walking home. That doesn't mean you shouldn't own one though, nor that you should disregard carrying one (assuming it's legal in your jurisdiction).

Your gift idea for today, before I open the floor up to suggestions is the Master Proven MP01, designed by Grady Burrell and built by Darrel Ralph of HTM Knives. I'm not sure if the model is the MP because of Master Proven or because the designer retired after 20+ years as an Army Military Police SNCO. Mr. Ralph has been referred to as "the Wizard of Edge", owns several patents and has a startling number of NSNs for his knives (like the 18 X-Ray, NSN: 1095-01-588-6781).

HTM Master Proven MP01


HTM Master Proven MP01 - 5Lightweight and well-balanced, the knife is 9.25-inches long overall; the blade itself is 4.5-inches. It's built of 154CM steel with 65 Rockwell harness and was designed to for fighting, specifically with retention in mind. It has an aggressively textured handle with a matching hole at the rear corresponding to a spur at the rear of the blade. That's the intriguing part of the knife - it's intended to help you retain the weapon whether you're holding it by itself or while maintaining your grip on a firearm or other implement.

HTM MP01- 8

As you can see, if you run 550 cord from the loop up around that spur and tighten it down you wind up with a defacto enclosed grip that mitigates the slip factor of blood, sweat, impact, etc. and will still allow you sufficient freedom of movement to attain a good (albeit not perfect) shooting grip on a handgun, to the point where you can keep both pistol and knife in hand and conduct a tactical reload.

HTM Master Proven MP01 - 4

Note - whatever material used to make the loop will need to be tough to prevent slippage. Genuine paracord appears to lock it in place, while knock-off 55o will slowly stretch. Some users will knot the cord up to fit their hand size while others have been using a cinch from ITW Nexus.

The knife sheath was built by FirstSpear using their 6/9 system. 6/9 is their modular pocket technology for use with those who don't run the FirstSpear 6/12 platform. It's compatible with legacy PALS platforms but is much lighter and provides for tighter tolerances.

HTM is advising MSRP is $340.00, however first responders of all types, military personnel, veterans and retirees receive 20% off. They are not available yet on the site, so you'll need to e-mail Lacey at HTM [Lacey (at) DarrelRalph.com] to place your order. Advise you want to use Mil/LE/Responder code MLER223. There are two styles available; "Fixed Blade" and "Tanto", and each of those can be purchased hone or serrated.

HTM Master Proven MP01 - 2

HTM Master Proven MP01 - 3

 

Don't want a fixed blade like this? Prefer a Karambit or a good old fashioned Bowie? Let us know (or hint to your Residential Sergeant Major) in the comments below. Feel free to ask questions about the MP01 too, I've e-mailed Mr. Ralph and asked that he keep an eye on the post for input.

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