During SHOT Show we broke the story about Greg Medford, head honcho at Medford Knife & Tool receiving the official letter form the Marine Corps making the new MKT USMC EOD-1 Knife is the approved replacement for the legacy knife. Designed in cooperation with EOD techs at 29 Palms, the EOD-1 is a thick, solid tool built to hammer, pry, guide wire, probe and of course cut and saw. It is extremely heavy duty.
Here’s Greg talking about the new knife and explaining its features:
Named after Rome’s elite Praetorian guard, this new folder from Medford Knife and Tool boasts a beefy .270″ thick blade. It combines flame striped .187″ thick solid Titanium frame and .250″ pivots with a digicam G10 handle. The Praetorian also incorporates a backstrap breaker to bust windows or heads. It’s not often that I call a knife “sexy” but I’ll make an exception this time.
Medford Knife & Tool is launching two new lines of blades called the Commander Line and the Deployment Line. They are debuting at SHOT, where MKT will be taking orders. Now, what’s really cool about this is the very first knife off the Deployment production run is the knife that was won in the first “12 Days of Tactical Christmas contest we’ve been running (Day One was over on BOLO Report). They’re going to show off number one of the Deployment series (specifically the D-FMT, Deployment-Field Master Tanto) at SHOT and then ship it off to the winner.
If you didn’t like the 1ST Day of Tactical Christmas song about the Medford Knife, you may need to get a sense of humor issued to you.
“The Commander Line Field Master is one of the parent designs of the new Deployment Line,†Greg Medford told us when he offered it up as a prize. This 4-knife series is meant to be an awesome entry level knife for guys new to the American, hand-made knife scene and at .187â€(3/16â€) thick, is a slight departure from our Armageddon-Ready Commander Line.  The steel for that knife literally just went to the grinder last Thursday.â€
Medford Knife & Tool is using D2, a really good, high grade steel that has an old-school proven record in the knife industry. D2 is a quiet workhorse in America that has awesome properties for knives yet retails great value for what you get.  It’s high carbon, very corrosion resistant, abrasion resistant and holds what he describes as “a bitchin’ edge.† Both the Commander Line (which we’ll tell you about soon enough) and the Deployment Line are made of D2, and Greg makes ‘em thick. Like .270†thousandths, compared to other industry knives that are much thinner on average.
“We’re less concerned with squeezing every penny out of grinding and steel costs; than we are about using whatever thickness steel will get us the strongest tool for the job. We let people buy a production ground knife blank from our factory and then customize Deployment Line blades however they want…and we try to get it done within 18 days. So they can say, “I want it with a left hand reverse grip sheath, black blade,  with black micarta handles or whatever and we’ll get it squared away.â€
“We’ve been making some knives for the boys at Bridgeport, Stumps, VA Beach and points unknown that need ‘em now and in a certain way.  Looks like 2012 is gonna be a pretty crazy year for us.â€
Check out the Medford Knife website when you get the chance.
-DR
