Vosteed Mini Psyop Knife Review
The Vosteed Mini Psyop knife is a Crossbar lock, Elmax bladed, carbon fiber knife great for EDC. Everything about it is great! It’s even black and orange!
Official Specs
Here’s a link to the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife.
Versions
Four versions of the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife have been made. Not all of them are available now, but the one seen here in this review is!
Price
Two versions of the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife (including the one in this post) sell for $139. The other two (the Micarta ones) are less, at $129.
Package and Manual
What’s Included
- Vosteed Mini Psyop knife
- Carry case
- Cleaning cloth
- Velcro PVC patch
- Spare crossbar lock springs (I guess they’re called “springs”)
- Carry tin
- Manual/paperwork
Look
Alright first, drink in this black with orange accent knife.
Next, observe that it’s a “Crossbar lock” knife (aka Axis lock). Once you realize it’s about the same size as a Benchmade Mini Bugout, you’ll realize that this knife basically is a Mini Bugout – maybe even better!
The look is, of course, fantastic. I do love the black with orange accents. On this knife (unlike on the black and orange Mini Bugout), the orange matches all the way around the knife. It’s an “anodized orange” and not a proper deep blaze orange, but it’s suitably orange, anyway.
The short summary here is that the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife looks fantastic. For what it’s worth, the other three versions are equally as fantastic in their look. Micarta offers a great natural feel. Both of those versions offer a satin or bead-blasted blade, which also looks great!
Open / Close / Lock
Again, the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife is a Crossbar lock knife. It’s just like an Axis lock. The lock doesn’t have to be manipulated to open the knife – you can flick it with one of those thumbstuds. They’re on both sides of the blade, too, so this is an ambidextrous knife.
When open, the Crossbar lock has to be sort of pinched and pulled toward the opening (pulled left in the photo below). That takes fingers on both sides of the blade for me, but it’s possible to do that with just one finger (or pressure on just one side of the knife, that is.)
Once the Crossbar lock is disengaged, the blade can swing mostly freely. This is of course a way to close the knife, but it’s also my favorite way to open Crossbar/Axis lock knives! On the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife, just like on the Mini Bugout, flinging the blade open with the lock disengaged is a very pleasant, tactile experience.
Build and Feel
The build quality here is great. And I think it has to be – it’s competing in the same price range as the Mini Bugout! The difference is that the carbon fiber MBO is twice the price of this knife!
No matter what other knife the Vosteed Mini Psyop is like, it stands on its own for build quality. I love the carbon fiber. It’s clearly carbon fiber and not a printing or dip or whatever. On the scale edges, you can see the layers of carbon fiber! There’s just the most subtle texture of carbon fiber, too.
The blade is centered just as it should be.
The Vosteed Mini Psyop knife offers a caged ceramic ball-bearing pivot assembly. My review copy of this knife is smooth enough for all the actions I want to do, but I think with time it’s going to get even smoother. (This is to say that the knife may ship 92% smooth, with some room to improve a bit.) That’s not a complaint, though, as I’m still satisfied with the action, but I do think it’ll get better.
The backspacer is an anodized aluminum piece. The anodization perfectly matches the thumbstuds, which is great!
Below you can see that around the Crossbar lock parts, and even in to the scale edge, there are some metal pieces.
The scales are lined with metal, too. This most certainly adds to stiffness.
The carbon fiber has a great texture.
There’s not too much branding on the knife, but here you can see the Vosteed brand name.
Size
Blade Length: 2.69″ | 68.20 mm
Overall Length: 6.49″ | 164.80 mm
Blade Width: 1.07″ | 27.30 mm
Blade Thickness: 0.098″ | 2.50 mm
Handle Length: 3.80″ | 96.60 mm
Handle Width: 0.77″ | 19.50 mm
Handle Thickness: 0.429″ | 10.90 mm
Weight: 1.77 oz | 50.20 g
Here’s the knife in hand:
Below you can see the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife with the venerable Convoy S2+. The version below is a custom laser-engraved Convoy S2+ host by GadgetConnections.com. I did a full post on an engraved orange host right here! Or go straight to GadgetConnections.com to buy your Convoy S2+ now!
Also above is the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife beside a TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light. I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats. I also reviewed that specific edition, the “Oveready BOSS FT Collector Vintage Brass” 35. I love it!
Below is the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife with the Civivi Elementum. I still use that knife so much!
Steel / Cut / Oats
On the same side of the blade as the maker’s mark (Tuffknives (Geoff Blauvelt)) is the blade steel: Elmax.
I’ve stated before and here again: I can’t test steel to see if this is Elmax, and for me I’m not sure it matters. Here’s what the website Artistan Revere says about Elmax:
Simply put: Elmax is ultra-durable, strong enough to be ground to an incredibly thin and sharp edge, and normally reserved for the extreme conditions typically faced by outdoorsmen and U.S. Special Forces Soldiers. In fact, the U.S. Navy SEALs standard issue knife is made from Elmax!
I don’t even want to say “that’s good enough for me” because it really doesn’t matter much for me. This steel will certainly open boxes just fine!
The blade shape, which is important to me, is drop point. I love that and it’s great. This is probably the biggest difference in the Vosteed Mini Psyop knife and the Benchmade Mini Bugout – the Vosteed blade offers a much “taller” blade.
Below you can see the spine. It’s tapered (per the drop point shape) but is not all that rounded. In a pinch, you could probably strike a flint with this edge.
Retention
Vosteed uses their standard two-hole over-under screw pattern deep carry pocket clip on the Mini Psyop. The clip is stainless steel.
Here’s one thing I don’t love about the Mini Psyop – the pocket clip rests atop the handle and is not nestled into a specific cutout. That probably has to do with these handles being carbon fiber, but I do not know that. I do know that I like the screwed-in area of a clip to sit flush with the scales. This is not a big or functional difference, though.
The clip is reversible, which is nice. It allows only tip-up carry, but you’d really expect that on a Crossbar lock knife. So no surprises there.
There’s a lanyard hole, too.
Finally, Vosteed includes their standard black pouch. It (always) has an orange interior, which compliments the knife properly.
Summary and Conclusion
In typing this post, I’m not sure it’s properly clear that I love this knife. This is the best review knife I’ve had in a LONG time (maybe ever) – it really ticks so many of the checkboxes that I have that I really want to collect all the versions of this knife.
Carbon fiber: check.
Black: check.
Orange: check.
Crossbar lock: check.
Short blade: check. (2.69″)
Slim: check.
How much I love this knife can’t be overstated!
Notes
- This knife was provided by Vosteed for review. I was not paid to write this review.
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