Is a Microtech Auto Knife a Good Everyday Carry Blade?
Morgan Rogue 03.23.22
When it comes to knives, I always look for the most unique knives out there. I love the oddball ones, the curves ones, and of course, automatic spring-loaded knives.
Microtech makes many knives, they don’t just make automatic spring-loaded ones, but I think they’re mostly known for their automatic knives. Their craftsmanship, blade quality, and overlook style have a certain appeal to everyone who has ever owned a knife.
I swooned after a Microtech for a long time. The double-edged automatic blade is something to be admired. It kind of gives you a sense of power when that blade comes flying out with a vengeance. It’s a very cool knife to be sure and one that was out of my price range for a long time.
A year ago my husband surprised me with the Microtech UTX-70 D/E for my birthday and I was ecstatic. Finally! I had the knife I had been dreaming of for years!
The Microtech UTX-70 is 70% the size of a traditional Microtech. It fit nicely in my hands, but my husband would need the larger version.
- Blade length: 2.42″
- Overall length: 5.95″
- Blade steel: M390
- Full weight: 1.25oz
- MSRP (varies widely depending on configuration, approx $250 and up)
It’s so lightweight and small that I even had a scare where I thought it had fallen out of my pocket when we were in town one day. When in fact, it had fallen out of my pocket onto the floor in our home, so all was good.
I decided to make it my everyday carry and see how it held up against my everyday use. I used it for things such as opening boxes, cutting string off of clothing, and even cutting string off of hay bales.
It took a bit of getting used to. I had never carried a double-edged blade before so it took a conscious effort not to move my fingers up to the “back” of the blade…which wasn’t the back at all, but instead just more blade. Like I said, took some getting used to and more thought at first when it came to proper use and safety.
It did alright with a few tasks, but when I went to cut the string off of a hay bale, the blade tilted out of place and the spring action no longer worked.
I contacted Microtech about it and they asked me to send the knife in to be repaired, which was great customer service.
I tried to open it one last time before sending it in and the spring action suddenly worked again. I’m not sure what fixed it, but it somehow popped back into place. It has been working ever since, however, since that moment, I determined that it’s simply not the best everyday carry. I plan on sending it back in any way just so they can have a look.
Outside of the fact that it’s simply unable to handle larger, heavier duty responsibilities because of the spring action, it’s a bit awkward for everyday use. Like I mentioned before, because of the double-edged blade, there’s really no way to securely hold onto it to get better leverage, nor was it designed to do that.
Many of you may be reading this and going “well duh”, but to pay that much for a blade and to only designate it as a self-defense knife, that’s a bit of a bummer for me, personally. It’s such a beautiful knife, I want to use it everyday for everything. But not all knives are meant to be used for every purpose. I have fixed blade knives that are better for outdoor tasks, multitool knives that are better for mechanical and everyday purposes, and so on.
I love the knife as a whole, it’s a great knife that is super sharp and well put together, the automatic spring-action is also really fun. It’s a work of art.
Of course, this knife isn’t even legal in many places because of the push-button auto-opening.
However, my overall assessment of this knife is that it’s best to be used for self-defense purposes only, not as an everyday knife for everyday tasks. And definitely not as a bushcraft or survival knife in any way shape or form, unless you plan on using it to go hog hunting. Hey, I’ve known people to hunt hogs with just a knife.
This is a great knife to have in the opposite pocket of your pants pocket where your everyday knife lives or is clipped on the inside of a belly band or inside of a purse or somewhere that is easily accessible for self-defense purposes.
I’m floored at the craftsmanship of Microtech and it’s worth every penny…just as long as we come to terms that it’s not a primary everyday carry blade.
