New Knives - Acejet Achilles Vintage Shadow

They say the third time's a charm. It remains to be seen if this is the best Acejet has released when it comes to knives for rotational throwing. Namely, it is their third model, together with Spinner Bowie, which was first out, and Maximus, which was released around the same time as this one. As the title says, it's called Achilles Vintage.

This model is available in three basic versions: Achilles, Achilles Spinner, and Achilles Vintage. The addition "Vintage" means that the knife has a leather-wrapped handle. It is available in three colors: white, as here, or black or brown.

Then there was another suffix to the name, and it's something I've featured before on my Raven IIs: "Shadow Steel." That's Acejet's name for this dark, slightly purple tone on the steel. It is not quite as black as some pictures make it appear. As I told you before, I'm a bit torn about it. It's pretty, especially when paired with a white handle like this, but the question is, how practical is it?

Acejet Achilles Vintage

The appearance is quite striking. Aside from the color combination, it's a dagger. Personally, I'm still torn between whether I primarily prefer that type of knife or Bowie knives for rotational throwing. Both types are represented among my competition knives.

In addition to color and shape, Achilles is remarkably thick, a whopping 8 mm. Even that is eye-catching.  A stock thickness of 5 or 6 mm is more common for this type of throwing knife. Otherwise, the knives tend to be too heavy.

Here, that problem has been solved in two ways. Firstly, the knives are quite small. They measure 30.5 cm in length, which is 12". A minimum measurement in some competition contexts. There are also rumors of a 13" variant, which is not available at the moment, however. The width is a maximum of 35 mm just before the finger guard and at the widest part of the handle including the leather. The finger guard or rather what symbolizes one is 43 mm wide.

The second is that the blade has a large cutout which is also reflected in the shape of the handle. It is through the latter that the leather is wrapped. 

The Shadow Steel version looks great with a white leather handle

A bit annoying is that under "full specifications" on the website, one of the most important measurements is not included, namely weight. It just says "Thanks to the holes in the handle and the blade, the ideal weight for long training sessions was achieved." That's something I'm happy to decide for myself, thanks!

Incidentally, the weight per knife is 325 grams according to my scale. To be honest, it is too little to be optimal for a rotational knife, in my opinion. Achilles really feels very light when you play with it a bit. It will be interesting to see if my first impressions hold even after the knife has been properly tested. Namely, I have my suspicions about certain proportions and how they might behave.

The material is Acejet's usual 14260 spring steel. Here transformed into "Shadow Steel". That said, it's nice, especially paired with a bright leather handle. But it has a tendency not to be seen in leaves and grass and in addition wears away with a lot of use. However, I fell for the look in this case.

I intend to come back to this knife in a couple of ways. Both in some form of "throwing report" with some film clips and in a full-fledged review, of course!

Acejet Knives

/ J - the real knife-throwing chef

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