- a new and exciting acquaintance!
FMK, or Ferramonster Knives, is a relatively new brand on the market. To be precise, the name is new, but not the company. They started as several Chinese brands as OEM manufacturers many years ago, but have now decided to take the step and release knives under their own name.
So far, they have released three knife models, one of which is called Glideman.
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| Ferramonster Glideman |
Like many modern manufacturers, Ferramonster has released the Glideman in several versions. However, not as many as some do. Here they have settled for four, of which this is perhaps the most anonymous. I chose it because I thought the sober appearance matched the design well.
Otherwise, the knife is also available with a blue titanium handle, an anodized ditto or with a black blade. The latter has a light bronze tone on the otherwise gray titanium handle.
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| A new knife on the market with a little extra everything, Glideman |
Short version: Ferramonster Glideman, The knife that offers something extra. Extra good cutting properties, extra good ergonomics, and extra good kick in the flipper.
Blade
It is impossible to avoid the fact that this knife has borrowed design elements from other well-known knife models. Not that it is a copy of anything, but it feels familiar. Not least of all, this applies to the blade shape, where there are some familiar figures with a similar appearance. Basically, however, we are talking about a modified Wharncliffe. A fairly strong modification as the edge is curved and the back has been given a curvature.
Further design elements are found in a pronounced swedge and, of course, the blade hole and a "forward choil". In other words, there is quite a lot to look at.
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| Here you will find a rather heavily modified Wharncliffe |
The blade is 84 mm long, a bit depending on how you measure. The website states 77 mm/3.05". It is 3.2 mm thick and 30 mm high at most.
The material used is M390. A steel that is familiar to most people at this point, as it has been used in extremely many folding knives of a slightly finer kind. But there is a reason for that, it is simply very good. Especially when what is here has been hardened properly. The stated range is 60-62 HRC, which is where it should be. Otherwise, you don't get as much out of your top material.
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| The blade has a nice satin finish and is unmarked except for the blade steel. |
But you get that here. Especially since the primary edge is about 21 mm high and the blade is as thin as 0.3 mm behind the edge itself. This gives the Glideman good conditions for being a really capable pocket knife, which it is.
In fact, it is a joy to handle in most materials. I am always just as happy when theoretical advantages are also reflected in practice. When it comes to food handling, it is the size of the blade that sets the limits, not the geometry or the material. The knife cuts excellently, but the blade is not that long and it is wide.
When it comes to other materials, however, it is excellent. Cardboard and the ubiquitous plastic are a joy to cut. It is easy, and the blade stays sharp for a very long time.
The tip is pronounced enough that it is really good for both puncturing things and opening packages. I actually appreciate the false edge there too, as I often turn the knife upside down so that the edge does not cut up what is inside the cardboard box that is being opened. The last time there were five kilos of hazelnuts at work. You don't want those on the floor after accidentally cutting the packaging inside.
Then this is a good knife overall and that means it also bites well into wood. The edge is sharp, the blade thin behind but still strong which makes it relatively easy to cut even in hard materials. A small warning is in place, however. Do not pry with a thinner flat-ground blade like you do with, for example, a Morakniv when you loosen the blade from the wood.
In summary, however, this is a really practical little knife!
Handle
Let me present some basic measurements first. The handle measures a total of 10.5 cm in length, of which only 7 cm is available for the fingers to grip. However, this increases to 9 cm if you add the rounded lower part of the rear end. The thickness lands at 12.7 mm according to my caliper.
If you add to the modest dimensions a milled clip and a distinctively large hole for attaching a lanyard, my fears were raised that this handle would not suit me at all! It felt too small and as if too many considerations had been taken. But rarely have I been so happy to be wrong as in this case! Let me explain why.
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| The handle is made of 6AL4V titanium |
As a side note, the back spacer that incorporates the large hole is made of titanium. On the other hand, this applies to everything except the blade and bearings on this knife. Certainly a metal that is significantly lighter than steel, but despite everything, it should give a certain weight to the whole creation. Here it does not, and one of the things you react to is how light the knife feels. Some of that feeling can be attributed to good balance.
But another strong contributing factor is that the sides are not massive but provided with substantial pockets on the inside. Another quality mark as it takes time and requires some thought to be done correctly. That is, not to impair balance or reduce strength.
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| The backspacer and clip actually help make the handle feel fuller. |
The strength comes from the material, of course, and the construction is not unique in any way. It consists of two sides of titanium joined at two points by a back spacer in addition to the adjustable pivot screw. Incidentally, not unique but very unusual are two things. One is that all screws, including the one that holds the lock bar reinforcement in place, are in size T8. This brings two positive things, firstly, you only need a driver to maintain or adjust your knife. The second is that it usually means that the screw heads are a little more substantial and therefore harder to destroy. This may be needed in this case as the screws are made of titanium! A rather exclusive grip on a production knife.
Otherwise, it can be said that the sides are flat but that they are heavily beveled all around. The Glideman also lacks any sharp corners or edges. Everything is rounded and polished, including obvious places like the edges of the flipper, but also in more hidden places like the corner that occurs at the front where the lock bar is cut out from the handle side.
But back to why I was wrong. The Ferramonster Glideman is simply phenomenal in the hand, given the size of the knife. If we start with a standard hammer grip, the index finger falls into place behind the finger guard as it should. Then the middle and ring fingers follow naturally. Then the space runs out or not quite. The little finger lands on the rounded back edge excellently. Then comes the real magic tricks. The tip of my ring finger fits perfectly against the hole for the lanyard. Then I have size large (11) in gloves. But even better is that since the lanyard attachment is narrower than the handle in general, it rounds the handle better than if it had not been there. On top of that, the clip is not felt at all. Sorry, that was not true; it improves the grip by helping to round the profile of the handle.
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| The Glideman is a well-balanced knife that is very comfortable in most common grips. |
If you then move your thumb up onto the ridges on top of the blade in a saber grip, the grip is still just as good. The angle of the index finger changes, but the substantial beveled edges help.
The same can be said if the index finger lands on the excellently shaped depression on the blade spine. Even then, the rest of the handle continues to feel just as comfortable.
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| But it is just as sympathetic in all other grips too! |
Then we have that indentation in the blade, a "finger choil". It's not my favorite solution, but if you have to have one, it's an excellent example of when it really works. With the index finger there, the thumb now ends up on the spine of the blade instead, and again it gives an excellent grip.
In addition to that, the Glideman can be easily used in a pinch grip as the handle is not too thick. Even reverse grips are decent. You know when you turn the edge towards the body to carve a little heavier or with the tip down to stab something.
Opening and Lock
Glideman is a knife that comes with multiple opening methods. In addition to the obvious flipper, it can of course, be opened with two hands or using the hole in the blade.
But it should be said right away that this is primarily a knife whose blade is to be opened with the flipper tab. What reveals it is how hard the resistance from the detent ball is. But once you have learned that the thumb should be given as much leverage as possible by being placed at the end of the hole or that you should not hesitate with the index finger, those methods also work well. However, you cannot flick the blade out with your thumb, but in that case, a "slow roll" is required, calmly and methodically.
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| The flipper is easy to use and works very well. |
If you want more speed, the flipper "fin" is the one that applies and then we are talking really good speed! One of the fastest I have come across, quite simply. At first, the blade is quite light with its "choil", its hole, and the high grind. Then you have to add the fine ball bearings that the blade runs on, and as the icing on the cake a good geometry. This means both that the fin is easy to "find," meaning that the finger does not have to fumble for it, and that the traction is good. The latter is ensured with some well-made grooves. No slipping here!
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| The blade hole is also capable, but not as effective as the flipper |
Another plus is that you don't have to think about how to approach the flipper tab. Pull, push, or anything in between - it all works.
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| The lock is correctly executed |
The blade is held in place by an exemplary frame lock. It is, of course, made of titanium, and with that, it also has a lock bar reinforcement that also acts as an overtravel stop and it is made of steel. One of the very few details on this knife that is made of that material, as mentioned.
The function corresponds exactly to the requirements I have for a quality knife in this price range. The blade shows no tendencies to move in any direction, and the lock bar slides neither under load from the right nor in the wrong direction.
To the praise can be added that this is how easy it should be to disengage a frame lock. There is space to reach the lock bar and even though there is nothing to reinforce the traction in the shape of grooves, the thumb gets a good purchase on the beveled surface anyway.
To Carry
I tend to insist with a fool's persistence that most quality knives are good at something, and if they are good at most things, they have an Achilles heel. If I have to criticize something, this is where I find the objections regarding the Glideman.
It's not that the knife is heavy, because it is not. My scale stops at 108 grams for the Glideman. It is not big either, I have also established that. A length of 105 mm is not a deterrent, and the same can be said about the thickness. Perhaps a little chubby, but certainly not fat.
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| The titanium clip is stylish and comfortable in the hand, but leaves a little to be desired. |
The sides are made of fairly well-polished titanium, so they offer no resistance when the knife is pulled or put away. So what's the problem?
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| As you can see, the ramp/lip is modest and the space under the clip is not much to brag about. The tension is good, however. |
It's not really a problem so much as the result of some design choices. What made me rave about the handle comfort comes into play here. Most of it is tied to the clip and its placement. The clip is, like everything else, titanium and is held in place by two screws mounted in tandem formation. So it doesn't move sideways. That's good.
But it's also a very flat clip which makes it comfortable to hold the knife as mentioned, especially since it doesn't have a tip pointing the wrong way. Another feature that keeps it from causing hot spots in the hand is that it sits a bit inward on the handle in relation to its outermost tip. That's also good.
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| Glideman is not anonymous where it sits. It's almost like you're afraid it's going to fall out of your pocket |
However, the design means that the ramp is not very large and therefore not entirely easy to slide over fabric edges. The low space under the clip does not suit all fabric thicknesses and the placement makes the knife very visible in the pocket. It sticks out almost an inch or 2.3 cm in this case, which is a lot given the modest size of the knife. Then the thinning of the lock bar contributes to further complications as it is found on the outside of the handle and not on the inside. Fabric tends to get stuck there if it is soft.
Overall, the Glideman is not entirely easy to put away and once you have done so, it is still visible.
To Conclude
Some details or areas reveal whether a knife is well or poorly designed and how well-built it is. In this case, really well built. I usually quote an expression that says perfection is many small things done correctly. That is almost the case here. But the biggest pieces are in place and almost all the pitfalls have been avoided.
Examples of such details can be sharp corners where the lock is cut out of the titanium side; there are none here. It can be a clip that presses against the hand when using the knife, off-centered blades, edges that almost look out the back and threaten to cut the user, lock bars that are hard to reach and tough to release, flipper tabs with strange geometry so you have to learn to use them and so on.
None of these mistakes are found here!
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| The Glideman is an excellent pocket knife for EDC use |
In principle, there is therefore nothing negative to say about the knife. Or rather very little, but what there is can affect what you use the knife for. It does in my case.
What can be objected to is mostly about personal preferences regarding, for example, blade shape or appearance, or, in this case, more specifically, the user's attitude to modified Wharncliffes and "forward finger choils". They are, after all, dominant features.
But my main objection is the clip itself. Since it is not easy to put the knife away, it prevents me from using the knife in my work. In those situations, the whole point is to pull the knife, open something, and then quickly put it away with one hand again. The other hand often holds what has been opened, not infrequently a 2.5-kilo bag of crushed tomatoes or similar. It is not a completely simple procedure with the Glideman because the clip sometimes wants to get stuck against the hem of the pants. Opened plastic bags with contents cannot be put down, whereupon I have to put the knife away instead and come back later to put it in the pocket.
Therefore, I prefer the Glideman as a general "EDC" knife or everyday companion outside of work, where that feature is not as important to me.
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| Ferramonster Glideman does well in all weather conditions, but perhaps especially in the spring sun |
Otherwise, the Ferramonster Glideman is a thoroughly pleasant acquaintance and something tells me that it was not the last knife from them that I will review. This is a knife that is solidly built in exceptional materials and where a couple of brilliant choices have been made, such as letting the blade be both hard and thin behind the edge. This means that this knife cuts really well. A feature that is matched by a comfortable handle that belongs to those who play around a bit with the format, and offers better comfort and ergonomics than the dimensions suggest. Well done Ferramonster!
For these reasons, I can't help but recommend this knife. Especially not if you feel like having something that not everyone else has.
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| Ferramonster Knives |
Specifications:
Length Overall: 182 mm
Length Folded: 105 mm
Weight: 108 g (weighed by me, stated 105g/3,77oz)
Blade Length: 85 mm
Blade Thickness: 3,2 mm
Blade Steel: Böhler M390
Handle Material: Titan
Lock: Frame lock
Produced by: Ferramonster Knives, made in China
/ J - very happy with his new acquaintance
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