Jun
Here at blades.co.uk HQ we love a good folding knife and the Camillus Vortex Folding Knife has become a firm favourite.
It is packed with great features and is made from high quality materials that belie it’s incredibly low price.
The Camillus Vortex Folding Knife is a good looking piece of kit, with it’s all black Carbonitride Titanium non stick blade made from good quality AUS-8 stainless steel. This offers that magic combination of toughness, edge retention and corrosion resistance.
The drop point blade is a good size at 3.25″ and it has a smooth, well sharpened edge straight out of the box.
The blade edge is a slightly sweeping affair, giving a good belly for slicing and dicing whilst the drop point design offers a fine point for close up work.
In the hand, the G-10 handle feels grippy and comfortable to hold, with a handy pocket clip which features a cut out of the Camillus logo.
The handle has a nicely positioned sweeping cut out so that your thumb easily engages the thumb studs which feature on both sides of the blade, as well as giving your finger somewhere to rest when the blade is open.
Camillus claim that this knife is good for both the left and right hand. Unfortunately, the pocket clip cannot be swapped to the opposite side, so lefties will be stuck with the knife in it’s current configuration. To be honest, however, holding the knife in the left hand is still really comfortable and shouldn’t put people off.
Some people are slightly averse to G-10 as a handle material, fearing it is too coarse, but this is not the case with the Camillus Vortex – the handle feels grippy but in no way rough to the touch.
I’ve used a lot of G-10 handled knives, and this is one of the better ones, without a doubt.
The lanyard hole feels solid and doesn’t protrude too much at all.
The blade opens smoothly, admirably aided by the thumb studs, and locks in place with a satisfying clunk. The blade is locked in place using a sturdy, but not too stiff, liner lock.
When fully open, the knife measures 8″ overall. The knife weighs in at 4.2oz, chunky but not overly so. In fact, in it’s folded state the knife could easily be described as being quite slender in comparison to it’s peers.
As someone who personally owns about a dozen folders, this wasn’t on my radar. It is now though!
The combination of form factor, great quality materials and an unbelievably low price should make this a serious contender for anyone’s kit.
