Microtech Ultratech | Review

I’ve been tasked with testing out countless knives throughout the years. As a regular contributor for different hunting magazines, I would typically get sent a knife, have a week or so to play with it, and immediately have to send in my write up. Would you have been able to give an honest review of your spouse week 1 of the relationship? Mine accidentally spilled hot coffee on me on our first date. 0/10. Love her now though.

All of that to say, this is the first knife I have bought with the full intent of beating the hell out of it, violating it to its core, for a full year, and then sharing my honest opinion. At the beginning of this test, I assumed all OTF knives were safe queens. Novelty over utility. Is that the case? This is the Microtech Ultratech Review.

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I committed to using this knife as my EDC for the past 12 months, so it’s only right that I first mention the ease of carry. It has a very slim profile at .48” thickness, overall length of 8.50”, blade length 3.44”, and for those who suck at math, 5.06” closed length. Even in my suit pants pockets while at the office, it remains undetected, and sits very well. It features a tip-down pocket clip that is a bit awkward when wearing heavier bottoms, but that’s a small complaint.

We all know that knife nerds fall more onto the extreme end of the autism spectrum, and they’ll happily talk to you for hours about steel quality, heat treatments and blade geometry if you let them. Don’t let them. But we’re not going to bore you with that. This Microtech is made from M390 steel, is sharp as hell, has a thick stock for heavier use, and the finish holds up like you wouldn’t believe.

The thumb action was a bit stiff when I first got it, and after 12 months of daily use, it is still a bit stiff. Combine that stiffness with the grip pattern on the slide, this knife can be a bit tough on virgin thumbs. However, I believe that is by design to prevent any deployment mishaps while in the pocket, or as a safety measure for kids. In fact, I let my nephews (6 and 8) play with it for a couple minutes just to see how secure it was, and they were never able to open it. God bless the engineers at Microtech.

As for the abuse I mentioned earlier, over the past year I have dropped this knife at least six times onto concrete, without a mark to show for it. As you may have expected if you read any of our reviews, I haven’t done any maintenance or given any care to this knife. I don’t want to, but that’s not why I neglect. Most knives are going to hold up if you baby them, you see the real heroes with punishment.

Last week I was shark fishing from the shore in Florida. While hooked into a bull, I dropped the knife, inadvertently kicked sand on top of it while fighting the shark, and lost the knife for about 30 minutes. Even after this jackass move, deployment on it never failed for the rest of the trip. When I got home, I hit it with an air compressor, and she’s good as new.

Let me summarize the past 365 days of use. Several drops, at least two deer gutted, a sand bath, hundreds of opened Amazon packages, a thousand fingernail cleanings, and one successful attempt with the glass breaker. In a pinch, I think I could still post this on eBay with “Like new” status, and nobody would be the wiser. But I won’t. In fact, I ordered a second one.

Price: $311

Pros: fast deployment, versatile drop point blade with partially serrated edge, slim and concealable profile, lightweight, incredibly durable

Cons: Somewhat clunky pocket clip, not a fan of the proprietary tri-wing hardware.