A few years back, I wrote a somewhat negative review of Mantis Knives’ products, which even managed to attract the attention of the president of that particular company (who never emailed me, I would point out).
Well, a few days ago, I discovered the B-3 Necessikey sucks almost as hard as the MT-1 Sliver. The Necessikey has a grand total of three tools to its name – a flashlight that is barely enough to find a car’s key hole in the middle of the night, a knife that is not suited for much more than cutting open tape on boxes, and a bottle opener.
It turns out that "bottle opener" damned near cannot. Due to the remarkably blunt tooth on the underside of the bottle opener, it could not actually get a grasp on the bottle top unless I placed it exclusively at one of the creases in the metal, and even then, there was no guarantee. After that, due to the short lever arm, pretty much all I ended up doing was mutilating the cap, and I had to use my bare hands to pull off its remains from the bottle.
I am not exactly a connoisseur of bottle openers, but even I know that it should be relatively easy to stick up underneath the cap, twist upwards, and completely remove said cap. The Necessikey failed on all counts.
Once again, Mantis Knives’ products have demonstrated that the company is comprised of more hype than material, and who has the money to waste on that?
I am guessing that they’re manufactured in China? I’ve got several Chinese-made knives in the Boy Scout pattern and one in the Cub Scout pattern, and all of them have crap bottle openers.
Meanwhile my CRKT Gekkota still looks almost brand new, despite living a life on my keychain which seems to have a similar effect on items as a media tumbler.
Not the best bottle-opener in my kitchen…but it’ll do the trick (and I’ve also used the opener to torque stubborn wing nuts without mangling my hand) Just a flat head screwdriver bit which always leaves me cursing when I find a loose Phillips head and all I have is my keys, but it works, also works as a pry tool.
The knife blade is tiny, but scary sharp and robust…not the best knife in the world, but works well in the instances when I suddenly realize I forgot my EDC knife at home.
All that and its really cool looking.
Hope yours is treating you just as well!
I looked at their site and determined that whatever they had was over-priced and un-needed.
@ Robert Evans: Actually, Taiwan, which means the failure is likely in design, not production.
@ Weer’d Beard: My Gekkota is still kicking strong, and thank you for it again! And, yeah, its bottle opener may not be ideal either, but it works, which is a damned sight more than I can say about the Mantis one.
I have developed a deep and lasting appreciation for functional keychain tool sets… people are amazed at what I can accomplish with the stuff in my pockets.
@ MAJ Mike: Pretty much exactly. They have decent public relations and publicity, but that is about the only thing “good” to come out of the company that I have seen.