Viper Free Knife

DESCRIPTION OF VIPER FREE POCKET KNIFE

Viper Free is a pocket knife with advanced locking mechanism and modern design, primarily intended for:

• every-day carry,
• outdoor use.

It comes in two varieties which differs it in blade surface, PVD coated and stonewashed blade. Version with stonewashed blade is more appropriate for outdoor use, while version with PVD coating is more appropriate for tactical and night use. With 21.0 cm overall length and 8.6 cm blade length, Free can be characterized as middle size pocket knives.

Viper Free knife series was designed by Moreno Franzin and Tommaso Rumici. Knife has sophisticated locking mechanism Smart Lock®.

A video review of Viper Free Knife:

DESING OVERVIEW

Free has foldable blade with one-hand opening. Blade has an opening for thumb on the upper side of the blade near the pivot and enables easy opening.  Due to firm and very precisely made pivot opening is also very smoothly.

VIPER FREE BLADE

Blade has a drop-point design, which is a bit pointed on the end. Blade is 3.6 mm thick, where the thickest part is at the upper part of the blade; it narrows towards the bottom blade edge.  Edge is almost straight on the first part and curved on the end part. Upper part of the blade above the pivot has several transverse notches to place a thumb for better control when using a knife.

BLADE MATERIAL

Blade of Viper Free is made of AISI D2 tool steel; a high-carbon and high-chromium steel with high vanadium and molybdenum content, also known as semi-stainless steel.  Tool steels are originally used for machine work tools. During the years, knife manufacturers started successfully using tools steels for knife blades.

The main characteristics of AISI D2 tool steel are:

• Excellent wear resistance
• High compressive strength
• High toughness and shock-resistance
• Edge abrasion resistance

Typical chemical analysis of added alloys in AISI D2 tool steel, (source: Uddeholm, AISI D2, Tool Steel Facts):

Alloy material	C	Si	Mn	Cr	Mo	V
Content %	1.55	0.3	0.4	11.8	0.8	0.8

Although tools steel blades are not corrosion resistant as stainless steels, the stonewashed version of Viper Free blade is corrosion resistant for every-day use. PVD coated version is highly corrosion resistant. One of the most important steps in tool steel blade manufacturing is quenching and thermal treatment.  The blade of Viper Free is given to very sophisticated heat treatment. After mechanical treatment, the blade is vacuum heat treated, tempered in dual phase process and at end cryogenic heat treated. With this process the surface hardness of 58/60 HRC and very high toughness are reached.

BLADE SURFACE FINISH

Viper Free has two optional blade finishes:

• Stonewashed blade
• PVD coated blade

Stonewashed blade surface 

Stonewashed blade surface finish is obtained with mechanical surface treatment named stonewashing. The stonewashed surface has opaque appearance and reflects only at some points.

PVD coated blade surface

Free comes also with a PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition) coated blade.  PVD coating is a process, where coating materials are vaporized at high temperature and coated on a blade surface in process of condensation.  With PVD coating blade becomes more impact resistant and also coated surface is totally corrosion resistant.   Surface of Viper Free Knife – PVD Coated blade is black and has mat appearance, which does not reflect in darkness.

G10 HANDLE

Handle of Viper Free knife is made of G10 composite, which is a subtype of handle materials group Micarta composites. G10 is produced with a process of fiber-glass impregnation using an epoxy resin. Precisely laminated G10 handle is firm and resistant on impacts. With textured surface, handle has very good grip even when it is when. With that handle performances, Free can be used in any situation. G10 handles are also water-resistant.  Handle comes in three optional colors: black, brown or green.

Handle frame and scales

From detailed observation it can be seen that handle is very precisely manufactured and that knife producing masters paid attention to every detail. Handle frame is made of tempered AISI 420 C steel.  Knife pivot has engraved a patent number of Smart Lock® locking mechanism.  Top scale screws and pivot screw are made of AISI 303 stainless steel. On the right side is located a practical belt clip, which enables safely clipping on a belt, trousers or jacket.  Belt clip is mounted with a pivot screw and then fixed with a smaller screw.  The length of a clip is approximately a half of the handle length.  Clip is stiff and firm, made of tempered stainless steel and has satin finish.  A handle has also an opening for sling.

Smart Lock® Locking Mechanism

Viper Free has a patented locking mechanism Smart Lock® made exclusively by Viper by Tecnocut.  The inventor of Smart Lock® patent is Moreno Franzin and applicants of patent are Tecnocut SNC and Moreno Francin. The International Application Number of patent is PCT/IT2012/000283 and was published on May 2013. Smart Lock® is without doubt one of the newest folding knives locking mechanism.

A locking mechanism is based on a liner-lock type. When the blade is in open position the liner element-leaf spring blocks and fixes the tang. With the move of the slide backwards mechanism compresses the leaf on a tang and additionally fixes the blade; the blade is totally blocked. The slide is located on the back side of the handle and is made of hard anodized 6026 aluminum. For closing the knife, user just slides a slide in first position and closed the blade as a normal liner-lock locking mechanism.