Terrain 365 Invictus ATC Review
There was an episode of Friends (S4, E6: “The One with The Dirty Girl”), a show I detest, that has stuck with me since I first saw it. In the episode Ross was dating a character played by Rebecca Romijn. She was, of course, beautiful and alluring (as she still is—her turn as the First Officer in Star Trek Strange New Worlds is great even when the show itself isn’t particularly interesting), but when Ross got to her apartment it was filthy. It was so gross he couldn’t even sit down on her couch properly. As I have found out while growing up, there are a lot of things like the Dirty Girl. How much pain do you endure for beauty? Do you take the manic highs as the price for enduring the abyssal lows?
In many ways the Terrain 365 Invictus ATC (“ATC”) is like that. This is straight up one of the most beautiful knives I have ever seen. I hate the gaudy, rainbow trash metal stuff that is out there right now, but if you give me clean lines, a muted color pallete, and some nice, subtle touches I go crazy. Nothing quite captures that look and feel quite like the ATC. But there are issues with the ATC. Not one or two little things, but some pretty big things. Is it worth it? Should the knife get a free pass because it stimulates the same part of my brain as the A-10 Warthog or the Clone Wars era LAATs? In many ways this is one of the coolest knives available, but that cool factor comes with a heavy price. No product I have reviewed has had as high a high or as low a low as the ATC. The fact they sit next to each other in the same design is remarkable.
Here is the product page. There is a Terrain 365 version of the knife and a Prometheus Design Werx branded version of the knife. This is the “mini” version of the Invictus AT. There is also a full size version that is an auto. I believe the knife has been made in three blade materials—the review sample is Terravantium, there was an M390 version, and I think there was a small run in Magnacut (it could have also been a run of the full size version). There are also a few handle materials—the review sample’s green G10, green micarta, carbon fiber, and black G10—all the usual suspects. Here is the review sample (purchased with my own money):
Quick Review Summary: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
Design: 1
A knife this beautiful is hard to rate as a 1, until you try to open the ATC. It really needs a thumb plate or a complete rework. There just isn’t enough space between the imaginary line that the pivot is on and the imaginary line that the thumb stud is on. As a result, pushing on the thumb stud like a normal thumb stud does nothing by tear up your thumb. Compared to some of the better thumb stud openers out there like the Lander and the RAT, both of which are fairly cheap, the ATC seems like a defective knife. Its not quite that bad, but it is close. Very consistent thumb action, in a scoopy coin flip way, will get the knife open with ease, but it is counterintuitive.
Normally, I wouldn’t deduct a point here AND in Deployment, but a) the problem is that bad; and b) it starts with a design choice. If you want a knife this compact, you need to think differently about the design. Putting a thumb plate on this knife, like Emerson did with the Mini A-100, a knife with very similar proportions and lines, would fix the problem entirely and really work with the design aesthetic. Alas, what we have is the Dirty Girl from Friends—something entrancingly beautiful, but at the same time really challenging.
Fit and Finish: 1
While not a critical issue like the fouled up deployment, I have had to constantly adjust and readjust the pivot here. I have even Loc-Tited it to no effect. I have a suspicion as to why this knife is like that, probably to offset for the painful pivot, but its not clear to me what I can do to fix the blade. It just keeps coming undone. The rest of the knife, however, is gorgeously well made.
Grip: 2
With a nice, broomstick-esque handle and good, grippy G10 the ATC is a joy in the hand. The rounded tail end allows for a plethora of grips and the full forward finger choil (that is, a choil that is entirely in front of the pivot), is subtle but excellent. If you want a master class in folder handle design, go look at an Emerson. This knife is basically a Mini A-100 with some nice extras. That’s a great place to start.
Carry: 2
As one owuld expect with a knife this slim, the ATC carries like a dream. The clip is also a sculpted deep carry clip and that helps too. Its not quite a traditional knife, but its not that far away either.
Steel: 2
See the review of the Otter, here for more. It is a crying shame that blade material as interesting as Terravantium is wasted on a blade this bad at cutting. Of course, geometry (blade profile) trumps both chemistry (blade material) and physics (heat treat), so the fun toothiness of the blade material is hidden, but it is still there. When going through cardboard you can tell that despite the feel of the edge, there is a lot cutting power left.
Blade Shape: 2
Part of the ATC’s power is its looks and the dagger-ish blade shape here just screams cool. If ground correctly it would also have been a pretty effective shape too. Unfortunately…
Grind: 0
…this knife has the slicing power of a pool noodle. In a recent round of informal cut testing, the ATC fell behind every knife in the test by a giant margin. The test included: the PM2, the Bridgeport 395, the Neutron 2, the Small Sebenza, the Spyderco Air, the ZT 0545, my Walter Wells custom, the Benchmade 945, the Indiana Knives EDZ, the Spyderco Caly 3, the Northwoods Knives Indian River Jack, and the BigIDesigns Ti Knife. There are some elite slicers in that group (the PM2, Caly3, Air, and Neutron), but there are quite a few stinkers too (the Ti Knife and the 945). When your slicing power is lapped by the 945 there are problems. Its hard to overstate just how bad the ATC is in this respect. It might be the worst ground knife I have ever used. The grind itself is clean, its just too portly.
Here is why. First, the knife has a rather narrow profile to begin with. But then you add on to that the fact that there is a decorative flat that takes up about 1/2 the height of the blade AND the fact that they choose a flat grind, you have something of a slicing disaster. But then you throw a dash of extra thickness to the blade stock and, viola, one of the worst slicers I have ever reviewed. It has all of the bad features of the 940/945 plus thick stock. That is a terrible combination for folks that want a knife that cuts well.
Deployment Method: 0
Few voluntary tortures are as bad as the torture that is the ATC’s thumb stud. The problem is the geometry between the pivot and the thumb stud. By making them virtually in line with each other, you really have to scoop under the thumb stud to get the knife to open. I destroyed my thumb trying to get the knife to open like a normal thumb stud. I can get it to pop open every time now, but it is was a ton of effort and repeated failure. Only a coin flip action gets the knife to open every time. This is one of the worst deploying knives I have ever owned.
Rentention Method: 2
This is a good clip—it stays out of the way in the hand, buries deep in the pocket, has a nice ramp for hooking on clothing, and isn’t pointy in the back. But it is not absolutely the best clip ever. That wou
Lock/Blade Safety: 2
When the pivot is at its loosest, there is blade play, but I attribute that to the fit and finish of the knife and not the lock itself. The reason why is that when the pivot is freshly tightened, the knife locks up like drum. It is also easy to disengage thanks to a large ramp and access point on the handle.
Other Considerations
Fidget Factor: Very Low
You’ll want to flip this knife for the same reason people do Spartan races—to prove you can endure the pain.
Fett Effect: Moderate
G10 and stonewashed material doesn’t so wear, but the titanium does. Add to this the ATC’s rough and functional aesthetic and this will be a knife that only looks better over time.
Value: Moderate
The ATC is pricey, but like with all knives that come with the proprietary blade material, you don’t have a ton of choices. Here though, I think there are Terravantium knives that are better that cost less.
Overall Score: 14 out of 20
Few knives look as a good as the Invictus ATC, but like is older brother, the Badger, which I also owned and had the same problems with, this knife is just fundamentally a flawed design. By placing the thumb stud and the pivot in virtually a straight line with each other deployment is a Herculean task. Only absolutely perfect execution gets the knife open. Compared to something like the Mini A-100, where the use of a thumb plate spaces out the opener from the pivot, this knife is just broken. When you add in the portly grind you get something that is not that great at cutting either. So how much beauty do you have to have to overcome these two issues? Quite a bit. I am still not convinced either way. This is a gorgeous looking knife, but I am afraid I can’t sit down on the couch.
All of this brings up a point—how do I know that my ATC is not defective? Well, of course, I don’t know for sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion all of them will have some or all of these problems. First, when I posted the knife for the first time I got a comment about how hard it was to open. But that’s just two data points. Second, when I owned this knife’s older brother the Badger, it had the same problem with the thumb stud based on a very similar design. Third, the deployment problems all seem to be related not to a machining error or an assembly mistake, but a design flaw. If this was something like what I experienced on the Mini Old Guard, where I needed to send the knife back for some tuning (likely an assembly mistake), I could understand that my ATC is defective. But here ALL of the problems are related and ALL of the problems arise out of the design choice to make a compact knife with a thumb stud that is too near to the pivot.
As a thought experiment, I have tried to figure out what I would do to fix the ATC, as this is clearly a platform worth fixing. Here is my improvement plan:
Thin the blade stock
I am not sure of the properties of Terravantium, so it might be that like with H1, the blade material dictates certain dimensions. If they can, though, thinning out the stock would greatly aid the knife in cutting tasks, something that it is pretty abysmal at right now. If not, go with Vanax or Magnacut as the blade steel. It looks the cool points associated with a proprietary material, but a blade this thick on a knife this small is just not working.
Eliminate the decorative fuller on the blade
Supposing they can’t go thinner on the stock, but unlike with H1, they can grind it differently, eliminating the fuller, which is entirely decorative here, might allow them to start the grind higher and make the thickness behind the edge smaller. The end result might be a knife that cuts better. Its pretty and I like the look a lot but the fuller hinders performance and thus, if I were making the decisions, I would get rid of it.
Switch from a thumb stud to a thumb plate
I know that some people dislike thumb plates because they put something in the cutting path, but done right, like on the Mini A-100 they are hardly noticeable from a cutting perspective and it will greatly improve the deployment of this narrow-framed knife. I also think the thumb stud adds to the though aesthetic, though that might just be my Emerson fanboy talking.
Competition
The Hinderer Triple Aught Design Compact Dauntless is a straight up competitor and it annihilates the ATC. Both are pretty, with the ATC nosing out just a bit ahead, but for overall functionality, the Hinderer stomps the ATC. Another similar knife is the Emerson Mini A-100. That knife is a masterpiece, keeping the same slim form factor, but opting for a better grind and vastly superior deployment. If you like the compact shape of the ATC get a Mini A-100. If you like a knife that actually deploys and cuts things but want that fuller goodness, opt for the Hinderer, if you can find one.
Compared to other “element resistant knives” the ATC is pretty hard to recommend. Its stable mate, the Otter AT is just a better knife, with superb fit and finish and one of the snappiest and easiest deployments of any knife I have used. Its not quite the looker that the ATC is though. The Quiet Carry Drift is almost as good looking with this classic lines and lovely drop point, but it has some lock access issued. The Spydiechef runs LC200N which I don’t like as much as Terravantium, but its blade is one of the thinnest and tallest on the market making it a cutting prodigy. It absolutely laps the ATC in terms of performance, though it is much uglier.
The problem really comes when you compare the ATC to the host of knives that sport Magnacut, which is sufficiently corrosion resistant to count as an element resistant material. The Spyderco Native 5 has a squared off spine, which is one reason it isn’t my favorite Spyderco, but other than it is a vastly superior knife. Similarly the Hogue Deka is just better, with a slicier blade. Something like the newly released ZT0545 destroys the ATC. It is as tacticool as the ATC but performs way, way better.
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