I don't have the original pics of the copies below, so I can't check the date they were taken, but pretty sure they were no later than 2007. The pics below are of a Browning Ice Storm knife, which I found out after I bought it was manufactured by Mcusta. It is essentially the same knife as is being offered here. The blade is VG-10, the handles are anodized aluminum, the pocket clip is literally identical, the star-head screws appear to be the same size and placed along the same line near the spine of the handle, the blade is a slightly different shape, but the same 3.25" length and though the handles are shaped differently, the way the X-patterns are machined look to be done in the same way as the vertical ovals on my knife, if not done on the same CNC machine(s). I got this knife off eBay 10 to 12 years ago for the amazing price of $25 bucks. After I got it, I went back to the same vendor to buy as many more as they had in stock, but when I got there, the price had gone to $35 and they only had a couple left in stock, one of which was pink, and knowing my wife would never carry (or even use around the house) a knife like this, I went ahead and bought the other one and gifted it to a friend.
When I bought this knife, Mcusta was selling a virtually identical version of it. While I do recall that the Mcusta version was quite a bit more expensive than the Browning-licensed version I got, I don't recall the average asking price. Pretty sure it was under $100 bucks, but wouldn't commit to remembering any better than that. I knew when I bought the Browning version that it was an exceptional deal though, so what I paid for mine isn't really a fair data-point for evaluating the deal on this Drop. I figured the eBay vendor I bought it from probably bought out the inventory of another vendor who went out of business or something like that. They had several name-brand knives for much cheaper than I found anywhere else is why I surmised that. It's still just a guess though.
I have carried this knife extensively. Used for general purpose cutting tasks, it's never been asked to hold up under any kinds of "torture tests," but it has held up extremely well, in fact much better than expected, for what I bought it for.
I doubt the core of this Drop being VG-10 and outer-layer Damascus will/would affect the cutting potential or ease/difficulty of sharpening this blade at all, either plus or minus. Not sure it would add or detract in any way to any measure of quality, including corrosion resistance, that there's some unknown Damascus steel enveloping the cutting edge. Can't really comment on the price since I haven't followed Mcusta's pricing for several years, but the knife itself is a very good mid/upper-mid-range quality knife. Here's a couple of pics of mine:
When I bought this knife, Mcusta was selling a virtually identical version of it. While I do recall that the Mcusta version was quite a bit more expensive than the Browning-licensed version I got, I don't recall the average asking price. Pretty sure it was under $100 bucks, but wouldn't commit to remembering any better than that. I knew when I bought the Browning version that it was an exceptional deal though, so what I paid for mine isn't really a fair data-point for evaluating the deal on this Drop. I figured the eBay vendor I bought it from probably bought out the inventory of another vendor who went out of business or something like that. They had several name-brand knives for much cheaper than I found anywhere else is why I surmised that. It's still just a guess though.
I have carried this knife extensively. Used for general purpose cutting tasks, it's never been asked to hold up under any kinds of "torture tests," but it has held up extremely well, in fact much better than expected, for what I bought it for.
I doubt the core of this Drop being VG-10 and outer-layer Damascus will/would affect the cutting potential or ease/difficulty of sharpening this blade at all, either plus or minus. Not sure it would add or detract in any way to any measure of quality, including corrosion resistance, that there's some unknown Damascus steel enveloping the cutting edge. Can't really comment on the price since I haven't followed Mcusta's pricing for several years, but the knife itself is a very good mid/upper-mid-range quality knife. Here's a couple of pics of mine: