I bought this knife some time back from the forum here.
Steel: CPM S90V @ 60-61 HRC
Heat Treat: Done by Peter's
Handle material: Carbon Fiber/Orange liners with stainless corbys and G-flex thick epoxy
Tang: Full Tang
Blade Thickness: .175" with Full height flat grind
Blade Length: ~ 3-7/8"
Cutting Edge: ~ 3.75"
Blade Height @ widest: 1-9/16"
OAL: ~ 7-7/8"
I thought that the event of the first sharpening of this knife was a suitable time to post a review. This is a little big knife.
Small enough to be EDC'd (in my opinion) and yet big enough to be hand filling and handle larger tasks at least for midsized folks.
First impression when I received this knife was that it was solid. Its hefty for its size. Second thing is the handle is very comfortably shaped. Everyone who has handled it has commented on how good it feels in the hand.
The kydex sheath Jim Rosa supplied is done in the Carbon Fibre surface textured material and looks really sharp with the carbon scales. It also has a house made loop/clip that allows the sheath to be slipped onto a belt without undoing the belt and the loop holds securely once its in place.
IMG_0884 by rapt_up, on Flickr
The knife came with a sheet explaining that this is a value priced knife and as such has a lower level of fit and finish to match a working knife and a budget price point. This by no means says it is poorly finished, in fact Its about ideal from my point of view in terms of balance. I have no problem paying for performance, but I dont see the need to pay for high levels of finish I either have to baby or sacrifice when I start using the knife. Since Im a knife user this suits me perfectly and I wish more makers offered this as an option with knives. Certainly a plus in my book and something I appreciate.
IMG_0885 by rapt_up, on Flickr
IMG_0887 by rapt_up, on Flickr
The knife came from Mr. Rosa, hair whittling sharp with a moderately steep/durable bevel on its full flat grind blade. It is a great cardboard cutter, breaking down boxes so fast and easily its actually fun to use for this. After some weeks of use and such there is a large pile of cardboard slices waiting next to the woodstove for colder weather to warrant their use as fire starter. I have also made a fair number of feather sticks for campfires and marshmallow roasters for the kids in this same time. It has been my camp/hike knife for a month or so now.
In this time I also spent some time learning to use my paper wheel sharpeners, so a couple days back I took the plunge and put this knife on the wheels. WOW! Its clear that S90V at this hardness is not your average knife steel. Compared to even quality production knives at good hardnesses this is still something else. Its not hard to sharpen, but material removal is much slower than anything else Ive put on the wheels. Its actually nice because it makes it easier to control. After a couple passes to lower the bevel angle slightly I deburred the edge on the compound wheel. At first I wasnt sure I was having success as it just didnt seem to be getting as sharp to the touch as my other knives Boy was I wrong
At one point I must have barely grazed the skin on the back of my thumb, not sure how or when , but knew it had happened when I noticed the blood oozing from a oblique shaving slice in the skin. I hadnt felt a thing. So I tried it on newsprint, it just glided through it easier and with greater ability to cut curves than even a very thin, and narrow Henckels boning knife. The S90V is now too sharp to whittle hairs they just cut when the edge catches.
Since then I have massacred another mountain of boxes (10 or so full size cardboard boxes cut into approx 3"-4x 10 strips, 25-30 boxboard boxes cut into similar size strips) without any loss of easy push cut ability on paper or cardboard. The knife has lost its hair popping edge and is again only hair whittling sharp, which is in my view phenomenal since most commercial knives would have been duller than that after one box.
Overall this is a really great value in a working knife, suitable for daily use with excellent edge holding by any standard, but especially so when the price point and features are considered. I will be watching for J. Rosa's future offerings.
Steel: CPM S90V @ 60-61 HRC
Heat Treat: Done by Peter's
Handle material: Carbon Fiber/Orange liners with stainless corbys and G-flex thick epoxy
Tang: Full Tang
Blade Thickness: .175" with Full height flat grind
Blade Length: ~ 3-7/8"
Cutting Edge: ~ 3.75"
Blade Height @ widest: 1-9/16"
OAL: ~ 7-7/8"
I thought that the event of the first sharpening of this knife was a suitable time to post a review. This is a little big knife.
Small enough to be EDC'd (in my opinion) and yet big enough to be hand filling and handle larger tasks at least for midsized folks.First impression when I received this knife was that it was solid. Its hefty for its size. Second thing is the handle is very comfortably shaped. Everyone who has handled it has commented on how good it feels in the hand.
The kydex sheath Jim Rosa supplied is done in the Carbon Fibre surface textured material and looks really sharp with the carbon scales. It also has a house made loop/clip that allows the sheath to be slipped onto a belt without undoing the belt and the loop holds securely once its in place.
IMG_0884 by rapt_up, on Flickr
The knife came with a sheet explaining that this is a value priced knife and as such has a lower level of fit and finish to match a working knife and a budget price point. This by no means says it is poorly finished, in fact Its about ideal from my point of view in terms of balance. I have no problem paying for performance, but I dont see the need to pay for high levels of finish I either have to baby or sacrifice when I start using the knife. Since Im a knife user this suits me perfectly and I wish more makers offered this as an option with knives. Certainly a plus in my book and something I appreciate.
IMG_0885 by rapt_up, on Flickr
IMG_0887 by rapt_up, on Flickr
The knife came from Mr. Rosa, hair whittling sharp with a moderately steep/durable bevel on its full flat grind blade. It is a great cardboard cutter, breaking down boxes so fast and easily its actually fun to use for this. After some weeks of use and such there is a large pile of cardboard slices waiting next to the woodstove for colder weather to warrant their use as fire starter. I have also made a fair number of feather sticks for campfires and marshmallow roasters for the kids in this same time. It has been my camp/hike knife for a month or so now.
In this time I also spent some time learning to use my paper wheel sharpeners, so a couple days back I took the plunge and put this knife on the wheels. WOW! Its clear that S90V at this hardness is not your average knife steel. Compared to even quality production knives at good hardnesses this is still something else. Its not hard to sharpen, but material removal is much slower than anything else Ive put on the wheels. Its actually nice because it makes it easier to control. After a couple passes to lower the bevel angle slightly I deburred the edge on the compound wheel. At first I wasnt sure I was having success as it just didnt seem to be getting as sharp to the touch as my other knives Boy was I wrong
At one point I must have barely grazed the skin on the back of my thumb, not sure how or when , but knew it had happened when I noticed the blood oozing from a oblique shaving slice in the skin. I hadnt felt a thing. So I tried it on newsprint, it just glided through it easier and with greater ability to cut curves than even a very thin, and narrow Henckels boning knife. The S90V is now too sharp to whittle hairs they just cut when the edge catches.
Since then I have massacred another mountain of boxes (10 or so full size cardboard boxes cut into approx 3"-4x 10 strips, 25-30 boxboard boxes cut into similar size strips) without any loss of easy push cut ability on paper or cardboard. The knife has lost its hair popping edge and is again only hair whittling sharp, which is in my view phenomenal since most commercial knives would have been duller than that after one box.
Overall this is a really great value in a working knife, suitable for daily use with excellent edge holding by any standard, but especially so when the price point and features are considered. I will be watching for J. Rosa's future offerings.
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