- Joined
- Oct 7, 2009
- Messages
- 63
Hello knifepeople! Been a long time since I've done any knife reviews. I want to show you the Buck Intrepid-XL. This is an excellent field/military knife, but will also work for outdoorsmen and people who require
bombproof tools. For its pricepoint, it might very well be one of the best out there. I will discuss its pros and cons, who this knife is for and alternatives.
Specifications:
Length: 26.7 cm (10 1/2 inches)
Bladelength: 14 cm (5 inches) 4.9 mm thick
Handlematerial: Nylonplastic
Bladesteel: 420HC with Buck's proprietary HT
Sheath: MOLLE compatible nylonsheath
Knife made in USA and sheath made in China.
THE BLADE: The blade is a western styled tanto with a hollow sabergrind. My particular knife came razorsharp with an excellent sized edgeprofile. The blade is fulltang and is coated with Buck's Traction Coating.
This coating is similar to the ones you will find on ESEE, Busse, Ontario etc. Also known as a "crinckle coating". This means that it smooths out with use. The quality on the coating is very good, but not completely on par with Busse or ESEE. As predicted, considering pricepoint.
I've seen that a lot of people don't like 420HC, 440 steels etc. because of the edge retention. I've used a lot of high-end steels like S35VN, INFI, SR101, N680Co, VG10 and so on. But this knife is designed as a strong fieldknife for military personell who demand a fast action blade. 420HC is one of my all-time favourite steels for this purpose. It's an excellent alternative to the ordinary 1095 in my opinion. 420HC is also very corrosion resistant and incredibly strong and chip resistant. It will not hold an edge like some of the supersteels will, but it is VERY easy to resharpen. This is important in the field because you might only have a wetstone available.
After some heavy batoning, kindling, throwing and stabtesting, the edge did not have any rolling or deformations. It was still hairshaving sharp. Buck does an excellent job on the 420HC steel and really knows how to make it sing. Combine this with an excellent edgeprofile and you will have a knife you can count on. For a knife like this I would not use any other steels than Buck's 420HC. Steels like INFI and N690 would also work, but the price would be ridiciously higher.
The whole blade is a good all arounder. It did baton quite nicely, but obviously it struggled with some 1/2 meter, 10cm thick drywood logs because of the blade's size. No surprises here. Edge held up nicely, no bladeflexing or problems.
It is actually a good carving knife because of the hollowground blade. It is not near a buchcraft knife with a Scandi-grind, but it got the job done. Can easily be used for food prep and delicate tasks.
THE HANDLE: The handleslabs are the knife's only minor "weakpoint". they are comfortable, but they feel incredibly cheap. The slabs are hollowed out and made out of what appears to be nylonplastic. The good thing is that the handle migrated shock quite well while I was batoning. When I threw the knife I missed a couple of times and the handle slammed into the hard treetrunk. No cracks or damage. This is obviously a strong material. The slabs are held together by standard male-female torxhead-screws and cylinders. The cylinders are cut straight on one side, so it is easy to unscrew the handle without double rotating the fasteners. The fasteners did not come loose while batoning or throwing, although I had loosened it once before and ruined the Loctite. Excellent. As I expect of US-made knives. No failures here.
I do wish they had gone for G10 and not hollowing out the slabs. But G10 would certainly increase the knife's price and weight.
The handle is very comfortable and ergonomic. It is kinda big. I have mediumsized hands and the handle fit my hand quite nicely. For people with smaller hands, it might be fatiguing to work with this knife over longer periods of time.
I could not register any hotspots, but this also depends on your hand's shape and size. The handle provides good grip, even when wet. It has two lanyardholes, a double guard, pommelcrusher, some jimping and radiused edges.
Besides it's cheap feeling and for some people, large size, the handle is very good. No fuss or nonsense in any sort or matter.
THE SHEATH: The sheath is very high quality and you should not doubt it just because it is made in China. Buck obviously has found a good maker who makes sure that qualitycontrol is held. The sheath is MOLLE compatible and belt compatible.
It has a retentionsnap and a paracord-made, adjustable retaining ring on the back. This is for extra security. The plasticinsert is high quality and has a flow-through construction to ensure water drainage. The only complaint I have is that it does not hold the knife in there securily without the snaps, so you can't really carry this knife upside down without loosing it or cutting yourself. Pretty bad since LBE knives should be carried upside down for fast deployment.
THe sheath has a frontpocket with an elastic band to retain whatever you might have in there like a MT or a folding knife. It has a flap-over cover locked securily with a plasticbuckle like you often find on TOPS Knives' nylonsheath. If you prefer US-made sheaths, a Spec Ops Master Sheath short version will fit this knife very well too.
The stiching is well done and I've not experienced any fraying problems as of yet. The cordura is also high quality. Comparing this sheath with my US-made Spec Ops sheaths, this sheath has almost equal quality in my opinion, of course, SP sheaths are better, but they also expensive. The sheath's paracord is not the real 550 type, but a good imitation.
Other than the blade retention, this sheath is topnotch and ready for work.
CONCLUSION: As far as military fieldknives go, this is one of the best I've tried. As you've probably read, this knife do have some shortcomings, but they're easily hidden behind the knives quality to value ratio. If you're looking for a stainless fieldknife made for tough tasks, light survival, ease of resharpening and combat readiness, this is the knife for you. If you're looking for a non tactical-looking bushcraft knife or a pure survival knife, you might want to check something else. Similar knives in my opinion would be the Buck CSAR-T, CS GI Tanto, Ka-Bar Bull Dozier, some Ontario offerings and FKMD Predator Tanto. I really recommend this knife and this is one of few pure tactical field knives out there that is made to work.
Have a nice day!
bombproof tools. For its pricepoint, it might very well be one of the best out there. I will discuss its pros and cons, who this knife is for and alternatives.
Specifications:
Length: 26.7 cm (10 1/2 inches)
Bladelength: 14 cm (5 inches) 4.9 mm thick
Handlematerial: Nylonplastic
Bladesteel: 420HC with Buck's proprietary HT
Sheath: MOLLE compatible nylonsheath
Knife made in USA and sheath made in China.
THE BLADE: The blade is a western styled tanto with a hollow sabergrind. My particular knife came razorsharp with an excellent sized edgeprofile. The blade is fulltang and is coated with Buck's Traction Coating.
This coating is similar to the ones you will find on ESEE, Busse, Ontario etc. Also known as a "crinckle coating". This means that it smooths out with use. The quality on the coating is very good, but not completely on par with Busse or ESEE. As predicted, considering pricepoint.
I've seen that a lot of people don't like 420HC, 440 steels etc. because of the edge retention. I've used a lot of high-end steels like S35VN, INFI, SR101, N680Co, VG10 and so on. But this knife is designed as a strong fieldknife for military personell who demand a fast action blade. 420HC is one of my all-time favourite steels for this purpose. It's an excellent alternative to the ordinary 1095 in my opinion. 420HC is also very corrosion resistant and incredibly strong and chip resistant. It will not hold an edge like some of the supersteels will, but it is VERY easy to resharpen. This is important in the field because you might only have a wetstone available.
After some heavy batoning, kindling, throwing and stabtesting, the edge did not have any rolling or deformations. It was still hairshaving sharp. Buck does an excellent job on the 420HC steel and really knows how to make it sing. Combine this with an excellent edgeprofile and you will have a knife you can count on. For a knife like this I would not use any other steels than Buck's 420HC. Steels like INFI and N690 would also work, but the price would be ridiciously higher.
The whole blade is a good all arounder. It did baton quite nicely, but obviously it struggled with some 1/2 meter, 10cm thick drywood logs because of the blade's size. No surprises here. Edge held up nicely, no bladeflexing or problems.
It is actually a good carving knife because of the hollowground blade. It is not near a buchcraft knife with a Scandi-grind, but it got the job done. Can easily be used for food prep and delicate tasks.
THE HANDLE: The handleslabs are the knife's only minor "weakpoint". they are comfortable, but they feel incredibly cheap. The slabs are hollowed out and made out of what appears to be nylonplastic. The good thing is that the handle migrated shock quite well while I was batoning. When I threw the knife I missed a couple of times and the handle slammed into the hard treetrunk. No cracks or damage. This is obviously a strong material. The slabs are held together by standard male-female torxhead-screws and cylinders. The cylinders are cut straight on one side, so it is easy to unscrew the handle without double rotating the fasteners. The fasteners did not come loose while batoning or throwing, although I had loosened it once before and ruined the Loctite. Excellent. As I expect of US-made knives. No failures here.
I do wish they had gone for G10 and not hollowing out the slabs. But G10 would certainly increase the knife's price and weight.
The handle is very comfortable and ergonomic. It is kinda big. I have mediumsized hands and the handle fit my hand quite nicely. For people with smaller hands, it might be fatiguing to work with this knife over longer periods of time.
I could not register any hotspots, but this also depends on your hand's shape and size. The handle provides good grip, even when wet. It has two lanyardholes, a double guard, pommelcrusher, some jimping and radiused edges.
Besides it's cheap feeling and for some people, large size, the handle is very good. No fuss or nonsense in any sort or matter.
THE SHEATH: The sheath is very high quality and you should not doubt it just because it is made in China. Buck obviously has found a good maker who makes sure that qualitycontrol is held. The sheath is MOLLE compatible and belt compatible.
It has a retentionsnap and a paracord-made, adjustable retaining ring on the back. This is for extra security. The plasticinsert is high quality and has a flow-through construction to ensure water drainage. The only complaint I have is that it does not hold the knife in there securily without the snaps, so you can't really carry this knife upside down without loosing it or cutting yourself. Pretty bad since LBE knives should be carried upside down for fast deployment.
THe sheath has a frontpocket with an elastic band to retain whatever you might have in there like a MT or a folding knife. It has a flap-over cover locked securily with a plasticbuckle like you often find on TOPS Knives' nylonsheath. If you prefer US-made sheaths, a Spec Ops Master Sheath short version will fit this knife very well too.
The stiching is well done and I've not experienced any fraying problems as of yet. The cordura is also high quality. Comparing this sheath with my US-made Spec Ops sheaths, this sheath has almost equal quality in my opinion, of course, SP sheaths are better, but they also expensive. The sheath's paracord is not the real 550 type, but a good imitation.
Other than the blade retention, this sheath is topnotch and ready for work.
CONCLUSION: As far as military fieldknives go, this is one of the best I've tried. As you've probably read, this knife do have some shortcomings, but they're easily hidden behind the knives quality to value ratio. If you're looking for a stainless fieldknife made for tough tasks, light survival, ease of resharpening and combat readiness, this is the knife for you. If you're looking for a non tactical-looking bushcraft knife or a pure survival knife, you might want to check something else. Similar knives in my opinion would be the Buck CSAR-T, CS GI Tanto, Ka-Bar Bull Dozier, some Ontario offerings and FKMD Predator Tanto. I really recommend this knife and this is one of few pure tactical field knives out there that is made to work.
Have a nice day!
