The latest and cheapest SRK (SK-5 steel version) is a real disappointment to me.
I am fully satisfied with my SRK VG1 which is an excellent tool, very very reliable and functional. The knife is penetrating a car bonnet without (almost) any damage (except less than 2 mm lose of the tip after 8 attempts), is prying, stabbing, digging, batoning, splitting woods, cutting meat, opening cans without any problem, skinning as well…
I believed that the SK-5 version of SRK would be another reliable tool, as the SRK VG1, but I realized from the first moment that it is not.
I tested it: batoning and stabbing in a pine tree. Unfortunately the tip snapped in the VERY FIRST attempt…. it snapped instantly – a loss of 7 mm from the tip was the result.
Additionally to my opinion, in some blogs I have read comments like: “This knife will be a great choice for perhaps hunting and LIGHT wood work, but if you intend to use it as a “Survival” knife, where the blade might face some heavy stress, it WILL fail and you will die if it is your primary blade” as well as “Oh well, we see the death of another legendary American knife line”…