Condor Country Backroads series

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rustinxcohle

Joined
Dec 29, 2020
Messages
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Hello everyone,

just today I discovered the country backroads series. As I really liked the looks of the handles, I first wanted to get the machete but then went
for the knife. Should get it in a few days. I wonder how the handle is attached to the tang. Obviously epoxy, but there could be hidden pins or something
else I couldn't figure out from pictures. Anyways, I asked condor about it and I'm waiting for the answer.

What do you guys think about these, especially the knife?
 
Thanks for your reply, I'll report back with some kind of short review and a few pictures when it is here and I tested it a litten.
 
rustinxcohle said:
Hello everyone,

just today I discovered the country backroads series. As I really liked the looks of the handles, I first wanted to get the machete but then went
for the knife. Should get it in a few days. I wonder how the handle is attached to the tang. Obviously epoxy, but there could be hidden pins or something
else I couldn't figure out from pictures. Anyways, I asked condor about it and I'm waiting for the answer.

What do you guys think about these, especially the knife?
Click to expand...
Stacked leather with hidden tang, peened at the end
You can see it in this video-
Hopefully its epoxied too or it might get loose when used hard.
 
You are right, I missed this video somehow, thanks. I will do some chopping and battoning, so we will see how it holds up.
 
Knife arrived today.
The sheath is impressive, quality leather, good execution and well thought out design.
The handle of the knife is very comfortable to hold and the fit & finish is okaish. There are no corners or something that looks or feel unfinished, but the two wood parts are not perfectly cut at 90°. They made up for it by fitting the middle leather/G10 part seemless in between, but you can definetly see it.

Now the really bad part. The blade is ground uneven. The primary and secondary grinds are waved, it forms a slight recurve in the middle. The secondary grind is all over the place and is completly f'ed up at the tip. It is every bit as bad as your classic 20$ pakistan knife. There is also no sharpness we need to talk about, it doesn't cut paper.
The handle is not attached with any pins, at least non you can see going through from the outside. The brass lanyard sits below the visible tang, so it doesn't act like pin. My conclusion is that the handle is only held on by epoxy, you can see the epoxy at the end and at the beginning where the blade meets the handle.

On a side note, the knife feels super light. If that is good or bad is a question of personal taste, but it doesn't boost my confidence in the handle construction.

I ordered another one to see if I just got a lemon. First one was 115€, second on was 97 (black friday). I still like the look of the knife and could make good use of it in combined use with an axe or hatchet, because I really don't think you can baton this one. If the second one is as bad, I will send 'em both back. I thought of fixing the grind myself, but it is easily two hours of work and I didn't pay 115 to get a knife I habe to finish myself.

I asked Condor twice about the handle construction/attachment to the tang, nothing until now.

*edit* will take some pictures in the next days when the second knife arrives
 
Hopefully thats just a one time thing with the blade. I have several Condor knives and all came quite sharp with good symmetrical grinds.
 
Yeah, I was quite shocked, the condor knives I bought a few years back were really well ground.

*edit* the store where I bought the knives contacted me, because I ordered the knife a second time, and offered to give me the discount from black friday for the first knife, if that's what I wanted. So I agreed and started cleaning up the grinds and then some sharpening. Worked quite well, will take some pictures soon. Used the knife for a little carving, absolutly amazing, gotta admit that.

This is how it looks now:

17009251739321929478007651731108.jpg
 
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So, I used it a few days on everything that needed cutting, from meat to fruit to wood to cardboard. It held up just fine, but the 1075 takes a patina from just looking at it and the blade is scratched up all over.

As the knife is very lightweight and the handle is super comfortable, after testing I can recommend the knife. I only did some light chopping to delimb some branches, it works, but the knife is just too light to be effective at these tasks. No battoning till now, but I will make a fire in the next days and test some light battoning too.

If anybody get's one, let me know what you think.
 
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