Condor Knife & Tool owners: Give an honest opinion

Lol thanks Forty. I've gone and visited your site. Just for future info, do you do any slight customizations to the condors, if requested, I mean? Just that next time I order a Condor, if you guys could thin out the edge a hair, I'd like to order from you instead of the other places I've been going. Your prices are great and while I can thin it out myself, my nursing classes, not to mention the upcoming clinical rotations, are eating up all my time.
 
42, if you could take one of the machetes you sell on your site, out into the Amazon for an extended trip, to be used for basic shelter making, fire prep, and trail blazing (along with other necessary gear, including a smaller knife) what would it be?
~Zim
 
Street Samurai1978 said:
Lol thanks Forty. I've gone and visited your site. Just for future info, do you do any slight customizations to the condors, if requested, I mean? Just that next time I order a Condor, if you guys could thin out the edge a hair, I'd like to order from you instead of the other places I've been going. Your prices are great and while I can thin it out myself, my nursing classes, not to mention the upcoming clinical rotations, are eating up all my time.
Click to expand...

I do that all the time! All ya' gotta' do is ask. :cool: Depending on the model it might cost a little more (some are harder to thin than others) but oftentimes I can do it for free. :)

Zimbabwe said:
42, if you could take one of the machetes you sell on your site, out into the Amazon for an extended trip, to be used for basic shelter making, fire prep, and trail blazing (along with other necessary gear, including a smaller knife) what would it be?
~Zim
Click to expand...

My Baryonyx Machete that's coming out next year. :D But in terms of stuff that's up on the site right now that's a bit of a tough call. I'd probably go with something between a 14" and 18" blade that was fairly broad and/or thick (for a machete--NOT a "large chopping knife") and scrolling through my present options...I'd go for the 15" Condor Bolo. :)
 
Yay machetes! :D

By the way I ought to be able to post up impressions of the various models tomorrow. Just a bit swamped right now with Imacasas to give the Special Grade treatment to. They take a fair amount of work and with their harder steel (like their Condor line) they take longer to grind an edge on 'em. :p
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
My Baryonyx Machete that's coming out next year. :D But in terms of stuff that's up on the site right now that's a bit of a tough call. I'd probably go with something between a 14" and 18" blade that was fairly broad and/or thick (for a machete--NOT a "large chopping knife") and scrolling through my present options...I'd go for the 15" Condor Bolo. :)
Click to expand...
That looks nice, do you have any experience with your 18in Tramontina Bush Machete, or the Condor Engineer Bolo? I have heard very good things about Tramontina, most of the negatives have been with F&F and it seems like you fixed that. The engineer bolo looks like it would be excellent at heavy duty work but the handle seems a bit uncomfortable. Again any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

~Zim
 
The 18" Tramontina would do a fine job for sure, especially once given the elbow grease it needs out of the box The Engineer Bolo handle is fine as it comes from the factory comfort-wise but I'd probably round the 90-degree termination of the top of the handle, but it doesn't need anything beyond that. The Engineer Bolo is less of an all-rounder than the Tram but would hit harder while remaining a fairly good slasher for vegetation (just not AS good.)
 
Not yet, unfortunately! Still waitin'! This isn't even the shipment that I had on backorder! Another distributor just got some random stuff in. :D
 
I placed an order a couple of weeks ago from FortyTwoBlades and got my items promptly and as described. I grabbed myself a Condor Nessmuk, Boker Wharcom and a Opinel #8. I have not gotten to use the Nessmuk very much as the weather here has been close to the temperature of the Sun. The main thing I noticed about it were that it felt very good in the hand. The edge is kinda odd. It is scandi looking, with kind of a convex edge. When I get a harsher stone I will make it more like a true scandi. The last thing I observed is that it didn't baton that great. I know that is not really what this knife is about but just an observation. Over all it is a nice knife. I don't mind that it didn't come hair destroying sharp, because I need the practice. It was plenty sharp from the box. The fit and finish was fine. The grinds were even and the steel seems pretty tough. I will see how it takes and holds an edge in the future, but for now it is more than worth the price of admission.
 
Yeah the term some folks have taken to using is "scandi-vex" which is shorthand for "a convex edge done in a manner resembling the configuration typical of a scandi." :D

By the way, nice choices with the Wharcom and Opinel No.8! I EDC a No.8 and keep a Wharcom clipped to the MOLLE webbing on the outside of my EDC pack (a Maxpedition Kodiak) and use it for all kinds of stuff--but particularly cutting paracord. :):thumbup:
 
Yeah the Wharcom is great. It's like having a razor/boxcutter that is compact and easy to handle. I will be ordering again from you soon since I saw you had the Woodlaw, among others. haha How is that feel in the hand?

I meant to ask you, is the scandi-vex the standard way Condor do most of their scandi grinds?

I have to spread out the purchases. The wife is noticing too much new steel around the house....:D
 
Condor recently purchased and installed some new machinery that they're using to do true scandi grinds now. The Woodlaw, for instance, is a true scandi and DANG is it impressive! Feels better in the hand than I thought it would, for such a simple design. It and the Kephart were my two biggest pleasant surprises out of the bunch! Up until the most recent wave of production, however, their scandis were done in that shallow "scandi-vex" grind. It'll be interesting to see if pieces like the Nessmuk get switched to a scandi or not, or if they'll stay a scandi-vex. Also it seems as though they're able to do hollow grinds now. Not sure if you can see it well in the pics I posted, but the Dundee Bowie is hollow-ground. :)
 
So far I have owned 3 knives from Condor. I used to have 2 of the blue handled mountain man knives in stainless. I got them on a closeout sale for around $15.00 a piece. I was disappointed when I got them because the edge did not go all the way back to the handle which I consider a waste of useable steel. They had some of the dullest edges I have ever seen on a factory knife. Yes I do know how to sharpen knives and I have bought knives cheaper in price that came with really sharp edges. The sheaths looked really great, however on one of them you could barely get it to snap shut let alone stay that way. My other Condor knife which was my 1st was the bushcraft basic knife. It came with a really nice tight fitting sheath that was well made. I really liked the way it felt in the hand. It came with a descent working edge. So the 1st time I used it was when I was fishing and got a little bored. I used to whittle with for a while. I then let it drop from my hand without throwing it hard into the ground in which it stuck. To my surprise when I pulled it from the ground the very tip of the knife was slightly bent. The knife didn�t even maintain the edge that good with light use and on top of that the coating was starting to flake off. I took it home and stripped off the coating in about 10 minutes with sandpaper attachment on my dremel. I took the knife to Northern Knives and they fixed the tip for me. Since then I have sold all 3 knives for a loss. So that is now 2 strikes for Condor for me. I am now just trying to decide if I want to give them a 3rd and final chance because I do like some of their designs. Usually I never give a knife company more than one chance if I get a bad product right from the start but I�m trying to be nicer these days.

Tony
 
worth every dime i paid for em. brought the machete and the axe in town to clean up the yard, so i manage to get a pic of em



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Woody, i dig that machete. Which one is that?

You don't see many machetes that come with a sheath as good as condor provides
 
the stainless El Salvador model. excellent handle for extended periods of use (for my hands anyway) and like you mentioned one heck of a good sheath.
i know it still looks new, but i can assure you it has been put to work on several occasions and the finish has held up very well
 
Stainless machete... not sure how i feel about that. Do you have any carbon machetes to compare it to? what are your thoughts on it?
 
i felt the same way about stainless at first, but thought id give it a try. i only have one other machete to compare it to (a cold steel) and it is a far better tool imo. this spring i cleared the corn patch from last year, butchered the heck out of a weaping willow so i could mow under it easier, used it to trim a bunch of tall weeds around the house last nite, hitting several rocks and it doesnt have a ding on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top