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- Mar 16, 2015
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This will be my most extensive knife review I've ever done. Let me start off by saying I am in no means an expert in anything to do with blades, bushcraft, tactical, etc. My motivation for this review is that there is a distinct lack of Entrek reviews available. And all of the ones I've found are generally first impression type deals. I am open to all ideas you have for improvements upon this review and will expand it as I see fit, please let me know if there is a specific aspect you'd like to see.
**DISCLAIMER: this is not a destruction test, I simply wanted to test this knife and steel in various methods.**
Okay, finally, the knife is an
Entrek Bravo 18, built for the SERE trainers to withstand hard abuse during training, as well as being CAPABLE of combat if the need arose. Ray Ennis, the founder of Entrek, wanted this knife to be able to handle any task: prying, chopping, and just general tasks related to the miltary. He achieves all of these with this knife.
Initially the first thing I could say was "holy crap, this thing is serious!", the blade stock is 1/4 inch. It is 440C, as are all of Entrek's knives (except a couple). There is not a skeletonized tang, it is solid except for the bolt holes. It is very heavy but balanced extremely well. The grinds are absolutely gorgeous and the edge came shaving sharp. The micarta is grippy, 'warm', and comfortable with no hot spots during use. The jimping is sharp but very well done. Fit and finish is phenomenal for a semi production knife.
The only complaint I've seen of Entrek are the sheaths, and this isn't an exception. It rattles, it's not the best retention, and it sticks the hilt right in my fat gut. But that being said, it is very usable. It won't be the best sheath you've ever had but if you actually use your knife alot, I think you'll like it, it's great access and easy to use.
The grind is a deep hollow grind, and it is very stout. The blade has more belly than you would expect on a combat style blade.
CHOPPING:
Now, at just over 5 1/2 inches, this blade is not a chopper. However, it fits right in the range of what most would consider a good woods knife. I wanted to chop what I consider the biggest tree you'd need to fell in a survival situation. This particular tree was dry and hard, it actually made me nervous for fear of rolling the edge.
No chips or rolls of any kind! This is when I got excited, I've had carbon steels that rolled with that use. And it was still shaving sharp!
After that, I did some chopping on a rotting pallet, and unbeknownst to me I actually managed to hit a rusty nail and split it in two. At this point I figured I'd just jacked the blade up big time, but it was just a little nick in the edge!
STABBING:
Next I decided to try some stabbing to test the tip strength and see if I could puncture a thick tire. Now obviously you won't be stabbing everyday, but nonetheless I felt it was a good way to see how the knife responded to that violent force and how the top would hold up because tires have all sorts of things in them that will ruin an edge. In a reverse icepick (?) grip I was careful to keep the blade vertical and used about half strength into the rubber many times. The handle itself was excellent in hand, but the jimping tore up my palm from being so sharp. I wasn't able to get the blade very deep in the tire, but I could tell that it was very abrasive on the tip.
Again, very minor damage, and nothing that couldn't be fixed easily
PRYING:
Okay, so now I was getting gutsy, and thought I'd do some prying. In most scenarios, the only time you'd be hard core prying with a knife is gonna be prying a door, or prying wood apart (like if you were looking for grubs). I chose to do the latter because it is more reasonable. I pried into a very healthy pine and managed to get an inch and a half deep, and I used ALOT of force into the blade. I thought I might snap it, but the thick stock took it like a champ.
EDGE RETENTION:
Finally, I decided to just test the edge retention by doing two things that make me cringe to see: cutting a can, and smashing glass. I swung and hit a glass beer bottle (no beer was harmed in the making of this test) and it shattered into a bazillion pieces. This caused the most extensive damage to the edge, rolling a good portion of it just a bit.
Then I carved up a can, with absolutely no damage to the remaining edge!
So now the Bravo 18 was not shaving sharp...it was very very close though! In fact, I tried to make a small little feather stick. The edge was still sharp, sharp enough to use for most uses anyway. (I'm actually not good actually feathersticks, the poor example is my fault, not the knife's).
In conclusion, I hope that this helps you to see how well Ray Ennis knows his stuff. The steel acted so much like the 1095 and 52100 I've used that I'd have a hard time believing it was stainless if I didn't know better. I am a huge carbon fan, and in fact one of the reasons I did this test was to see if this "lesser steel" in today's world could hold up to the requirements I place upon my carbon blades. It's save to say I won't doubt Entrek again, and I plead with you that if you are on the fence about getting one, just trust me that it is extremely tough, sharp and really I have no qualms about hammering it into a tree and rappelling off a cliff!
Thanks for reading, I'm going to try and post videos below if Tapatalk will let me, and one more thing: I know I didn't baton. I realize that's the biggest benchmark for bushcraft knives these days. But I have no hesitation with batonning this knife through wood. It could absolutely handle it. The only reason I didn't is simply because I believe it's a whole lot easier to chop wood rather than beat it with a stick
**DISCLAIMER: this is not a destruction test, I simply wanted to test this knife and steel in various methods.**
Okay, finally, the knife is an
Entrek Bravo 18, built for the SERE trainers to withstand hard abuse during training, as well as being CAPABLE of combat if the need arose. Ray Ennis, the founder of Entrek, wanted this knife to be able to handle any task: prying, chopping, and just general tasks related to the miltary. He achieves all of these with this knife.
Initially the first thing I could say was "holy crap, this thing is serious!", the blade stock is 1/4 inch. It is 440C, as are all of Entrek's knives (except a couple). There is not a skeletonized tang, it is solid except for the bolt holes. It is very heavy but balanced extremely well. The grinds are absolutely gorgeous and the edge came shaving sharp. The micarta is grippy, 'warm', and comfortable with no hot spots during use. The jimping is sharp but very well done. Fit and finish is phenomenal for a semi production knife.
The only complaint I've seen of Entrek are the sheaths, and this isn't an exception. It rattles, it's not the best retention, and it sticks the hilt right in my fat gut. But that being said, it is very usable. It won't be the best sheath you've ever had but if you actually use your knife alot, I think you'll like it, it's great access and easy to use.
The grind is a deep hollow grind, and it is very stout. The blade has more belly than you would expect on a combat style blade.
CHOPPING:
Now, at just over 5 1/2 inches, this blade is not a chopper. However, it fits right in the range of what most would consider a good woods knife. I wanted to chop what I consider the biggest tree you'd need to fell in a survival situation. This particular tree was dry and hard, it actually made me nervous for fear of rolling the edge.
No chips or rolls of any kind! This is when I got excited, I've had carbon steels that rolled with that use. And it was still shaving sharp!
After that, I did some chopping on a rotting pallet, and unbeknownst to me I actually managed to hit a rusty nail and split it in two. At this point I figured I'd just jacked the blade up big time, but it was just a little nick in the edge!
STABBING:
Next I decided to try some stabbing to test the tip strength and see if I could puncture a thick tire. Now obviously you won't be stabbing everyday, but nonetheless I felt it was a good way to see how the knife responded to that violent force and how the top would hold up because tires have all sorts of things in them that will ruin an edge. In a reverse icepick (?) grip I was careful to keep the blade vertical and used about half strength into the rubber many times. The handle itself was excellent in hand, but the jimping tore up my palm from being so sharp. I wasn't able to get the blade very deep in the tire, but I could tell that it was very abrasive on the tip.
Again, very minor damage, and nothing that couldn't be fixed easily
PRYING:
Okay, so now I was getting gutsy, and thought I'd do some prying. In most scenarios, the only time you'd be hard core prying with a knife is gonna be prying a door, or prying wood apart (like if you were looking for grubs). I chose to do the latter because it is more reasonable. I pried into a very healthy pine and managed to get an inch and a half deep, and I used ALOT of force into the blade. I thought I might snap it, but the thick stock took it like a champ.
EDGE RETENTION:
Finally, I decided to just test the edge retention by doing two things that make me cringe to see: cutting a can, and smashing glass. I swung and hit a glass beer bottle (no beer was harmed in the making of this test) and it shattered into a bazillion pieces. This caused the most extensive damage to the edge, rolling a good portion of it just a bit.
Then I carved up a can, with absolutely no damage to the remaining edge!
So now the Bravo 18 was not shaving sharp...it was very very close though! In fact, I tried to make a small little feather stick. The edge was still sharp, sharp enough to use for most uses anyway. (I'm actually not good actually feathersticks, the poor example is my fault, not the knife's).
In conclusion, I hope that this helps you to see how well Ray Ennis knows his stuff. The steel acted so much like the 1095 and 52100 I've used that I'd have a hard time believing it was stainless if I didn't know better. I am a huge carbon fan, and in fact one of the reasons I did this test was to see if this "lesser steel" in today's world could hold up to the requirements I place upon my carbon blades. It's save to say I won't doubt Entrek again, and I plead with you that if you are on the fence about getting one, just trust me that it is extremely tough, sharp and really I have no qualms about hammering it into a tree and rappelling off a cliff!
Thanks for reading, I'm going to try and post videos below if Tapatalk will let me, and one more thing: I know I didn't baton. I realize that's the biggest benchmark for bushcraft knives these days. But I have no hesitation with batonning this knife through wood. It could absolutely handle it. The only reason I didn't is simply because I believe it's a whole lot easier to chop wood rather than beat it with a stick
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