Well, I managed to do a little more testing of the knife this morning. First off, I used it to peel an apple for breakfast, a task which it accomplished quite easily, and unlike some knives I've used for this had a perfect grind and edge angle to remove only the skin, without cutting into the fruit. I then used it to dice a few carrots, another kitchen chore which the knife handled with ease. I know tomatoes are supposed to be a real test, but I didn't have any on hand, maybe tomorrow. Next I took the knife and used it to cut a few half inch diameter green branches off a small tree, and again the blade performed admirably. Finally, I used the LMF to attack a 1.5 inch diameter piece of cured oak I keep around for this purpose. The knife proved to be a little light for heavy chopping, but did cut about halfway through with 3-4 strokes. I also attempted to whittle a point on this stick, and although the blade did have some difficulty I managed to get a point in the end. Overall I felt this was a good simulation of cutting and shaping tent pegs, or possibly treenails to make a raft. I didn't have any roadkill handy, but I did have some rubber tubing, which I felt might approximate animal hide. I had no problem slicing this open, both vertically and horizontally, and I'm sure the knife would work for light skinning chores. Edge retention was good, but not overly spectacular so I decided to test the built in sharpener, of which I was highly skeptical. To my surprise a few passes did bring the edge back to shaving sharp, but I did have to use a lot more force than I do with the sharpmaker. I think this system works well for touch ups, but I wouldn't want to use it on a seriously dull edge.
On the negative side, the sheath retention system wears on the handle a little bit and is grating down the rubber on the upraised section where the handle meets the blade. This could probably be alleviated with a few pieces of duct tape at the point of contact or possibly a light coating of epoxy, but I feel that this shouldn't be necessary and wish the factory would revamp the design. Also, I can't find any way to attach the safety knife to the main system without interfering with the "draw" of the main knife. Not a real drawback, but I bought the ASEK model hoping the two could be piggybacked. Lastly, as stated above I feel the knife is a little light for serious chopping, and wish the spine were a little thicker, but this probably exceeds the design specifications in the first place, so not a real serious complaint. I do feel that a non - serrated version or a version where the serrations take up about 50% of the space occupied by the current version would represent a significant improvement, but overall I feel this is a great knife, capable of handling most camp/survival chores, although maybe a little over-hyped. Just my two cents. Sorry for the long post.
Lagarto
