First Survive! Knife

Casinostocks said:
This photo on Survive!'s IG has pretty much sold me on switching around the scales on my 3V (pics posted on here) with the 20CV which i should be receiving tomorrow. Then the 20CV with the tiger stripes and black sheath will go on sale at some point in the future since I will not be needing 2 x GSO 5.1's. I will only consider keeping the 20CV as is and selling the 3V as is if the 20CV ends up being a better 2nd (sans the tip asymmetry on my 3V) but even that may be a very tough decision to make! My other kydex sheath will be in the Earth color and having seen AZWelke's kydex's, I will be ordering one in black shortly down the road. The pics which RedWood had posted earned them my business :thumbup:

From Survive! IG
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I'll post some pix of mine this week. Great sheath
 
Just received my second GSO 5.1 which I had ordered on 4/11 (it was obviously from the 2nd's offering) and now I am faced with a major conundrum as to which keep and which to release! The tip on this 20CV came out more perfect than the prior 3V which I had received with a very minor asymmetry at the very tip of the blade (photos posted already) Currently studying the 3V versus 20CV pros and cons which is giving me a headache. Knowing me, I'll probably end up keeping both :D

I will be posting photos later, maybe during the weekend.

Note to FlSurfer: this one came in camo micarta / canvas but it is not that much coarser than the G10 on my 3V. I think if you run sandpaper over your G10, it will very quickly get the same sort of grip as their canvas!
 
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I am pretty sure what I will be doing is as follows:

I will switch over the scales and the fasteners from the 3V to the 20CV (the camo will go on the 3V and the tiger stripes G10 on the 20CV plus the tumbled finished fasteners vs the black oxide ones accordingly) Then at the expense of being called a scalper ;), I will sell off the 20CV for some $mall gain after it is all "dolled up" with the Tiger's G10 because:

A- I am more partial toward the 3V although it may be more of a pain in the arse to sharpen. However, I don't live in a humid or salt-in-the-air kinda area. I don't hunt and I reckon from what I have read than 20CV is a better blade for hunters (I may try to stab a cougar of either variety though, if one attacks me and startles me in the process :D) So for a woodsy guy, I will stick with 3V

B- Having now noticed the blemish in form of the asymmetry on the very tip of my 3V, prohibits me in good conscious to sell that one in the secondary market. The 20CV is just P-E-R-F-E-C-T in that respect and I'm just gonna stop looking for flaws :D Plus the few $s which I am planning to make on my second GSO 5.1, will go toward ordering a kydex sheath from AZWelke. So for those who secretly called me a scalper, shame on you :D

If anyone wishes to change my mind, speak your piece or forever keep your peace ;)

Other options I may consider:

C- Get a new wife for my knife (I am batting 0-2 in that department, so a very strong possibility that I'm just a strike out type of fella!)

D- Hold a contest on the forum to leave that knife to one of you Gents (and Ladies) in my will :p
 
Why is 20CV better than 3V for hunting? I went for the 3V because of its blade retention. Boar hide is some knife dulling stuff.
I think 3V is my best bet. Stainless would be nice.
 
From what I understood by reading different opinions regarding 3V versus 20CV, some of the discussion threads on Blade Forum, the concensus among many was that 20CV retains its age better when used against grainy and gritty material such as dirty animal skin as opposed to 3V which holds its edge better when chopping wood. Of course the quality, geometry and Rockwell heat treatment makes crucial difference from one knife maker to another! For instance Bark River makes a lot of knives for hunting in 3V, so I would t worry about Survuve! Either.

As for blood being more acidic, obviously stainless or more stainless alloys found in 20CV fair better against staining. Others may want to chime in.
 
Casinostocks said:
From what I understood by reading different opinions regarding 3V versus 20CV, some of the discussion threads on Blade Forum, the concensus among many was that 20CV retains its age better when used against grainy and gritty material such as dirty animal skin as opposed to 3V which holds its edge better when chopping wood. Of course the quality, geometry and Rockwell heat treatment makes crucial difference from one knife maker to another! For instance Bark River makes a lot of knives for hunting in 3V, so I would t worry about Survuve! Either.

As for blood being more acidic, obviously stainless or more stainless alloys found in 20CV fair better against staining. Others may want to chime in.
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Hmmmm I didnt know that it holds an edge better with animal skins. I guess you prolly couldnt go wrong with either.
 
Flsurfer said:
Why is 20CV better than 3V for hunting? I went for the 3V because of its blade retention. Boar hide is some knife dulling stuff.
I think 3V is my best bet. Stainless would be nice.
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Should be fine with either especially with the new heat treat that the Survive! 3V is getting. If I can score a 4.7 I will probably get it 20CV with G10 for hunting so I won't have to worry about any corrosion on the blade or blood soaking into the handle. 3V would be fine too, it's just that sometimes I don't always get around to cleaning my knives as soon as I should and any extra corrosion resistance can't hurt, plus I don't own anything in 20CV, so be cool to have a knife made of that particular steel.
 
I switched over the scales and sheaths and here is some side-by-side. To recap, originally the Black/Orange G10 handles plus the Black sheath had come with the GSO 5.1 in 3V, the Camo and Flat Dark Earth sheath with the GSO 5.1 in 20CV. Both orders were placed on 4/11.

I am going to be reselling the 20CV and I am keeping the 3V. The 3V has a bit of an asymmetrical tip and the 20CV is actually in super mint condition. I can not see any flaws on the exposed blade side of the metal but when I removed the scales, I saw an extra yet very small machine drilled hole on the handle portion of the 20CV, which I didn't see on the 3V. I don't know what that extra drilled hole was for but both blades had the divot type markings which denotes "2nds" quality (sorry, forgot to take photos of the exposed handles first in my haste to put the scales back on).

Here are some pics after the switcharoo (the 3V is now with Canvas and the 20CV with G10) and in the process of zealously tightening the scales, I stripped a bit of the black oxide on that middle fastener (the thread seems to be fine):

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Some more pics! What do you all think? Please don't encourage me to switch things back to their original format again. My German Shepherd is watching me play knife dress up like I am a giddy little girl and probably thinks that I'm nuts!

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My favorite combo so far is the camo canvas with tumbled fasteners and fde sheath in 3V, so I will not be encouraging you to switch back :D

Both combos are nice, though, and someone will enjoy that tigerstripe, I'll bet.

ETA: Nice sig line rcb!
 
cold one said:
Should be fine with either especially with the new heat treat that the Survive! 3V is getting. If I can score a 4.7 I will probably get it 20CV with G10 for hunting so I won't have to worry about any corrosion on the blade or blood soaking into the handle. 3V would be fine too, it's just that sometimes I don't always get around to cleaning my knives as soon as I should and any extra corrosion resistance can't hurt, plus I don't own anything in 20CV, so be cool to have a knife made of that particular steel.
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I was thinking about doing the same thing. Im not sure either 4.1 or 4.7? I would like to see what they look like next to each other.
 
rcb2000 said:
Looks great! Now get out and beat on em
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In fact the "dressing down" of the 3V which I was going to keep from the outset, despite the evident tip asymmetry, will encourage me to go beat on it. The original Tiger Stripes version would have remained a safe queen ;)
 
Hard Knocks said:
My favorite combo so far is the camo canvas with tumbled fasteners and fde sheath in 3V, so I will not be encouraging you to switch back :D

Both combos are nice, though, and someone will enjoy that tigerstripe, I'll bet.

ETA: Nice sig line rcb!
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I also fell for that combo after I saw a photo of Guy's own 5.1 on IG with the same handle scales. as you know, the camo scales were my second option after Survive! had informed us that there were issues with our originally ordered black G10 scales. Evidently the Universe was watching our backs ;)

TBT, if I had ordered a 5.1 and a 4.7 on Monday 4/11, I would have kept both. I don't know what possessed me to order 2 x 5.1's other than I wanted to compare 3V and 20CV side-by-side! As much as I'd love to keep both and fund$ are not an issue, the 20CV has got to go to a good home. I'll try in here first for a bit le$$ than I probably would net on feeBay, even after their ridiculous 10% FVF!
 
Hard Knocks said:
My favorite combo so far is the camo canvas with tumbled fasteners and fde sheath in 3V, so I will not be encouraging you to switch back :D

Both combos are nice, though, and someone will enjoy that tigerstripe, I'll bet.

ETA: Nice sig line rcb!
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Well I'd be lying if I didn't say I was influenced by yours :D
 
rcb2000 said:
Well I'd be lying if I didn't say I was influenced by yours :D
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Ha! Too funny. I didn't add anything about the trough because I am the tiniest piglet :D

cold one said:
Stumbled across a pic of the 4.7 and 4.1 on instagram today as I was looking for images of the 4.7. I don't do social media except forums but I believe this link will take you to the pic.
http://ink361.com/app/users/ig-330742413/surviveknives/photos/ig-1219103626277272443_330742413
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Thanks for that link. Lots of cool pics on there!
 
Oh just a heads up for those who wish to change handle scales at some point (it may be an obvious and moot point for the veterans, but don't forget that I am a rookie newbie!), the male part of the fasteners are on the right hand side of these knives and the reason I messed up a bit was because I started loosening them from the left side stripping a couple of the black oxide fasteners (the female side) from their black coating! No big deal though as they are only S10 shipped. I may order a set for my screw up (pun intended) if I don't end up selling the 20CV!
 
In fact I just ordered a fresh set of the black oxide fasteners from Survive! I can't believe that I screwed up and next time, I will torque and untorque them by hand instead!
 
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