My first reaction to the Fears Survival Knife was that it was a very sturdy hunk of steel. It looks to be about 4mm thick at the spine, and the blade was nicely satin finished. The low reflectivity was nice and it looks as if the satin finish will wear well.
The balance point on the knife seemed to be right at the forwardmost scale bolt.
The jimping on the spine near the handle is a bit on the sharp side and would benefit from having the edges broken a bit. It was pretty rough on my thumb.
The spine of the knife strikes sparks from a firesteel very well. I was able to start a small fire with no problem.
While I didn't beat on either the blade or the handle with a baton, this not being my knife, it did seem to me that extending the tang out from the G10 scales would be a good idea so that you could pound on the end of the handle without hurting the micarta. Then again, I might be slightly biased by my recent Fallkniven adventures, where I found that feature to be handy.
The handle shape seems very comfortable at first, but I'm not sure how I'd like it long term. It seemed to do quite well in terms of hand position, and it was comfortable to hold. It gripped well even when my hand was wet.
I liked the orange scales. They made the knife easily visible, and the dirt that gets in them just makes the knife look well used.
I did some whittling and slicing with the knife and found that I had pretty good control over the blade, so from an ergonomic standpoint, it's good.
I think that chamfering the edge of the lanyard hole would be a nice touch. I think the sharp edge of the micarta would wear through a lanyard after a while.
I agree with everyone else in that the stock sheath sucks. That D ring was gigantic and the sheat overall was nowhere near the quality of the knife. A shame.
The OnScene cheath, however, was really nice. Great retention, almost to the point where it was difficult to get the knife out of the sheath. I was almost worried that I'd injure myself just getting the knife out. But I also suspect it'd wear in a bit with time and end up more or less ideal. Don't think there's any danger of the knife coming out of this sheath by accident.
All in all, a nice knife and the OnScene sheath was a nice match to it. While I still think I prefer other knives, mostly for aesthetic reasons, I'd feel very well equipped indeed with this one.
The balance point on the knife seemed to be right at the forwardmost scale bolt.
The jimping on the spine near the handle is a bit on the sharp side and would benefit from having the edges broken a bit. It was pretty rough on my thumb.
The spine of the knife strikes sparks from a firesteel very well. I was able to start a small fire with no problem.
While I didn't beat on either the blade or the handle with a baton, this not being my knife, it did seem to me that extending the tang out from the G10 scales would be a good idea so that you could pound on the end of the handle without hurting the micarta. Then again, I might be slightly biased by my recent Fallkniven adventures, where I found that feature to be handy.
The handle shape seems very comfortable at first, but I'm not sure how I'd like it long term. It seemed to do quite well in terms of hand position, and it was comfortable to hold. It gripped well even when my hand was wet.
I liked the orange scales. They made the knife easily visible, and the dirt that gets in them just makes the knife look well used.
I did some whittling and slicing with the knife and found that I had pretty good control over the blade, so from an ergonomic standpoint, it's good.
I think that chamfering the edge of the lanyard hole would be a nice touch. I think the sharp edge of the micarta would wear through a lanyard after a while.
I agree with everyone else in that the stock sheath sucks. That D ring was gigantic and the sheat overall was nowhere near the quality of the knife. A shame.
The OnScene cheath, however, was really nice. Great retention, almost to the point where it was difficult to get the knife out of the sheath. I was almost worried that I'd injure myself just getting the knife out. But I also suspect it'd wear in a bit with time and end up more or less ideal. Don't think there's any danger of the knife coming out of this sheath by accident.
All in all, a nice knife and the OnScene sheath was a nice match to it. While I still think I prefer other knives, mostly for aesthetic reasons, I'd feel very well equipped indeed with this one.
