- Joined
- Feb 4, 2006
- Messages
- 562
Had my eye on this knife for a while and after seeing noss4's abusive test, I felt it would be a good investment. His test showed it was a tough knife that was well built. After he removed the handle I believe the tang was radiused and that is one thing that I was curious about. So I went on ebay and found the cheapest buy it now and bought it.
I received the knife today and my first impressions of it weren't so hot. The sheath is terrible. It is fairly thin and flimsy. One side is 2.5mm thick cordura, and the backing is 2mm thick leather. In comparison, the sheath for my Trail Master uses 4mm thick leather. The fit is VERY snug, in fact too snug and the edge bites into the sheath as I force it in. I think I'll stick with the cardboard edge protector...
Second thing I noticed when I looked down the spine of the knife was that the blade is either ground so that it looks bent, or it is actually bent. It is slight, but easily noticed. Looking down the edge shows the same thing: a slight bend in the edge. No big deal for a <$50 shipped knife I guess, as long as it's functional.
The feel of the knife is good, it is not too heavy, not too light. It has good balance (~1" in front of where you would put your index finger) and a comfortable, filling, grippy handle. It also has a small choil to choke up on, which I found useful when sharpening (more on that later).
The blade itself is nice. Typical bowie shape with a slight recurve. It is 8" long from tip to plunge and a tad more than 1 3/4" wide. The thickness at the ricasso is just about 6mm. After the plunge grind, the blade is a tad less than 5.5mm thick. It starts to taper to the tip at the false edge grind and tapers to a rather fine point.
The edge is thin and quite sharp, thinner and sharper than my Trail Master and Recon Scout. Out of the box it did not shave, but it could push cut printer paper close to my point of hold. I cut up a large USPS Priority Mail box into a pile of scraps. Excuse the poor photos, I forgot to adjust the white balance
After doing that, the blade could still push cut paper and had no dings. My Ka-Bar USMC, Trail Master and Recon Scout had multiple tiny dings in the blade after doing similar jobs to cardboard, though it lost its very sharp bite quicker.
I then decided to go outside and chop some branches. I don't do this often, so I'm not very good at chopping, but I took a 1" diameter fallen, dry branch and chopped through it without much effort. I did this by simply laying the branch on the ground and chopping. Did this twice and then I got a 3/4" diameter branch that was still moist inside and chopped through that. Accidentally followed through into the dirt a little on the last chop. Examined the edge and it was a little rough on the fingernail where the edge saw the most chopping and some dirt. Went back in, no push cutting ability, but it could slice/tear paper ok.
Took out my Sharpmaker and did about 5 passes each side with the medium stones in the 40 degree slots and the edge was good to go, no roughness anymore. No push cutting ability still, but it sliced fine. Then I checked where the stones were hitting the edge, and found the edge is well below 40 degrees included, which surprised me. In fact, the edge is probably close to 30 degrees included according to my Sharpie and Sharpmaker. I proceeded to touch up the edge with the medium and fine stones in the 30 degree setting and then put a secondary bevel on with the 40 degree slots and the edge is now push cutting and shaving sharp. I'm a novice sharpener, so I like this. It took me a total of maybe 30 minutes to do all of this. I'm sure most experienced sharpeners will take much less time.
As I was sharpening I accidentally hit the tip against the stone when I brought it back for another pass. A tiny portion of the tip was bent to the side in the process, but it was easily fixed with a few passes on a coarse benchstone. I don't really stab things much, but I took note of it. I've accidentally done this to a couple of my other knives, but usually with no consequence.
The coating shows some wear, but seems pretty durable. It shows much less wear than my Recon Scout after one box.
Overall it makes a great user so far. Affordable, easily replaced, not something I'd keep around just to look at, does the job and easy to bring back to new. Something I would certainly take on a camping trip because of these qualities. If I ever need a large fixed blade, this will probably be the first one I'll go looking for. It may not be the best, but it does everything I need it to for a great price. My only gripes are with the sheath and very poor fit and finish, though I could have just gotten a bad example.
Comparison pic with my Trail Master:
I received the knife today and my first impressions of it weren't so hot. The sheath is terrible. It is fairly thin and flimsy. One side is 2.5mm thick cordura, and the backing is 2mm thick leather. In comparison, the sheath for my Trail Master uses 4mm thick leather. The fit is VERY snug, in fact too snug and the edge bites into the sheath as I force it in. I think I'll stick with the cardboard edge protector...
Second thing I noticed when I looked down the spine of the knife was that the blade is either ground so that it looks bent, or it is actually bent. It is slight, but easily noticed. Looking down the edge shows the same thing: a slight bend in the edge. No big deal for a <$50 shipped knife I guess, as long as it's functional.
The feel of the knife is good, it is not too heavy, not too light. It has good balance (~1" in front of where you would put your index finger) and a comfortable, filling, grippy handle. It also has a small choil to choke up on, which I found useful when sharpening (more on that later).
The blade itself is nice. Typical bowie shape with a slight recurve. It is 8" long from tip to plunge and a tad more than 1 3/4" wide. The thickness at the ricasso is just about 6mm. After the plunge grind, the blade is a tad less than 5.5mm thick. It starts to taper to the tip at the false edge grind and tapers to a rather fine point.
The edge is thin and quite sharp, thinner and sharper than my Trail Master and Recon Scout. Out of the box it did not shave, but it could push cut printer paper close to my point of hold. I cut up a large USPS Priority Mail box into a pile of scraps. Excuse the poor photos, I forgot to adjust the white balance
After doing that, the blade could still push cut paper and had no dings. My Ka-Bar USMC, Trail Master and Recon Scout had multiple tiny dings in the blade after doing similar jobs to cardboard, though it lost its very sharp bite quicker.
I then decided to go outside and chop some branches. I don't do this often, so I'm not very good at chopping, but I took a 1" diameter fallen, dry branch and chopped through it without much effort. I did this by simply laying the branch on the ground and chopping. Did this twice and then I got a 3/4" diameter branch that was still moist inside and chopped through that. Accidentally followed through into the dirt a little on the last chop. Examined the edge and it was a little rough on the fingernail where the edge saw the most chopping and some dirt. Went back in, no push cutting ability, but it could slice/tear paper ok.
Took out my Sharpmaker and did about 5 passes each side with the medium stones in the 40 degree slots and the edge was good to go, no roughness anymore. No push cutting ability still, but it sliced fine. Then I checked where the stones were hitting the edge, and found the edge is well below 40 degrees included, which surprised me. In fact, the edge is probably close to 30 degrees included according to my Sharpie and Sharpmaker. I proceeded to touch up the edge with the medium and fine stones in the 30 degree setting and then put a secondary bevel on with the 40 degree slots and the edge is now push cutting and shaving sharp. I'm a novice sharpener, so I like this. It took me a total of maybe 30 minutes to do all of this. I'm sure most experienced sharpeners will take much less time.
As I was sharpening I accidentally hit the tip against the stone when I brought it back for another pass. A tiny portion of the tip was bent to the side in the process, but it was easily fixed with a few passes on a coarse benchstone. I don't really stab things much, but I took note of it. I've accidentally done this to a couple of my other knives, but usually with no consequence.
The coating shows some wear, but seems pretty durable. It shows much less wear than my Recon Scout after one box.
Overall it makes a great user so far. Affordable, easily replaced, not something I'd keep around just to look at, does the job and easy to bring back to new. Something I would certainly take on a camping trip because of these qualities. If I ever need a large fixed blade, this will probably be the first one I'll go looking for. It may not be the best, but it does everything I need it to for a great price. My only gripes are with the sheath and very poor fit and finish, though I could have just gotten a bad example.
Comparison pic with my Trail Master:
