Les Stroud SK Desert Folder

JD Mandrell

JD Mandrell

Joined
Apr 20, 2001
Messages
18,423
I received the Camillus/Les Stroud SK Desert Folder today, some initial thoughts on it are good and bad.

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Knife itself is OK, 440A liner lock with a very good no slip handle. Blade has some kind of "titanium non-stick" coating (more on that later) and came shaving sharp. Handle is good, very comfortable.

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The liner lock is good, no play at all. Has nylon bushings, and at first was slow to open, but 1 drop of oil and it opens very easily now. The blade finish is very rough at this point, cosmetic though, doesn't seem to interfere with anything.

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A small emergency firesteel locks into the handle, seems secure and would have been a nice idea if it worked..........

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Here is the "bad" on this knife. The "titanium non-stick" coating on the blade, makes it (as least on mine) totally worthless to try to get any sparks from the firesteel. After nearly 30 minutes of scraping, I never got a single spark, and as you can see the blade coating barely has a mark on it. I did manage to get 2 sparks by scraping the firesteel with the pocket clip about 20 times, but none using the notch on the blade that is supposed to be used.

It's a $25.00 knife, so I wasn't expecting perfection, and the knife itself is OK, but the firesteel part just doesn't seem to work with whatever that blade coating it.
 
Nice write up. This folder actually doesn't look half bad. As far as the sparking notch, is it a square edge? I'm wondering if stripping the coating off would help with sparking :confused:
 
Thank you for the review. I'm a big fan of Stroud, but this knife looks downright terrible. As far as cheap Chinese knives go, SanRenMu, Enlan et al are where its at, really puts that to shame IMO and for less money. I'd love for Les to partner with mora... it would be sweet to see some at a local store. :)
 
Nice review. Not sure why they would coat the firesteel part of the knife. QC not very good as nobody seemed to have tried it or cared. Also does not look very square even if stripped. Great concept though.
 
Little more goofing around.

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And a shot beside the Bear Grylls USK folder, which I figure this knife will be most compared to. :)

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this knife should sell well, but I'd be surprised if it sold well among folks that know better.................................. :D
 
That is truly, one ugly knife.

It'll be interesting to see if Les Stroud gets crucified here like Bear did for putting his name on the Gerbers.
 
I really like Les Stroud but i hate when these type of guys go and put their names on cheap Chinese gimmick garbage, do they even look at the product that's going to have their name? it is really disappointing, why cant they put their name on a decent knife?
 
It would be interesting to know if he even had much say in it, or if the marketing department took care of it? It looks like lots of good ideas, with a couple of misses on the execution. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt here, and besides, look at the cost compared to some other wilderness guys self branded knives. I think it fits with Les's mentality of any tool is better than no tool. I'm curious as to why most of the mid-high end companies (benchmade, spyderco, etc) don't partner more with the survival guys. I mean gerber slapped more plastic on their stuff for Bear, and SOG has the "Gunny approved" thing, Ritter has his grip variant(Or maybe it happens more but I never noticed). Maybe because guys like Les and Cody are happy with a mora, or an LM, (there is an idea! Les Stroud designed multi-tool!) I guess it shows that not everyone is a knife-nut, and sharp is good enough?
 
It's not JB weld, it's just a really funky messed up area of the blade coating. It looks horrible, but doesn't seem to interfere with anything.

I'll try to remove some of the coating and see it the blade notch will work then. Just to make sure it wasn't the firesteel, I treid it with the striker from my Light My Fire steel, as well as the spine of my Mora Companion and it works fine with them.
 
Removed the blade coating at the notch and it still doesn't spark, they really botched this idea. :(
 
Well, according to Les on another forum, he says,

"buts what's most important to me is that whatever I put my name on - it be of the highest quality. Know this: In my opinion - the survival knife...book...kit that I put on the market will be the best there is. The price point may be a little higher than those who are cashing in on the whole 'survival thing'....but our lives are worth it. For me its not about marketing or cashing in on celebrity....its about survival. Les"




:rolleyes:
 
Les, Les what are you doing? You are teaming up with Wetterlings and coming out soon with an awesome bushcraft axe but why this Camillus thing? You had a chance to team up with a good knifemaker like Buck or Mora or BHK or Bark River or a host of others and put out a real quality product that is in-line with who you are and what you do. Could have taken the best from a wide assortment of knives and really done something innovative WITH HIGH QUALITY MATERIALS. Sigh. Money changes everything.
 
If that knife is something that is something Les feels is the best, I think someone needs to educate him on some higher quality knives.
 
Wouldn't be surprised if the final knife is not as good as the production prototypes. just giving the benefit of the doubt here, and yes, I'm a blatant Stroud fanboy. but even he can make mistakes.

EDIT

Ok, so I looked at Les's website, and I'm not sure what he was thinking with those. I like him because he isn't bear grylls and those camillus knives look like the same 12 year old designed them, along with bear's gerbers. That Helle looks very nice though! that's how it should be done.
 
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