- Joined
- Oct 26, 2001
- Messages
- 1,438
Hello all,
A few years back I paid a lot of attention to the debate over the search for a new ASEK knife and kept an eye on the Ontario ASEK. I wound up buying the Gerber LMF II ASEK model and didn't think much about the Ontario again. I have the original leather handled version of it, and frankly don't find it to be my favorite knife or the most well designed for my needs. However, I recently took another look at the new version and have wound up purchasing one and was very pleasantly surprised. It's basically the old style blade, with half of the cutting edge now taken up by serrations and an extremely beefed up handle and sheath. It retains the sawback, but I'll get to that in a minute. The handle is now made of hard rubber, which means it's more water resistant but still retains the grippy feel of leather. The pommel is slightly wider than the old model and is still octagonal in shape. It is drilled for a lanyard, but mine did not come with one. The center of the pommel has been molded into a triangular glass breaker/skull crusher pommel.
The sheath itself is made of hard rubber, with an outer coating of nylon. It comes set up with two removable leg straps which are of surprisingly good quality and have standard plastic camping buckles. These are adjust so one size will fit all but the largest legs. Personally, however, I prefer belt carry and removed them once I got the knife home. Another nice feature of the sheath is that it houses a small shroud/belt cutter knife which also has a screwdriver and small crock stick built in. I find the crock stick gimmicky, but the screwdriver does have potential uses.
On to the testing. Out of the box the knife had a good working edge, but not a great one. I should note that the serrations are probably the worst designed ones I've encountered, but were not unserviceable. A quick pass over the Spyderco sharpmaker set had a shaving sharp edge on the non-serrated portion of the blade and the serrations up to par. First off, as I do with most of my knives I used the blade to peel, cut and core an apple. No problems there. I then took the knife out and used the plain edge to carve several fuzz sticks. I got decent curls, but not great ones. Next, I used the knife to cut a freshly grilled (and slightly overdone) steak, which it did with aplomb. I tested the sawback on some freshly cut green limbs which the landlord had kindly left lying about. This is where the knife failed miserably. As with most sawbacks, this one has unidirectional teeth, which cut on the push rather than the pull, and are, I suspect, designed more for notching than actual cutting. This would be fine, except that the teeth rapidly gummed up with sawdust, making the saw useless after a few strokes. Not really what I'd hoped for, but then again few sawbacks that I've tested, other than Gerber's silver trident and Aitor's Cuchillo de Monte really do much more, so not a surprise either. Finally, I took the pommel to a few empty beer bottles. I was somewhat surprised that they didn't shatter, but then I was also afraid to hit them too hard in order to avoid getting hit with shrapnel. I next took the pommel to an old double walled, plastic, foam filled cooler. The pommel easily punched nice, large, round, holes in this. I also used it against a clear, hard plastic cd case, of the kind cd's for burning come in. This too was destroyed. I feel that these two tests simulate safety glass, though not perfectly. I also feel that my neighbors would be extremely peeved at me if I attempted to punch out one of their car windows and don't have access to a junkyard so these tests will have to do for now.
In summary: Pros, great pommel and handle design, excellent sheath, once sharpened, decent overall performance.
Cons: Ill designed and basically useless sawback. Not a great edge straight out of the box. In my opinion a little over priced for what you get.
Overall I'd give this knife 3.5 stars though, and it is made in the U.S.A, so that might bump it up to a full 4 IMO. Sorry for the long post.
Lagarto
A few years back I paid a lot of attention to the debate over the search for a new ASEK knife and kept an eye on the Ontario ASEK. I wound up buying the Gerber LMF II ASEK model and didn't think much about the Ontario again. I have the original leather handled version of it, and frankly don't find it to be my favorite knife or the most well designed for my needs. However, I recently took another look at the new version and have wound up purchasing one and was very pleasantly surprised. It's basically the old style blade, with half of the cutting edge now taken up by serrations and an extremely beefed up handle and sheath. It retains the sawback, but I'll get to that in a minute. The handle is now made of hard rubber, which means it's more water resistant but still retains the grippy feel of leather. The pommel is slightly wider than the old model and is still octagonal in shape. It is drilled for a lanyard, but mine did not come with one. The center of the pommel has been molded into a triangular glass breaker/skull crusher pommel.
The sheath itself is made of hard rubber, with an outer coating of nylon. It comes set up with two removable leg straps which are of surprisingly good quality and have standard plastic camping buckles. These are adjust so one size will fit all but the largest legs. Personally, however, I prefer belt carry and removed them once I got the knife home. Another nice feature of the sheath is that it houses a small shroud/belt cutter knife which also has a screwdriver and small crock stick built in. I find the crock stick gimmicky, but the screwdriver does have potential uses.
On to the testing. Out of the box the knife had a good working edge, but not a great one. I should note that the serrations are probably the worst designed ones I've encountered, but were not unserviceable. A quick pass over the Spyderco sharpmaker set had a shaving sharp edge on the non-serrated portion of the blade and the serrations up to par. First off, as I do with most of my knives I used the blade to peel, cut and core an apple. No problems there. I then took the knife out and used the plain edge to carve several fuzz sticks. I got decent curls, but not great ones. Next, I used the knife to cut a freshly grilled (and slightly overdone) steak, which it did with aplomb. I tested the sawback on some freshly cut green limbs which the landlord had kindly left lying about. This is where the knife failed miserably. As with most sawbacks, this one has unidirectional teeth, which cut on the push rather than the pull, and are, I suspect, designed more for notching than actual cutting. This would be fine, except that the teeth rapidly gummed up with sawdust, making the saw useless after a few strokes. Not really what I'd hoped for, but then again few sawbacks that I've tested, other than Gerber's silver trident and Aitor's Cuchillo de Monte really do much more, so not a surprise either. Finally, I took the pommel to a few empty beer bottles. I was somewhat surprised that they didn't shatter, but then I was also afraid to hit them too hard in order to avoid getting hit with shrapnel. I next took the pommel to an old double walled, plastic, foam filled cooler. The pommel easily punched nice, large, round, holes in this. I also used it against a clear, hard plastic cd case, of the kind cd's for burning come in. This too was destroyed. I feel that these two tests simulate safety glass, though not perfectly. I also feel that my neighbors would be extremely peeved at me if I attempted to punch out one of their car windows and don't have access to a junkyard so these tests will have to do for now.
In summary: Pros, great pommel and handle design, excellent sheath, once sharpened, decent overall performance.
Cons: Ill designed and basically useless sawback. Not a great edge straight out of the box. In my opinion a little over priced for what you get.
Overall I'd give this knife 3.5 stars though, and it is made in the U.S.A, so that might bump it up to a full 4 IMO. Sorry for the long post.
Lagarto
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