Gimmick. It's sucker bait.
Pick up a 4 inch fixed blade designed by a knife designer and a folding saw to go with it. That pair's going to be way more effective in the woods.
If one wants to play "survival" in the wild...then I'm sure that thing is great. Just don't go too far away from the car.
I know a folding saw makes sense in theory, is lighter and out-performs chopping knives, but the fact is you can't really do any de-limbing with that combo, you can't clear a path, dig, hammer or pry apart anything, and you certainly can't defend yourself effectively, while a big knife can do all that in just one item...
Good luck making a serious shelter quickly with just a saw and the twig cutter...
As for the Parry design in this thread, the double choil is because there are two edges to work with... It does rob edge length, but my biggest gripe is with properly sharpening the recurved edge.
It does try to compensate for the marginal blade length with the flare... But the huge pommel really ruins that...
Hard to say how comfortable the handle is without trying it. I also would not judge a knife without knowing what the edge geometry is like, but at that price the profile should be more deeply hollow ground: It
is hollow ground, but the hollow doesn't look very deep.
18 ounces with 1/4" stock is fair, especially given that massive pommel... The blade is probably too light, and the silly hole doesn't help...
The large pommel is my biggest problem with this thing: It is a bad idea for chopping as it shifts weight back: I guess for the military that huge pommel is good, but it should at least have a prying bevel somewhere... For the same balance reason the full tang is a bad idea.
As for the 420 steel, I've long ago given up on thinking this means a whole lot... At least it
is stainless, and that matters more than just about any other steel-related consideration...
I've seen worse, but a cheaper Ontario SP-53 will out-perform it (as it does with everything of around that size and weight): Unfortunately the SP-53 is painted carbon... The Parry sheath looks very good, with a nice large pouch, and I always like nylon over the horrible scratch-intensive Kydex that is so in favour these days, so that is really a good point...
Gaston
Edit: It turns out the hole is for prying out nails from wood... Not entirely a bad idea for urban settings, but I'd rather have the mass there...
