I've been carrying and using my new Izula for about a week now and I thought I'd post my experiences on this nice production fixed blade.
For the past few months I've been playing around with EDCing fixed blades. I've learned a few things over those months. At least for me, I've found that...
-I'm going to have to sacrifice some blade length if I want to comfortably EDC something that doesn't fold
-Flatter is better for carry comfort
-Rubber style handles, like on my Scrapyards, are great at sticking to shirts when you bend over then get back up, exposing the knife when you may not want to
-Vertical carry at 3-4 o clock is great for hiking and camping, but not great when you get in and out of a car more than twice a day
So while I had considered something like a RAT RC4 or Scrapyard Mudpuppy to be a "small" fixed blade for a long time, I began downsizing. My first fixed blade I bought with the intention of EDCing was a Spyderco Swick. It's an excellent knife and I'll review it someday, but I wanted something with belly for slicing on cutting boards and a more robust tip that I'd be comfortable doing some prying with.
Here is the knife:
Here is the knife compared to some others in my collection to give you a sense of scale:
The Izula is a nice, compact package overall. The blade has enough straight edge for whittling and similar tasks, and a good amount of belly near the tip for skinning game or using the knife with a cutting board.
The handle is just long enough for my larger than average hands to get a full grip.
I was surprised to find that the knife is rather comfortable, even without the wrap. With the wrap I've sliced cardboard for 30 minutes straight, or whittled wood for the same amount of time, and have had no ergonomic issues.
The knife and sheath is slim enough to fit in my front or back pocket comfortably. However I usually carry it horizontally on my belt with a paracord attachment, like this:
Carrying the knife like this it's so comfortable it can be easy to forget it's there. It's very unobtrusive and makes it easier to reach into my right front pocket than having a folder clipped there, which is a plus. Being a knife nut a lot of times there's still a folder there though
As you can see I've also wrapped the handle. I've never tried this before, but watching a youtube video with step by step instructions makes it pretty easy for a first timer to figure out. I've even received some comments from females I know that my "braiding skills" are cute and they like the knife.
The sheath is a molded plastic material. It includes attachment points for paracord or a teklok, and has a drainage hole. The retention is excellent and there is no rattle. I do not foresee this knife coming unsheathed by accident, even carried upside down. Overall I'm pleased with it. However I did notice my belt buckle scratching it up, which has never happened to my kydex or Spyderco boltaron molded sheaths.
It doesn't seem to be a big deal, since it's just cosmetic, but I thought I'd throw that picture out there. This is a knife that I could see myself getting kydex made for down the road anyways.
The blade itself gave me mixed feelings initially. Near the sharpening notch the cutting edge stuck out about 2mm past the rest of the cutting edge, which I had to grind down by hand with a sharpmaker stone to even out with the rest of the cutting edge. It also came dull and would not slice paper, or push cut it. This didn't bother me much as I planned to put my own edge on it.
However, before I reprofiled it, I tried to put a usable edge on the knife just so I could cut some stuff and see what I thought of the knife. I put a microbevel on the blade, but the wouldnt get very sharp for me. So I gave up on the factory bevel and introduced my Izula to my DMT XX course. After grinding a more acute bevel on to the knife and getting the part near the ricasso more even, I tried putting an edge on again. Still a few spots not as sharp as I'd like because I kind of hurried the reprofiling process, but the parts that I hit well were finally getting sharp. Sharp enough to cleanly shave or push cut paper. I cannot get the knife sharp enough to whittle a thick beard hair, so eventually I'm going to go back to my DMT and make sure I get a clean, even bevel on it.
With the more acute edge it's cutting much better than the factory edge. The biggest difference is in whittling wood. I used the Izula to make a bed of thin, almost see through wood shavings for secondary tinder. After scraping some fatwood dust in the middle and igniting it, the shavings caught well and I had myself a nice fire as I watched sunset and ate brazil nuts. Good excuse to test out my new edge. I also used the knife to pry chunks of wood off of a standing dead tree that was very well seasoned, and it had no trouble being put to such use. I pounded on the butt of the handle to drive the blade in to cracks that had naturally formed in the tree as it weathered, then rocked the knife side to side and popped off chunks of wood that burnt very well.
I've used the knife to break down an obnoxious amount of cardboard. I mean I was in my garage slicing cardboard for over half an hour straight. This is nothing scientific, but I started with a freshly sharpened edge and at the end it couldn't push cut the cardboard, but it still sliced it very well. Afterward I sliced an envelope, then tried to push cut it. To my surprise parts of the edge (even ones that had been used heavily on the cardboard) could roughly push cut the envelope. That's some pretty good edge retention in my book. It's not very often I slice cardboard for 40 minutes on a day to day basis, so I'd expect edge holding to be no issue for this knife as I continue to EDC it.
The knife has also seen use in the kitchen. The belly lets it do a good job slicing up raw meats on a cutting board, and the thin edge sailed through onions and bell peppers with ease. Certainly a little small for some tasks, but it's enough blade to get any food prep chore I'd have taken care of.
Overall I'm very pleased with the knife. I had a little frustration with the edge at first, but after some reprofiling things have dramatically improved. It's comfortable, compact and is as robust as I wanted. For someone looking at EDCing a fixed blade, I think the Izula is a great place to start.
For the past few months I've been playing around with EDCing fixed blades. I've learned a few things over those months. At least for me, I've found that...
-I'm going to have to sacrifice some blade length if I want to comfortably EDC something that doesn't fold
-Flatter is better for carry comfort
-Rubber style handles, like on my Scrapyards, are great at sticking to shirts when you bend over then get back up, exposing the knife when you may not want to
-Vertical carry at 3-4 o clock is great for hiking and camping, but not great when you get in and out of a car more than twice a day
So while I had considered something like a RAT RC4 or Scrapyard Mudpuppy to be a "small" fixed blade for a long time, I began downsizing. My first fixed blade I bought with the intention of EDCing was a Spyderco Swick. It's an excellent knife and I'll review it someday, but I wanted something with belly for slicing on cutting boards and a more robust tip that I'd be comfortable doing some prying with.
Here is the knife:
Here is the knife compared to some others in my collection to give you a sense of scale:
The Izula is a nice, compact package overall. The blade has enough straight edge for whittling and similar tasks, and a good amount of belly near the tip for skinning game or using the knife with a cutting board.
The handle is just long enough for my larger than average hands to get a full grip.
I was surprised to find that the knife is rather comfortable, even without the wrap. With the wrap I've sliced cardboard for 30 minutes straight, or whittled wood for the same amount of time, and have had no ergonomic issues.
The knife and sheath is slim enough to fit in my front or back pocket comfortably. However I usually carry it horizontally on my belt with a paracord attachment, like this:
Carrying the knife like this it's so comfortable it can be easy to forget it's there. It's very unobtrusive and makes it easier to reach into my right front pocket than having a folder clipped there, which is a plus. Being a knife nut a lot of times there's still a folder there though
As you can see I've also wrapped the handle. I've never tried this before, but watching a youtube video with step by step instructions makes it pretty easy for a first timer to figure out. I've even received some comments from females I know that my "braiding skills" are cute and they like the knife.
The sheath is a molded plastic material. It includes attachment points for paracord or a teklok, and has a drainage hole. The retention is excellent and there is no rattle. I do not foresee this knife coming unsheathed by accident, even carried upside down. Overall I'm pleased with it. However I did notice my belt buckle scratching it up, which has never happened to my kydex or Spyderco boltaron molded sheaths.
It doesn't seem to be a big deal, since it's just cosmetic, but I thought I'd throw that picture out there. This is a knife that I could see myself getting kydex made for down the road anyways.
The blade itself gave me mixed feelings initially. Near the sharpening notch the cutting edge stuck out about 2mm past the rest of the cutting edge, which I had to grind down by hand with a sharpmaker stone to even out with the rest of the cutting edge. It also came dull and would not slice paper, or push cut it. This didn't bother me much as I planned to put my own edge on it.
However, before I reprofiled it, I tried to put a usable edge on the knife just so I could cut some stuff and see what I thought of the knife. I put a microbevel on the blade, but the wouldnt get very sharp for me. So I gave up on the factory bevel and introduced my Izula to my DMT XX course. After grinding a more acute bevel on to the knife and getting the part near the ricasso more even, I tried putting an edge on again. Still a few spots not as sharp as I'd like because I kind of hurried the reprofiling process, but the parts that I hit well were finally getting sharp. Sharp enough to cleanly shave or push cut paper. I cannot get the knife sharp enough to whittle a thick beard hair, so eventually I'm going to go back to my DMT and make sure I get a clean, even bevel on it.
With the more acute edge it's cutting much better than the factory edge. The biggest difference is in whittling wood. I used the Izula to make a bed of thin, almost see through wood shavings for secondary tinder. After scraping some fatwood dust in the middle and igniting it, the shavings caught well and I had myself a nice fire as I watched sunset and ate brazil nuts. Good excuse to test out my new edge. I also used the knife to pry chunks of wood off of a standing dead tree that was very well seasoned, and it had no trouble being put to such use. I pounded on the butt of the handle to drive the blade in to cracks that had naturally formed in the tree as it weathered, then rocked the knife side to side and popped off chunks of wood that burnt very well.
I've used the knife to break down an obnoxious amount of cardboard. I mean I was in my garage slicing cardboard for over half an hour straight. This is nothing scientific, but I started with a freshly sharpened edge and at the end it couldn't push cut the cardboard, but it still sliced it very well. Afterward I sliced an envelope, then tried to push cut it. To my surprise parts of the edge (even ones that had been used heavily on the cardboard) could roughly push cut the envelope. That's some pretty good edge retention in my book. It's not very often I slice cardboard for 40 minutes on a day to day basis, so I'd expect edge holding to be no issue for this knife as I continue to EDC it.
The knife has also seen use in the kitchen. The belly lets it do a good job slicing up raw meats on a cutting board, and the thin edge sailed through onions and bell peppers with ease. Certainly a little small for some tasks, but it's enough blade to get any food prep chore I'd have taken care of.
Overall I'm very pleased with the knife. I had a little frustration with the edge at first, but after some reprofiling things have dramatically improved. It's comfortable, compact and is as robust as I wanted. For someone looking at EDCing a fixed blade, I think the Izula is a great place to start.
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