Review of the David Mary Prevail in LC200N

[David Mary]

I used this one as a daily carry. It does cutting tasks well, and cleans up invasive plants with ease. It's sort of what I thought would be an ideal EDC, for someone who likes knives around 4". I feel like the design worked well enough for its purposes. Mostly cardboard, recycling tasks, or food prep or utility. Looking at it more closely from a review standpoint after all is said and done is hard at first, and trying to highlight imperfections on film was counterintuitive and took a while to realize the proper way to do it. It felt a little counterintuitive to find the right angles and lighting. This one was always meant to be mine from the start. I planned to use it hard to get a feel for the steel, its strengths and limitations.

I used it to open cans, and it would still cut cardboard. It never took anything I could really think of as damage, and rolling seems to hone and strop out very easily.

A few things I noticed about the fit and finish. The sheath was made with pretty narrow tolerances for the blade to avoid the eyelet on the way in or out. Some quick sheath tests found that from certain angles the tendency would be to roll a certain spot on the edge with a quick pull from the sheath along a certain angle. That and it causes recurring scratches. This might have something to do with the fact that I made the sheath is minimal as I thought possible. Minimizing scratches would be nice, though I was guilty of vertical carry in the shop where dust can get in the sheath a few times. Something that isn't a concern for utility purposes, which has been the purpose of this knife, and testing not so meticulously, but through use and general observations. The blade carved wood for me, shaved cardboard, and bent itself out of shape trying to get through tough materials, but always came back with ease. A somewhat bitey edge lasted through what looked and felt like it was too dull to cut like that.

I left the grind a little thin for the first leg of its journey, and recently reground it a bit thinner after a time my confidence in the steel's characteristics grew. I think it is a great knife in a great steel. That's as far as I've come with it.

I reground it some weeks ago, and carried and used it somewhat since. Here they are, photographed a few minutes ago. More pictures and thoughts of what I was thinking, and what I could have done differently.

 

[David Mary]

In these pics you can see the scratching that has appeared post regrind, and I tried to capture the slight recurve that has developed. It didn't have to be this way. I could have worn an overshirt in the shop, and made a slightly different sheath, with a more protective opening.

 

[David Mary]

On a side note, LC200N was, to my surprise, the easiest steel to etch a mark on yet. Hard to do anything wrong. Not always so with other steels. I'm looking at you 15N20. But the best clarity on my maker's mark seems to be on LC200N, the 9Cr blanks I bought a while back, and simple steels like the basic stainless of a couple of sports goods store's knives I've reground.

 

[David Mary]

Here's where I learned to use both hands as a tripod to keep the phone steady. I guess we'll see how well it work.


Ooops. looks like I got the backdrop.




That's a better view. I missed some coarse scratches on the pins.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

On my shortlist.... I hope you keep making these.
Looks very carry-able

 

[David Mary]

When I lined it up and looked closely it seems asymmetrical.





Maybe a little? I never noticed it until I looked for it tonight. Also not as easy to keep focus with one hand on the camera.

But let's see the plunge.






I remember this. You may note the sharpening choil is not refined and cleaned up. I decided to leave coarse scratches and medium scratches here and watch for rust. I don't see any yet. I'll clean that up sooner or later along with the handle scratches. Also a quick note: I don't generally like sharpening choils, but the one on this knife was an experiment in doing a subtle one. I can't say I have sound it all that useful in sharpening compared to my knives without one, but that is just me.



But from this view you can see the apparent unevenness in the jimping on the thumb ramp from the first photos is an illusion. The jimping is radiused for comfort, but does not sacrifice all its grip. Some, but for utility purposes it is a grippy enough along with the handle texturing. It is G10, which is slicker than a lot of other materials, and skinny, so not suitable for a defensive tool, at least with this handle and guard shape. That's my opinion after handling it. Fine for deliberate and controlled use as a tool. But I was extra careful about cutting open a food can. A slip forward would not have felt good.

And in that first picture, I left a shadow of coarse grind marks along the top of the left scale. It's easy enough to clean up but this knife has been a work in progress and testing so I haven't gotten around to it. I've found the fact the handle is a little narrow in width for me on mine. If I was expecting to do any poking or thrusting with as I would a more hand filling hand in Micarta like this:



That top one would be most comfortable in gloves, as the jimping is fairly sharp.

This would be more comfortable and hand filling still:



I think if I had it to do over again, I would have made my handle shaped more like the last photo, in thickness at least, and probably have texture as well. And Suretouch. But for controlled hard use, it's fine, as long as I keep my mind not slipping forward on the blade.

And I'll be keeping a tighter watch on symmetry at the tip as well.

 

[Hurrul]

Thanks for sharing this RD openly with us. I, a laymen when it comes to knife making, greatly value insight into how yours and others build their knives. I think it is a challenge to put out a constructive critique of your own work, yet this openness speaks well of your intent to evolve as a maker and shows me your not complacent in design, implementation of a design. Clearly, your willing to see what a design is capable of and to carefully examine it, rather than sniff some hype.

 

[David Mary]

Thank you. I know I have lots yet to learn, it's a journey of discovery, and new heights to be attained.

 

[Hurrul]

Thank you. I know I have lots yet to learn, it's a journey of discovery, and new heights to be attained.

This model is on my short list for another knife, but overtime I've managed to buy other offerings you have made and kind of forgotten about the Prevail. I think as you know by now, this blade shape it up my alley - for me at least, it kind of does it all. I don't hunt as much as I used to, so I've minimal need for a fat tipped, very curved point - type skinning blade shape. Plus, this blade shape is easy to hone and sharpen due to not having a steep edge curvature up to the tip. Greater point precision and more effective piercing in use is inherent to this blade shape which is much more useful for my needs, too.

 

[Blues]

I think it's a great looking knife with a very useful profile. I can think of myriad tasks it looks like it would be just the ticket for.

It's also in a steel that has piqued my curiosity but which I haven't yet experienced firsthand.

 

[David Mary]

Thanks for the kind words gentleman.

I've managed to buy other offerings you have made and kind of forgotten about the Prevail

Well, the "Skinny Slicer" you picked up from me last spring was sort of a Prevail 0.1.

 

[David Mary]

Yesterday was a day of errands, including cleaning the shop. Part of that involved finally letting go of some used belts. We let's just say I am a bit of a belt hoarder, so there were a lot to dispose of. They try to take a lot of space in the garbage can so I cut them in half. The Prevail in LC200N cut dozens and dozens of belts yesterday, ranging from 36 - 220 grit ceramic. Each belt was cut twice to split it into two halves.



Each cut was initiated on the non-abrasive side of the belt, obviously. But it still did a number on the blade as far as scratches:



And the edge was rolled in many places afterwards as well, as would be expected from just about any steel. We are talking about cutting the belts that ground the knife into shape, after all.


No chips, though. And it still cut cardboard pretty well, in part because of the geometry behind the edge, and in part because LC200N for some reason performs when it looks like it shouldn't. The pic below shows a cut the blade did after cutting all those belts, and though you can see it was a not the cleanest cut, you can tell it was still basically effortless.



This is one job where a sharpening choil is a pain. It snagged a number of times on the belts, reminding me why I don't normally do sharpening choils unless I am requested to.


After the cutting, I cleaned up the blade, and resharpened, and also tried to minimize the choil, as well as cleaned it up. The clean up and sharpening only took about five minutes, and was a nice way to end the shop cleaning session.

 

[Currawong]

Cutting up grinding belts is brutal. Good to see it handled it so well. Clearly the heat treat is dialled in.

 

[Hurrul]

David Mary How did you restore the edge? on stones or back to an abrasive belt?

 

[David Mary]

I cleaned the whole blade up on a medium and fine scotchbrite belt, then hit the edge on a 220 grit ceramic belt. Had I wanted to sharpen on stones, it would have been a fairly simple matter on the SharpMaker brown rods.