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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Review Request: Al Mar Shrike
- Thread starter Lenny
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2005
- Messages
- 597
I have one - I really like it. I have it in micarta, not g10.
I mail-ordered mine after reading some good stuff here on the forum (just do a search on Al Mar Shrike). It was smaller than I had been expecting... no where near the "4 inches" you see on a lot of descriptions on line. The construction and finish are excellent, scales to metal fit and centering of the blade, that sort of thing. I read someone's post that said they assemble the knives and then do the final buffing/finishing, and you can really tell. Its a cut above most of the factory knives I have.
The flat ground blade is an excellent slicer and cutter - if you have any fruit or cheese that need execution, this is your guy. Its also very "pointy" so penetrates extremely well. Its pretty good for a defense knife as well, as you can take a grip very low on the handle, giving yourself another inch or inch and a half of reach. Although the lack of a guard means you'd better keep a tight grip!
Testing the Shrike against a Cocobolo handled T2 to see which was more resistant to a hand sliding up toward the blade on a hard stab (I used a box of newspapers), the Shrike won by a fairly large amount. The gradual widening of the Shrike blade was more secure than the finger gooved, but uniform width of the T2.
G10 would give you a better grip, at the cost of some old-school class...
If your typical factory knife is a Honda, the Shrike is a BMW. It just feels better, seems constructed with more careful attention to detail, works very smoothly, etc etc. VG-10 blade holds up pretty well, and is easy to resharpen.
I'd recommend it, depending of course, on what you need it for. As a "gentleman's tactical" and all around everyday pocket pal, it will serve you well.
I mail-ordered mine after reading some good stuff here on the forum (just do a search on Al Mar Shrike). It was smaller than I had been expecting... no where near the "4 inches" you see on a lot of descriptions on line. The construction and finish are excellent, scales to metal fit and centering of the blade, that sort of thing. I read someone's post that said they assemble the knives and then do the final buffing/finishing, and you can really tell. Its a cut above most of the factory knives I have.
The flat ground blade is an excellent slicer and cutter - if you have any fruit or cheese that need execution, this is your guy. Its also very "pointy" so penetrates extremely well. Its pretty good for a defense knife as well, as you can take a grip very low on the handle, giving yourself another inch or inch and a half of reach. Although the lack of a guard means you'd better keep a tight grip!
Testing the Shrike against a Cocobolo handled T2 to see which was more resistant to a hand sliding up toward the blade on a hard stab (I used a box of newspapers), the Shrike won by a fairly large amount. The gradual widening of the Shrike blade was more secure than the finger gooved, but uniform width of the T2.
G10 would give you a better grip, at the cost of some old-school class...
If your typical factory knife is a Honda, the Shrike is a BMW. It just feels better, seems constructed with more careful attention to detail, works very smoothly, etc etc. VG-10 blade holds up pretty well, and is easy to resharpen.
I'd recommend it, depending of course, on what you need it for. As a "gentleman's tactical" and all around everyday pocket pal, it will serve you well.