A Randall Model 18 has a more solid feel than a Parrish? That is surprising to hear. The Randall is probably thinner edged, if likely duller-pointed.
The Parrish is a very desirable knife. Spear point designs are rare yet very functional. I heard the Heat treating is on the softer RC 55 side like the Carbon Randalls (which is not that good for 440C in my opinion)...
I've just got my Farid First Blood, and compared its saw in wood to the others, but I'll get to that later.
Farid First Blood Prototype, first impressions:
-Point thickness is stronger than a Lile, as I hoped from this being based on a re-ground FB point: Blade length is 8.9", so not a big loss in length.
-Blade thickness is only 0.23", not the usually claimed 0.25": This is bad as it emphasizes the blade-light feel (but it still doesn't feel as bad as the Randall Model 18, for some reason).
-The pommel is superb but enormously heavy, by far the heaviest pommel of any Survival Knife I have ever seen: It is at least twice as heavy as the aluminium pommel of the giant 10.5" RJ Martin Blackbird...
-The dry compass is superb, better-looking than any of the other liquid compasses I have.
-The edge is the usual awful 20° per side or so, so for tests that figure will have to be halved... Fortunately the steel is 440C.
-Sheath is superb, almost oversized: Unfortunately it has about 0.25" of dead space at the tip, which always annoys me...
As a result of all this, the balance point is a full 1/2"
behind the guard, largely due to the monstrously heavy Farid pommel (Lile's pommel was aluminium, so maybe quite different: I would prefer a small diameter hollowed-out pommel in steel). Handle compartment size is about the same size as the RJ Martin, but quite inferior to the Neeley SA9's huge capacity: 2.7" Farid and RJ Martin, compared to 4" length, on a larger diameter, for the Neeley SA9!!! The Randall 18 is around the same as the RJ and Farid in length, but larger in diameter (even 1 mm can make a big difference).
In comparison: Farid edge thickness is 1.2 mm at the top of the bevel (about 0.047" at around 20° per side) so potential sharpness is definitely higher than on the Neeley SA9 which is at 1.59 mm (0.062"), even if with enormous re-profiling the Neeley can still be "saved": The RJ Martin Blackbird and Chris Reeves Jereboam Mk II are both similar at 1 mm or 0.040", so have a higher sharpness potential, but not by much, compared to the Farid. Of note is the Chris Reeves grows considerably duller and thicker in the forward quarter of the edge, severely reducing its useability performance, so generally I would rate the Farid higher than the Chris Reeves, and the RJ Martin just slightly better than the Farid.
Handle confort: CR highest, Neeley SA9 almost as good, Farid excellent as well, RJ martin slightly behind. Coarser cord doesn't seem to help, but knurling does.
The quick saw test of the Farid yielded the following overall ranking results for these four knives: 1-TOPS Hellion, 2-Neeley SA9 3-Farid First Blood 4-RJ Martin Blackbird
It breaks down as follows (all single straight cuts):
2" diameter maple or less:
1st: TOPS Hellion: Near through straight cut, 1.5-1.75" with little effort.
2nd: Neeley SA9: Near through straight cut, 1.5-1.75", with more effort but acceptable.
3rd: Farid First Blood: 0.75-1", more effort due to tendency to hang up on its big teeth, and very short available stroke.
4th: RJ martin Backbird: 0.5-0.75", huge effort to get to 0.75", push stroke a disadvantage.
3" diameter Maple and over
1st: TOPS Hellion: 1/2" or more with little effort, but stops dead.
2nd: Faris FB: 1/2" or more but with much more effort (note the two angled cuts method yields no 30-50% gain over what I list here on straight cuts, because of the hanging up tendency on the "peak" inside the cut. Two angled cuts basically more than double the effort, so are not really worth it).
3rd and 4th: RJ Martin and Neeley SA9, the SA9 being slightly worse due to the teeths "sliding", wasting effort, both stop at a miserable 1/4".
If I were to rank the knives overall, I would place them as such, bearing in mind I include here cosmetic and personal bias considerations, and most importantly that only the sharpness I achieved is considered, meaning what is offered from the box is thrown out the window...:
1-TOPS Hellion: Best sawback, best item capacity in two sheath pockets, best handle with no rolling issue. Best chopping confort due to blade tip weight. Edge thickness is a weak point, but can be bevelled thinner to around 12° per side. A better sharpener in the big pocket can compensate to some extent for the thicker 1.8 mm (0.070") edge bevel base... Worst stabbing ability, but still able to stab... This is the only knife heavy enough at both extremities to be used as a non-lethal bludgeon: Could be a useful non-lethal consideration...
2-Neeley SA9 (note I don't recommend this knife at all because of the initial edge thickness): Best, easiest to carry sheath (extraordinary), best hollow handle diameter/pommel design. Acceptable sawback.
Biggest handle capacity of any hollow handle, despite slim handle design... Again the weak point is the edge thickness, but I circumvented that here by making a hugely tall assymetrical bevel on the right side... Best workmanship of any knife I have ever owned: Perfect finish and secondary grind line symmetry. Best overall design if carrying ease is considered. The 440C steel seems just superb in performance, rust resistance and edge-holding, even above other 440C knives I have owned.[EDIT: Knock that one off the list, the sharpness just sucks too much]
3-RJ Martin Blackbird: Best point design. Very convenient and lightweight sheath, but it scratches the blade regularly, as all Kydex sheaths do: Replacing it with a leather sheath is not worth it, as the knife is so bulky, a leather sheath would worsen its worse caracteristic (note I prefer to carry fixed blades inside the pants). Edge is quite good in geometry, the superb hollow grind helps, but 0.040" is far from the Randall 0.020" standard. Excellent chopping performance. Overwhelmingly heavy but acceptably bulky: I would have to carry it all day to know if it is possible to carry its 30 ounces for long periods...
The Kydex sheath scratches the blade badly and consistently, and this could have been avoided by providing a nylon strip as a "bearing surface" inside the plastic: This cosmetic disaster is a predictable consequence of most "moulded-on" Kydex sheaths and I have never understood their popularity for that reason alone... The notion of "moulding on" leaves no room for dust or dirt, making the scratching far worse, so the very idea this is a desirable concept is a complete mystery to me...
A bad point (for me) in this knife is the S30V steel: It is hard to sharpen, and showed some very slight "haze" staining while washing it: It is stainless but inferior to 440C in stain resistance. I did not test edge-holding yet, but the Neeley's 440C seemed easier to sharpen and more stain resistant, at a similar hardness.
4-Farid First Blood: Excellent sheath, if a bit bulky. Not bad or great in any respect, but comparable in quality to the Neeley SA9 or RJ Martin. 440C steel.
5-Randall Model 18: Absolutely superior sharpness and edge geometry, but indifferent workmanship (mine was croocked in 3 different ways, some outrageous). Initially came with non-functional combat training-safe point (that is unfortunately not a metaphor, and was even more true for my 18-style Model 14 as well)... Surprisingly good chopping performance due to the thin slightly hollow-ground edge, but the extremely light blade means it "bucks up" on impact, making it very unconfortable to use, even causing blisters on the last finger in barely seconds, especially if wrapped with cord... Saw is useless even for producing wood dust... Bulky guard and bulky pommel. Fair handle capacity, especially the diameter. 0-1 steel stains or rusts incredibly fast: Get the 440B version at all costs...
6- Chris Reeves Jereboam Mk II: Excellent chopping performance. Superior handle confort. Extremely small diameter handle compartment, making it almost useless... Very unpleasant to carry inside the pants for some reason: It is both slim and heavy, a bad combination... The edge geometry grows very poor towards the front quarter. Because the blade is so thick at the secondary grind line, which carries the huge (0.27"?) full blade thickness way, way forward -
while that secondary grind line does not rise at all, unlike the Neeley SA9-, the result of the combination of all this is that it is almost impossible to reprofile the front quarter of the edge without ruining the knife cosmetically... This is in part due to the fact the blade is fairly narrow, which worsens this problem. This knife has no finesse of use in its tip at all, unless, maybe, if heavily reprofiled by a gifted professional sharpener, which result I am still waiting for... The Neeley SA9 had a similar problem, but not as bad, because its secondary blade-side grind line "climbs" a little towards the front, and so the edge thickness doesn't change as much: It is thick and horrible all over, but at least it is roughly the
same, while the Reeves is thinner near the handle, but changes more towards the tip, which is worse... It is a bit hard to explain... My TOPS Hellion was also thick near the tip, but once re-ground it is now incredibly sharp: The geometry of the Reeves makes this an unlikely job to look anywhere near as neat as the simple pair of straight lines on the Hellion...: The Jereboam tip can be made sharp, but it likely will look terrible and not "fit" with the rest of the knife's grinding...
The Reeve's black paint finish looks
very good and wears evenly, but keep in mind that if you wipe a white paper towel,
it leaves black smudge marks in it: This means if you process food you inevitably put black enamel paint in your food... Although the Hellion's paint is not as tough and doesn't look as good, it does not do that because it is not a "powder" coating... Another way that something that looks good can be a bad thing: I recommend Cerkoating it instead...
Another not so good point on the CR is that the A-2 steel is tempered quite soft, at RC 55, giving demonstrably poor edge-holding, and yet this doesn't seem to help the ease of sharpening at all... Not only that, but the steel is -apparently- not particularly resistant to fracture despite this disadvantage.
The Chris Reeves is an example of how a winning-looking concept can still hide practical problems that make you hate it in the long run...
Anyway, a bit long-winded as usual... I'll post some pics later...
Gaston
