Here are my comments as the knife has just arrived. I will write in length as I have not heard any reviews on this knife over the internet and I wish there were at least one. See WWW.TOPSKNIVES.COM
It is a very NICE knife. Extremely stout, even bomb-proof! Probably the thickest blade I've seen yet. A full 1/4 inch THICK! This knife is as indestructible as it gets. It is all business with a nice black finish too, and SHARP. It is a very useful size as well. 5.5 inch blade and 9.5 inches overall. I haven't used it yet, but I'm sure it would perform well under the very worst of conditions.
The grips are beautiful as well, gray and black grain micarta. This knife has a FULL tang, just like the Ek knives were. The tang is an integral part of the handle and would provide an excellent gripping area if the micarta slabs were to fall off (in no less than an explosion with this knife) It has a good sized and shaped pommel as well with lanyard. Gripping serrations on the rear of the blade are intelligently located for better purchase and control. Price is @ $170 plus shipping. Not very cheap, but not extremely expensive either. The Sheath is Kydex and hold's very secure, almost too securely, but this might "break-in" as the knife gets holstered more often (not necessarily a sheath problem, but more on that later). The knife came delivered in about a week from the order enclosed with a very nice hand written letter from the company owner, a nice touch in the world of mass production. I like craftsmen (and women) who take pride in their work and what they sell. It shines through in the finished product.
For comparison's sake this knife approximates the size of a BenchMade Nimravus very closely, both in blade length and overall length, both have a Full tang , but both also have distinct differences worth mentioning. The sheath hold's the knife "too" securely IMO, but this would have more to do with the sheath design and the handle design on the knife. The sheath, for one thing, could use some sort of thumb "push off" as the Nimravus has (a small flange or node). This allows you to grip the handle and push with the thumb, downwards as you pull the knife upwards out of the sheath. This could be easily accomplished by swelling the sheath opening on the top, where your thumb would naturally fall when drawing the knife. Further hindering the deployment from the holster would be the smallish handle size in relation to the overall knife size AND thickness.
The handle is smaller than the Nimravus in width and length, however the handle is thicker on the Nite Hunter, as a result of the full tang which is probably double the thickness of the Nimravus in the handle area. I think that the Nite Hunter could learn a few lessons from the Nimravus in the handle area. The Nimravus grip "fills" the hand much better than the Nite Hunter, even though the Hunter has a much thicker grip, it is just too narrow. In my opinion, the handle on the Nite Hunter should be wider (maybe the addition of a palm swell on the top side of the handle and more out-curving on the bottom) and the micarta slabs should be longer and fill more of the available handle area(this also is an easy fix for TOPS, like the sheath).
Now, I have large hands (but not much larger than the average male's), so my comments on the handle size are partially because of that perspective. I am very pleased with my purchase overall, but being a perfectionist, I am disappointed that this dimensionally (and quality is first class) excellent knife could be a entirely BETTER knife with only a few MINOR improvements in the design area. From a purely utilitarian standpoint, however, this knife will do it all.
If I were to re-design this knife, I would make the alterations previously mentioned, however, keep the overall length/blade thickness the same. Also I think a drop point (strictly personal preference) similar to the Elishawitz would be nice (their "dawn warrior" model has a drop point, but slightly smaller 5" blade)
I hope that this review wouldn't deter anyone from buying this knife, as I will forward my comments to TOPS themselves as a courtesy. However I would hope that TOPS would take my constructive criticism under advisement. I believe my comments would represent the impressions of 90% of the buyers who purchase this product. I don't believe in sugar coating anything, and I believe all of my criticism's are valid.
In closing, I am very pleased with this addition to my collection and feel that I have got my money's worth and then some.
Hope this review is helpful.
Respectfully,
A.J. Healy
It is a very NICE knife. Extremely stout, even bomb-proof! Probably the thickest blade I've seen yet. A full 1/4 inch THICK! This knife is as indestructible as it gets. It is all business with a nice black finish too, and SHARP. It is a very useful size as well. 5.5 inch blade and 9.5 inches overall. I haven't used it yet, but I'm sure it would perform well under the very worst of conditions.
The grips are beautiful as well, gray and black grain micarta. This knife has a FULL tang, just like the Ek knives were. The tang is an integral part of the handle and would provide an excellent gripping area if the micarta slabs were to fall off (in no less than an explosion with this knife) It has a good sized and shaped pommel as well with lanyard. Gripping serrations on the rear of the blade are intelligently located for better purchase and control. Price is @ $170 plus shipping. Not very cheap, but not extremely expensive either. The Sheath is Kydex and hold's very secure, almost too securely, but this might "break-in" as the knife gets holstered more often (not necessarily a sheath problem, but more on that later). The knife came delivered in about a week from the order enclosed with a very nice hand written letter from the company owner, a nice touch in the world of mass production. I like craftsmen (and women) who take pride in their work and what they sell. It shines through in the finished product.
For comparison's sake this knife approximates the size of a BenchMade Nimravus very closely, both in blade length and overall length, both have a Full tang , but both also have distinct differences worth mentioning. The sheath hold's the knife "too" securely IMO, but this would have more to do with the sheath design and the handle design on the knife. The sheath, for one thing, could use some sort of thumb "push off" as the Nimravus has (a small flange or node). This allows you to grip the handle and push with the thumb, downwards as you pull the knife upwards out of the sheath. This could be easily accomplished by swelling the sheath opening on the top, where your thumb would naturally fall when drawing the knife. Further hindering the deployment from the holster would be the smallish handle size in relation to the overall knife size AND thickness.
The handle is smaller than the Nimravus in width and length, however the handle is thicker on the Nite Hunter, as a result of the full tang which is probably double the thickness of the Nimravus in the handle area. I think that the Nite Hunter could learn a few lessons from the Nimravus in the handle area. The Nimravus grip "fills" the hand much better than the Nite Hunter, even though the Hunter has a much thicker grip, it is just too narrow. In my opinion, the handle on the Nite Hunter should be wider (maybe the addition of a palm swell on the top side of the handle and more out-curving on the bottom) and the micarta slabs should be longer and fill more of the available handle area(this also is an easy fix for TOPS, like the sheath).
Now, I have large hands (but not much larger than the average male's), so my comments on the handle size are partially because of that perspective. I am very pleased with my purchase overall, but being a perfectionist, I am disappointed that this dimensionally (and quality is first class) excellent knife could be a entirely BETTER knife with only a few MINOR improvements in the design area. From a purely utilitarian standpoint, however, this knife will do it all.
If I were to re-design this knife, I would make the alterations previously mentioned, however, keep the overall length/blade thickness the same. Also I think a drop point (strictly personal preference) similar to the Elishawitz would be nice (their "dawn warrior" model has a drop point, but slightly smaller 5" blade)
I hope that this review wouldn't deter anyone from buying this knife, as I will forward my comments to TOPS themselves as a courtesy. However I would hope that TOPS would take my constructive criticism under advisement. I believe my comments would represent the impressions of 90% of the buyers who purchase this product. I don't believe in sugar coating anything, and I believe all of my criticism's are valid.
In closing, I am very pleased with this addition to my collection and feel that I have got my money's worth and then some.
Hope this review is helpful.
Respectfully,
A.J. Healy
