- Joined
- May 21, 2001
- Messages
- 2,871
I have now used this knife enough to offer the following review.
After reading about the TOPS Pasayten Lite Traveler in one of the national knife magazines, I ordered one over the Internet directly from TOPS. Processing of my order took about four weeks, which considering the war in Iraq and the run on knives at the time is not an unreasonable period to wait.
The knife arrived well packaged and included a Kydex sheath, which I will address later. The Pasayten sports a thin 1/8 inch thick and five inch long 154CM blade with a fairly broad profile. The full tang handle area is sandwiched by two slabs of gray Micarta held in place by allen screws. The handle tecture is fairly smooth and triangular in profile. The thinner portion near the blade facilitates precise work and the wider butt section acts as a stop during roll chopping of vegetables on a cutting board, and a small hook for heavier chopping chores. In essence the knife resembles a short chef's knife and in this respect it excells as the long blade belly rocks while dicing and chopping meat and vegetables. The thin blade has a bead blasted finish and a high flat primary grind that ends in a convex edge. It came fairly sharp from the shop, but I brought it to a razor edge by stropping on a loaded leather covered block. The rear of the blade is notched for about 3/4's of an inch just in front of the handle area to give the thumb a better purchase when applying more pressure.
I used the knife to slice vegetables for salads, cube meat for main dishes, slice up cardboard boxes before taking them to the dump, and to fillet and cube halibut. Edge retention was good, about like what you'd expect from a thin, convex, 154 CM blade. The edge did need a little touch up after two weeks of general kitchen and house chore work. I washed the knife in the dishwasher (yeah, I read the commandments thread) without a problem.
The thing I really like about the knife is the great edge belly, the wide blade profile and its thinness. I also like the fit and feel of the handle - weight and balance is excellent for most normal knife chores, the handle shape makes moving the knife around in the hand almost second nature. If you are looking for a great camp knife where it will be used mostly for food preparation chores, the Pasayten is like a carrying a robust small chef's knife around with you.
If I have one criticism, it would be the sheath. As I wrote before, the sheath is Kydex or some similar material and it holds the blade in place well. However, the metal clasp affixed to the side of the sheath intended for slipping over a belt is difficult to manipulate, pushes the sheath too far away from the body, and detaches from the belt when you try to draw the knife from the sheath. This can be fixed with glue I would guess, but I am going to make a nice leather sheath for the knife instead. You can find a picture of the knife on the TOPS website. I don't want to be accused of sending customers directly to TOPS so I won't post the address here. I am in no way affiliated with TOPS knives.
After reading about the TOPS Pasayten Lite Traveler in one of the national knife magazines, I ordered one over the Internet directly from TOPS. Processing of my order took about four weeks, which considering the war in Iraq and the run on knives at the time is not an unreasonable period to wait.
The knife arrived well packaged and included a Kydex sheath, which I will address later. The Pasayten sports a thin 1/8 inch thick and five inch long 154CM blade with a fairly broad profile. The full tang handle area is sandwiched by two slabs of gray Micarta held in place by allen screws. The handle tecture is fairly smooth and triangular in profile. The thinner portion near the blade facilitates precise work and the wider butt section acts as a stop during roll chopping of vegetables on a cutting board, and a small hook for heavier chopping chores. In essence the knife resembles a short chef's knife and in this respect it excells as the long blade belly rocks while dicing and chopping meat and vegetables. The thin blade has a bead blasted finish and a high flat primary grind that ends in a convex edge. It came fairly sharp from the shop, but I brought it to a razor edge by stropping on a loaded leather covered block. The rear of the blade is notched for about 3/4's of an inch just in front of the handle area to give the thumb a better purchase when applying more pressure.
I used the knife to slice vegetables for salads, cube meat for main dishes, slice up cardboard boxes before taking them to the dump, and to fillet and cube halibut. Edge retention was good, about like what you'd expect from a thin, convex, 154 CM blade. The edge did need a little touch up after two weeks of general kitchen and house chore work. I washed the knife in the dishwasher (yeah, I read the commandments thread) without a problem.
The thing I really like about the knife is the great edge belly, the wide blade profile and its thinness. I also like the fit and feel of the handle - weight and balance is excellent for most normal knife chores, the handle shape makes moving the knife around in the hand almost second nature. If you are looking for a great camp knife where it will be used mostly for food preparation chores, the Pasayten is like a carrying a robust small chef's knife around with you.
If I have one criticism, it would be the sheath. As I wrote before, the sheath is Kydex or some similar material and it holds the blade in place well. However, the metal clasp affixed to the side of the sheath intended for slipping over a belt is difficult to manipulate, pushes the sheath too far away from the body, and detaches from the belt when you try to draw the knife from the sheath. This can be fixed with glue I would guess, but I am going to make a nice leather sheath for the knife instead. You can find a picture of the knife on the TOPS website. I don't want to be accused of sending customers directly to TOPS so I won't post the address here. I am in no way affiliated with TOPS knives.
The butt looks like it drops a bit too low to really enjoy the rolling-style chopping you do in food prep, but it didn't sound like it got in the way for you.
He gave me an idea of what he wanted, and after a bit of trial and error, we came up with something pretty cool, that works great!
