Tops Steel Eagle

R

rlewpolar

Joined
Oct 4, 2022
Messages
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Thinking about adding one of these to the collection. There are numerous configurations including clip points, tantos, sawbacks, non-sawbacks, different blade finishes, lengths, etc.

I’m interested in people who have these and which configuration works well for you for your intended use.

On an interesting note, most Steel Eagles in the past came with a typical Tops ballistic nylon sheath which never did anything for me. The Delta version of the Steel Eagle however comes with an excellent kydex sheath (friend of mine has one and it’s impressive). Now, Tops is offering kydex with the new Steel Eagles and you can purchase the sheaths alone directly from Tops if you have an older Steel Eagle (just called them to confirm. Sheaths will run about $70) . I really like the rotating belt attachment on the kydex sheaths that lets you carry it in almost any position. I have the same type of sheath on my Ranger Mocassin and it’s a great design.

Let’s see your Steel Eagle and your experience with it .
 
Alone Alone probably has the most experience with the Steel Eagle. I have one, but haven’t used it. It’s a great knife, you can’t go wrong with one. They are heavy, but damn near impossible to break or heavily damage. Hold a great edge and sharpens easily. IMO Tops has the best heat treatment out of any 1095 production knife.
 
i dont have a pic of mine handy, but it is one of my favorite Tops knives. I have the Delta Class with a tanto edge. I too love the sheath that comes with it, as it's really handy and packs well on hikes. It's a heavy cuss of a knife, but it's nearly bombproof. The edge on mine is really well done and the heat treat seems top notch. I find it a bit more than I need on my light hikes these days, but i've got my eye on the new smaller versions that are coming out.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
i dont have a pic of mine handy, but it is one of my favorite Tops knives. I have the Delta Class with a tanto edge. I too love the sheath that comes with it, as it's really handy and packs well on hikes. It's a heavy cuss of a knife, but it's nearly bombproof. The edge on mine is really well done and the heat treat seems top notch. I find it a bit more than I need on my light hikes these days, but i've got my eye on the new smaller versions that are coming out.
Click to expand...
Smaller versions??
Do tell !! 🤨
John 😁
 
jmh33 said:
Smaller versions??
Do tell !! 🤨
John 😁
Click to expand...
I saw them on DLT Trading's coming soon page.
It's basically a drop point Steel Eagle sporting a 5" blade but still 1/4" thick and comes with the awesome kydex sheath.
 
rlewpolar said:
...I’m interested in people who have these and which configuration works well for you for your intended use...

...Let’s see your Steel Eagle and your experience with it .
Click to expand...


I own a few and, as coolbreezy37 coolbreezy37 mentioned, do have a considerable amount of time with a few that I own.

I'm a "field knife" guy. For me, a quintessential field knife is a robust "jack-of-all-trades", with a blade length between about five to seven inches. I kinda' stumbled upon the Steel Eagle line (*in my case, my first 107E), by happenstance, when I had another knife fail on me in the field. Prior to that, the 107E had already caught my eye. So, after the other knife gave-out, acquiring a Steel Eagle seemed like the thing to do. That was back in the day when TOPS offered options for customizing just about all of their blades if you ordered directly from them. I took advantage of one of their Christmas sales and had them build me a 107E.

Initially, I was pretty rough on that first 107E. Because of the issue with the prior knife, it was almost as though I was trying to get it to fail. It was very similar to making a new girlfriend pay for the sins of a past girlfriend. Funny thing is, my efforts were all for naught. That little 107 took everything I could throw at it and more. At some point, it went from me trying to break it to me just grabbing it out of habit when I knew I'd be in a remote area all alone, and would need something that I could rely-on.

I have done everything with mine. I've gone straight from prepping wood for a fire to cutting-up food to put over that same fire. Is it a Hultafors axe? No. Is it a Shun Premier Chef's knife? No. It's just a big, robust knife that'll git 'er done, no matter what needs doing. I'm not gonna' humble brag, so I will just post that I'm very blessed to own a boatload of quality knives. With that, the TOPS 107E is still my favorite.

I do have a couple of the recently released "105" Steel Eagles, but just prefer the 107s. For my uses, I appreciate the extra span of the longer blade. If you're a guy who likes the ESEE-5 or BK-2, you might prefer the 105s.



Anyhow, I'll try to put-on a little "picture show" for y'all... (*many of which have already been posted, so please pardon the cross-posting)
 
Alone said:
I own a few and, as coolbreezy37 coolbreezy37 mentioned, do have a considerable amount of time with a few that I own.

I'm a "field knife" guy. For me, a quintessential field knife is a robust "jack-of-all-trades", with a blade length between about five to seven inches. I kinda' stumbled upon the Steel Eagle line (*in my case, my first 107E), by happenstance, when I had another knife fail on me in the field. Prior to that, the 107E had already caught my eye. So, after the other knife gave-out, acquiring a Steel Eagle seemed like the thing to do. That was back in the day when TOPS offered options for customizing just about all of their blades if you ordered directly from them. I took advantage of one of their Christmas sales and had them build me a 107E.

Initially, I was pretty rough on that first 107E. Because of the issue with the prior knife, it was almost as though I was trying to get it to fail. It was very similar to making a new girlfriend pay for the sins of a past girlfriend. Funny thing is, my efforts were all for naught. That little 107 took everything I could throw at it and more. At some point, it went from me trying to break it to me just grabbing it out of habit when I knew I'd be in a remote area all alone, and would need something that I could rely-on.

I have done everything with mine. I've gone straight from prepping wood for a fire to cutting-up food to put over that same fire. Is it a Hultafors axe? No. Is it a Shun Premier Chef's knife? No. It's just a big, robust knife that'll git 'er done, no matter what needs doing. I'm not gonna' humble brag, so I will just post that I'm very blessed to own a boatload of quality knives. With that, the TOPS 107E is still my favorite.

I do have a couple of the recently released "105" Steel Eagles, but just prefer the 107s. For my uses, I appreciate the extra span of the longer blade. If you're a guy who likes the ESEE-5 or BK-2, you might prefer the 105s.



Anyhow, I'll try to put-on a little "picture show" for y'all... (*many of which have already been posted, so please pardon the cross-posting)
Click to expand...
Great info, thank you! Great pics as well. I noticed you don’t have any sawbacks. No use for them?

Ooops, never mind, didn’t look closely enough. They’re there all right 👍
 
If you managed to grab your steel eagle before your best friend pushes you out of the plane into water shoring a great expanse before the plane randomly explodes, I can't imagine you'd be knife-hurting all too much.
 
rlewpolar said:
Great info, thank you! Great pics as well. I noticed you don’t have any sawbacks. No use for them?

Ooops, never mind, didn’t look closely enough. They’re there all right 👍
Click to expand...


You're very welcome.


The ones you don't see are any Tantos or a 111A.

I have nothing against Tantos. However, for my uses, the "Hunter's point" is just more fitting. As far as the 111As, inventory started to dry-up after the pandemic, with the Hunter's point version disappearing the fastest. There are still some out there. However, if I'm not real sure of the reputation of the retailer, I tend to walk away. I regret not getting one when they were readily available but didn't see any urgency as I already had my SXB. I honestly don't think there's been a 111A production run since before COVID. I hope that will change at some point. By the way, the 111A (*in case you don't already know) is just an 11" version of the 107C (*Hunter's point) or 107D (*Tanto).


Happy hunting.
 
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