Ultimate Survival Knife - The Blackbird

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Not sure I 'get' the big deal on this one. The design is a rehashed kephart. That's OK because the design works, but it's not something worth the hype. The flat slab sides are a fail, too. At that price point I want contours. And again, at that price point I don't expect a blade that's from a factory. I could go pick up a Fiddleback or something for that much.
 
Yep nothing new here but hype. I didn't know what to expect, and I'm sure it a good knife, but I'm not paying that for a production knife, when I can twice the knife at half the price from Becker/Kabar.

I wish him the best of luck on the endeavour, but I doubt it will take off as "the ultimate survival knife". I like the Kephardt style blade, but BHK has a nice one for less, plus many other makers here on BF can give you what you want, your design for that much dinero.

I'll take a FBF for the win, Alex or a Turley, or well you get the idea. Thanks ya'll.

Moose
 
I appreciate him trying and all the effort that went into this project. Seems like he put thought in the design.
Too bad he ended up with an overpriced kephR.A.T

The part that got me (besides the length of a typical sales pitch video) was him mentioning the limited # of knives available and how we should nervously wait in front of the computers at the release date/time and hope for a chance to get one of this "ultimate" knives. Where is this hype coming from? Am I missing something?
I also think that everyone with the patience to watch that video should get a free knife. That's the only way I can see myself getting one of those.
 
to be completely honest i wasn't going to comment on this but man i am just not impressed at all. he makes some bad ass sheaths but the design is nothing special at all, especially all he hyped it up to be lol. i will stick with one of my customs from the great makers here on the forums or my esee or my busses
 
the boy can talk!

with all the buildup, plus the name and the intro date i was expecting ait to be a spoof and to see some blacked turkey carcass that someone forgot in the oven. then he starts talking about broken tips and i'm expecting to see something like the EOD Breacher Bar from countycomm.com.

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ok, so the Blackbird is a modernized Kephartish knife that seems very overpriced for a production knife. sheath looks ok, but surprised to see a "leather guy" designing a knife that comes with a nylon sheath.
 
fixer said:
ok, so the Blackbird is a modernized Kephartish knife that seems very overpriced for a production knife. sheath looks ok, but surprised to see a "leather guy" designing a knife that comes with a nylon sheath.
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I didn't watch all the way through but I'm sure the custom leather sheath is not far behind. I'm guessing the total will be about $500-600 for both knife and leather sheath.
 
ditto to bryan & mist. i just got a great custom in 1095 for 135$.all the old timey furtrappers & frontiersmen survived just fine with carbon butcher knives.of course men were more hardy then but times were much more trying.
dennis
 
I like how thorough Paul is with his survival videos. He takes a lot of classes and enjoys teaching. I don't like the handle at all. And the price is not something outrageous, if it had a better sheath. I would easily pay $200 for a Fletcher, Fiddleback, Turley, JK, Gossman, Koyote, NWA, Breeden any day of the week. These are custom makers who are sweating over details, not a factory production line.
 
Love the Kephart blade shape and think the "modern" handle is nice. Like the radiused edges on it. 154cm is an excellent steel imo. I've had a couple of hunting knives made by James Poplin 25 yrs. ago that are awesome in 154cm.

The video is way,way too long. I lost interest about half way in and turned it off.

I'm for anyone who can make money working at their passion and particularly if you are an entrepreneur.

If $189 is msrp then then street price should be less.
 
That's the crap I am talking about, he pulled the same shit with the BK2 sheath.

tek77 said:
I appreciate him trying and all the effort that went into this project. Seems like he put thought in the design.
Too bad he ended up with an overpriced kephR.A.T

The part that got me (besides the length of a typical sales pitch video) was him mentioning the limited # of knives available and how we should nervously wait in front of the computers at the release date/time and hope for a chance to get one of this "ultimate" knives. Where is this hype coming from? Am I missing something?
I also think that everyone with the patience to watch that video should get a free knife. That's the only way I can see myself getting one of those.
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I think the price is too high. If its an MRSP of 189, then maybe not quite as bad, but not much. Dont know who deserves the finger pointing though. Him or Ontario.

As for the knife and the video length, well, I can see talking about something your excited about for 20 minutes. It was like 6 minutes before you saw the knife. If I had a production company build a knife to my specs, I would probably be excited and wanna talk about it too. Yes the knife is a spearpoint, ala Kephart, but how many knives coming out are truely "innovative"? Most blade designs are mods of proven designs. Just like this one. I think people are being a little hard on this one.

Ive known Paul for a bit now, and he is a real talented woodsman. He is not a nutnfancy clone. He takes classes, teaches skills via video, and is an overall nice guy. His leatherwork is top notch, and I would take his reccomendations on knives. Hes a guy that actually uses blades and doesnt sit on his duff armchair reccomending knives and gear with no real experiance to back it up.

I agree his build-up of this project was a bit much, but I think he was just wanting to keep people in the loop while this thing was coming to light. Kinda like Busse does, or ESEE etc....

Theres a million designs and makers out there, and we will buy what speaks to us as an individual. Some knives that people love, I have no use for. However I will never bash anyone for creating something. To him and others, this just might be their ultimate survival knife. Who am I to tell them they are wrong?

As for the not coming with a Hedgehog sheath, it takes alot to produce leather on a manufacturer basis. I would hate to slap my name on a production leather sheath if I were a leather bender. No doubt he will come up with a sheath for his knife.

Sorry for the long winded post. I just think folks are being a little harsh on this one.
 
If I had the dough, I'd get one of those ^ because I think it looks interesting. i would definitely grind of the point on the pommel though!
 
tknife said:
If I had the dough, I'd get one of those ^ because I think it looks interesting. i would definitely grind of the point on the pommel though!
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I keep hoping someone on here gets one so I can see just how good or bad it is. I'm suprised Mistwalker hasn't taken the plunge yet !
He loves his TOPS knives and his reviews are probably the best on the forum !
 
Mistwalker wrote a story on the Hawke Hellion in Sept Tacitcal Knives Magazine
 
tknife said:
Looks like a solid design. I like the blade shape and large handle, though I don't like the price. Being that it's from Ontario, a 1095 version at half that price would be a nice option and one that I might buy. Don't want to come down too hard on the knife, but at almost $200 I could get an excellent custom form one of the many awesome makers we have here on BF. Just sayin'
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my exact thoughts!!

Even then I expected something else then a kephy design... we're talking about a 3 year project...

hell we've had make your own designs in the past here on bf and some of the designs that came up were done over night and were banging..

Not dropping bombs on hedgehog, he makes really nice sheaths but this knife design doesn't impress me much and the price just doesn't seem right.
 
It would, indeed, appear to be a knife and, as such, capable of doing what dozens of other decent large knives can do.

What the "enigma" (mentioned in a caption) might be is unclear.

It lacks a curved edge for skinning, but you would be happy to have the animal to skin.

Good choice of steel for an impact tool.

The point on the handle seems more a hazard than a plus.

Nice exotic name should help sales.
 
Not a bad design, but it looks a lot like the Ontario RATs or the Ontario Rangers. I honestly quit watching when he said 154CM. Don't get me wrong, it's a great stainless and I love it on my folders. I just don't want it in a fixed blade. At a approx $200 price tag, I could easily get something in 3V (Koster) or for a few bucks more ($230-$250) I could get something similar sized in INFI.

What a letdown after the week's worth of "big news coming" emails.
 
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