Uzi Defender Fixed Blade

C

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Sep 5, 2005
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Some time ago I saw one of these on sale and I missed the chance to grab one. Retail price was $150 or so and it was made by United Cutlery, but was made with 154CM blade steel. It was an attractive knife, but United doesn't have a great name. Still, I wanted to find out if anyone had one and what they thought of it. The only place that still advertises it for a great price is Adam's Cutlery, but their site's prices seem a bit too good to be true and I don't get a good feeling from it. I also tried calling the listed number and the guy who answered said it was the wrong number.

If I can find one of these knives, what's the story? How good or bad can I expect it to be? The blade steel seems to be good, but can I trust the heat treat? I know Uzi just throws their name on the knife and that it's no indicator of how good or bad it might be.

Does anyone have this knife? If so, how do you like it?

UziDefenderKnife.jpg
 
Well, it seems I lucked out. I can't find any knives on sale and, after reading about them, I'm glad I didn't. I thought they'd be a good heavy duty field knife, but apparently it's not. The best deal I ever for a big pry bar type knife that could hold a decent edge was the S&W Homeland Security Tanto, which I found at Smoky Mountain for $29. The blade was thick, heavy, well machined and had nice G10 handles. The knife now goes for $39 at Smoky Mountain, so I'm glad I got the knife at a good price. (I'd like to see someone tear it apart on video!)

There was a Frost look-alike knife I bought for $13 at Smoky Mountain, too, and I bought one just for the fun of it. It was not well machined and ground at all, plus it had plastic grips. It also had a cheap, crappy sheath that came with it. On the plus side, it wouldn't be completely useless if it was the only thing one had out in the middle of nowhere. It was thick enough to still be a good prybar and sharp enough that it could cut most of what one would need to cut. It also was cheap enough for my wife to use in the garden weeding and chopping back light vegetation. The S&W knife was made of 440C stainless, while the Frost was made from 420. Both knives can be sharpened to very sharp, but of course the Frost doesn't maintain its edge as well as the Smith. Still, it held a good utility edge for longer than I thought.

I suppose the best fixed knife I have is the Alaskan Buck Vanguard, but it's not very heavy duty. I've also looked at the Magnum Great West Bowie, which comes with a 440C blade. The question is, as with S&W, how good is the 440C in the Magnum series?

MAG15.jpg


This Magnum Bowie seems to be of good design, but how good
would the 440C be in a line of knives known for being inexpensive?
 
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