The Relentless knives are made for a specific purpose. They perform very well for their intended use. Most seem to be concerned about their performance as a bushcraft, or daily use tool. Wrong and wrong. Many of the blades boast a .25 spine, full tang, and abrupt edges. Slicing? Nope. Food prep? Nope. Quartering prey? Nope. Carving out a chess piece on a quiet afternoon? Nope.
As a very satisfied customer, that pestered Daniel Cierto with questions for months before I placed an order, it is tough to hear these knives described as over priced and superficial. We are not talking about a Glock 17 here, we're talking about a 12 gauge.
I worked out a deal with Daniel for two, almost identical, knives. The model was the M2 Talon. It is a pleasure to be able to deal directly with the man making your knives. He put a lot of thought into my needs, and his recommendations lead me to a selection that fit those needs perfectly, and happened to be one of his lower priced models. (There are a lot more, lower priced knives on the site now)
I decided on a standard Talon in S30V as a brutal, last resort self defense tool that I keep next to my bed. I traced my hand, and sent a scan with measurements to Daniel when I placed my order. The resulting knife, and blocky handle, fit my hand so well that it is hard to describe. He had a lanyard attached that was tied to an exact length that allowed me to secure a vise-like grip on this uncompromising chunk of steel. In the dark, in a panic, a grip like that can mean the world. I don't care if I was working on a butter sculpture before I grabbed the knife, I am not going to loose my grip. And that heavy chunk of metal is not going to be easy to stop once I decide to make a move. That is it's only use, and I guarantee it will be very effective. It is a thrust weapon. Plain and simple.
The other knife was made in 5160 without a handle. Just extra cord wrapped around and an extra hole drilled at the base of the blade for tying options. The handle of this knife was taller to compensate for no micarta and also fits my hand perfectly. The purpose of this knife is a backcountry trekking companion. I do not believe that one knife can be well designed for multiple uses, and I get annoyed by designers who say they can pull it off. My Talon is used for camp prep, or as a possible escape tool if some climbing or prying was ever necessary. In a pinch, it could be used as a spearhead. In general, I use the knife for the kinds of jobs you would hate to use a knife for. Digging trenches, chopping smaller branches for firewood, splitting larger ones with a rock. I have also hammered it into a tree and used it as a foothold so I could retrieve a stubborn bear-bag.
With a blade width of 2", a .25" spine and a relatively short 7" overall length, this chunk of tool steel is a very trustworthy companion that gets used without mercy. I have a high-quality, ultra-lightweight folder that performs all other knife tasks. It would be annoying to use the Talon for those tasks, it would be impossible to use the other knife to do the Talon's job.
Sorry for the long post. I feel like I know Mr. Cierto, and take harsh criticism of his work personally. Poor guy had to send me about 12 emails, some quite long, before I was ready to place an order. It was obvious from the context that he was just happy to talk about his craft, and would have wished me well if I had decided to not order.
In today's mass-produced world, I don't mind paying a little extra for original designs and a created-to-order product. I actually took some pride in doing so.
Feel free to list some alternative solutions to my two specific needs. I truly believe that the Relentless blades do their jobs very well.
Note: before the Talon, I used an Ontario SP8 Machete as my hard-use backcountry tool. It worked very well, especially since it's length allowed me to sharpen the blade differently at its base and near the end for different jobs. Just too bulky and heavy.
