Love this knife! Arrived very sharp with a mirror-edge. Used it tonight in the kitchen cutting-up meats and vegetables, including a large sweet potato - and due to the nice curved blade it kept my knuckles off the cutting board. I can't decide if this is a Nesmuk style blade or more of a Canadian Belt Knife configuration? I like both so either way it's perfect for processing food in the kitchen and would also make a great outdoors, fishing, camping, small-game knife. The rounded micarta handle feels great in the hand dry or wet. The sheath is good and could be configured many ways for carry. The DC53 blade steel has a wicked-sharp edge! A great all-around knife! Read more
This is well worth the $31 I paid for it. The handle is beautiful and though the fit of the handles isn't smooth with the tang, it isn't uncomfortable and the knife is smooth to hold. The blade is "hair cutting" sharp and the sheath all you would expect it to be. No surprises here! It's what it claims. As to the steel itself I can't yet comment though I have no reason to doubt all I've read about it is true. Read more
Some of these Chinese knife companies are making it very difficult to buy American. I'm very impressed with this knife for the price. It came with good edge geometry, it's fairly thin behind the edge. The edge itself came insanely sharp, easily one of the sharpest factory edges I've ever recieved. I haven't used it enough yet to evaluate the heat treat, but I haven't seen any signs it isn't as good as the rest of the knife. The edge it came with suggests the steel is heat treated well as it takes a pretty fine grain structure to achieve this level of sharpness. From what I can gather, DC53 is similar to a D2 type steel (an ingot tool steel) but apparently with better toughness and apex stability. It's ground well with smooth bevels and even plunge grinds. Has a little sharpening notch to help out on the stones. Has a nice stone-washed finish. Blade is a nice shape reminiscent of a Canadian Belt knife or a Nessmuk type knife. Handle is comfortable and shaped well. The tang sits a little proud, but it's finished well so it doesn't irritate your hands. The hardware is recessed into the handle and doesn't sit proud. Scales are true micarta. The sheath seems to be of good quality with secure but not overly tight retention. I'm very impressed and honestly I haven't found anything to complain about, especially for the price. It will make a great little EDC for a country boy like me. These types of blades are good for general use and excellent for skinning and butchering game. I might grab another just because. I would highly recommend, especially for hunting Read more
What I like. This knife fits well in my hand. This is one of the sharpest knives I have received in a long time. the sheath retains the knife well and is easy to use your thumb to push it back out, the sheath edges have been burnished. The handle is finished well. The knife has a sharpening choil and a good finger grip. I no longer buy fixed blade knives that do not have a good finger grip or blade guard, I do not have enough strength in my hands to always keep my index finger from slipping up to the blade during certain cutting tasks. The top of the spine has two sets of jimping. The spine is rounded. It has a lanyard hole. What I would like to see improved. The blade thickness is a little too thin for the length. I would prefer the blade length to be about .75" to 1" shorter. The handle would better fit my hand if it was about .4" shorter, This would make for a more compact knife. The jimping on the spine is a little small, but for the blade thickness I guess it is ok. The spine is also rounded, which is ok for a "Tactical knife" as this is described, but if you wanted to strike a feral rod you would have to use the sharpened blade. The lanyard hole is not reinforced, or rounded on the surface, this could over time lead to cutting your lanyard or rounding out the hole. While I have not used the knife for heavy tasks yet and short of some sort of unseen defect, this knife is worth the approximate $35 I paid for it. However, I am not sure that it qualifies as a tactical knife, the blade profile is not pointy enough and it is not thick enough. It does not qualify as a camp knife because it has a rounded spine and is not stout enough to baton wood. I would not consider it as an edc because it is too long at least for discrete carry. The best use I can see is as a Skinner / cook knife, if the jimping was better and it was a little shorter it would be ideal for skinning larger animals. Would I buy it again if I somehow lost this knife? The answer is yes. Read more
For the price of this one, it does not disappoint. The blade was very well finished with symmetrical lines-I've paid much more money for much less fit, finish, and overall quality. It came with a hair popping edge right out of the box. The edge geometry was quite acceptable and within the current industry norm. I cut up some pine board and 2x4s, I'm not the person to obsess over edge retention, but at first blush this one seems well above average The sheath fits well, with no excessive rattles or issues. I like that they used a full sized clip on the sheath rather than one of the more slender ones that just doesn't seem as secure, comfortable, or versatile. I also liked the micarta handles. What I didn't like....The fastening screws in the handle were a bit proud. Even when I secured them, they still stuck out a bit. No big deal to drill the handle a little deeper, but...it's an annoyance. The handle size remains to be determined. It's either a little small for my XL hands, or it's barely workable for me. And finally, the scales are a little small to the tang. None of these issues is a big deal for me, and not at all unreasonable for a $30ish knife, but I know several folks that could be driven a minute from madness while obsessing over such details. For the price, this knife is a surefire bargain, in my humble experience Read more
