Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a bit a bit of a knife snob. A good knife, I assumed, started somewhere north of $100. But having seen these knives on Amazon on quite a few occasions got my curiosity up. I have always believed that a strong fixed blade knife design is my first choice for nearly all purposes, and with the rave reviews posted, decided to give this knife a full hunting season of use. As of yesterday, my hunting season ended with a young cow elk which was quartered for packing out. This brought the total of work for this knife, this season, to: 3 bull elk, 7 cow elk, 4 buck mule deer, 150+ pheasants, 23 chukar, and a lost count of waterfowl. Oh, and fish galore. Yes, I am actively involved in the outdoors and hunting, and the assisting of others in the same pursuits. I think that I can say that I put this knife through more use to this point in time than most will ever see. This knife is just flat incredible. Anytime you are cleaning and processing game, your knife is going to become wet and/or bloody in some way. The ergonomics of a knife will either shine positively, or fail miserably. In all conditions, this has been the most comfortable knife that I have used. Ever. Never was an unsure grip a problem. The rubber/plastic grip material always retained a grippy feel to it, offering great purchase, even in cold freezing conditions. The blade itself is maybe the most amazing part of this knife. It is made of a 1095 steel, suitably hardened to a level that I am not aware of, that holds an edge, in my experience, fantastically well. Knowing that this was a carbon steel blade, and would therefore rust if not cared for, I was curious to see the appearance of the blade after some use. Arriving with a signal mirror finish, after several head of game use, the blade showed no signs of rusting, but did show some staining from blood being left on the blade intentionally to see the results. Afterward the blade was buffed with steel wool, and given the boiling vinegar treatment to force a patina to the metal, resulting in a blade that hasn't stained since with the same treatment, and has not ever rusted. Upon arrival, the blade was nice and sharp, almost shaving so. I then stropped the blade with green compound which brought it up to shaving quality (arm hair). The knife was used on two successive elk, and one deer, before any re-sharpening was done. This involved gutting, quartering, and boning out meat from these animals. I would normally strop a blade between animals to retain a shaving edge, but went three to determine at what point the edge became dull enough to make work difficult. It didn't. While it did lose it's shaving quality edge, the edge never dulled to a degree to render it unusable, or dangerous. Sharpening this blade has never required more than stropping with grey and green compounds from Bark River knives. Again, this blade has never once seen a stone or other sharpening device other than a stropping board, with the above mentioned compounds. That, ladies and gentlemen, denotes a blade steel of outstanding quality! This knife has far outperformed almost every knife that I own. I don't own a knife with a more comfortable grip for all-conditions use. I certainly own more expensive knives made with blade steels that perform no better, and worse, than this blade. At the absurdly inexpensive price point of this knife, I have not come across a better value, and am happy to make it known to friends, clients, and all others, that they really should own this knife! If you are a user of knives, you really have no good excuse not to.