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Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Handle Material, Blade Material, Overall Quality
Cons: None
First Artisan Cutlery Experience
I just received my Artisan Archaeo in the mail. The box contained the knife inside of a nice drawstring pouch. The knife looks good with the black and white scales. It's not a bright white but almost grey. The scales look smooth in the picture but they do have some texture. The knife although slim; does really fill your hand and the blade is large with that great wharncliff shape. I love the tips of that shape for detail work. Great for boxes.It has large jimping on the blade but also 2 small rows of jimping on the scales right where the pivot and blade meet.The negatives: it wasn't very sharp out of the box. I stropped It like I normally do. It ended up not quite as sharp as a Civivi or aCJRB do right out of the box. When I'm done stropping those they're like razors.The blade has weird stain on it at the base of the blade. I tried cleaning with alcohol but no luck. Maybe I can find something else to take it off. The blade is not perfectly centered like I'm used to With my Civivis. I never realized that I didn't like markings on my blades( serial numbers,designer name,logos,etc.) Unti I started buying Civivis. They have nothing on the blade or the scales except for a small tasteful "C" on the pivot. If you didn't know what it was you would never figure it out. This one has all that on it but at least it's not too garish. The finger choil is just about useless. Having said all that I still like this knife. You could save 20 dollars and get many different models of Civivi ( can you tell I love Civivis)and get a better knife. Higher quality,sharper blade.and better action. The $33 CJRB Taiga is probably as good or better in some aspects. If you're not sure get a Civivi you definitely won't be disappointed.If I didn't already have 18 of them I would get another one.If you think you would like this one; get it it's a good knife and I'm sure you will enjoy it because I do like it.I don't regret getting it .My problem is that I compare everything to Civivi and the majority fall short including ones that cost well over a $100. I want to thank the people at Knife Center for their great service and good prices. They're good people to deal with.