Pros: Handle Material, Blade Material
Cons: Overall Quality, Sheath/Scabbard, Finish
Decent but imperfect
I've been EDCing this knife for 3 months now, in both the OE sheath and a boot sheath I made. I have put it to some reasonable cutting tasks, but now mostly carry it concealed as a backup weapon in my boot, which it does very comfortably due to its thin profile. The first thing to note, since most who buy this knife are historic collectors, is its historic inaccuracy. The originals had hollow ground blades,flat cross guards and thick leather glued to the bottom of the cross guards. These have flat ground blades, and curved cross guards with thin leather glued to them. There is also the matter of ricassos, because the originals had neatly curved thumb grooves machined out, and these have haphazardly flatly ground imitations of that. The original sheaths also did not have the mid mount belt slots, just the top loop. There are some quality control issues, albeit of much less concern since most won't use these for real world tasks. The blade finish is of low quality, and came off the top on me while eating canned fruit with it. The rivets used in the sheath are very cheap, and will come apart with much of any use. The very soft metal used to make the skull crusher was rusted under the (apparently) powder coat, and flaked off in many spots just from the most basic of carrying. One thing that has not let me down is the blade steel. It's a good spring steel that for its size and shape leaves little to be desired. Also, in spite of the historic inaccuracy and poor rivets, the sheath is quite nice and much more useful than I had thought, carrying nicely in spite of its long length, and being abnormally easy for a fixie to drive with since you can just pull it up out of the way. They are serviceable, and in handling one you have a much more real idea of the originals than merely looking at pictures. The are probably the best historic option on the market besides an actual case made replica for nearly 5 times more money, but if you wish to buy one to collect or use, be aware that its performance and historic detailing don't live up to the reviews.
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