Pros: Weight, Overall Quality, Blade Material, Materials
Cons: Sheath/Scabbard
Practical Knife, Impractical Sheath
This is a great, if simple knife. I'm usually all about carbon steel in knives, but where I see this as a "You're left to survive and this is your only bladed tool" I chose the 420 HC version. 420 HC gets a bad rap, but it's simple, low maintenance steel that is functional, dependable and easy to work. It prepares food well, chops decently, and I had no problem making curls and fuzz sticks to start a fire. This is certainly not a top-of-the-line fighter, survival knife, bushcrafter, or game processor, but it's greatness is in its ability to be a practical, dependable, easy to use all-arounder. If there is a weakness, it's that beautiful but almost useless sheath. A sheath without a solid, DEPENDABLE attachment point is as useless as a promise from a lawyer or a politician. If you're living primitively, you've got to depend on your knife staying with you, and a "Slide it in and the tab holds it in place" barely qualifies as a silly joke, and in NO WAY qualifies as attachment. It's beautiful and well made, but it must have an attachment. Fortunately I work in leather a lot, and attaching a dangler loop wasn't hard.