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Pros: Blade Material, Blade Sharpness, Finish, Handle Material, Materials, Overall Quality, Weight
Cons: Sheath/Scabbard
Best knife I own
Of aalllllllllllllllll the knives I own and have owned this is hands down my favorite knife of all time. I did have a kydex sheath made for it as I felt the leather sheath is just too bulky. On the bright side the leather is very nice as is the stiching. I could see myself using the leather sheath at a barbecue but that's about it. Personally, with the number of people I know that end up having a kydex sheath made I think they should start selling knives as "standard" with just a cheap plastic or cardboard blade guard for shipping and "deluxe" that comes with a sheath. This leather sheath can't be cheap for how nice it looks and I knew I wasn't going to use it before it even got here I already had a custom sheath on order. Anyway, about the knife itself. Handles: beautiful. The walnut is the best looking of the bunch. I was worried they would be too slick but there's this interesting texture that has never slipped on me (i don't hunt so no clue how it would fair with blood but i have used it in the rain with no issue.) Blade: razor sharp and i use it daily and have only had to sharpen it like once a month (daily for my leatherman charge tti s30v blade) The blade is very tough yet elegant and is such a slicer. One day i broke down about fifty boxes (not just cutting tape actually chopping it all up so it would all fit in the trash can) so maybe a hundred slices through cardboard, then helped my daughter with a craft project and the blade just glided through foam rubber with no tugging at all. Fasteners: I wear knives all the time and the first thing to show rust is always the fasteners even when they're stainless steel. Honestly, the only way you could even tell the knife has been used is once when I was kind of worn out after a long day I got real lazy sharpening it and got some scratches on the blade near the edge. One word of caution I would offer for anyone into outdoorsy tasks. Based on what I've seen not just with the lionsteel m4 but with pretty much all italian made knives, they're not really built for torture tests. They're purpose built. So like in america our standard deem that a knife should bend i think its 30 degrees without breaking. Whether its fox, lionsteel, extrema ratio, bastinelli they'll all break if you try that. I've seen videos of all of these brands handling batoning just fine but if for some reason you want to use it as a throwing knife or stab it in a tree and use the blade as a step or any other weirdness, expect to be disappointed. If you're like me and only do knife things with knives and you have separate throwing knives for throwing and you bring a light axe with your knife when camping this knife will likely last you a lifetime. My daughter (11) said "Dad, when youre old can I have that knife?" I said only after i'm good and super old but yes. Maybe I'll get her one of her own when she's old enough, we'll see. Love lionsteel, also have the h2 with micarta as a defensive blade opposite my carry. Also a masterpiece.
