Pros: Blade Material, Blade Sharpness, Handle Feel, Lock Ease of Use, Overall Quality
Cons: None
Shockingly good value
This is a bit longer of a review, if you want the summary, let me just say this: this thing is amazing. I'm actually baffled at how good it is for the price and how I don't hear more good things being said about it. Go out and buy one. Now for the review. Mine showed up sharp, with even edge bevels, nice even flat grind, and an action that fires the blade out fast. The detent holds the blade in securely. The blade is dead center between the handle scales. No surfaces on the handle (or non-edge part of the blade) feel rough, everything is nice and knocked down and smooth, even the plastic handle scale. On mine, the lockbar sits about 50% of the way up on the blade tang, so plenty of strength and life left. I have no concerns about safety at all. My sample has a normal (tiny) amount of blade play. I don't know if I got a lucky sample or if they're all like this, but literally everything on mine is good in terms of build quality. From a design perspective, the blade has a good looking stonewash finish on it. The blade stock is thin enough and flat ground, so it cuts with no trouble at all. The blade is not some overbuilt sharpened prybar, but it's not dainty either. The spear-point/drop-point profile is a good utility shape, easy to pierce into things but not fragile. For my average-size hand the handle fits perfectly, not too big not too small. Stainless steel is not my favorite handle material, but it's fine here, especially given the price. The plastic side of the handle feels about like you'd expect for the price, but it has a good golfball texture and is backed by stainless steel liners so it feels solid. I was more interested in sharpenabilty and toughness than edge retention or corrosion resistance, so I went with the SK5 carbon steel version over the D2 or AUS8 versions. So far the SK5 has been fine, no complaints. I'm sure the D2 and AUS8 versions are fine as well, but I don't have them so I can't compare. If I can say anything bad about the Avispa at all, it's that the action/detent got a bit tougher when I flipped the pocket clip from right side tip-down to right side tip-up. If you do this, the pocket clip will rest on the lock bar, making it a bit harder both to open the knife and to disengage the lock bar. Though having been using the knife for a bit, it feels like the clip is starting to ease up a bit, so I think this will resolve itself. You can also just rebend the clip yourself if this is an issue. Sorry for writing such a long review, I just want to say how pleasantly surprised I am at the quality and utility of this thing. The Avispa is an absolute steal at $35. I'd happily pay more. I don't understand how they're able to come in at that price for a quality Taiwan-made knife. I don't feel this way about most knives I own so I felt I had to write a review for this one. The build quality and utility of this thing is as good or better than American made knives I own that cost 4x as much. This is not the best knife I own, but it is *easily* the best knife I own *for the price*. I will probably buy a few more to stash away or give as gifts, they're that good.
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