Pros: Weight, Ease of Opening, Pocket Clip, Blade Material, Overall Quality
Cons: None
A real prize!
The basics. First off, you look at it, you pick it up, you flap it open for the first time and the only thought in your head is "good God, they over built the crude out of this thing!" This thing is huge! It is thick and it is solid; just the lockbar is thicker than some full folders that I have! It is very reassuring as well when it locks open, you hear and feel it catch. It is big, but the balance is quite good in the hand, and the Titanium makes it lighter than you would expect looking at it. The orange makes it very easy to spot, in strange contrast to the blackout blade(strange to me anyway.) Out of the box, it was sharp, but not overwhelmingly so. About 20 minutes on the crocksticks later, it was great. Not only did it take that long to get that final edge on it, but I really haven't had to do nearly any more work on it either! The D2 steel is so darn hard it's staggering, I have never had anything like it! Even after batonning some oak firewood, the edge showed no real change. The black shows a little "semi gloss" streaking from the abuse, but it hasn't worn through at all, even on the pivots. Initially, blade opening was a bit difficult,but after playing with the pivot and allowing it to break in a bit, the knife now opens like butter, and still has the big reassuring thunk when the lockbar pops into place. And once locked with the lockbar lock, there is no doubt that the entire knife will fail before that lock budges. The blade back opening notch works great, although it seems to work better opening the blade than it does bottles. A small nit, but hey, if you want to keep your caps in display condition, use a different opener. I really like the deep pocket carry clip, and wish more knives came with this style clip. It does a fairly decent job of disappearing in your pocket for such a big knife. It's not the greatest civilized EDC just because it"s large and draws attention whenever you whip it out. Best suited for rougher tasks than most envelopes at the cube farm. Unless you keep it stashed in your bag, in which case, it's awesome. The orange G10 scale does really draw attention when it's out. It also tends to show any dirt that might have gathered in the checking. However, it does offer a good grip even in the cold with gloves on. It's also quite easy to open and close with gloves. Although I never tried, I would be willing to bet that you could even operate it with mittens on. It just feels that secure. I'm not sure if I am sold on the serrations, although I don't tend to cut through a lot of fibrous materials. They worked great when I needed to cut through some rope however, so I really can't fault their function. They work fabulously, I just dont find myself needing them that often. Overall, I think this knife is an amazing piece of survival gear, and a great bit of EDC if you don't have to wear suit pants. They sag a bit with this clipped on. The blade is astoundingly durable, and takes a fantastically sharp edge (admittedly after a fantastically long time wearing away at that astoundingly tough steel.) It is large, but light for it's size, and the balance is great in hand. The G10 scale looks more utility than show, but for the intended purpose of the knife, I don't see how that's a problem. If I needed a knife that I would place my continued existence upon, this would absolutely make the short list. A very solid folder, surprisingly solid lock, fantastically durable steel, and a very useful size for a folder.
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