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Pros: Blade Sharpness, Finish
Cons: Sheath/Scabbard
Very nice knife, but.......
Just got this knife so I haven't had a chance to use it much yet, but I thought a quick overview might be helpful to some folks. The overall quality seems quite good. The knife came very sharp, a little time on the stones made it even better. The edge was very evenly ground and nicely finished. The handle is very comfortable and has enough room for folks with large hands or when wearing gloves, and the fit of the scales is also very good - not perfect perhaps, but definitely hits well above its' price class and shouldn't cause any hot spots or discomfort. A very slightly more aggressive texture might be nice, but I experienced no slippage even with wet hands. The tang end under the scales is "cut away" at the end with a pin retained by the two scales as a lanyard point. Works fine but means the butt is not useable for heavy striking or hammering if that is important to you. BUT ---- the sheath is abysmal. Firstly the "stylish" holes on the exterior are likely to admit dirt and allow water in ( although there is a drain hole ). The big problem is retention, as in WAY too much ! Even with two hands the knife is extraordinarily difficult to extract - impossible to do one handed and nearly so even with two. The retention is via a tab on the sheath on the edge side, which means it is not accessible with the thumb and cannot be actuated with the index finger, even if you really wanted to be adventurous and use your index finger. I'm debating smoothing or trimming the tab, which might help. The correct solution is a custom sheath, which now makes an excellent knife for the price into a so-so bargain. Hopefully this problem is an aberration with my sheath, although I doubt that. In short a very nice knife that will probbably get littl to no use due to the sheath.