Pros: Weight, Overall Quality, Blade Material, Blade Sharpness
Cons: Handle Material, Materials, Finish
Would be great if you could grasp the handle
First the good. Materials and workmanship are excellent. Blade finish, graphics, and edge are great. Full-tang handle fit and finish are also excellent. Size, weight, and balance are impressive. The scales are textured. Minor objections: Sheath has a velcro strap that doesn't immobilize the knife but will keep it from falling out. The chisel-y tool thing that comes with it is useless for me. It's too short to hold with a closed-fist grip, and the holes are too small to put your fingers through. It's too small to hold like a knife. Discard. The Power Eagle's handle is the major disappointment. It is so bad, it's a showstopper. It has two elastic cords running through lanyard holes in the scales. These cords are not only useless, they get in the way and are a constant annoyance. I like the idea of tucking the back of the hand under a lanyard to fasten the hand to the knife. But these taut, skinny cords pinch the back of your hand, and leave a purple line on your skin. That hurts. So maybe the idea is to wrap your palm over the cords on one side, and tuck your fingernails under the cords on the other. Really? No, really that does not give you a secure grip. You spend your time wondering when the cords are going to roll off your fingernails, and it's as distracting as having one untied shoe in a sporting event. But if you don't put the cords over your fingernails, they roll around under your fingertips, preventing a proper grip. I just cut these cords off and threw them away. Then I noticed that the two Torx screws are proud of the handle scales--the rounded tops of the screws stick out above the scales. So you lose either way with this foolish handle. Either the cord cuts off your circulation, or it prevents a sure grip, or you discard the cords and then deal with the knobby screws sticking out. Tops seems to have a good reputation, so I thought this unusual lanyard grip system might be good. It is only unusually bad. It's hard to believe they'd put such a lousy feature on such an expensive knife. I'm going to wrap the entire handle in hockey-stick grip tape. Maybe that will make the knife usable. In my opinion, the knife is useless as it comes out of the box.
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