Victorinox Classic SD

08/24/2009 by ian mcgregor

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

Actually I'd like you to know how terrific I find the SAK mini champ, which is a comprehensive version based on the 57mm classic. All the tools are fine quality, well designed, easily resharpened and even though of small size, brilliantly functional, including the ball point pen ! (Let me clue you in , the cuticle pusher is actually a large screw spanner and an excellent ear wax remover, just do it gently, OK ?) Coupled on a similar length nite-eyes carabiner is a leatherman p4 plier, and with which I find I am capable to undertake most small tasks so well, using one or the other, ( or both ! ) that I now carry my L'man tti in my bag. The carabiner allows me to clip this array to the edge of any pocket, preventing loss, which is the main problem with such small tools.

Spyderco Military

08/23/2009 by Matt

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

The spyderco military is an AWESOME knife! Spyderco Makes a few versions of this knife, the most current being what I have, a G10 handle and CPM S30V steel.

This knife is the best knife I own. It is superbly light, so light in fact that I really don't even notice it in my pocket. The clip sits high enough for the knife to sit deep in your pocket out of view. The G10 has no steel liners, and a titanium liner lock.

The Millie is a slicer first and formost and what I would deem a tactical knife. The full flat grind and thin blade make quick work of anything. The blade is roughly 4 inches, and the S30V can get razor sharp. To give you an idea, when I pulled it out of the box, I could shave strips off a limp piece of paper with light and quick wrist flicks. It also makes quick work of vegitables and rope :-)

The blade shape is damn near perfect. The blade has a great belly, crisp but not too sharp jimping and a nice thumb rise to keep your hand from slipping. The Spyderhole makes opening this knife with one hand a breeze. Additionally, this is the smoothest knife I've felt. Ever.

Another thing I like about knife is the handle length to blade length ratio. The handle is much longer than the blade which allows my hand to get great purchase. This also means the end of the handle protrudes past my hand and could easily be used as an impact device to inflict non lethal force in a self defense situation(or to break glass in a lifesaving situation). The texture on the G10 is very grippy as well, and G10 is a superb material in that it is light and resistant to pretty much anything from chemicals to water to heat etc.

Now despite the fact that this is a great knife, I do have two complaints. First, when I first got mine, the blade wasn't perfectly centered when closed. I had to adjust it. Note that this is not a flaw in materials, just the initial setup of the knife. All knives need to be set up for the blade to center. To get it center, I had to loosen the pivot slightly with a hex key as well as the scale screws with a T6 torx bit and preload the G10 a smidge. No big deal, as a slightly offcenter blade doesn't affect the functionality of the knife, but I'm a perfectionist. My second complaint is that when adjusting it, the screws on the scales were a little soft and my T6 Torx munched one of the heads. For these two reasons, I had to ding the build quality slightly, albeit these are minor qualms.

I should note that spyderco offered immediately to fix each of these things for me but I just did it myself. Spyderco customer service is top notch.

Lastly, as with all knives, there are tradeoffs in terms of knife abilities and traits. This knife is designed to slice and pierce, not to baton through wood. The tip is a touch delicate, but blindingly sharp. If you use this knife you baton through wood or other extremely heavy tasks, you will hurt the tip pretty quick.

That being said, for anybody looking for a great knife I'd recommend wholeheartedly the spyderco military. This knife is robust, will outlast you, and will not fail you. Great knife end of story!

Cold Steel Spartan

08/22/2009 by mussolini

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

nice!

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Cold Steel Pocket Bushman

08/19/2009 by Jonathan

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

Good Price. you pay for what you get. The locking mechanism is horrible. impossible to open with one hand. It's just too stiff. I've tried loosening the pivot screw and lubing it up. I even took it apart and cleaned it. Still really hard. It's also really difficult to close. You have to pull the lanyard down(towards the end) and then close the knife, so you need a lot of force. The knife came razor sharp, but the steel was so bad that it got dull after I cut a few pieces of paper. It seems sturdy. It's a cheap knife. For about 30 dollars more, i'd get a Benchmade Griptillian.

Spyderco Bug

08/16/2009 by Spyderman

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

For what this knife is, a small keychain knife, it is great. I'm most impressed by the construction. The thing snaps open, and snaps shut. I haven't really cut much with the bug yet, as I just keep it on my keychain incase of emergency.

I haven't hard to sharpen it either, but from what I've heard, it's an easy sharpening blade.

Overall it's a cool little knife. I wouldn't make it my primary knife, but I'll keep it on me just incase.

Spyderco Para Military

08/16/2009 by M

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

The Spyderco Paramilitary is amazingly smooth. It is also incredibly light. Those are the first two things I noticed taking it out of the box.

This knife does not have steel liners in the handle, which is G10. Very nicely textured G10 at that. The knife handle is very long compared to the blade. It allows for a great grip. The bottom could also be used as an impact device in a self defense situation where non lethal force was desired. The blade has good jimping and a nice rise so your hand won't slide forward should you need to use in a stabbing motion for any reason.

The blade is S30V, which is a premium steel in my book. The blade is full flat ground with a very nice, sharp tip. The tip is a touch delicate so I wouldn't go batoning through any wood with this thing. However, the slicing capabilities of this knife are unmatched. I have some other spyderco FFG(full flat grind) blades such as the Tenacious and nothing compares to this knife.

When sitting in the pocket, it is pretty much weightless. I'm also a big fan of the compression lock. This knife would make a great knife for every day carry. The knife is expensive, a little over 100 bucks plus shipping, but I've still given it a value of 10 because you get a lot more than 100 bucks worth of knife.

This knife also comes in a variety of colors, my favorite being the digicamo. The digicam g10 scales are slightly translucent and just look downright stunning.

The spyderco paramilitary is a tactical blade that can be used for every day carry. Given the choice, this is the knife I reach for every time...that is until I get my Spyderco Military!

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Spyderco Military

08/14/2009 by Markous

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 6 months

Comments:

My S90V Carbon Fiber Milie has been riding in my coveralls since January.

The S90V is a tough customer i've chipped the edge a couple of times, but through sharpening and stropping i have put a awesome convex edge on it and not more chipping! Holds an edge very well and gets kept near shaving sharp

My only real complaint is the scale opposite to the lock side, the way it is shaped my index finger sits on the edge of the liner lock and that edge is finely serrated(? i think that's what it's called)

I also removed the back spacer to make the back look more open. Removing it has caused no ill effects to the integrity of the design.

Overall great damn knife Spyderco!

Benchmade 950 Rift

08/13/2009 by Aaron

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

This knife has proved to be a great knife. The knife is thin and light(relatively), but extremely solid. The blade shape is great IMO. It is more utility oriented and is one hell of a slicer since it is a fairly thing blade with a near full flat grind.

The price is a little iffy for me. I think it is a big step forward compared to a griptilian, but the price is double that of a griptilian. Then again, after the griptilian in price, I think this is the best setup benchmade has in terms of price and the blade shape. The persidio and similar lines have somewhat awkward blades for the handles they are attched to. Might just be me. The rift is a great knife if you do have the money and interest in it.

Benchmade 10751 VEX Tanto

08/12/2009 by Don S.

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

I recently purchased this stainless Steel Tanto blade as a present for my wife. She loves it and uses it everyday on the job. It has a great grip made of g10,(glass cloth / epoxy resin) that's heat and chemical resistant with a nice scale texture to it.(nice finger grooves) The blade is all business, being just long enough to have the tanto tip, bottom cutting edge, seraded teeth, and thumb studs on both sides. An all around handy knife to keep at your side. Here's the specs I researched from Benchmade.

BLADE STEEL 8Cr14 (56-58HRC)
HANDLE SPECS Black G10 Handle Scales; BP Coated 420J Stainless Steel Liners;
Ergonomic Finger Grooved Reversible Steel Carry-Clip

BLADE LENGTH 3.29" (8.37cm)
BLADE THICKNESS 0.108" (2.74mm)
OPEN 7.72" (19.61cm)
CLOSED 4.43" (11.25cm)
WEIGHT 4.70oz (133.24g)
HANDLE THICKNESS 0.51" (13.08mm)

Benchmade 950 Rift

08/11/2009 by Kyle

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

By far my favorite Benchmade, Offers A unique design but with practical materials and ergonomics. Axis lock provides strong lockup with ease of use in both opening and closing the knife, perfect retention once broken in.

The Milled G10 Handles work as good as they look, offering great grip without tearing up your pocket, the blade shape is strong, yet thin enough to cut well, the 154cm steel offers good edge retention while being easy to sharpen well. Practical blade shape cuts well and is easy to work with.

The Coated versions of these knives need break in, they will be rough opening from the factory, however the 950 is the smoothest knife I own.

Wish I had two.

Benchmade 525 Mini Presidio

08/10/2009 by Trey

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Other
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

I have a gold class mini-presidio, but it should function the same as any other mini just with better materials. It's my first axis lock knife and I'm now a big fan of Benchmade's go-to lock mechanism. The gold class is beautiful, with a carbon fiber handle and damascus blade. I'm not actually going to cut anything with it of course but if I had a standard mini presidio I would definitely carry it. The only reason I gave it a 5 for value is the gold class is 3 times the price of my military and it's not 3 times the knife. It's still very nice though. I expect I'll be adding more benchmades to my collection after handling my mini presidio.

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Kershaw Blur

08/10/2009 by Trey

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

I've had a red/black blur for 2 years now and use it for stuff I wouldn't use my more expensive knives for such as cutting cardboard. It opens quickly and easily (it's assisted opening) and after 1000's of times it still springs open pretty hard. I like the blade shape and the knife cuts well. It's not currently an EDC for me, but I carried it for awhile. Can't beat it for the money.