Benchmade 556 Mini Griptilian

06/19/2016 by Jonathan

-Price Paid: $65.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

This is pretty much the perfect knife. It is very light weight and the axis lock is extremely strong. I have spent a lot of time and money looking for the perfect EDC and I always come back to this one. Also so Benchmade has the best CS in the industry in my opinion.

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Chris Reeve Green Beret 5.5in

06/18/2016 by Mike

-Price Paid: $275.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 6 months

Comments:

I love this knife ! its real calling is outdoor survival type work camping , hunting- don't let the battle look fool you its great outdoor knife. I would recommend the 5.5"over the 7" unless your in a military battle situation ! Expensive knife but worth every penny ! Just don't go out an try to chop a tree down with it, theres axes and saws for that kind of work ! branches are fine, cutting para cord, small wood work , food..exc.

Kershaw Roughneck

06/09/2016 by Greg Fagg

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

I have had my knife for 22 years now, it has had limited use over this time, however i opted to break it out of storage and use it to its potential. It has been well maintained with minimal wear and no exposure to adverse conditions or stress. Whilst dispatching an animal in the weekend past, the knife blade snapped in two. The knife was inserted into flesh and made no contact with bone ... disappointing and bad timing.

Spyderco Manix 2 Lightweight

06/07/2016 by Peter

-Price Paid: $110.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

I have the CPM S110V version. I use it every day for eating, food preparation, fileting, cardboard cutting, cutting vegetables, etc. I can't feel when i am using: light and comfortable. CPM S110V edge retention is extremly long, but take care the brittles. Not for hard plastic, hard wood, cutting bones, etc.
I think the CTS BD1 version is tougher.
Tha lock mechanism is stable, no blade play.
The FRCP handle is stiff, only a little flex, if I hold hard (other spyderco frn handle is more flexible). Like a work knife, the a build quality not high end (mechanism, edge etc. ok, but not fine work). Made in USA, but nowdays spyderco top quality came from the Taiwan factory.
Light, soft material cutter workhorse.

Zero Tolerance 0200

05/24/2016 by Frank

-Price Paid: $130.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

Cons: Too heavy for easy EDC. Grip chews up pockets. WAAAAY more knife than I ever need.

Pros: Beautifully made. Excellent materials. Solid overbuilt construction. Locks up like a bank vault. Shaving sharp out of the box. Action puts a big stupid grin on my face every time.

Overall: I don't care if it's overbuilt, heavy, scary-looking or overkill. It's my favorite knife ever.

TOPS Knives Legion 6.0

05/19/2016 by Aaron

-Price Paid: $136.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

This knife is design as a true combat/utility knife. It is very light in the hand, huge clip point for stabbing. The thin blade make for a knife designed to pierce. The kydex sheath is well done. It is a very well thought out design.

ESEE RB3 Camp Lore

05/19/2016 by Aaron

-Price Paid: $105.00
-Used for Outdoor/Survival
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

I am so glad ESEE Knives is starting their Camp-Lore Line of Knives, the non-coated more ergonomic designs are a joy to use. That is also true of the RB3. It is a knife of many firsts for ESEE. Their first scandi grind, and the first knife that has mind blowing egos! Now there is one thing though, the 3.5" blade length limits its capability in some ways. A 4.5" version would be great.

Kershaw Freefall

05/17/2016 by Bigman

-Price Paid: $18.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 6 months

Comments:

I've owned this Kershaw for about 6 months now. It has worked perfectly the whole time I've had it in my EDC rotation.The ergonomics are spot on and fit my hand very well indeed. The fit and finish are as good as any factory knife I've ever owned smooth all over and not a rough edge to be found on it anywhere.The gimping on the top of the blade is right where it should be and very effective holding your thumb exactly where it should stay. It uses a mid-grade steel pretty much equal to AUS8 and as such will take a wicked edge mirror polished and stropped to 160k. Plus holds the edge a respectable amount of time and is easily touched up as needed. The handle scales are akin to zytel and should stand up to daily use nicely and have done just that. It comes with tip up deep carry pocket that works very good. The flipper springs the blade out very quickly with a very positive lock up with no movement at all when locked.

Kershaw gives you great value and a well made knife for the money. It both equals and exceeds a lot of their competitors with their Chinese line of knives that cost more.

I would recommend it as a solid knife it to anyone on a budget looking for the most bang for the buck . Plus people like me who collect all sorts of different well made knives.

Kershaw Asset

05/10/2016 by Rick Hutchins

-Price Paid: $20.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

I bought this Kershaw knife to replace a Kershaw O SO Sweet that I had and lost. I bought it at Academy Sports on sale. At first I didn't like the appearance of the knife but the price was too good to pass up. After some use I really got to liking my new Kershaw knife. The blade is good and sharp right out of the box and holds an edge surprisingly well. The overall grip is quite comfortable to hold. After about a year the blade would no longer open unassisted. I took the knife apart and found the tortion bar had worn down and no longer engaged properly, it infact rattled in the handle with the blade open. I contacted Kershaw via the email link on their website explaining the issue and requesting a replacement tortion bar and handle screws. They never contacted me back, I tried on two more occasions to get them to respond to no avail. Though I like the knife and appreciate the fact that Kershaw still manufactures here in the United States I will need to replace the knife and probably won't consider Kershaw simply because of the discourtesy of not responding to my repeated attempts.

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SOG Trident

05/05/2016 by John Pound

-Price Paid: $85.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

Have carried my SOG trident since 2006, and it was used for everything. From being a screwdriver to field dressing deer, squirrel, and rabbit. Unfortunately I lost mine 2 weeks ago. But have had a new one for the past week. Excellent knife.

Buck Mini Spitfire

05/01/2016 by Michael Hanson

-Price Paid: $32.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

This review is actually detailing the Buck Spitfire. There was only the option for Mini-Spitfire available. That said, I doubt there's much difference in actual design of the knife between the different sizes.

The Buck Spitfire is, without a doubt, the worst built and designed knife that I own still. And it all comes about from lazy and uncaring engineering and build. I would not be surprised if this knife was compromised by upper management or accountants to eek out as much money as possible from a USA produced knife.

Let's get the blade out of the way. In my opinion, it's the only decent thing on the knife. 420HC steel isn't exactly stellar, but Buck does a wonderful job with their grinding and heat treatment (if you're wondering, no, this does not have the iconic BOS heat treatment like many of the Buck Vantages, ect.). It arrived sharp, was ridiculously easy to sharp and sharpened quickly. It's probably the only thing that Buck got right on the entire knife, which is not surprising because this is what Buck excels at.

That said... My god, this knife's internal design is a train wreck. How? What if I told you this knife was washerless? No. I'm not kidding. There's no bearings. No phos-bronze. Not even nylon. Nothing. Having taken my apart (MORE ON THAT LATER), I found out that the inside-facing sides of each scale are milled out. Inside of them go steel inserts that "ride" in the channel that's milled out. I say "ride" because they move. They have to, the tolerances would have to be INSANELY tight for them not to. So... Buck basically designed a knife that has blade play as a feature, intended or not. Gee. Thanks. And, yes, you will have blade play. I have the pivot on my Spitfire tightened to the point where I can barely open it and you still get up and down play (the worst of all).

Adding to this, the lockback back spring is pathetically weak and doesn't securely hold the blade locked. This is the only lockback I've ever had where I can push the knife blade "up" a couple of millimeters past where it would be allowed to travel if it had a stop pin (a'la Tri-Ad lock). I've used $5 Chinese lockbacks that were more secure and safer than this. I would not trust this knife for serious tasks at all. I won't say it's unsafe, but I would not trust it personally. Your mileage may very. Do what you want, but know the situation before hand.

(By the way, the lockback bar is also the thinnest - in thickness of metal stock - that I've ever seen on a lockback knife this small. Not only are you trusting a terribly weak spring to keep your fingers safe, but also the world's puniest locking bar.)

I would urge you, PLEASE, do not buy this knife. Look at Buck's Vantage line. It's only a few bucks more than the Spitfire, but you're getting a much better knife. I own a Vantage Pro. It's probably one of the best S30V knives for the money that you can get, and it's only around $60. The 420HC Vantages are around ~$40 or so. Probably less if you shop around. Get that instead. Please. Save yourself some frustration and vote with your wallet.

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Cold Steel Finn Wolf Folder

04/22/2016 by David

-Price Paid: $35.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 6 months

Comments:

This knife is really lightweight....live the scandi grind blade....ergonomics is beautiful(all cold steel knives have good ergonomics)....handle is way toooooo plastic(only thing i hate in this knife...thats not even close to g 10..but fot the price you get good quality knife with the strongest triad lock....for edc it is reallly really good peaceful knife... Overall i love all cold steel knives so i cant say bad.. But cons are(made in taiwan logo which driver me crazy...too plasticy handles and aus8a steel)but as i mentiond for that priece you get gold like ontario rat 1