The Blackhawk! Point Man is an excellent knife! I’ve been really impressed so far and I’m surprised that this knife doesn’t get more attention these days. For this review, I will run down a list of the features and my thoughts on each of them. If you don't want to read the whole review, scroll down towards the end where I list the pros and cons of this knife with my final thoughts.
Overall:
The overall length of this knife is about 7.875” when open, and it weighs about 5 oz. A little heavy for some people, but it doesn’t bother me at all. The overall fit and finish of this knife is very good. It’s on par with some of my nicer Spydercos, and even some of my Benchmades that I’ve owned in the past. I couldn’t find any blemishes or ugly machining marks even when I disassembled the knife. The bevels on the blade appear to be nice and symmetrical, and the blade is well centered inside the handle when the blade is closed. The one nitpick that I have about the fit and finish out of the box is that the relief edge wasn’t super even, but it was very sharp nonetheless (maybe not quite as sharp as a Spyderco out of the box, but sharp enough to pop hairs).
Blade:
The AUS8A blade is 3.4” long and .15” thick at the spine. It’s sabre ground with a false swedge on top. Due to the blade thickness and the sabre grind, this knife isn’t God’s gift to slicing. However, considering that this knife is designed for harder-use, I think the cutting performance of this knife is appropriate for the role.
The way that the false swedge is ground is interesting because it terminates about a half of an inch away from the tip. This leaves a lot of extra “meat” behind the tip making it very robust in piercing cuts.
AUS 8A steel is well known around steel in the knife community. Not a bad steel by any stretch. However, I've found that in the month and a half of using this knife, the edge retention to be somewhat lacking for my line of work (fire mitigation and open space management). I think a an upgrade to something like D2 which isn't a huge step up in cost would be a massive improvement.
The thumb studs are ambidextrous and they’re easy to actuate even while wearing gloves. They also act as a blade-stop as they come in contact with an exposed portion of the liners in the handle.
There’s jimping just forward of the thumb studs on the spine. I’m assuming they were put there so that you can move your thumb up the spine for more controlled cuts, or so you can hold the knife in a “filipino” style grip for combat (I’m not an expert in knife fighting, so take this with a grain of salt). I don’t mind the jimping here, but it wouldn’t bother me if it wasn’t there either.
The coating on the blade is what Blackhawk! refers to as a PVD coating. It seems to be holding up very well for me, and it definitely doesn’t chip or flake like the teflon coating that Cold Steel used on their older knives.
Handle:
The handle measures just under 4.5”, and it’s about .53” thick. It’s constructed of high traction G-10 scales, 420J nested stainless liners, and 5 stainless stand-offs (one of which acts as a stop-pin when the blade is closed).
I have large sized hands, and I find that the handle fits my hand perfectly with no hot-spots to speak of. The wide girth of the handle also makes this knife very comfortable to use. Something that really struck me when I first held the Point Man in my hand was how incredibly well balanced and lively it is in hand. Most folding knives are very handle "heavy" by design, but the balance point on this knife is right at the finger choil where your index finger sits. Very impressive!
The G-10 has excellent traction, even in wet or grimy conditions. I would say that it’s about as coarse as the texturing that Cold Steel uses. However, unlike Cold Steel G-10, I haven’t been having any problems with it tearing up my pants. (I’ll get back to that later when I discuss the pocket clip).
I find the jimping to be effective in providing good traction. It has been cut into the G-10 on the thumb ramp, the finger choil, towards the rear where your pinky rests, and where your palm makes contact as well.
It’s worth mentioning that the liners are not skeletonized. It would’ve been nice if they were to cut down on the weight a little, but it’s not a deal-breaker for me.
There’s a small cut-out for a lanyard, but It’s practically worthless. Even with gutted paracord it would be a real struggle to feed a lanyard through it. I personally don’t use lanyards on my knives, but this may bother some people out there that do.
All of the hardware on this knife is torx. The pivot screw is a T10 and the body screws are a T6.
Lock:
The lock on this knife is a very sturdy liner lock (.067" thick) constructed of 420J stainless steel. Lock-up is nice and early on mine with no blade play in any direction. The detent is positive and it retains the blade well while closed. While it is possible to fling the blade out if you really shake the knife hard while it’s closed, I don’t have any real concerns of the blade opening accidentally while the knife is clipped to my pocket.
Action:
The blade rides on a pair of bronze phosphorous washers and a pair of paper-thin teflon washers. The action is very smooth and it has been breaking-in very nicely. I would compare the smoothness of the Blackhawk! Point Man to some of the higher end Spydercos that I've owned.
Pocket Clip:
The pocket clip is very basic, and it works well. It carries at a reasonable depth in the pocket that’s not too deep or too shallow IMO. The pocket clip can also be moved for tip-up, tip-down, left, or right side carry.
The black coating on the pocket clip is painted on, and it started flaking off within the first week of carrying this knife. This is not a big deal for me. Most big-name knife companies use painted clips.
The tension is good and it holds onto regular jeans just fine, but it’s not too tight either. I mentioned earlier that the G-10 scales are about as coarse as the G-10 texturing that Cold Steel uses, yet they don’t tear up my pants like Cold Steel G-10 does. This is because Cold Steel combines their coarse texturing with an extremely tight pocket clip. This is not the case with the Point Man and I'm very pleased.
Pros:
• Great fit and finish
• Overall construction is very robust and sturdy for a folding knife
• Tip is very strong. You could probably stab this knife through a car hood with no damage
• Lock-up is very tight and secure.
• Deployment is easy even while wearing gloves
• Ambidextrous
• Blade coating appears to be of good quality and durable
• The handle is very ergonomic
• Well balanced
• Great traction, even in adverse conditions
• Pocket Clip has just the right amount of tension
Cons:
• Not the greatest slicer
• AUS 8A is lacking in edge retention for hard use
• A little heavy and bulky for some people
• Relief edge was a little uneven out of the box
• Lanyard cut-out is worthless
Conclusion:
As I mentioned in the beginning, this a very solid and underrated knife. I think it’s a great performer for the price and it would make a great option for someone that’s looking for a medium to large sized folding knife that can handle some hard use without breaking the bank.
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