This is a cheap Gordon(harbor freight) brand survival/hunting knife. I bought this knife last week to test it and see if they really are as bad as everyone says. Onto the pics and review.
My initial impressions of the knife was that it feels solid and takes a good enough edge, not anything to write home to mom about, but decent.
Here it is with a CRK Shadow IV.
Here it is with the small tree I saws through to make a spear. I think the saw would work fine for notching and small jobs such as this, but not as good as a SAK saw. Most likely due to how wide it is.
I started working on carving and chopping the point onto the spear, and felt how unwieldy this thing is. It's a pain in the butt to use, I think the smallest sak would carve better than this knife. Unfortunately in the spear making process the blade became dangerously loose. Oh well, onto the compass and survival kit.
Here is the compass next to a GI lensatic. You can tell its off by quite a bit, don't reckon itd be any good for navigation.
This is the contents of the handle. 6 matches w striker pad, thread, sewing needle, 2 buttons, safety pin, hook(its one of those hooks without an eye, just a flat spot where the eye should be, if anyone knows how to tie em, let me know) and fishing line. I was able to start a fire on my 3rd match, the first 2 fizzled out. The sewing kit came in handy when I inspected a new ALICE pouch and it had a tear.
My conclusion of the testing is: everyone that calls these junk is correct, but they are worse than I could've thought. Its unwieldy, breaks almost instantly, absolutely worthless. BUT I can't say buying it was a waste of my money, it's given me a greater appreciation of the great knives I do own. All the thinking I give to which CRK would be better for what task or is this custom better just seems silly to me now. I'm good with whatever knife I own, as long as it isnt this thing!
My initial impressions of the knife was that it feels solid and takes a good enough edge, not anything to write home to mom about, but decent.
Here it is with a CRK Shadow IV.
Here it is with the small tree I saws through to make a spear. I think the saw would work fine for notching and small jobs such as this, but not as good as a SAK saw. Most likely due to how wide it is.
I started working on carving and chopping the point onto the spear, and felt how unwieldy this thing is. It's a pain in the butt to use, I think the smallest sak would carve better than this knife. Unfortunately in the spear making process the blade became dangerously loose. Oh well, onto the compass and survival kit.
Here is the compass next to a GI lensatic. You can tell its off by quite a bit, don't reckon itd be any good for navigation.
This is the contents of the handle. 6 matches w striker pad, thread, sewing needle, 2 buttons, safety pin, hook(its one of those hooks without an eye, just a flat spot where the eye should be, if anyone knows how to tie em, let me know) and fishing line. I was able to start a fire on my 3rd match, the first 2 fizzled out. The sewing kit came in handy when I inspected a new ALICE pouch and it had a tear.
My conclusion of the testing is: everyone that calls these junk is correct, but they are worse than I could've thought. Its unwieldy, breaks almost instantly, absolutely worthless. BUT I can't say buying it was a waste of my money, it's given me a greater appreciation of the great knives I do own. All the thinking I give to which CRK would be better for what task or is this custom better just seems silly to me now. I'm good with whatever knife I own, as long as it isnt this thing!
