Extrema Ratio Dobermann IV field test and review

Hi. Again, I like your videos :thumbup:. You are surrounded by beautiful nature and wilderness it’s a pleasure to see. Also, the way you use your knives and play with them it’s very similar to mine; the ones you are showing are the kind of tasks I normally put my knives through, during our week-end hikes with my family :).

About these knives, I can only share a few feedbacks from my little personal experience. Please be aware I don’t own these knives and didn’t have the opportunity to use them so extensively as you did. I just played with them during one summer day, few years ago, in a friend’s house orchard, so rather “barbeque testing” stuff :D. What can be interesting is I managed to use them together, so I am able to make some direct comparison. I think the two, the ER Dobermann IV and the FOX Combat Jungle, are comparable knives, in terms of size and intended use, in one way they can be seen as “cousins”, so to speak, the ER being a better performing product, in my opinion.

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Fit and finish was good for both :thumbup:. I found the ER initially much sharper and the edge retention has been much better than the FOX. The ER surface coating (named testudo, a hot Black Oxide surface treatment) is very resistant; it’s completely another thing (and another performance level against wear and tear), when compared to the FOX (a Teflon coating) which immediately scratched just after some chopping. The ER looked to me having a slight forward balance which increased the efficiency in chopping and enhanced the blade penetration, good also on hardwoods (tested on some old vine branches). The FOX had a more neutral balance and the blade tended to get stuck in the wood when chopping. The ER handle, for as weird as it may look, was comfortable and much better than the FOX; it offered a better grip, no hot-spots and didn’t “twist and turn” in the hand like the FOX. The jimping of the FOX also turned out to be rather annoying during prolonged use without gloves, it sticks out from the spine profile quite much and, for my taste, the knurls are not properly dimensioned and shaped to offer a good grip, rather ended up in being just a pain in the a$$. Batoning is not an ideal task for both since the swedges destroy the baton, no matter how hard the wood you use. They are both rather good in cutting and slicing, thanks to their flat grinds; it’s possible to get decent feather-sticks and kindling with relatively little efforts. Sheaths are both very good :thumbup:. One thing worth to note, from this short experience of mine, is it looks they both use the same steel, Bohler N690, but with totally different results! The ER keeps its edge long and it’s relatively easy to sharpen, the FOX lose its edge super fast and it’s very hard to sharpen back to decent levels (and this combination really sucks for a utility camp knife). Also I never fully understood the FOX naming: why calling it combat jungle, when it’s clearly a utility knife? The writings engraved on the ER blade are tacky and ugly to my taste.

Overall, these are not my cup of tea ;). Less and less, during the last years, I am using my own big camp knife (the Fallkniven A1). I just don’t see the need any more for my type of hikes. I am fine with 10-12 cm blades (today I mainly use my folders or my F1 and my EKA Nordic 12 as fixed blades), the Felco 600 saw and my multitool or one of my SAKs. For my personal use and hiking style, the big camp knives, “the choppers”, are fun to play with but they have a limited efficiency and capability. You are showing yourself in your videos how difficult is to prepare food, carving wood, collecting wild edibles, etc. with such large blades. Just to chat :).
 
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Hi thanks here for your great reply! Yes I agree basically with your experience with these two blades and I would say The Fox knives have all been a pain for me to quickly sharpen especially in the field. That extra HRC and the factory grind on the edge is a pain and when it wears or if you let them go almost blunt then u are in for a hard time to re edge them. I know many who just totally reprofile to convex here. All big knives are difficult to really prep food with due mostly I think to length but mainly thickness. The A1 is a great blade, and u are right we can just have too many knives and for what LOL. I guess it's like how many surfboards does one own??
generally I'm taking my young son out with me- everyone says it's irresponsible as we hike in (sometimes he's got to be on my back for the sheer distances moved) but I'm limited to what I carry after food, water, tent (with him only) knife, no eating utensils, no cups etc etc pretty bare basics, often I want/take a more practical small drop point but generally even though I show it, I'm not scaling fish nor necessarily gutting them and most wild fruits etc are picked by hand. BTW did u see that TRC knife i reviewed, it's a great size and design.

My preference is tending towards the Dobermann4. U are right re the balance too, it is a very interesting design that actually widens slightly laterally towards to the tip.
Yep and all the hunting I've done on medium sized game, those big choppers were nowhere to be found LOL. The smaller the better for me for those tasks.
 
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