My poorly written "review" was so complete nobody had anything to add? Or is it my breath perhaps?
At any rate, my Companion has been my constant Companion for a day now, and I have had a chance to put it to some tests, and I'm more than pleased.
I use the term "tests" loosely, because most of what I have used the Companion for so far are not things that I do regularly.
I chopped up some of my desk, as this has somehow become standard for me to test the impact resistance of whatever knife I am holding at the time. This is mainly because the first knife I impulsively chopped into the desk with ended up with a nice chip in the edge.
Anyway, several whacks into the laminated edge resulted in no damage whatsover, except to the desk. The Companion did cut some pretty big chunks out of my desk, with moderate force used.
I then chopped a 2X4 in half. Standard 2X4 wood, not weathered or dried out or anything, so it was not that tough, but the Companion chopped through very nicely. I did not count the chops needed to whach through, but it went through pretty quickly.
I cut the top out of a coffee can, and then cut another coffee can in half. I did have to hammer it through when cutting it in half, but still no damage to the edge! And it would still shave hair.
I cut one of those 5 gallon plastic carboy's in half. Not really a tough task you might think at first, but I'm here to tell you, the plastic they use for those carboy's is tough stuff indeed.
It takes a pretty tough blade not to snap in two just from trying to get the blade lose when it binds up. Again, no edge damage.
I also stabbed it into another carboy several times, mainly to see if the coating would be damaged. The blade coating did scuff up a bit, but as near as I can tell it's fully intact. It's a bit hard to tell, as the coating is clear.
I cut up several very thick heavy duty cardboard boxes.
I cut several strips off of a square piece of industrial plastic backed carpeting.
I had meant to try hammering nails with the tang, but I forgot.
The full length exposed tang is something that really appealed to me, for the very reason that I might need to hammer with it at some point.
I did not stab wood and snap the blade out sideways, again because I did not think of it at the time.
I cut up some ham with it, and this is the only place it did not excel, due to the thickness of the blade. The ham I was cutting were slices off of a "ham roast" type thing.
After the above tasks, the edge would no longer shave hair, but it did push slice regular cardboard pretty well, and was still very servicable except for maybe the most delicate cutting work.
At first, I did hesitate to actually try using my new Greco for these "tests", because I could not find information anywhere about how tough Greco knives were advertised to be, although they look and feel indestructible. I really did not want to damage the knife, simply because it is very nice and a truly excellent piece of craftsmanship, irregardless of whether it's covered under a warranty or not. It's just a shame to needlessly wreck a nice knife.
Thankfully, the Companion is none the worse for wear, and I am confident that whatever foolish or abusive use I might put it to, the Companion can take it.
