OPINIONS: okc chimera

Are you looking for any opinions in particular ?
 
Just personal experience and thoughts after using one for a while . Just trying to figure out what I can expect
 
Mine works fine for the way I abused it.

Saw on U-tube it was discovered the weak part is where the pummel is screwed in where it broke with the spine being used to break through a cinder block, making the handle come off due to the handle being held in by the force of the pummel and guard.

I should of got a straight edge but I got mine factoring in an all round need that the serrated edge can do if needed in the future. But it did teach me I don't like sharpened swedges to much, but then I didn't know I didn't prefer them before to be fair.

Its narrow and light enough (for me that is) to ride the belt, not much of a "survival" knife in the sense of woodsy survival for doing all those tasks you want it to do in a super fashion, it cuts and works though, but its got the makings for a great spear, which wouldn't be a waste of a knife if it wasn't your only one in the field. But the Pummel sure can do a lot of thumping and whumping! The Swedge does keep it form being used for decent batoning but it does help clean fish faster.

But its a knife I like to keep around for real SURVIVAL situations of I have to poke some thing with it to keep alive, and healthy. At home or in what some call the wilderness, I just call it in the woods. I do like the Pummel for general bashing things, never had to use it for glass yet. Its not an "Ideal" fighting knife given the weight, but really for defense it is a great deterrent and some thing nice to have than a 3 inch folder if needed, and a great reach on it and a good hilt for defense. Its marketed as a search and rescue tool and general use for such things, after handling mine it was all I had (loaned out the SP-51 and SP-53 out for people who had to do clean up (all I had in my car, the others were at home), along with the axe and a few other tools) to use to clear storm damage before it got worse. It seems to fit that category nicely. Learned the serrated one makes the knife more toolie cool, but actually did have some advantages over a straight edge. As seeing it use of an all round tool for if needed when I got mine, the serrated one did come through in use. I'm a knife user and abuser, the S.P.C.K. has me on their WATCH LIST. One task my Chimera did was a good job at removing frost and ice when defrosting the freezer, great control and leverage when needed was able to do fine scraping and where a sharpened swedge did have an advantage. This last job may not sound like much, but really able to handle a large knife with precision and good control with leverage when needed like that when needed was very surprising. (lot of hot water on blade tip helps :D )
 
Thanks man that's exactly what I wanted , an in depth users review from someone who's owns a chimera for a while. I got the serrated because it's been a while since I bought a knife with serrations plus I know the knife is more for poking things than bushcrafting , I have my heavy chopper I have my bushcrafting knife and my one fighting knife bent because the maker did a shîtty heat treat
 
no but the knife is! :D

it fits both ways just checked.

For fighting tis a bit heavy for a "True" fighting knife, but well its built as a tool based on the OKC 3 bayonet, it can do some damage and the sharpened swedge will help a lot in that department. The hilt will help protect ya as well.

One nice thing is OKC's warrenty! They did me right when I got two bad SP-53s, took a while because they got me new production that had their new QC in place, and they are beautiful. To bad I use them. For the extra time it took they offered me any knife from their web sight, i went with the Chimera because it seemed like a good multi tool knife and well it looked great!

Just don't hammer cinder block with the spine it seems and it should hold up.

My "Bushy" knife is my RD7, the RD6 goes with my bigger SP-51 or SP-53. The RD9 is my big FLAT GRIND blade, I got over the RTAC II because of the RD thumping and whumping handle, because the RD9 also does bushy things it gets out more than I thought at times. The RD Tanto turned out to be a good heavy RD short chopper!
 
Last edited:
My bushcraft knife is a blind horse knives bushcrafter and my chopper is a custom khukuri . My fighter was also a custom but like I said the maker did a garbage heat treat and the large portion of the tip bent stabbing it into a 2X4 so that's getting sent off for repair and a new heat treat
 
Roguer said:
Saw on U-tube it was discovered the weak part is where the pummel is screwed in where it broke with the spine being used to break through a cinder block, making the handle come off due to the handle being held in by the force of the pummel and guard.
Click to expand...

I've saw that video you are referring to and to be quite honest I'm not so sure that the Chimera wasn't already broke before he started beating on the cinder block.

I base my assumption on my own personal experience that I've had with two FF6's, the first one broke where the threaded portion for the pommel transitions to the tang. Initially I didn't realize that it had broke do to the pommel being mushroom shaped and held in place somewhat by the handle. I was hoping that was a fluke of some sort so I intentionally pushed the second FF6 and it broke in the same place as the first one, again the pommel was held in place by the handle even though it was broke.

That being said I'm still a fan of both the Chimera and the FF6 but I also think you need to realize the possible limitations of either knife do to the method of construction. Personally I would like to see both have the pommels pinned in place like the OKC 498 as I feel that method of construction is much stronger.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
SilentJohn said:
I saw that video, the guys an idiot . It's a knife not a sledgehammer
Click to expand...

There's no disputing that :eek: :D

Personally I was kind of impressed with how much abuse the blade took without breaking :thumbup:
 
I like to joke that the Chimera is made BY giggling grown men, FOR giggling grown men. Basically, what happened is that our head of sales and our Director of Special Projects went into a room with one of our catalogs, and picked out their favorite features of a few different knives. They ended up with the blade shape of the OKC3S, which made the handle of the FF6 a natural choice. They added the crossguard from the M11 and the serrations from our SP-15 LSA. The assumption, of course, was that the knife would be a complete disaster when they actually put it together, because the balance would be way off. Dan Maragni said he was shocked by how well balanced it was, and after a little tweaking, the balance ended up being one of the best things about it.

I am disappointed to hear about breaking with the knives. You guys know that Toooj and I have talked a lot about how many tweaks we are making these days to really take our knives to the next level in terms of reliability and functionality.
 
Mr.OKC , I trust your knife will never break on me . I'm not going to smash it and treat it like a pry bar . I'm going to use it for its intended use and probably EDC it since I live in PA and we have no knife length laws
 
OntarioKnifeCompany said:
You guys know that Toooj and I have talked a lot about how many tweaks we are making these days to really take our knives to the next level in terms of reliability and functionality.
Click to expand...

I've been a fan of OKC knives for more years than I care to remember and the tweaks your making are definitely showing, from the more consistent grinds to the sharpness out of the box, its been a noticeable improvement over past years... not that the past years were that bad :D
 
Yeah what they all said about horribly abusing knives, and well on the vid the blade held up great! It was good to know what the "Weak" point is though, although I don't think I'll be hammering cinder blocks with the spine unless that's all I got to get a kid out of some place or some thing and that's all I got. I'd detail that to the Mattock I carry in my car. (great for breaking up and digging out them dang Ice Berms snow plows make and summer tasks :D )

The OKC Chimera is a good all round tool, but a lot of people wanted a straight edge and well they make one also! But really the Chimera is a great knife just to handle! The serration pattern I heard was taken so its easier to sharpen in the field, and I found more than a two inch serration on a knife was needed when you need them, especially these dang saw teeth type ones get a job done!

My other serrated blade a KABAR D2 blade does get more use, but I use it in the kitchen and as a utility and food prep knife in and out of the field. That flat pummel (which is powdered metal) sure is handy for standing the knife up, also good a camp knife when used for food prep, the only reason I didn't sell it, plus having an extra good knife around is handy. A bit WAY over kill for a knife like that, eh but it works. It does see some field work if its all I got. But the Chimera is my general purpose get dirty work knife, well because the blade is more easy to maintain more durable when using it for hard jobs. I don't use it as much as others would because of my extensive stock pile of RD and SP blades, but its one blade I keep near by most the time so it gets used more often.

The Chimera isn't a great chopper, or batoner, its more of a fix blade multi-tool that's a bit "over built" for most tasks but well it sure gets the job done! Just don't try and Baton a rock with it. Really some dumb idiot TRIED to do that (Caught him just in time) to see how tough my D2 KABAR was once...and they wonder I never loan them any thing any more...

If the Chimera fails doing regular stuff with it, the OKC warranty is one reason I most my knives from them!

Oh if you break a KABAR batoning with it, it voids the warranty. Another reason I tell people OKC is better for a REAL work knife.

Yeah I'm admitted OKC fan, but that's based on their affordable quality products and their backing of them. I never was much of a Tacti-coolieo Fan Boy.

They still could make a nice RD 9" or RTAC II 1/4" saber grind 5160 type knife. *Sneaks in usual prodding*
 
Got the knife and I love it , it's my Brock Samson knife ( for those of you who have watched venture bros ) the only complaint I have and it's a small one is that there was burrs from the sharpening still in the serrations but the sharpening rod took care of them


Here is Brock Samson in action

[video]https://youtu.be/0NpsXS8bnHE[/video]
 
Got use use today and started to show it

riz02e.jpg
 
Hey man. It has been a few months now, and I'm curious how the Chimera is going? Do you still like it? How is it holding up? Have you worked it hard? I'm ready to order one, and I'm just looking for some more input from guys that have one. Thanks in advance. :thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top