This was an impulse buy at the LGS and I didn’t expect much from it being a very mass produced from a multi national corporation type deal.
I have been very surprised by the ability to sharpen this knife to scalpel like sharpness and it ability to hold that edge for a good while.
It is now my go to knife that i will put in my pocket (when I remember) to take into the field when shooting as I like to gut them quickly and in a place that the gut will be out of peoples way and available to the locals. This knife really cuts through a hide with ease and allows you feel so you dont cut too deep into the guts and open them up making a mess.
This last weekend I shot a small Roo and this knife easily cut through the ribs allowing the upper organs to be removed without too much fuss. After this it still held an edge sharp enough to delicately skin where the hide was thin.
Being all Steel also allows for easy cleaning after use. The only downside is the Gut hook which was a feature that initially attracted me to it. It is probably more me than anything, but it is a part of the knife that is not easily sharpened and was not sharp from new. It really needs a different profile on the edge in this part of the knife.
Benchmade folder. My EDC. Been a Benchmade fan since i bought one in 1997. Only replaced that one last year as my old one has been used and abused. It still works but now my wife uses it to open feed bags, cut baling twine and such.
New one is S30V, 100mm blade, 235mm overall and 137mm folded. Best locking system on a folder i have ever seen; barr none! Retails for $280 but i paid a lot less than that.
It’s my baby.
If i have one criticism of Benchmade, it’s the stout edge geometry they give their knives. Sharp and durable but made of heavy duty use and not fine work. I actually cut down this year’s Christmas tree with this knife because we forgot a hand saw or ax, which surprised the hell out of my mate at the time. Just a small pine sapling about2.4m high, but still… gives you an idea of how stout and sharp the edge geometry is!
below: the old girl after 20 years of abuse and me experimenting with edge geometry. Benchmade ‘Balisong’. I got the new one on a loyalty discount because they couldn’t repair my old one when the pivot pin failed. I roughly peined a brass pin in it to extend its useful life. Cost me $90 back in the day.
Once a nice Finnish made skinning knife that I’ve had for 26 years. Busted about an inch off the end by throwing it 20m into a redgum fence post when i was still young and stupid enough to think knife throwing was cool or useful for anything other than breaking or losing knives. Reprofiled and buggered even more when i thought some serrations would be handy for cutting rope… still a nice skinner though and gets a bit of use.
Little camp utility knife i made. Hold a great edge and just disappears into my hand. Hasn’t had a heap of use but will do in future.
Knife i made for processing sheep. Works a treat. Holds a great edge and is very safe and comfy to use. Kind’a copied the ‘Old Timer’ -sharp finger- style but larger and a better handle design. Cuts through brisket and still pops hair off. Bit of a fav.
Second knife i ever made. Entirely without mechanical assistance. Hand forged, hand filed, hand polished… then i decided i needed some machinery! i mostly use it as a hide fleshing knife but works just as well as a cleaver or hand ax! she is a beast and very nice to use. Have to be careful because a light touch will open you up!!!
Jebus, @austac, ‘for what you do’, what the hell do you do? I mean, I know what you do, but I am questioning that now. Is that like a customer relations instrument or something?
I’ve had this Gerber for about 15yrs, I have a few knives but this is probably my favourite.
I don’t know where I’ve put the bloody thing but somewhere I have a spiderco clip it, great little light weight knife
This vitronox multitool is probably my most used knife these days, I’ve had it about 10 yrs or more and it’s the handiest thing I’ve ever owned, holds a good edge too.
@juststarting hahah that sounds way more dramatic than how i ment it what i do i more campy wood work stuff, i often find myself having to carve or emprovise stuff out camping which is why i’ve chosen a scandi edge for my knife
This is a custom knife i got made to my specs, leather sheath is nice but not as hardy as kydex or plastic, and the mora is cheap which is why i’m happy to abuse it if need be in harsh conditions
The mefflin ( custom ) is a carbon steel so while sharper/easier to maintain WILL patina especially if it gets wet, the mora is stainless, bit of give and take when it comes to steels
Scalpel sharp, in fact it is a large scalpel more or less and very sturdy. The black part is actually a metal spine where the blade gets inserted, this is what gives it the additional strength. I change blades once a year, however this year I had to change twice, because @GUN-DMC doesn’t know how to shop heads off!
WARNING As a side note, a lot of people confuse Razor-Blaze with Havalon Piranta knife, below:
Conceptually the same, as Razor-Blaze, but it’s far from it. The blade is about the same size as a scalpel, not reinforced and very flexible. It will break when it hits a bone and because it’s crazy sharp, it’s a safety hazard at that stage (when it’s stuck inside the animal). It’s good for caping, but that’s bout it. Don’t bother with it, for field butchering.
I tried and tried to learn to sharpen knives properly and then I bought one of these instead.
Not that brand but the same thing and it works good for me.
People over complicate sharpening in their own minds. It’s pretty simple, really; just takes a little technique and plenty of practice.
If you are happy with that sharpening system then i suggest you buy cheap knives because they will chew trough a blade very quickly. Same with diamond hones and diamond steels. They remove steel very aggressively and are designed for setting or profiling an edge quickly, not for sharpening or honing that edge. May seem the same thing and these terms are often confused but they are different processes.
Sandvik or ‘Scandinavian/scandi’ grinds are supposed to be a zero grind bevel with no secondary edge bevel. This means the edge is maintained by honing the entire primary bevel to the edge rather than cutting, honing and recutting a secondary or ‘edge’ bevel. This gives you the ability to produce a very fine and sharp edge at the cost of it not being protected/supported by the extra material of an aditional bevel.
I know it’s YouTube wisdom to use a ‘scandi’ for camp knives because it supposedly stronger yet sharper than othe grind designs but i personally think you are better off with a sabre grind, which is similar to a scandi but typically ground higher toward the spine while leaving a thicker edge ready for a secondary bevel. Then you can decide on what geometry best suits the secondary bevel for your purposes. You can even have compound edge geometry to use different sections of the blade for different tasks, although this takes some practice and may not be considered cool on YouTube or by anally retentive bladesmiths who think everything is about how the blade looks. This makes for a versitile impliment that is capable of both relatively fine and heavy work with the advantage of being able to remove any edge damage without having to errode half your blade in the process.
Preferably, you have two blades. One for heavy work and one for fine work. I generally have a larger saber grind and a small, often folding, full grind knife on me when out camping. Hell. Who am i kidding! I usually have at least 3 different knives and if base camping, quite a few more than that!
Don’t mean it to sound like a lecture. Just my take on it after 35 years of running around the bush with knives…
Hang on… that didn’t sound right!
@Gwion haha naah all good mate i’m aware there’s a lot of pros and cons and limitations and have rolled a scandi or two in my years, once smashing open a coconut like a cave man , i’m also partial to a convex but find that a little harder to sharpen out bush, sabre’s just a grind that i’ve never really gotten along with, in my opinion, the steel is a big factor too
Steel is always a factor but there is a trend in more recent years to obsess over steel and try to use ‘super steels’ to compensate for poor choice in blade design for a given task. A good basic steel that has been well treated and shaped into a suitable blade ‘for the job at hand’ is and always has been good enough.
Not that I’m saying newer or tougher or harder steels aren’t to be utilised or that we should stick with what was good enough for king henry but steel, like blade design, needs to be used according to the task at hand and treated accordingly as well.
I’ve always prefered a full grind as a general purpose knife but for this ‘heavy bush work’ i think the sabre is a better choice than a sandvik.
Also… stop putting a secondary/edge bevel on your scandi knives!
Sorry… can’t help it…
i’m aware there’s a lot of pros and cons and limitations and have rolled a scandi or two in my years, once smashing open a coconut like a cave man 
