Ocaso Strategy Review

The Ocaso Strategy is a practical gentlemen's folder style knife that comes in a variety of handle and blade options.

Camping with Mike Wallace’s Pennsylvania Church Knife. The Perfect Hard Use Gentleman’s Folder to Spruce Things Up Outdoors The Strategy feels like a Cold Steel knife that bought a nice suit and switched to drinking whiskey instead of beer. But the secret of this knife is that it’s not actually an EDC; it’s a camping …

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Our Incomplete Coverage of Blade Show 2023

Blade Show 2023 Highlights and more.

Highlights from Atlanta’s Sharpest Event The biggest knife show in America probably saw its biggest turnout post-Covid this year, which meant it was a hip-to-crotch affair with all of us grubby knife nerds clambering over each other to rub our dirty hand oils on the newest Magnacut blade. As we are not very good at …

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Reiff F4 Review

Basically everything felt right with the Reiff F4: The blade is sharp enough to carve easily and tough enough to chop wood without chipping, the sheaths (both of them) ride well and have excellent retention.

There are only so many things that can be done right or wrong on a fixed blade, but the harder you use one the more obvious (and sometimes painful) it gets when just one or two of those things are done poorly. Basically everything felt right with the Reiff F4: The blade is sharp enough …

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Spartan-Harsey Nessmuk Review

The Spartan Blades Halsey Nessmuck is a modern take on an American classic and a handy survival knife for the wilderness.

Spartan Blade’s Modern Take on an American Classic Spartan Blades has a reputation for making fighting knives. The Spartan-Harsey Nessmuk draws on some of those traditions, but also pays homage to old Nessmuk himself, the 19th century outdoor icon who changed the way a generation of Americans who idolized the Bowie by introducing them to …

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Fallkniven F1 Review

A Survival Knife Worth Getting Blasted out Of The Sky With. The Fallkniven F1 is an understated knife in the noblest sense of the word.

Key Review Takaways The moment I first found out that I would get to review the Fällkniven F1 – a compact survival/utility blade that has, by this point, probably gotten more unforced laudation than the late and unlamented Idi Amin Dada (third president of Uganda, and generally considered one of the most brutal despots in …

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Bavarian Knife Works 19-Piece Dreamcut Set Review

Each knife included in the Bavarian Knife Works 19-Piece Dreamcut set actually feels like it has a different, essential use.

This is a Set of True Kitchen Essentials in a Very Tall Package Most chefs and knife makers (custom makers, anyway) will tell you that you only really need a chef’s knife, a paring, and a bread knife. And yet, most kitchen knife companies will push huge sets containing twenty knives insisting it gives you …

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Zero Tolerance 0006 Review

The Zero Tolerance 0006 fixed blade knife shown here with its blade tip stuck in the top of a tree sump in a green field.

Key Takeaways Zero Tolerance dropped into Shot Show 2023 with this thing and the rest of us had to put on water wings to wade through the drool. It’s the slightly more camp knife-oriented version of the ZT-9 Bayonet designed by Mike Strider. It’s a little smaller and meant to be easier to choke up, …

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Cutluxe Artisan Chef’s Knife Review

The Cutluxe Artisan 8 inch chef knife is well designed with good fit and finish.

The Artisan Chef’s knife is the purebred Western knife in Cutluxe’s modest line up. Currently their other offerings are a more thin handled series with Swedish steel (the Olivery series), and a heavier-set series featuring harder Japanese steel (the Shinobi series). The key difference between these designs is in their handles (the blade shapes all …

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Artisan Cutlery Ahab Review

The Ahab is a sophisticated budget pocket knife with a big comfortable handle and a blade that is all about finger placement.

This Budget Folder Features a Big Comfortable Handle and a Blade That is All About Finger Placement. The harpoon is rapidly becoming a go-to shape for knife designers, and for good reason. The concavity ground into the spine is an often-graceful addition that adds versatility to the blade. And Artisan Cutlery specializes in functional knives …

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White River Firecraft Puukko Review

The White River Firecraft FC-PKO. A new twist on a classic design.

The FC-PKO Survival Knife is Smaller, Lighter and One Helluva Fire Starter. White River Knife and Tool makes purpose built blades for hunting, fishing, and survival. They don’t make folders and they don’t make overtly tactical knives, but their outdoor blades have, for more than a decade now, been winning fans in the field. Their …

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