Buying Guide 3: Knife Tangs

     When buying a knife, lots of people get hung up on the tang of the knife. The tang is the part of the blade that extends into the handle. There are a few common types of tangs: full tang, and stick tang. Full tang extends completely into the handle. Stick tang extends partway into the handle. My personal advice is to buy a full tang knife because it will absorb impact more evenly, and it will have a smaller tendency to break under pressure or extreme force. By “break” I mean snapping off at the handle. Many cheaper knifes will have brittle tangs and blades that will snap easily and hurt your hand. However as long as the knife is good quality, don’t really worry about the tang.

      In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I collect swords as well as knives. In a sword, you really need full tang because the impact a sword absorbs on impact with an object is too much for the blade to take alone (this doesn’t apply to high quality hand forged swords). The tang of the blade helps the force travel down into the handle so that it doesn’t concentrate in one area and snap the blade in half (this can happen). In short, full tang is important in a knife or sword that is going to take a beating.

Buying Guide 2: Sheaths

     Sheaths are very important to fixed blade knives. A good sheath will keep your knife dry, secure, and easy to access. There are a few types of sheath materials, leather, nylon, wood, metal, or synthetic materials. I personally like to avoid leather for a couple of reasons. First of all, moisture can easily soak through leather and rust the knife (if the knife is high carbon). Secondly, I just don’t like the way that leather looks. I prefer nylon sheaths to leather sheaths. Just like any other type of sheath nylon has its advantages and disadvantages. In my experience, nylon sheaths come with a synthetic insert. Any type of synthetic material can scratch the finish on the blade unless you take special care to avoid that happening. In addition, nylon can be easily cut. If there is a strap around the handle of the knife to hold it in place, there is a possibility that if you draw the blade out too quickly, you can cut the nylon strap. Another downside to nylon sheaths is that they usually are excessively bulky. You can modify them though. Wood and metal sheaths are rare in most modern knives, but they do exist.  I have a few daggers with wooden sheaths, and an antique bayonet with a metal sheath. Notice that I said daggers and bayonets, not every day knives. My wooden sheaths don’t seem like they will last and the metal inserts scratch the blade. The metal sheath is annoying and must be oiled. The last category of sheath I listed are synthetic sheaths. Many people prefer these sheaths because they are waterproof, durable, and they usually have a slim profile. I think that most synthetic sheaths are pretty good for their knives. They are well constructed, waterproof (used in diving), and made of a good material (such as kydex). However, synthetic materials, especially hard plastics, will damage the blade and scratch the finish so be sure to choose a sheath with a good material. All sheaths are different and have different pros and cons, but it really comes down to what you like best. 

Knife Tool: Kobalt Hex Driver

If you look at most folding knives, you will notice that there are hex screws holding the knife together. To modify your knife, for example: adjusting pivot wiggle, removing or exchanging the clip, tightening screws, removing a safety (I don't recommend this), or just seeing how it works you need a hex screwdriver. I know that Benchmade sells a knife tool for about $30, but for those of you who don't want to pay $30 for a little screwdriver, I have found a good solution. On my last trip to Lowes, I found a Kobalt six-lobe screwdriver with several different heads for $5.98. It is a really cool and useful 8 in 1 tool and it is great for adjusting knives.

Review: CRKT M16-01kz

I own many knives from Swiss Army, to SOG, to Gerber, to Benchmade, so why do I insist on using a CRKT? I really don’t know why I like this knife so much because it is just an average knife. Just to be clear, this is the black spear point and it is the cheaper version ($17 from Big 5). The blade steel is 8Cr15MoV. This steel is about the same as AUS4, except it is Chinese. For those of you who don’t memorize steel names, this is softer steel. It has gotten dull, however I use this knife everyday so it is understandable.  I have read some reviews on this knife that say that the black coating on the blade is Ti-Ni. Due to the way that it is scratching off at the tip, I highly doubt that this coating is titanium nitride. I do like the width, size, and shape of the blade even though some people don’t like the spear point for an E.D.C, but it don’t mind it. There is also jimping on the back of the blade which is nice because I like to choke up on the blade to get more leverage. Moving on to the handle, it’s great. The handle is lightweight and durable (glass filled nylon or zytel, almost same thing) and is extremely comfortable. The overall knife is pretty good for the price. The Carson Flipper method of deploy is amazing. It opens smoothly and almost as fast as an assisted knife. Sometimes you have to flick your wrist to open the blade. The m16-01kz has two locking systems. It has a liner lock and the Auto Lawks system. I personally could do without the Auto Lawks, but it does make the blade very sturdy. On an unrelated topic, there is no pivot wiggle on the blade at all which is great! The knife is great except for one HUGE FLAW. The flaw with the CRKT m16-01kz is that the liner lock will sometimes slide past the blade. This makes it impossible to close the blade without prying the blade back with a lot of force and a flat head screwdriver. This flaw must be fixed! I sent several messages to CRKT and got a new knife which has never had this problem. I don’t know whether the first knife was defective, but as far as I know, this flaw could occur with any m16-01kz. My advice if this happens to you is that you should return this knife and get a better one. As I said, my new knife hasn’t had this problem so far and I use it as my E.D.C. (every day carry). Even though this knife has some flaws, I still love it. What more can you expect for $17? If it didn’t have that huge flaw with the blade sliding past the liner, I would give it 8.5/10. However, I still must consider that flaw and rate it 6.3/10. 

Buying Guide 1: Brands, places, knives

               Places to buy knives: Over the years, it has become harder and harder to find reliable places with good prices (and return policies) to buy knives. The better the reputation of the company, for example Benchmade, the more money dealers will mark up their prices. I have found that it is best not to buy knives directly from the manufacturer. At the same time, you don’t want to buy knives from retailer stores because the prices will be extravagant. I have found that it is best to try knives out in stores or through friends who have those knives, and then buy them online. It is important to shop around though.

                A word on brands: In my opinion, brand names aren’t everything but they can be helpful. For example, if you are looking for a fixed blade combat knife, don’t look at Swiss Army Knives. If you are looking for a throw-away knife that you may potentially drop in the ocean, don’t look for a Benchmade; look for Gerber (not meant as an insult to Gerber). For more information on the reputation, pricing, and basic quality of knife brands, see the Knife Brands page. If you are looking for a certain kind of knife, the brand will help you find it, but don’t use the brand name as a determining factor for quality.
                What to look for in a knife: First of all, figure out what you will be using the knife for. This will help you determine whether you need a fixed blade, assisted folding, folding with flipper, traditional folding, etc. For example, if you want your seven-year old kid to graduate from a Swiss Army knife, it would be best to get them a traditional, plain folding knife. Then when they are older, you can graduate them to an assisted, then a fixed blade, then a gun. I’m kidding, but still. You need to know what you are looking for. It’s always essential to check your local laws with knife carrying. I know that in California, you can’t carry anything bigger than a four inch folding knife in your pocket. Please note that in that sentence I was referring to any knife that closes, not the action of a knife. Another thing to look for is the steel. Again, this depends on what you are using it for. You might want to use 154CM if you aren’t going to have a sharpening stone, but if you are wading through creeks, you will want AUS8 or another type of water safe steel.  The handle of your knife is also essential, you should decide whether you want something small and lightweight, or if you like a heavier feel to your knife handle. Overall for handles, I suggest zytel (glass filled nylon) because it is pretty lightweight and extremely sturdy. On most zytel handles, you could try and smash the handle with a sledgehammer and it wouldn’t crack. The next thing to figure out for your knife is price. I have to say, you really don’t want to economize a survival knife or combat knife, but on an EDC, I guess you could go cheaper quality. I will have a post next week on some reasonably priced every day carry knives. Of course, the best thing that you can do when you are trying to find a knife is to go to a store and try a few out to see what you like. 

Review: Buck Tempest

Buck has come a long way since its first standard folding knife. I recently got this beautiful assisted knife at R.E.I. and so far, I am quite impressed. This is a lightweight, but sturdy folding knife. In my opinion, it is a little wide for an E.D.C, which is what I will be using it for however I am comparing it to my small CRKT m16-01kz (which I will be doing a review on next week). Okay, back to the knife. The blade is partially serrated, but you can get a straight edge. The knife came razor sharp out of the box and cuts through paper almost with the smoothness of a Benchmade knife. I have yet to find out what the the steel is, I know that it is either 420HC or 154CM. Either way, these are both really high quality stainless steels. I don’t really like the serrations, but that is my personal opinion and good serrations are hard to find. So far, after a week of testing the blade has held up quite nicely and is still sharp. I have to admit, I was surprised at the quality of the blade. Unfortunately, there is no jimping on the back of the blade which would have been a nice feature. The handle of the knife I have looks exactly the same as the one in the picture. Unfortunately, the knife did come very dirty and it is very hard to clean off the grime. There are other colors of the knife, but this is the only one that the store had available. One of the issues that I am concerned about is the blue color because I am afraid that it might scratch. So far, it hasn’t but I will have to test it more. To hold, the Tempest’s handle is light (due to the frame). Another issue I have with the handle is the lock on the back to keep the blade from opening in your pocket. This is a good safety feature but it interferes with the grip, especially if you want to use a reverse grip. As I said previously, I like the safety features on this knife. It has a lock to prevent it from opening, and a liner lock. The action on this knife is very smooth and quick. It has thumb studs and a flipper to open, but I pinched myself when using the thumb studs because the blade opens so quickly. I bought this knife for about $64 and it was worth every dollar so far. The blade is sharp, the handle comfortable, and the action smooth. I only have a few small issues with this knife. My opinion is that the Tempest is a very good knife however, it is not meant to be an E.D.C. (too big and the blade is too wide) or a combat knife. I think this knife is a good folder to carry in the open, or on a trip but it would be hard to carry it every day. It is because of this reason that I have deducted most of the points from the score. Overall, I give this knife a rating of 7.8/10 stars and recommend it for your collection.

Knife Grading Scale

I grade knives on many different categories. All of the knives that I review have been with me for at least 3 weeks and have been tested to make sure that I know what I am talking about when I review them. The categories that I grade knives on are as follows:

•         Blade: The most crucial part of the knife which I grade on the steel, geometry, and overall sharpness of the blade.
•            Handle: Ergonomics, balance, durability, and weight of the handle help to determine the quality of the knife just as well as the blade.
•     Overall Knife: This category is based the whole knife which means the weight and performance of everything. This includes the action, the locking mechanism, and if included, the sheath.  
•       Value: The knife must be worth what you pay for it. I deduct “points” for any defects or if I think the knife is not worth what I paid for it.
•       Opinion: My opinion of the knife (which may include the looks and practicality). Your opinion may be different.

These five categories are what I base my reviews on for knives. I try to make well informed decisions as to whether these knives are worth purchasing or not. I would love to hear your opinion on these knives if you want to email me.