Ontario Bushcraft Woodsman w/Nylon

The knife does not come with a fire starter, paracord lanyard and de Santis sheath. It does come with a black nylon sheath with a double snap closure system and a front pouch with Velcro closure. It is a well designed, very nice sheath. The knife is impressive at 15" long with 9.5" blade, 1/4" spine, 2" depth and 16.95 oz weight. Out of the box the edge is useable, though I have never seen a knife well sharpened out of the box. The 1/4" spine edges have not been rounded at all, a feature I like. The handle, made of walnut or laminated hardwood, depending on who you believe, is the least attractive and weakest part of the knife. According to Ontario, the 5160 blade is 53-55 HRc. After a mild re-profiling and serious sharpening, I would believe it is a little harder than 55 rc. While as sharp as most factory edges out of the box, a little work can bring it to a scary sharp edge. It seems to hold an edge quite well. I am of the generation that believed a knife should be used as a knife, not as an ax, hatchet, hammer, shovel or any other tool: a knife is made for doing knife things. However, this knife seems to be a product made for those who believe knives should be abused. As such, its geometry and steel should withstand any job it is given. It is well made, well designed, is made of excellent steel, is well treated and tempered and can be made outstandingly sharp. When I first began to use it, I thought the handle profile was a problem. The wood "bolster" seemed to be too large for comfort, probably to keep hands from sliding forward, or provide extra purchase for a forward grip. However, after using the knife for a prolonged period, I found the handle size and shape seemed quite comfortable and to fit me well . After much use, the blade is obviously tough and well treated, holding a very fine, sharp edge very well. When it does begin to dull, it may be brought back to razor like sharpness with little effort. The edges of the spine can easily and effectively be used to scrape when that action is needed. The sheath is as comfortable to wear as any of that size, and there is no fear of the knife accidently falling out. 5160 steel is not stainless. While there are endless arguments about which steel is best, when considering a knife of this size and type, 5160 is always in the mix. If you need or are considering a knife this size, this one would be hard to beat. For this price, this may be the best knife value available.

In my home state of Missouri near Kansas City we have an insane amount of thorn trees, thorn bushes, and thorny shrubs. They are invasive weeds that grow wild all over the place. So any amount of bushwacking will no doubt land you in or near thorn patches. I flipping hate them. They snag at your clothes and tear up exposed skin. My trusty ESEE-6, though a commanding blade, doesn't do much to clear these pests from the path or take them out at good opportunities. The buggers will reach a solitary branch just below the waste and snag on your jeans/shirt/nylon pants and grab a hold, so you need something that can adequately remove the obstacle and save your clothes or skin, and destroy the flippin' stalk if you can.Now, ESEE has a partnership with OKC and they make a lot (if not all) of the ESEE blades. I was first introduced to ESEE last fall and I purchased the ESEE-6. It is an impressive knife, extremely well made, and it has a lifetime warranty that follows the knife. It's a darn good product but it ain't cheap. You get what you pay for, that's for sure.So for a time I was looking at the Junglas by ESEE to deal with my tramps through the brush, but that's pricey at $160. The RAK-II by OKC is effectively the same knife, but at nearly half the price. Both of these models (and pretty much the whole ESEE line) has a coating on them. The coating helps protect the knife from rust and wear (these are high carbon steel blades and without proper care they will rust easily), but it makes camp cooking harder and the top edge of the knife cannot really be used with a fire steel because the coating obfuscates the metal and it has a rough texture not too dissimilar from a light coat of paint poured over sandpaper.Which brings me to this here knife. It is large enough to hack at the thorn bushes, has a 90 degree spine with a heck of an edge on it for striking a ferro rod, it can smash and chop some fresh garlic, and it has a commanding feel in your hand and on your waist. It is a no nonsense blade that will strike brush out of your path, baton a 9" log, strike a spark, and clean up nicely to help you cook dinner. Take good care of this knife an it'll take good care of you. That being said, this is not a machete. I have a machete and it's great and all, but I feel that it's a little intimidating to carry around when you might see other people. And a machete isn't something that can serve a bunch of bushcrafting purposes in most regards, like food prep, batoning logs, and striking a spark.Now on to the sheath. This does not come with some of the bells and whistles that $90 version comes with - like the paracord bracelet that i'm sure you have six of, or the striking rod which should already be a part of your kit along with a back up, but the sheath is nice. It is official OKC, has a front pouch that measures 6" with an over top Velcro strap that will give you 2" more for another folding knife or something. The part that holds the blade has a plastic insert to keep the knife from ripping through the nylon. The sheath is molly compatible. It's nothing to write home about, but it's serviceable for the moment. If it goes to s--t, I'll salvage the plastic insert and make a new one, no big deal.This is an awesome knife and well worth the money.

The media could not be loaded. I decided to test this thing out this afternoon. In about 10 minutes I chopped through this trunk of an old fig tree (see photo) that's been drying out for several years in the yard. Absolutely nothing wrong with the knife. The edge wasn't shaving sharp after that, but it wasn't too bad, either. Several passes on a paper polishing wheel, and it is shaving hair off my arm again.Lots of people are complaining about the switch to 420. The reasons they did that were corrosion problems and the fact that the knife wasn't selling with the 5160 blade. The VP of engineering said they were spending too much time with reworks because the blades were rusting like an infectious disease.Even with the material switch, this knife is well worth the money. You can't find many tough stainless choppers out there. Ontario seems to be going for the tougher steels on a lot of their knives now (1075 instead of 1095 on much of the spec plus line), and I am glad. There are way too many examples of broken blades from them.So this knife is well worth the money. While the fit and finish is wanting, the function is all there. And 420 is not a bad steel, people just make a lot of junk out of it.UPDATE: I've just chopped through another log, this one a harder wood than the fig tree. (See additional photo and video) Knife held up great. Won't shave hairs off my arm anymore, but still cuts paper just fine.