I just bought one of these from Track of the Wolf (I see Crazy Crow has the identical knife as well). When it arrived it was the rustiest knife I have ever seen - including some I have dug when metal detecting! I swear it came over from India on the deck of a ship. The knife was in a plastic bag, inside the sheath, and another bag over the sheath & knife. The bone was starting to mold. This was horrible treatment of a knife and I was GREATLY disappointed.
But I wanted to see if I might request a replacement rather than a refund so I rubbed away some rust. Then a little more. Two hours later I emerged from the cellar with it cleaned up acceptably. But, unfortunately, I neglected to take a "before" image.
This is the after:
The sheath stinks. I mean, my wife came in the kitchen when I was sharpening the knife and said: "What smells like moldy potatoes?" It truly does. And not just faintly, I mean it is an overpowering, room filling stench. Not sure what vegetable was used in the leather processing but it has a powderful odor. I swapped it out for a Montana Americana sheath and the original is hanging in the garage to air out. The machine stitching appears to be natural fiber (cotton?) and there is no metal, so IMHO it's quasi-authentic.
Small steel pins (not brass as catalog states - they hold a magnet), level forged in blade taper, bone handles. Not a bad design at all and it feels good in the hand. The sharp portion of the blade is about 4-3/8" long (the catalog says 5-1/4" and that includes the forged in ricasso).
But now to the part of why this is a $50 knife and not a $16 knife. The Damascus is striking now that I've polished the rust off and brought back some tone with mustard and a rubbing of olive oil to hold it. The out-of-the-box edge was child safe and I set to work with my KME sharpener and a light ceramic sticking and now it shaves hair. The steel behaves like well tempered 1095, which I like as a knife steel. Note that because of the different layers the edge takes a little more work than a homogeneous knife blank.
Overall - I'm happy with it. I came within minutes of boxing it right back up and returning it, but am now glad I persisted.
But I wanted to see if I might request a replacement rather than a refund so I rubbed away some rust. Then a little more. Two hours later I emerged from the cellar with it cleaned up acceptably. But, unfortunately, I neglected to take a "before" image.
This is the after:
The sheath stinks. I mean, my wife came in the kitchen when I was sharpening the knife and said: "What smells like moldy potatoes?" It truly does. And not just faintly, I mean it is an overpowering, room filling stench. Not sure what vegetable was used in the leather processing but it has a powderful odor. I swapped it out for a Montana Americana sheath and the original is hanging in the garage to air out. The machine stitching appears to be natural fiber (cotton?) and there is no metal, so IMHO it's quasi-authentic.
Small steel pins (not brass as catalog states - they hold a magnet), level forged in blade taper, bone handles. Not a bad design at all and it feels good in the hand. The sharp portion of the blade is about 4-3/8" long (the catalog says 5-1/4" and that includes the forged in ricasso).
But now to the part of why this is a $50 knife and not a $16 knife. The Damascus is striking now that I've polished the rust off and brought back some tone with mustard and a rubbing of olive oil to hold it. The out-of-the-box edge was child safe and I set to work with my KME sharpener and a light ceramic sticking and now it shaves hair. The steel behaves like well tempered 1095, which I like as a knife steel. Note that because of the different layers the edge takes a little more work than a homogeneous knife blank.
Overall - I'm happy with it. I came within minutes of boxing it right back up and returning it, but am now glad I persisted.
