Now this is not quite common for me. I don´t like tactical knives at all. I simply cannot relate to the idea of carrying a knife that is nothing but a weapon. Any knife can be a weapon, don´t get me wrong, but I do not want to think about that nonsense of "sneaking up to sentinels" or "winning a knife fight". Noone wins a knife fight. Both contrahents will bleed, and chance is, both will die from their injuries. If you get assaulted, you will instinctively use what you can lay hands on in the instant, be it a rock, a piece of clothing, your hands, legs, feet, or, if you so want, a knife, apillow or a handkerchief. If a knife is at hand, and you ARE in lethal danger, your instict will of course make use of it. The romantiscism of being a soldier somehow fails to appeal to me;-). However, many tactical designs are just plain good or even great, and when I got the opportunity to review this Enforcer hunting knife, I just dug it. My excuses for the lousy pics, I have to fiddle with the new old camera still... The knife comes in a relatively good Cordura sheath. The blade is Chinese made from 8CrMoV steel, which is but a tiny notch below 440C with a carbon content of 0,80% but with much the same content of Chromium, Molybdenum and Vanadium. It claims to be tempered to 58HRC, and, having tested it as I commonly test knives;-) I can safely say it gets the job done. It´s hard enough and flexible enough and makes for a tough knife.
The scales are G-10 with a cleanly made bead-blasted finish, and screwed on with nicely made and finished Torx head screws. The handle is big and chunky and could do with some ergonomic features, but as is, it works well enough. It reminds one a bit of the Ontario RAT-3 handle design.
It´s a bit unusual for me that the blade has this finger notch and the centre of gravity is far back. I personally like to have an edge that goes all the way up to the handle for more power when carving and more control. But this design has obvious advantages. This knife is a legal carry at 100 mm length, but, BOY, does it chop and split wood! The spine is a monstrous 7mm thick. Due to the wide blade with a high flat grind, it´s an able slicer, though. The blade came hair poppingly sharp out of the box and made short terms with kitchen tasks as well as batoning.
There´s a piece of the tang protruding out of the scales as a glassbreaker, and serving double duty as a lanyard hole. I could not test the glassbreaking ability, but it also opens beer bottles nicely...;-).
This knife is sold for 39,00€. For that little it´s a reliable companion with a great steel for the job, and it´s up to par with knives selling for ten times as much. It´s no wonder steel doing legendary things, but you can sharpen it without nuclear power tools. It takes a very keen edge (and holds it very well), cuts and chops and gets batoned and even pries well. The handle is comfortable enough, even if it could be better, but we are talking bargain basement here! The sheath is nothing to brag about, but make a new one or buy another, and this knife will serve you well for a long period of time. Take it out bushcrafting, hunting or even barbecueing, you name it, it does it. Just leave those sentinels alone, do you?*ggg*
