My Absolute Favorite FULL TANG Bowie Knife

March 17, 2019 iluvknives

If you have never gotten your hands on the Buck 124, then you definitely need to. There are many things that I ABSOLUTELY love about the blade. It comes out of the box with a RAZOR sharp 6-1/4″ blade made from 420HC steel. The build is absolutely solid. I’ve used mine quite extensively for over two years now and it is still rock solid, no rattling, minimal sharpening needed, and perfectly capable of batoning. For these reasons alone, I think that the Buck 124 is the best full tang bowie knife.

The Grip of the Buck 124

The grip is solid and secure. It is a black micarta handle with curves and palm swells that allow for the perfect grip. It fits in my hands perfectly and I wear large size gloves. There is a bit of extra room, so if you wear XL gloves you shouldn’t have a problem. The aluminum pommel is a nice touch as well. It does add a bit of extra weight, which is the only caveat. However, I will take a bit of extra weight for a good looking knife.

The Leather Case

The case is quite convenient. The Buck 124 bowie knife is designed for best carry, and if that is what you plan on doing with it, then it will serve you well. The case is made from genuine, high quality leather.

Made in the USA

The knife is made in the USA. So, if you are a fan of USA made stuff, then this is the knife for you. I am bias to Japanese knives personally, especially tanto knives, but lately the Americans have been making some extremely high quality knives. Buck has been making their knives in the USA since 1902. There are plenty of good reasons why Buck is still in business, and the Buck 124 is one of them.

Kershaw Brawler Tanto Review

March 4, 2018 iluvknives

The BEST Affordable Assisted Tanto Folder.

Yes, I’ll admit it. I’ve had many knives pass through my hands over the years and Kershaw has been hit or miss for me. However, the Kershaw Brawler *cough cough* excuse me… I meant to say the Kershaw TANTO Brawler is the BEST affordable assisted folder with a tanto tip that I have ever purchased.

Let’s start off with my absolute favorite thing about this knife – the blade length. The Brawler has the PERFECT amount of blade as well as not a sharp tanto angle, but a bit of a curved edge making it not only have the awesome tanto look.

The Grip Design

Another huge factor in my decision to name this as the best affordable tanto folder that I have is the grip. Not only is the design really cool, but it also allows for a great grip. There are shallow grooves within the grip which allow your hands to still dig in without slipping even when they are sweaty.

The knife comes with the clip positioned in a tip down position on the grip straight out of the box. However, I always prefer my knives to be tip up and luckily the Kershaw Brawler tanto allows for a 4 way repositioning.

The Flipper

The flipper is well designed, but it falls a tad short in my opinion. I wish that Kershaw would have extended the flipper slightly more and made the edge a bit more rigid instead of smoothed over. However, it is a small price to pay for the overall great design of the knife.

I also love how deep the knife sits in the pocket. It isn’t a deep carry knife, but the knife does carry pretty deeply in the pocket regardless. Also, I love how Kershaw has been making all blacked-out knives lately instead of their typical black handle, grey blade models. The all black looks much better in my opinion.

Hinderer XM-18 3-Inch Knife Review

September 9, 2017 iluvknives

Razor Sharp Hinderer XM-18

I don’t think that I have ever had a production knife come straight out of the box as sharp as my Hinderer XM-18 did. It was so sharp that I was making micro-slices in printer paper. I also love the lock bar stabilizer that came with the knife. Most stabilizers I normally have to push too far just to unlock the knife, but the stabilizer on the XM-18 is PERFECT. If you want to skip this review and go straight to where you can buy the knife, click on the picture below. However, if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty of this knife, I will break down both the good and the bad.

The Good – Hinderer XM-18 3 Inch

Hinderer is famous for overbuilding their knives. The XM-18 is no exception to this. This knife is completely overbuilt. Now, some may think that this is a bad thing. I think that the fact Hinderer makes their knives to take a beating is one of the greatest things about their knives.

The construction of this knife is solid. In fact, I have dropped mine several times on my solid concrete floors in my house and it hasn’t even managed to make a scratch on the Hinderer XM-18 spanto. I would assume that the Hinderer XM-18 wharncliffe would behave in the same manner, but I only own the spanto version of the knife.

The Bad – XM-18 3 Inch Knife By Hinderer

Unfortunately, the blade is so heavy that when I open it the recoil is quite large. Now, I get that this may be a good thing for some, but I don’t like how authoritative the opening is. I wish that it wasn’t so forceful, but I guess you can’t get everything when you get a knife that is so overbuilt. I also wish that they used a polish finish on the blade, but I do like the finish regardless.

Bottomline – Get It

This is a great knife for bad conditions. If I were to only have one knife for the rest of my life, I would definitely pick a knife close to the Hinderer XM-18 spanto. This knife isn’t going to break easily, and if I needed a folding knife for survival-like situations, then this would be a great option.

Boker Besh Wedge Review

September 8, 2017 iluvknives

Finally! A Neck Knife With A Besh Wedge!

Thank you Boker, finally someone in the knife industry decided to make a neck knife with a besh wedge! Boker was kind enough to create a beautiful blade with 4.25 inches worth of cutting edge. Most neck knives are so small that I can barely fit my large sized hands comfortably on them. However, Boker stepped their game up and made a knife that I can actually grip. I was so excited to get my hands on this knife when it first came out, and I am glad that I bought it. With that being said, there are some things that could be changed about this knife, but overall, it is a great knife. If you want to skip my besh wedge review and just go buy the knife, click the picture below. However, if you want to hear about all the nitty-gritty then keep on reading.

Slick Besh Wedge Design By Brent Beshara

Brent Beshara was the original designer of this besh wedge knife and I think that he did a great job. He hails from Canada, where it is so cold you need a knife just to cut through your frozen food. The knife looks slick overall. I understand that it is a neck knife, and being a neck knife it does have quite a bit of handle grip.

However, I would have extended the handle a little further out, but I have bigger hands than the average person, so your opinion of the knife may be slightly different from mine. A person who wears medium sized gloves should find no issue with the size of the handle.

Kydex Sheath Included

One of the main reasons that I bought the Boker besh wedge neck knife is because of the fact that they included a Kydex sheath in the mix. I love Kydex. It is much better than your typical cheap plastic sheath that you get with most Chinese knives.

Kydex is actually heat formed to make a better fit to the actual blade resting inside of it. I actually don’t know if I would have originally bought the blade had they not included the Kydex sheath. It was a major plus to the overall package.

Boker Besh Wedge Bottomline

In conclusion, I would buy the knife again if I didn’t already have one. I might gift a couple during the holidays to my friends and my nephew. While this knife isn’t a complete homerun for me, it has most of the features that I look for in a knife. However, I am a tad bias about this besh wedge review. I am bias because I have never really been a huge fan of neck knives. I get that there is a huge community of neck knife owners that swear by them. However, for me, I prefer to have a folding knife in my pocket. Having something around my neck gets annoying after a while. But that may just be me. If you personally love neck knives, then I recommend you pick one of these up.

Cold Steel Finn Wolf Review

September 2, 2017 iluvknives

I Luv Knives Review Of The Finn Wolf By Cold Steel

Of the hundreds of knives that I own, the Finn Wolf from Cold Steel has to be one of my favorites. I am so glad that Cold Steel finally decided to make a folding knife with a Scandi Grind. While it may seem like a pretty lightweight knife, especially if you only look at the 3.2oz overall weight, this knife has a big, heavy blade.

Also, the lockup of this blade is incredibly secure, I might have to switch out my Mora that I regularly use on camping trips for the Finn Wolf in the future. Most of the weight comes from the hefty blade, and when I say hefty, I mean hefty. The knife is not well balanced at all and that is actually a good thing.

Baton With The Scandi Grind Finn Wolf

I have lately been using my Finn Wolf for batoning through tree branches of various thicknesses and it has held up to the abuse thus far. I’m really impressed with this knife. Normally I, the owner of I Luv Knives, get a knife and it falls short in so many categories. I thought at first I was going to hate this blade because it wasn’t assisted. I usually love assisted knives, but this Cold Steel Finn Wolf review is the exception to that rule.

Cold Steel Finn Wolf Is Great For EDC

I carry the Finn Wolf in my EDC blade rotation now. In fact, this knife has overtaken precedence over my once all-time favorite EDC knife – the SOG Flash II. Sorry SOG, you have been pushed out of the rotation because Cold Steel makes a fine knife. The Tri-Ad lock seals the deal, making this knife virtually as strong as a fixed blade. There is absolutely no blade wiggle both horizontally and vertically, it just simply locks up like a champ. If anything, the lock is actually TOO strong. However, I will never admit that to my friends, but I’m relatively anonymous in this review, so I will tell that secret to you in this Cold Steel Finn Wolf Review. It is actually a tad bit difficult to undo the lock, but I would rather have too strong of a lock than one that fails on me. Overall, I love this knife and it is one of my all time favorites.

The Ultimate Sailing Knife With A Folding Marlin Spike Tool

August 22, 2017 iluvknives

The Best Boating Knife With A Marlin Spike

I always have wanted to have a sailing knife with a marlin spike attached to it so I finally decided to pull the trigger on the Camillus boating knife. They have two versions, but I am glad that I went with the bamboo version, because I heard that the other model has a slippery grip.

You definitely don’t want to have a slippery grip with a boating knife because… well… you are on a boat surrounded by water. Water tends to make boat knives that are slippery even more slippery. Also, the last thing that you want is to cut yourself while you are in the middle of the ocean miles away from medical help. The Camillus Ti Marlin Spike has a dual locking system that allows for both the blade and spike to be locked into place.

Marlin Spike Boat Knife Cutting Area

The cutting area is only 7cm long, but it is plenty for cutting rope and lines, as long as they are under an inch in diameter. If you are worried about your blade rusting while out at sea, then don’t worry, this blade has a very tough coating that will keep it from rusting even after hard use. The only other blade I have seen with such a tough resistance to rusting can be found in my Cold Steel Finn Wolf review. The Finn Wolf seems to never rust, even when I bury it with snow.

Before we received the knife here at I Luv Knives, I was worried that the marlin spike would be flimsy and break on me because I have never seen a folding version before. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how sturdy this sailing knife marlin spike was in practice.

Small Folding Marlin Spike Tool Market

Unfortunately, the boating knife market is a very small niche inside of the very large knife community. It is especially rare to find knife manufacturers making blades with a folding marlin spike tool attached. While it may be a great nautical knife, definitely don’t use it as a throwing knife because it won’t work very well. It has a clear and defined purpose and it is only good for that purpose, nothing else.

I have a feeling that they aren’t a hot ticket item that will be around for too long. So, if you are looking for a boat knife, then I suggest you pick this one up before it becomes discontinued.

Best Budget Folding Knives

June 4, 2017 iluvknives

Best BUDGET KNIVES That Are PURE QUALITY

quality budget blades

Some of those in the knife community think that inexpensive or cheap means that a knife isn’t going to be the best of quality. Good news – That couldn’t be further from the truth. Some inexpensive blades have incredible attention to detail. Below is a list of what I believe are the best budget folding knives to date. All of these knives are below $50 as of June 3rd, 2017.

1. Kershaw Cryo

The Kershaw Cryo was the talk-of-the-town in the knife community when it first came out, and for good reason. With a low price and quality construction, this knife has quite the reputation. The Kershaw Cryo is an assisted knife, meaning that when you press on the back flipper, a spring will assist the knife into the locking position. The only real drawback to the Cryo is that the blade steel is a little soft. The Cryo sports a 2.75 inch 8Cr13MoV stainless steel blade. However, this opening and closing the knife is as smooth as butter. If you have never used a SpeedSafe knife by Kershaw before, then you have seriously been missing out.

2. CRKT Tighe Rad

The Tighe Rad is a fully functional EDC blade with a dual blade grind. While this knife is a little difficult to sharpen, it feels amazing in my hand. The ergonomics of the handle make this knife great. The blade shape and grind are a good look, but until you have actually had this knife in your hands, then you have no idea what you are missing out on.

3. Buck Bantam BHW

The Bantam BHW by Buck Knives is one of the first knives that I have ever bought. The reason that I love the BHW version of the Bantam series is because of the big 3.5 inch stainless steel blade that it sports. The Contoured Injection-Molded Textured Handle gives you a tight grip even when the knife is wet.

4. Kershaw Skyline

The Skyline is one of Kershaw’s top selling knives, and for good reason. For a budget knife that is made in the USA, it boasts a 14C28N stainless steel blade that can take a beating. Also the Skyline is extremely thin. I don’t even know that I have in my pocket half the time. This knife is the ultimate folding food preparation knife. It is also quite useful for camping.

5. Spyderco Spy-DK

This knife is legal almost everywhere in the world. I thought I should add a non-locking knife to the list, and this is the best one that I have ever used. While I am personally not a huge fan on non-locking knives, the Spyderco Spy-DK is one of my favorite knives of all time. It slides perfectly and doesn’t noticeably show in your pocket.

Best Cheap Pocket Knife

May 19, 2017 iluvknives

The Absolute Best Affordable Pocket Knife

Now, before you get your panties in a bunch. Yes, I get that there will be a ton of knife nuts that come here while playing with their $1000 S30V Custom Auto Folding Knife and say, That isnt even close to the best knife ever made! Calm down, read the title again, and then continue. The knife below is what I believe to be the absolute best cheap pocket knife that you can have for under $15. No, it doesnt have a super steel. No, it isnt made in the United States. Yes, it does look like a blatant rip-off of a Chris Reeves Sebenza. All of that aside, this is hands-down, the best cheap pocket knife under $15. I present to you, the Sanrenmu 710.

This knife is wonderful for the money. As of today, June 4th 2016, this knife can be purchased on Amazon for $12.99. It is worth every single penny that I paid for it and I paid even more. For those who arent in the knife collecting community, Sanrenmu is a Chinese knife producer that has been around for a while now.

Definitely The Best Cheap Pocket Knife

I heard somewhere that they are actually the manufacturers of the Spyderco Tenacious, one of the best EDC (every day carry) knives out there, but that is just a rumor and I dont actually know if it is true or not. Either way, the quality to price ratio for this particular knife is outstanding. I actually own three (and bought 2 more that I have away as gifts), simply because they are such good knives for the money.

The knife weighs 3.1 oz and has a blade length of 2.8 inches, which is perfect for EDC. This knife has an 8Cr13Mov blade steel. It feels virtually weightless in your pocket. The tolerances are quite incredible for how inexpensive it is. The frame lock that this knife sports is quite hefty, despite the relatively light weight. I cant think of another blade that has all of these features at this price-point (except maybe the Cold Steel Finn Wolf), and for that reason alone, I believe that it is the best affordable pocket knife on the market today.

Top 5 Inexpensive Folding Knives

May 18, 2017 iluvknives

Top 5 Inexpensive Folding Knives For EDC

Below is a list of my personal favorite and best inexpensive folding knives, all of which can be bought for less than $30. There are many quality knives with a Sub-$30 price tag, but the knives below I feel deserve special recognition.

1. Ontario Rat Model 1

Of course no inexpensive folding knives list would be complete without noting the almighty Rat Model 1 from Ontario. With 3.5 of AUS-8 Steel for a blade and a very comfortable nylon handle, that’s enough reason to take interest. However, don’t just consider the fact that I am interested, consider the fact that this knife has had a 5 star rating on Amazon for years now. I’ve gone camping with this knife numerous amounts of times and am pleased with how well its flat ground, satin finished blade slices through just about anything you would reasonably cut with a knife. This knife is the standard for other budget folding knives. Its buttery-smooth manual opening and closing is truly a treat.

2. CRKT Drifter

Next up on the list is none other than the CRKT Drifter. This knife can be a tricky purchase since it has two different versions, a stainless steel handled version and a G10 version. I highly recommend the G10 version over the stainless steel because the slick handle on the stainless steel will slip right out of sweaty or wet hands. With a 3-inch blade and solid liner lock, this knife fits perfectly into an every day carry role. The Drifter also has a gorgeous Titanium Gray finish on the blade. I wouldn’t recommend this purchase for someone with larger hands, but if you have small to medium sized hands, there is much to love about the Drifter.

3. Kershaw Cryo

Do you like assisted knives? Then you will love the Kershaw Cryo. With a 2.75 blade and Kershaws SpeedSafe assisted opening system, this blade flies out as soon as you press down on the flipper or thumbstud. This is one of Kershaws most purchased knives, and for good reason. There aren’t a whole lot of inexpensive folding knives with a frame lock and lockbar stabilizer at under $30, but somehow Kershaw can still make one and turn a profit. If you have heard about this knife before and considered purchasing, all I can say is you wont regret it.

4. Gerber EZ Out

Okay, first off the review on this knife is going to be quite bias. While it may not be the most popular knife, this is my personal favorite inexpensive EDC (every day carry) knife of all time. No, its not pretty. No, it doesn’t have any fancy assisted opening system or Titanium coating. Yes, it is very plain looking, but hear me out. This is one of the most comfortable inexpensive folding knives that I have ever had in my large hands. It is truly a pleasure to open and close with an authoritative click! every time you flick it out to use it. I have been using an completely abusing this knife for over ten years. I love trying and using different inexpensive folding knives, but this knife always seems to come back into my pocket over the years. The only reason that I didnt make this knife the first on my list is for the fact that most people would stop reading immediately if they saw this knife in the number 1 spot. I recommend this knife to anyone who wants a knife that always seems to get the job done, even though it may not be the prettiest looking knife.

5. Spyderco Byrd Cara Cara 2

The Byrd line is Spydercos budget or inexpensive folding knives line. Don’t fret though, just because these are inexpensive knives, doesn’t mean that Spyderco made dramatic changes in quality. While the US, Japanese, and Taiwanese knives manufactured by Spyderco have absolutely incredible standards of quality, their Chinese made knives are better than most other knives that you can find at their price-point. The Byrd Cara Cara 2 is made in China and has a 3.75 blade made from 8Cr13MoV stainless steel. The knife is 5.6 ounces but surprisingly feels like there is nothing in your pocket when you are carrying it. For me, the handle is the only drawback, as it has some sharp edges that don’t feel great after you have been cutting something for a long period of time. However, many people love it and it is definitely one of the better inexpensive folding knives with superior quality, so it deserves a place on the list.