I’ve had this knife for a while, having snagged it second hand (they are decently annoying to buy new, as they are in high demand). This is a small, and very lightweight, fixed blade knife — designed for processing game (such as birds and fish). It’s made to the same quality and standards of all Chris Reeve blades, and it’s completely unexpected when you have it in hand.
It’s likely to be a polarizing knife, so let’s dive in.
Materials & Specs
The specs from Chris Reeves:
- CPM Magnacut 63-64 RC Full Tang Drop Point Blade
- Removable Black or Natural Canvas Micarta handles
- Slim fit KYDEX® sheath by Chris Reeve Knives with standard 3/4″ hole spacing.
- Overall Length: 7.957″ (202.11mm)
- Blade Length: 3.775″ (95.89mm)
- Blade Thickness: .125″ (3.18mm)
- Weight: 2.4 oz (68 g)
In a lot of ways, this is a longer Sebenza with a fixed blade — it has the same feel as a Sebenza blade. What’s astonishing here is the weight, or lack thereof — at 2.4 oz this is a very lightweight knife. And yet there’s nothing about the build of this that feels like “oh that’s where they cut the weight out”. Staggering, really.
It’s long, narrow, well made with a heck of a heat treat on the steel.
In Use
First, what’s this knife for, per Chris Reeve’s website:
Its full-tang drop point blade makes it our go-to knife for bird and fish processing, while still providing ample belly for many larger game processing steps, alongside a long list of other cutting tasks outside of the field.
Basically, this is an everyday knife for fishermen and bird hunters. Neither of which is what I bought it for. I’ve heard this likened to a ‘steak knife’ as it has that long and lean design — not something you’d visualize as a hard use knife.
In fact, when I first got this in hand I was underwhelmed. Yes the fit and finish is quite nice, and the sheath is great too, but I had no real idea of what practical purpose this knife would take on. What’s the point?
Still, I waited a long time for this, so I pressed forward. And the utility of this funny little fixed blade started to show itself. If you’re a Sebenza owner (small or large) then imagine you got that knife a little longer, and in a fixed blade. Think about that — what you have is a pretty damned sweet little fixed blade assuming you like the Sebenza (who doesn’t?).
Now imagine the knife weighs a lot less than your Sebenza. Hell yeah.
There’s a lot to like about this little blade, so let’s start with the really good parts:
- It’s very light in hand, so much so that it feels too light at times. Generally I like lighter blades, so this is fully positive for me.
- The handle is plenty long to allow for a full and secure grip.
- There’s nice contouring on the handle design and the micarta scales.
- The heat treatment seems really good on this, as it holds a fantastic edge and is very resistant to edge damage on the few “oops there” moment’s I’ve had with it impacting metal/concrete.
- It looks very compelling.
- It handles kitchen based tasks very well, which should not be a surprise.
- The sheath is solidly above average.
But there’s some gotcha’s with this blade too, I would not say they are fully negative, but they are certainly not positives:
- The scales are physically smaller than the tang, so the metal is a part of what you are gripping. The edges of the metal are nicely eased, but over time they will work up a hot spot on your hand. (Part of this is, I think, becuase the knife is designed to be used without scales if you prefer and this makes perfect alignment less of an issue and production easier.)
- The included lanyard is absurdly long.
- The knife itself, when in the sheath, is very long. So long it won’t fit in a front pocket well, so you’ll need to wear the blade — which is a miss for me in this size class.
Even still, this blade handles exceptionally well for how long the cutting edge is. It feels like a knife that is 20% shorter in hand, but it’s not. The odd thing to get your head wrapped around with this knife, is that it is overly fancy, but made for a very practical (and decidedly not) fancy purpose of processing small game and fish. That leaves this in an odd position for those who are actually buying this blade (myself included).
In my normal tasks of cutting up boxes, open packages, and trimming zip ties and cutting twine — I found this knife to be a really nice tool to use. It’s not too fat like most fixed blades, so you can sneak it into spots you need to easily. It’s light in weight so it doesn’t bog you down, and the handle is very long and works well with or without gloves.
There was nothing I used this knife for where I thought another blade would handle it better. The only downside the entire time I used this, was carrying the knife. I often carried it in my jacket pocket, or back pocket if I was doing stuff around the house.
Overall
Initially, I thought I would sell this, perhaps without even writing it up. But I kept using it as I was drawn to the look and feel of the knife in hand. And every time I used it, I was happy to be using it.
So the real downside to this knife is not the knife, it’s carrying the damned knife. Since it doesn’t fit well in my front pocket, it needs to be stowed in a much larger pocket, or on my belt. As the weather cooled off, this has found a spot riding in my jacket pockets when I process recycling items, head to the storage unit, or do tasks around the yard. It’s small but capable, and has a wicked edge.
Oh, and I almost forgot, Chris Reeve notes that this ships with a convex grind on the blade edge. Goes without saying, but this knife has barely even needed the strop to stay sharp.
This is a supremely nice knife, something I quite like to use, but something I really find frustrating to carry. It’s great, but it’s not something I’ll recommend based on how hard it is to carry for how small-task focused the blade is. If you are someone who is apt to carry a knife outside your pocket — this certainly should be something to consider.