I'll show you what is tactical and why

 I'll show you what is tactical and why.

Ok, aside from the karabiners and rescue figure of eight descender in the above picture, sure they can have both recreational and tactical roles, that should be obvious, for example from canyoning to rescue operations etc. Now is THAT particular knife "Tactical" or rather a "Tactical tool"?

Let's see!

Since a knife isn't of any practical use without the capacity for it to be transported; we will start by discussing  (with self explanatory pictures) the scabbard.

So in order to be designated "tactical" this scabbard MUST feature some practical aspects which go beyond a regular scabbard and in fact it does!

How about the knife? Surely it's just a knife?

Let's see eh?

Is there any (Tactical) advantage of this knife over a similar sized knife?

Well let's start with that it is strong, as in it can take a 68Kg load (my current body weight) across the horizontal axis. ie 667N force.

Ok so we have now ascertained the knife in question is strong, so? Lot's of knives are strong, although I would certainly not advocate standing on your knife to test it as there is always a chance of a serious injury! "Don't do as i do, do as I say" LOL!

However, no doubt one could at least place 68 kg across the spine (if one could do that with their hands- most people couldn't), the blade might in a pinch be able to be used as a lever. Well, this is a military style knife and the intended market is NOT for the civilian as most civilians have no use of such a knife, come on, it's no good for hunting, way too heavy for hiking and it's use for the soldier is obvious in my mind but what about potential civilian usage? Yes, it can be used to good effect for food preparation (I've done it many times dealing with large bony headed estuary catfish, chopped apart palm tree hearts (in lieu of carrying a machete) 

- WHOA! you ask:  "Hey why didn't you carry a machete -or even a fish knife?" Well, because I knew where we would be going and whilst it's jungle, it's simply not dense enough to carry a machete- and a fish knife can't chop anything-right? 

One must know something about their environment you plan to travel in, makes sense right?

Let's talk about sharpening a knife

Knives come in a myriad of shapes and it is those shape/s that to a major degree influence how: easy or not so easy and or the skill level required to sharpen them. Let's face it, a tanto styled knife, especially a western styles tanto, with little to no belly curvature will be a whole lot easier to sharpen than that of a knife sporting various recurved sections etc etc. "Easier" usually equates to "faster" and as a person on the go (eg a soldier) this will probably be of some benefit. Does that make it tactical, possibly? More likely "practical". If you are not "on the go"  then blade shape and sharpening ease has little relevance as one in effect "has all the time in the world" to complete such a task.

Surface coatings

Well this is definitely a tactical requirement  unless you want to get everyone killed by flashing about a shiny object revealing your location. Shiny reflective objects are rare in nature (water excepted), as I 'm talking about "just stuff" in the bush/ forest; so anything that shines could mean human presence. 

Yesterday, for instance, as I was, let's just say, "buzzed by a (probably IR capable) drone- you can hear them coming as they sound like a cut down helicopter and the pitch from the rotors is much lower than that of regular small drones, and thus was a dead giveaway to the type drone. One could only try and avoid detection by locating inside of a forest asap and making sure no objects were reflective and that one stood under a slightly leaning tree as to shield my IR signal. It seemed to work obviously as I'm here typing away LOL. Black and dull matt black is best. 

But seriously, me thinks this was a "cop drone" on a either a S and R (I doubt this), or testing (more than likely), or there were bad guys (not me) lurking in the forest which I thought I was alone in (t's possible too- don't ask me why I believe this) - Yes the trouble I go to making videos, sometimes takes me to some somewhat dodgy regions around the globe, I have no idea why I bother to make my reviews as real as possible, far easier to to film in my garage LOL. 

Anyway, It doesn't really matter, they the controllers of the drone) gave up and left the area after about 15 minutes and multiple passes. Ok I get distracted, yes black matt Mil Spec (doesn't have to be but I guess if you want government contracts) then it must be Military specification, coatings are going to make your knife "tactical".

So surface coatings have no practical use for the civilian unless he or she for some reasons (best to not to ask), want to be able to "disappear" it might help???

So in summary I believe it is the carry system which really makes this knife a tactical knife rather than the knife per se. 

As the carry options make transport options greater and thus one more flexible I believe.

If you really want to see a tactical knife then please read my articles on the following knives:

FKMD Leonida Combat survival knife FX- 0171107

This knife (now about 15 years in service )has served me well around the globe.

You can try here for starters

or this knife the Extrema Ratio NFG Fulcrum, the non bayonet version (everything else except the bayonet fitting)

See here for starters


Both of the above knives can easily cut hardened barbed wire and or wire of equivalent thickness both come with rigid scabbards housing a diamond plate sharpener. Both have a serrated section. Both are very strongly constructed but not overly heavy.

BCT

Kizer Beaver Finger knife made with Nitro V utility Skinning Knife

 Kizer "Beaver" Finger knife made with Nitro V utility Skinning Knife.

I'm kind of partial to some finger knives as i think they have their place, well if you have a reason to carry one. certainly their versatility is great from the point of view of having a very sturdy but very small fixed blade. Box cutting and utility functions they excel at. This particular one will be perfect for rapid skinning as my index finger perfectly reaches to (almost) the tip of this knife whilst I can also grip the knife amidst (possibly) slimy hands.

The KIZER BEAVER, (Kizer's own design) is made from Nitro V. If you re not familiar with Nitro V then here is the composition: (Image taken from: as per Knife steel Nerds as per Peter Bruno at New Jersey Baron)

As the above table shows Nitro V is almost the same as AEB-L, however, I would recommend reading the thorough summary of this steel from Dr Larrin Thomas AKA Knife steel Nerds

Nitro V was originally developed by New Jersey Steel Baron in conjunction with, and produced   by Buderus Edelstahl GmbH. It is a modification of AEB-L and incorporates Nitrogen to enhance the quality of the grain structure. This can be achieved with as little as 0.1-0.12% Nitrogen. To read more about nitrogen enhanced knife steels see my extensive article here.

Essentially the composition of Nitro V will provide a finer grain structure than AEB-L and excellent corrosion resistance. You can read more about it here from Knife Steel Nerds review

This is what Knife Steel Nerds says:

So basically we see a small knife blade with good toughness, so all the better not to be afraid to put it to hard use and that's exactly what I did as you can see in some of the above images

Stats at a glance: 3" blade, Nitro V steel, HRC 60-61, handle construction is a sort of black micarta and orange G10 liners. Torxhead bolts, drop point high sabre grind and a portion of the spine has been left with an acute edge so a fire steel can be easily struck against it.

The knife is kept carry safe with a kydex scabbard with excellent lockup. However, due to the small size of the "Tek lok" style clip, there is no provision for a locking mechanism which would/could prevent the accidental release of the clip from your belt. Try as I might I was unable for a full days carry to accidental dislodge the belt clip.

The Kizer Beaver design has a big lanyard hole and you could attach a karabiner to this rather large ring. I can think of no reason to do this though as one risks dislodging the knife from the scabbard. However, I see potential as a make shift martial arts "device" as in rope dart, should one be proficient with such a technique then I'll let you come to your own conclusions as to this possible use.

For me this knife represents a very cool little skinning knife and if not for this usage then it like many finger knives can provide and exceptionally stronger blade than the equivalent sized folding knife albeit with a  much longer carry profile and much shorter blade. Granted, these types of knives are not  everyone's "cup of tea" and are thus what I would deem more of a specific end use knife as I have mentioned for hunting purposes, due to the short blade and handle. Maybe a "gentleman's box cutting knife" LOL!

Of course I have demonstrated upon numerous occasions how one can use these small fixed blade knives during simple day hiking trips and if you are one who likes to move as light as possible and yet retain the sturdiness of a fixed blade then this sort of knife could be for you.  

Certainly, the quality in construction is there, not only with the knife itself but also with the construction and lock up of the carry system. It's small carry size will not arouse the attention of today's "Karen" when it gets whipped out around the public picnic tables when you are cutting up your salami. In fact I would argue that it would be less obvious removing it than flicking open a folding knife in what seems to the be the norm these days, like some mall ninja, thus demonstrating how cool you are (or think you are LOL). 

The Kizer Beaver has a blade which is only 3"  long and somewhat shorter if you only count the actual cutting surface. This I believe would fall into the category of possible carry in countries (AKA certain European countries, eg Germany, Italy,  and the United Kingdom just to name a few) where the legal knife size carry is rapidly approaching the  size where one will soon need the electron microscope in order to actually visualise the blade!

More to come!

KIZER CAMP 180 made with AEB-L and G10, Kydex Scabbard

 

KIZER "CAMP 180" made with  AEB-L and G10, Kydex Scabbard. 

Knife Design by:

Jonathan Styles

      

The steel

A seriously robust camp and hunting knife (I'm saying this!), made with the industrial knife steel designated: AEB-L.

Drop point design, 7.7 Oz. or 218 grams, this is a light weight field knife.

Composition: Contains approximately: 0.67% Carbon, 13% Chromium, and 0.60% Manganese. 

Manufactured by Böhler  (Uddeholmstrip) 

According to the literature:

DESCRIPTION
UHB AEB-L is a stainless grade with 13% chromium that is our No.1 choice for knife applications.

ADVANTAGES
» Superior cutting properties
» Close thickness tolerances
» Best available wear resistance
» Good corrosion resistance
» Consistent and uniform quality

Some good old tip abuse and drilling holes into seasoned Cottonwood (never recommended  unless absolutely necessary!)

Feathering Seasoned cottonwood

Feathering seasoned oak

Kizer is a Chinese knife manufacturer based in Guangzhou, China, They import some raw materials such as knife steels.

This knife, the Camp 180 was super comfortable to use and I tested it's edge holding capacity on seasoned oak (hardwood) and season Cotton wood (medium hardness) timber during the course of the day. I used a baton on the spine to split through seasoned birch timber (with a knot) 

and also to split and break apart pine fat wood (below)

Abusive torquing/levering action on this AEB-L blade!

All of this operation did not blunt the blade as evidenced by me being able to effectively slice through some dry reeds at the end of the day.

The manufacturers rated Rockwell hardness is given at HRC 58-60.

Seasoned Oak

The handle

The grip is super comfortable and when working with very hard woods such as Oak, this is important as no hot spots were found and I don't wear gloves as a rule when testing knives or even when not.

The tang is fully enclosed within  olive green drab G10 scales. This for me is an added bonus as this knife could be used without gloves in sub zero temperatures as there is no  exposed tang onto which to freeze you fingers should you get this knife wet. As to wether this design might make it harder to remove any water which might enter between the actual join, this I will have to present the long term data at another time.

The scabbard is made from  kydex and has an excellent and somewhat "tuneable" lockup system whereby one can make some small adjustments to the lockup via a Phillips head screw and rubber washer assembly. My knife scabbard came with a perfect lock up as far as I was concerned and there was no chance of accidental falling out of the knife. Also I might add, I did not need to use brute force to remove the knife! There is also a small drain hole on one side of the scabbard.

The lanyard hole is created between the G10 only and does not pass through any steel tang. Thus the construction of this knife does not allow for any exposed tang, so if banging the butt end of your knife against hard objects is your thing, then this knife is not for you.

Ah, the smell of good old Australia Eucalyptus oil!

Feathering seasoned birch timber, no problems!

The pommel is only G10, so not for bashing anything. The upside of this is that it is comfortable when the palm is pressed against it.

This model the Camp 180 has a slight touch of a Japanese-esque feeling to it and I think this is evidenced by the oval guard.

The Camp 180 is perfect for hunting duties and will suit anything from small to medium game. 

In summary*: The Camp 180 by KIZER  holds an excellent edge after working very hard oak and bashing into seasoned birch timber plus cutting dry grasses (full of abrasive silicon) and bashing my way through knots on oak! I put it through some abusive tests such as two handed twisting into fat wood stubs. AEB-L has been around for a long long time and like D2 should not be discounted as some sort of crap knife steel, because in reality, in the field, it isn't and that's a fact.



Other stuff:

The knife came very nicely packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with minimal plastic and a short length of black paracord (about 1m), and a  cleaning cloth like micro fibre material and a sticker.

The warranty period is "Limited Lifetime Warranty" 
ie against everything except abuse and modification and normal wear and tear.

*Whilst I never talk about pice in the channel or here, I must say for under $100 USD, this knife represents exceptional value for money if one is looking to get a good quality hunting and camping knife.