EXTREMA RATIO Dobermann IV Tactical Version (Black blade Molle Carry System) Review

Extrema Ratio Dobermann IV

When you pick up the Dobermann IV you know it is the evolution of some serious R and D (actually it is! with the University of Florence and Perugia University) to deliver a large practical field blade. You simply can not help but like this big general purpose field  knife. The comfort of the ergonomic handle, the well-balanced blade geometry, with it’s ever so slight recurve shape on the cutting edge begs to be used establishing camp (hanging game up etc)  for medium to large game hunters in remote (without vehicle) and wilderness campers for some serious adventure.
The blades are serial numbered 

which enables EXTREMA RATIO to trace each knife should in the unlikely event a manufacturing problem should occur. This to me says the company is serious about making excellent products. Let's have a closer look:

Spine profile

The spine is a good 6mm thick, with swedge but the spine thickness is still the full width almost to the tip.  No need to say it was deadly razor sharp out of the box, of course it was EXTREMA RATIO are serious. The feel and balance as I've said was fantastic and this is from that ergonomic handle. The handle provides an amazing grip. A cutaway area of the handle serves as a thumb/finger rest. On a large knife it's not really necessary for this area to feature gimping and in this knife you are not going to be slipping with your grip. Just to reiterate, the handle is FORPRENE with a shore hardness of approximately 80 to 90, soft enough for good comfort but hard enough for good mechanical durability. See my previous posts about FORPRENE'S specifications.

Thumb rest

The semi rigid scabbard is great too, with a 6 year warranty! It's totally fully Molle compatible and the stitching and construction was of very high quality, nothing flimsy here. The carry system includes a well designed fully adjustable leg strap. (not shown here only because I took it off!) I'll review it properly in the upcoming videos!

EXTREMA RATIO DOBERMANN IV Carry system

The safety press stud strap is reinforced with a strip of hard rigid plastic. I liked this idea but it is also a necessary one as when one removes the Dobermann IV 

Reinforced retaining strap

unless you position this strap out of the way, the blade will tend to rub against the strap. This is ok as it won't cut it but it's easy enough to get used to moving with one hand the strap out of the way as you remove the knife. The Dobermann IV comes with a spare knife retaining strap.

Specifications at a glance:
Knife + scabbard (excluding leg strap) 542 gm
Knife alone 351 gm
blade length as measured from hilt 180 mm
Actual cutting edge length approx. 175 mm, so it's close enough to the actual blade length.

Verdict: actually been using this knife for a while now, forgot to post this LOL so many things happening! Love this knife.

Extrema Ratio Fulcrum S Review continued!

Here are some good grip positions that can be achieved
Ok here are some more details about the Extrema Ratio Fulcrum S. I like this military knife for use in the wilds. Here's just anther reason why.

Holding the Extrema Ratio Fulcrum S in this way gives good control should
the knife be used to slit into the vent of fish in order to gut them.

Holding the knife like this you can utilize the upper guard as a good grip position with your index finger. Now with your middle finger you can take advantage of the handle gimping! Also resting your thumb against the lower guard increases your control of the blade in this way.

Why would you want to do this? This is the way to easily penetrate the vent of fish in order to gut them. If you plan on taking this knife into the wilds, there is a good chance you will be looking for and catching your own food such as fish.


Stay tuned!

Extrema Ratio RAO II Reviews continued

A complete System for this big Folder.


One thing I wanted to say about the RAOII is that it is sold as a complete system. That is it comes with a fully Molle compatible multipurpose scabbard. 

Reverse side of the RAOII scabbard 

The scabbard includes Extrema Ratio's diamond plate sharpener, which is essentially some diamond material on a waterproof self adhesive strip stuck to a black anodized aluminum plate.

For people that know nothing about sharpening knives, there is even a basic sharpening guide on the back of this plate.

As you have already seen the RAOII can be carried as a "fixed blade" with the safety pin fully screwed in. In this way the knife can be removed fast if necessary. 
Otherwise the RAOII as a folder if kept in the supplied pouch, which by the way did I say is very well made (quality materials, stitching evenness, thread thickness and overall sturdiness).

Detail of scabbard

Detail of stitching 

Side view of scabbard note where my fingers are is compartment for
fixed blade carry-

Note in the above image where my fingers are, this is material (the black material stitched between the front and back of the fixed carry position) whilst fairly rigid is non damaging to the blade edge. The construction here is similar to that of the ONTOS and Dobermann IV scabbards.

Here is the end view showing the large drain holes

Stitching  detail

Extrema Ratio RAOII Review continued...

Ok so now I've had the Extrema Ratio RAOII for over a week now and getting to really know it. I have to say I really like this knife and it is of course an evolution of the existing RAO models and evolution is what Extrema Ratio is about, evolving existing models rather than trying to totally re-invent the wheel.

Here's what I think so far.
This region (two images below)

End view showing well lubricated surface end of tang and roller bar
 locking mechanism from the Extrema Ratio RAOII

Side view of Extrema Ratio RAOII showing protruding knife tang

show the end view and the side view of both the roller lock (kind of axis lock if you think the axis is now perpendicular to the blade axis) could be designed slightly differently. 

Why do I say could be designed slightly differently??

Ok so those that carry folders, no matter what make or model, will be aware that all of those moving parts are required to be nice and clean and well lubricated in order for the folder to work properly. I mean look what happens if you let your Swiss Army knife (generic, please don't comment that there is no such thing etc) get clogged up with grime. Yep , you have trouble opening and closing it.

So this brings me to the point of the RAOII, it too, like any folder can be subject to this but in a slightly different way. Any sand or small grit or small stones etc that find their way into the roller region (where you can just see that small spring), is going to interfere with the workings of the locking mechanism.

Roller lock (Axis type lock mechanism (Torx head and spring area)

For the RAOII to work properly and smoothly it is necessary for both surfaces of the protruding tang and that of the roller to be smooth and remain undamaged. Having the tang protrude past the grip seems to place it in a position now to get a damaged surface should the knife be accidentally dropped onto this end. Something which is not impossible during normal use. Having the 6082 handle scales protrude just past the exposed tang would help to:

 A) Protect this region against physical damage, should the knife be dropped against a stone or other hard abrasive surface.

B) Adding more material   (by removing less material during machining) might possibly serve to increase the overall strength of this already beefy folder. We are talking about a very small weight increase by doing this, something which would be negligible for a already weighty (but not heavy) folder.

C) With the tang exposed like it is, I'm going to get oil on my fingers and or clothing every time I grab for this knife and maybe when I'm putting it into my pocket instead of the sheath. (this can be more convenient sometimes).
Also these two actions only serve to remove lubricants from this area and that's not what you want to do as you steel in contact with steel.

By the way I'm using high quality Mountain biking oil for lubrication, (the stuff you put on your chain) doesn't attract dirt and mud, designed for high surface pressure use, works like a dream too.

D) Less likely to get rubbish into this region. The caveat being maybe more difficult to remove rubbish from this region? But I don't think so.

Also I'd like to remove the knife from the lanyard end but this is not possible as the sheath is asymmetric when carrying the RAOII in the folded position. Why do I want to do this? Well if I have a small lanyard loop I can remove the folded knife quickly and more securely as I'm less likely to drop it if I have a finger or two through a lanyard loop.

If you carry a folder and know your knives then basic maintenance comes as routinely as carrying a knife.

Ok here is an update 19/6/2015

After two weeks of solid use of the RAOII there was the ever so minutest play in a sideways motion. Absolutely nothing in terms of movement but I'm fanatical about this, especially in such a heavy duty folder. I carefully removed the small locking screw (it's held in by some sort of thread locker) and adjusted the main pivot so there was ZERO play in the blade, then applied a very small amount of LOCTITE 243 medium strength thread locker material. If you decide to do this sort of maintenance DO NOT use Loctite 2701, otherwise you will never be able to adjust things again. 243 is perfect for Aluminium and stainless steel coated ( as in this case via the anodizing ) or uncoated, it resists some organic oils etc as well if the threads are slightly contaminated, which could happen if you are a bit clumsy applying lube to your main pivot.

Extrema Ratio FULCRUM S Review

Ok so here is a quick pre video field preview on  Extrema Ratio's Fulcrum S. I first heard about the Fulcrum model over 8 years ago when it was touted then by knife reviewers in many popular knife magazines, as it is now, as one tough knife being able to withstand large lateral loads before breaking. It's not surprising too with that name either! Extrema Ratio are Italian knife manufacturers whose attention to detail, functionality and design is top notch (see my other posts and comprehensive video reviews here).
Ok so it's 8 years later and the actual knife design has basically remained the same but the carry system has been revamped (see further down this article).

The Fulcrum S is a slightly shorter version of the Fulcrum, with a blade length of 150mm from the base of the top of the hilt to the tip. It's 6.5 mm thick along the spine 

or 0.256 inch and 5.97mm to about 10mm behind the tip. The knife feels weighty without being heavy and there are about 39mm of serrations on the blade. A full tapering tang at 6mm too.

The center of gravity is through the guard, 

so it's very nicely balanced. The grip is  totally ergonomic 

Super secure grip wet or dry hot or cold

featuring ER's composite reinforced FORPRENE (manufactured by S.O.F.T.E.R.) handle

Single handle bolt removed (see below) to keep tang clean if immersed in a corrosive liquid

co-designed with the co-operation of the University of Perugia in Italy. No way are you going to be letting go of this  knife when swinging it or have wet hands and or twisting it (see my other reviews and here and this one). The Fulcrum S has a good feel in the hands when swinging this blade about and I'll be looking at chopping into things in a field review as a follow up to this post.

The blade steel is BÖHLER Uddeholm's N690 Cobalt martensitic stainless steel. Basically this is an excellent knife steel for serious knives. It has many great features such as, good corrosion resistance, toughness, easy to sharpen, edge holding capacity is great. Read the above technical document to find out more! I've got knives made from this alloy and have had them submerged all day working in a river up to my waist in water and not one bit of corrosion was present after over 1 month of this activity.

Knives with similar blade shapes has been described as a "western style tactical tanto design" (not described by Extrema Ratio as such). What the heck does that mean? Well to be honest there is no resemblance of any kind in the western style tanto blade to anything remotely Japanese bearing the name Tanto!  The trouble is US driven marketing and ignorant social media hype has overridden any of the facts. The tip of the FULCRUM S slightly resembles the tip of a Japanese Wakizashi. That's the only (and at a big stretch)  resemblance here to anything Japanese. Basically it's a chisel tip with a non-curving straight main blade. 

Extrema Ratio market the Fulcrum S under the banner of:
"Multi Purpose knives"....."A combination of Combat and Camp knives"

The Fulcrum S is aimed at the Military market. Black anti-reflective coating Mil  C 13924, note that this coating is an oxide coating and as such doesn't confer any real corrosion resistance unlike blades treated via a physical vapour deposition (PVD) eg TiN,TiCN etc. The Fulcrum S is clearly a soldier's tool at first glance.

However, I'll be looking at using this knife in the video field review for civilian activities such as camping and unforeseen events such as in a survival situation. ie the "Multipurpose" role. I'm a big fan of military style knives for hardcore camping as these knives are designed (such as the Fulcrum S) to really take a beating, reliable, easily serviceable (ie can remove handle to clean tang if immersed in saltwater)

Using an item off my keyring to remove the single handle bolt securing the

Forprene handle on the FULCRUM S. Whilst an Allen driver can be used it is not

necessary due to a flat slot that can take a coin or other flat object.

Basically, this means no need to carry special tools with you.

and hence the user can depend on them. For me that's a good thing. Here are the basics:

The carry system

The carry system is fully Molle compatible

There is a rigid composite insert to protect the wearer from accidental puncturing of the scabbard from the knife, in this case hardly possible due to the physical constraints of this insert.

Note drain holes also one at the end (hidden from view here)

Plastic retaining plug. This plug inserts through the outer scabbard
to help retain this insert into scabbard- see below

To remove the Fulcrum S, simply part the lower plastic tab with your thumb (seen below, closest to the nylon sheath- the larger of the two tabs) and the knife will come free.

Plastic retaining system and gimping* on the upper handle region

These next two images show the protective flap closed over the handle and knife release. This flap reduces the chances of this knife (if carried by a paratrooper) from getting entangled in his or her equipment during a jump. As for civilian function, I can think of many activities: Abseiling, climbing, working at height with ropes etc. 
Also this scabbard in civilian life doesn't make this knife look aggressive when carried this way......at least not to me!
Plus it protects your arms from damage should you happen to fall on this scabbard provided it is closed as seen below.

The composite nylon hard liner, which is easily removable, as you can see below. Simply take out the plastic plug 

at the bottom of the sheath and squeeze the sheath and you will be able to pull the sheath inner for cleaning etc.

This type of carry system is very safe and totally encloses the business end of the Fulcrum S.

Testing the Fulcrum S

I'm not so keen on the handle/grip gimping which is pretty much standard on several of Extrema Ratio's knives. Any added "grip" would, I feel be outweighed by an uncomfortable surface under hard use. I used the Fulcrum S to remove the skin from a very hard gourd*. 

Camp duties means sometimes prepping food. 

This type of skin is difficult to remove even with a vegetable peeler and requires a very sharp instrument and great force as the skin is not flexible at all and this vegetable* is very hard. I found this ridged surface, despite the ridges being quite rounded, tended to dig into the region just below my first knuckle (palm side of course). Now I wasn't wearing gloves but I don't like to wear gloves and maybe you have lost your gung-ho tactical gloves, and you have to use this knife to prep some food such as this. Ok just a thought Extrema Ratio, maybe you guys could mill these ridges off, like they are not present on the ONTOS or the Dobermann IV and these are both very comfortable knives to use under hard use. The lack of these ridges may not effect any strength loss and the lose of that little extra grip in this region may not be a problem in practical terms.
* Note on why I chose this vegetable: It can be found on both hemispheres from the tropics, Mediterranean, arid and semi arid regions. It stores well and everything can be eaten, yes even the seeds.

I also hacked into a coconut just to see how easy it was if one didn't have a machete or a Parang.

Hacking the end off a green coconut for water using the Fulcrum S

This wasn't a problem and quite comfortable letting the weight of the knife do the work for me. In this instance the handle gimping did not rub on my hand at all. The Fulcrum S swings quite nicely due to the balance of weight.

The same went for peeling a sweet potato.

Peeling a sweet potato was easy as the Fulcrum S was deadly sharp and just the right
angle of the edge.

I also cut up apples and carrots, that is, some hard fruit and vegetables. The blade of course is not like the Extrema Ratio TASK, which is as Extrema say good for all day cutting tasks, and certainly, all of my field testing showed this to be the case. Yes that gimping is present on the TASK too but in the case of the TASK, there is no upper guard and you can put your fingers/thumb onto the finger gimping on the spine. Ok so how did the Fulcrum S go? Well of course this is NOT a knife to be chopping up vegetables with in camp, military or not. Yes you can do it but due to the short blade angle and the overall blade thickness it tends to half cut half fracture open what you are cutting. But of course it is a knife and it does have a razor sharp edge so of course you are going to be able to cut things with it.  

How about cutting up sugarcane? Yes, that's right the stuff sugar is made from (at least in the tropics) and it's a tough job for a knife.

Normally a job for a machete or a Parang but it is possible to cut through
Sugarcane with the Fulcrum S by applying lots of hand pressure over the spine.

Is there a place for this type of blade shape in camping?

Easy to sharpen (see explanation below).
Can pry mollusks from the rocks to eat such as Abalone (can be used a dive knife if need be as handle can be removed and washed). Abalone is almost impossible to be removed by hand and usually required a special "Ab pryer" for the job. Often I've been coastal camping and found abs in shallow water and they make good eating if you know how to prepare and cook them but first you have to extricate one off the rocks and for that you don't want any woosy blades!

Can bust open logs (or dig in the soil-last resort better to use a digging stick so as not to damage your blade!) looking for grubs/insect larvae to eat.

Cicada larvae. In this instance I put it back as these things live for about 17 years!
I had food no sense in killing it but you have to know how to find your food if necessary!

The blade of this knife is very very strong. 

Non aggressive looking carrying system (you can't see there is a knife in the sheath)
This can be a good thing amongst other campers who might otherwise freak out when they see people carrying large fixed blades, it doesn't attract attention. (See above).

The Fulcrum S has a serrated section near the hilt. I think that serrations are a good thing to have. You can easily cut synthetic ropes found as flotsam and jetsam on beaches and rocky foreshores during coastal camping/hiking. 

Hardness Rockwell of 58 is great for giving the optimum corrosion resistance in N690 (BÖHLER technical staff told me this personally) but still allowing for a very hard blade with tough characteristics.

The tip of the blade is exactly that, a tip and a good pointed one at that! Perfect for sticking into the vent of fish to gut it or to cone out a piece of wood to make a depression for a fire drill/simply make holes. A tip such as this is pretty good at doing this task compared to a clip point or drop point.

Serrations can be used to scale your catch!

Chisel type tips good for pushing strokes into food items like fungi in trees, bees nests to obtain honey.

Guess what? Chisel style tips are great for doing exactly that chiseling away into timber to make things like spoons and bowls-if that's your thing but I prefer super simple when in the bush.

Can you strike a steel with it? of course you can do this with any knife via the blade and if fire is paramount to your survival then you won't be too worried about dulling a small section of your precious knife! Let's get serious here eh? You can use a freshly broken rock or waste glass as a striker if you have to, no worries!

Lanyard hole, totally necessary for any knife that you take into the wilds with you. Without a lanyard it can be difficult to secure your precious instrument from loss down a deep deep hole! Common sense here.


Ok what knife can't you do all of the above with? Well I guess this comes down to personal preference and of course more importantly ones outdoor skills which need to be sharper and stronger than any knife blade.
It's what you might be used to using.

For me comfort is paramount then practicality. Some of you are saying, hey you can't skin with this knife. Well let me tell you, you can as long a you can penetrate the hide, skin with your hands (at least I've done this with medium sized game- yep just used the knife to start the  ventral and leg incisions etc and there you need some sort of good sharp point. Butchering is a different matter. Remember there is NO SUPER ONE KNIFE ALL DOES THE JOB!

Some people hate these somewhat antiquated guards on the upper and lower hilt of military style knives. Let's face it, they don't really protrude enough to catch a blade or protect your hands against a blade.  But let me tell you it is not impossible to carve small things here and of course if that is what you are primarily doing all day long out and about in the wilds then the FULCRUM S may not be the knife for you because your ungloved thumb will tend to rest right on top of the FULLER as the upper guard prevents you from putting your thumb close to the spine,

Unlike many manufacturers Extrema Ratio do things differently, their FULLER
is milled from the top down not your regular Slot FULLER/blood groove

which is as you can see from the above  image, this area of the spine is thinner than the rest of the spine, albeit not having a sharp angled edge and I didn't find this uncomfortable in an ungloved hand.

Let's look at more heavy duty use:

The serrations are ok to cut through woody vines but in all honesty, these vines are really really woody and best chopped, either against something or not.

 

       2 month old (seasoned) Clematis species vines. Very tough and difficult to

 Use as a pry bar!  Re using washed up pallets/wooden boxes/crates on the coast. Recycling wood for other purposes when you don't have a pry bar!

Busting up a Eucalyptus hardwood pallet with the Fulcrum S

No way this knife was going to bust !

let's talk about maintenance of the blade:

Sharpening: Nothing could be easier than to sharpen the Fulcrum S from either a beginner standpoint or that of the experienced as the blade has none of these popular funky curves in it (ok let's talk about those serrations later), therefore it's easy to keep the bevel angles by hand. BTW  the Fulcrum S like all ER blades is hand sharpened to almost a mirror polish with few grind marks visible even examining at X10 magnification.

It's no good owning a knife if you are unable to effectively sharpen it eh? Let's be honest here and a straight bladed knife will be the easiest to sharpen, followed by a drop point, clip point, then any type of recurve. Why do I say this? Because recurved blade designs require some skill to sharpen properly, to maintain the correct angle throughout the curving shape of the blade.

Camp kitchen?

How many times do I have to say that if you take a knife out into the wilds with you then you have to be able to use it to prepare food around the camp. If you are like me and like to really hike away from anywhere that could remotely be called civilized, then you won't want to be carrying any unnecessary gear with you and that means carrying dozens of knives. It is of course TOTALLY dependent on the environment one is going to venture out into. That is, tropics verses non-tropics (very broadly speaking). A couple of nights in a non tropical terrain you might easily get away with a Swiss Army style knife but now you are in the tropics and you need to dismember a coconut for some fresh water and you are about to break that small pen knife blade. You get my point I hope.

Ok this is too much information. I'll be more thorough in a following video field review here on this channel.

Extrema Ratio have a Life time warranty against manufacturers defects.

6 years warranty on the scabbard.

Hand ground edges, came deadly surgically sharp out of the box, no clumsy finish to this product.

All knives can be tracked as they are serial numbered and come with separate lot numbers.

You be the judge.

If you like the feel of military style knives for outdoor/field purposes then the Extrema Ratio Fulcrum S could be good for you.