EXTREMA RATIO'S RAOII Hard USE Fat wood

Here is some hard use of EXTREMA RATIO'S RAOII Enjoy

Extrema Ratio's RAOII Field test and Review

OK here is the long awaited field test and review of EXTREMA RATIO's RAOII Enjoy!

 FOX COMBAT JUNGLE REVIEW

The FOX Combat Jungle is a KNIFE that I've had my eye on for a long long time. It's a big knife with a simple slick design made with an excellent  steel BÖHLER-UDDEHOLM's N690 martensitic cobalt stainless alloy. Maybe you might know this steel manufacturer by it's current  name:

Volstalpine Edelstahl GmbH? They are making some very high end knife steel alloys.

FOX knives/FOX Cutlery, FKMD have been making knives from this great corrosion resistant alloy for some years now.

The Fox Combat Jungle's details at a glance:

Teflon coated blade, 3D machined micarta scales;

3D Machined Micarta scales-very grippy but comfortable

 partially machined tang with protruding butt and lanyard hole. 

Generously sized lanyard hole 

This latter aspect helps to keep the balance centered around the position of the good sized finger choil. The spine also sports some excellent thumb and finger gimping.

Excellent thumb and finger gimping

I measured the blade thickness at 6.08mm just below the gimping. The data from FOX states the blade thickness at 5mm, this approximates better the average distance along the spine, excluding the narrowing tip. 

Overall view of the spine which varies from about 6mm to averaging 5
along the top of the blade

The published Rockwell is 58-60 and the warranty is for 1 year only. This somewhat short warranty period appears to rest on if a manufacturers defect appears, it would probably show up within one year of use. I'd prefer to see a lifetime warranty as many people don't use their knives every day for 365 days consecutively. So for example once a week is only 52 times a year representing only a mere 7th if of your one year warranty. That being said my other two FOX knives were and are heavily used for about 65 to 70 days of each year and no defects ever found.

 The grip is exactly the same as the FX132 another great but apparently little known in the USA. I've had the FX132 for several years now and beaten the daylights out of it in the field. Everyone I know who owns one loves it. The Combat Jungle is very comfortable in a swinging motion. So this brings me to the point of the FX133, The FOX JUNGLE. Same comfort, same great steel alloy, deadly sharp out of the box.

It comes with a waist belt mounted carry system, fully adjustable leg loops (I personally hate them and took them off-). Leg loops are good if you have to run with your knife strapped to you but  the Australian bush/jungle can get very dense so more to get caught up on things.

The scabbard has a removable hard plastic insert in which the Combat Jungle can only be inserted one way, ie the preference is for right hand insertion and removal. 

Simple and effective carry system

Removing a small screw at the base of the scabbard ( as seen in the above image at the bottom of the scabbard) enables you to extract the plastic liner for cleaning. There was about 2 ft of accessory cord inserted into riveted holes around the sheath. A bit short for me but you could swap this out for your own paracord etc. The scabbard can also be carried  a low position on the waist by using the extra removable velcro belt loop. There is a fully adjustable velcro closed generous sized pocket on the scabbard too.

I said earlier on I've been eyeing off this knife for a while and the reasoning behind this is that I reckon this is good model of useful design and practicality. Let's see if I'm right or wrong.

Ok enough said so far. This knife if out for field review over the coming months so stay tuned to BushCampingTools for the video review.

Kizlyar Supreme's ZORG Liner lock Flipper Folder Review


The ZORG is an Every Day Carry (EDC) liner lock Flipper type folder from Kizlyar Supreme.  

Anatomy of a Flipper Folder.
A small ball in the liner and a small hole in the blade becomes engaged when the knife is closed. These components do two things. 
a) the action of the liner against the closed blade prevents accidental exposure of the blade whilst it is closed. If the folder is subject to some rapid movement then the blade stays safely where it is meant to be.

b) In order to "Flip" the blade out it is necessary for there to be some resistance against the opposing force of your index finger, that resistance is provided by the tiny ball in the liner and indent in the blade.

Seen again here in this video

 The "Flipper", which by the way is also the guard of the knife.

The blade steel is offered in 2 choices either D2 Tool steel or AUS8 stainless alloy. This model we review here is in D2. 

Kizlyar Supreme are coating their D2 blades with a Titanium ceramic, which greatly increases corrosion resistance and is very hard and slippery to resist scratching.

As expected (from previous tests/reviews we have conducted) the ZORG was well presented in a matt black rigid cardboard box with a magnetic catch lid.

complete with warranty slip, indicating a lifetime warranty, a small packet of silica gel desiccant and some brass washers. More on the brass washers later*!

Out of the box the ZORG was deadly razor sharp with a flat bevel edge.
The main blade has a flat grind and the overall blade geometry is with a chisel, or some to prefer to call it a "Western style Tanto"  tip or simply a Tanto tip blade.

The main edge of the blade is ever so slightly curved (in a convex direction), making for a good cutting geometry.

*The washers are PTFE, that's Teflon! Basically self lubricating and as long as the pivot is kept clean there should be no need to place any lubricant on this folder. If however one substitutes the PTFE washers for the included brass ones, then you should apply a very small amount of lubrication.

Handle scales are machined from G10, a tough epoxy composite of proven industrial strength, utilized in many many industrial applications and of course in good quality knives where high mechanical strength needs to be achieved at the same time reducing the overall weight of the end product.

The blade of the ZORG can be opened by either using the thumb studs (which are ambidextrous) or the flipper/guard, or a combination of both.
The thumb studs play a dual role as they also function as the blade stop, coming to rest against the liners of this knife.

Blade centering as you can see below was right on.

Blade lock up on the ZORG was perfect first go, with the liner moving immediately to the designated position on the tang with a reaffirming sound of engagement.

The lock up was the same even if one opened the knife slowly. Now this latter point I have to say is something to take note of. Why? Well there are many liner locks that if one opens them slowly, the liner will not engage properly but instead must be actually flicked open with some force in order to get that liner to engage properly. Or worse still you must nudge the liner over to it's correct  position. SORRY, not acceptable on a liner lock- or frame lock for that matter, no matter what the manufacturer is telling you. To be honest I don't want to have to scrutinize the liner every time I open a knife to see if it is engaged properly so I don't loose any digits!

A sign of excellent quality control and precise and accurate machining is when the liner engages first go. None of this "well it has to wear in a bit" thing. Not true. Don't believe the hype. Both the butt end of the tang and the engagement surface of the liner have opposing bevels too.

The flipper also acts of course as a finger guard.

All the parts that were visible to me were coated with the Ti ceramic, except of course the scale screws.

I measured the blade thickness at 3.1 mm.

Overall weight was 141 gms or about 5 Oz's

Total open length is 200 MM or 8 inches

There is a belt clip.

There is an indent stop when closing the blade as a safety feature? to prevent the blade from simply closing too quickly???
and requires a very small amount of pressure to overcome this. Finally the blade is actively held within the handle by a retaining mechanism. This latter feature prevents accidental exposure of the blade should the ZORG encounter any rapid movements with the blade folded. This is something very nice and reassuring in it's design.
There is also a lanyard hole to prevent the ZORG from being accidentally dropped when working at height or over water etc.


The liners are pretty standard  at 1.5mm thick, that's 0.06 of an inch.

First impressions: excellent build/construction; very comfortable; easily opened; razor sharp; perfect lock up overtime (slow or fast opening); perfect EDC.(belt clip cannot be changed, not necessary though.
I left the teflon washers in, let's see how they hold up in the upcoming field testing over the next two months, I'll have it EDC, if there's a problem I'll put in the brass ones that it came supplied with. So stay tuned to BushCampingTools!