Aitor Knives Oso Blanco Cut Down Version

Hi all here is my review of Aitor Knives Oso Blanco Olivo. I reckon it's a great knife and a top performer for many outdoor tasks.  Who knows what the steel analysis of Mo Va alloy they use but in reality it holds a edge, doesn't chip out and was easy to touch up the edge.

Watch the video and see what you reckon.

How to make your AITOR OSO BLANCO OLIVE WOOD HANDLE Better.

Firstly I have to say the steel AITOR  is using is good! After lots of tough outdoor treatment to be excellent and has really held an edge! with no noticeable damage to it's edge.

However, the problem with the above knife is this:

On this model Aitor is using a natural wood handle made from Olive Wood, which is a very nice hardwood and strong.
The hole profile for the tang is circular and the tang is rectangular. You see my point?

Now the only thing which stops the handle twisting around the tang is that the guard end of the handle is asymmetric and resists a twisting motion against the guard as long as there is adequate pressure against the pommel by the pommel bolt.
This is absolutely fine however I did notice a very slight handle movement. I could really clamp down that bolt.

But there is always a danger to damage the natural olive wood. I know what your saying Olive wood is very good at withstanding compressive forces and these are compressive forces against the end grain too. If the handle was to be really well designed a rectangular inner profile would be there and you could do this with a handle made from Forprene or the like from an injection molded method.

So I decided to fill the space with a mixture of waterproof epoxy resin and chopped natural cotton strands.(I chopped it up with scissors 

This Epoxy has a Shore D hardness when fully cured (over 24 hours at 23C) of approximately 80+_ 2 

The epoxy will bond to the inner surface of the wood, with some penetration/infiltration into the wood itself and the cotton will form a kind of poor mans "micarta" and help strengthen the epoxy filler.

Don't freak out about the size of the tang, my Ontario Spec plus tang is similar 

and after 20 plus years of heavy field work is still in one piece! Also my FKMD with a similar sized tang after >3 years abuse. See levering test of this Aitor Oso Blanco in the upcoming field test video.

In order to do this properly I had to protect the threaded end of the tang with some foil as i didn't want to get epoxy over the thread. It was 20 minute set stuff and waterproof.

I would have preferred to see a better job done at this end with the 5MM thread, although no great forces under normal use would be seen here.

I have to say the Aitor OSO BLANCO is a very well balanced knife.


More to come and stat tuned for upcoming field test results and review.



Ok now that the initial resin has set, ie greater than 24 hours has elapsed, I filled the remaining space to the DISTANCE OF WHERE THE SECURING POMMEL BOLT EXTENDS. If you choose to do this you must protect the threads of the tang with something like I used in this second part, ie PVC tubing. Measure correctly the distance required of tubing so as to properly protect the threads and add about 3-4mm max of extra for any "slackness" that may occur over time. This will allow you to tighten the securing bolt further.

Once all the space has been filled with a high quality epoxy resin then it will be virtually impossible for the handle to move. Now that epoxy is against the tang, this will provide even forces against the tang, which could not have been present before. 

Update/11-10-2016

I have decided to totally fill the existing space within the handle with Epoxy resin. The only reason why i did this was that I figure I will never need to remove the handle. I mean why would I? i never done this on any of my knives, some more than 20 years in use!

Same procedure as above but minus the chopped cotton fibers.
PS the anchoring bolt IS NOT made from stainless steel.

Aitor OSO Blanco Olivo review continued:

Cutting up meat on the bone no problems

The Aitor Oso Blanco was razor sharp out of the box and with almost no pressure applied I could cut up a large chunk of ribs. I also used the knife to cut through between the joints/cartilage and there was no problem. The knife edge was still just as sharp as it was prior to cutting anything.

Sunset reflected off the blade in the wilds

I chose the olive wood grip as it looks a whole lot nicer than the reinforced nylon grip. It will no doubt be good in sub zero temperatures (no problem of that here, it was almost 30C at the time the picture was taken.

The lanyard is off a Kizlyar Supreme knife of mine :) Butt and guard are of brass, anchoring bolt is steel with a 5mm socket head

Real Olive wood not Stamina or Plastic.Let's see how this holds up in the coming weeks of field testing.

So far so good with my findings on the Aitor OSO Blanco. The saw back design clears dead wood very easily and really removes wood fast. Let's see how it clears green wood tomorrow. Certainly it is a much better design than on my FKMD Combat Survival knife and that says a lot as that saw design is very good but the AITOR OSO BLANCO saw back design eclipses it totally.

Update to first observations on using my new AITOR OSO Blanco Olivo knife.

OK I just love the blade but the stitching on the supplied leather scabbard started to come undone before i even had a chance to take it off the property.

Also this knife with such deadly sharpened saw on the spine simply rips into the inside of the scabbard no matter how carefully one tries to insert and withdraw it. 

This is VERY BAD as it completely destroys the stitching of the scabbard!

This model must be supplied with the same Plastic scabbard as other models sporting the same saw back spine.

I'm not totally keen either on the very small rivet used to hold on the knife retaining buckle either and I'm sure this will be failing quite soon.

What's the story AITOR???

Is there no one who oversees these designs???



The saw itself cuts very very well and I tried it out on 2 year seasoned branch of Walnut wood, 

Sawback design is fantastic and within seconds easily ripped into this wood

2 year old seasoned walnut branch

My hand to show scale of the walnut branch

very hard stuff and in a few seconds it simply ripped into the wood.

Now I paid about $80-00 USD for mine brand new. Not to expensive not too cheap.

BUT just because this IS a Sub $100-00USD knife doesn't mean it has to be shit.

Now so far only the scabbard is letting the product name down. In fact i noticed on the AITOR FaceBook page the same knife is featured and the cowhide leather scabbard also appears to be somewhat faulty in this image! COME ON AITOR don't let my childhood memories down!

I will write to them to see what they have to say. Unfortunately the roads are paved with dirt outside  my only link with civilisation right now is a wire entering the farm house and that means no where near anywhere, it's a miracle there is even an internet connection here...........SO I can't simply return the product to the shop (an official dealer) and get a refund/exchange of scabbard. The bottom line is I need to use it NOW. I have done the following to alleviate the problem at least of the saw ripping into the stitching, and that is by inserting a thin piece of PET plastic inside the sheath. It works OK.

Note the PET plastic insert I had to do in order not to further destroy the inner stitching of the otherwise nice but not too well thought out leather scabbard.

AITOR OSO BLANCO OLIVO

I just recently purchased the above knife. Aitor's OSO Blanco with, you guessed it, an olive wood handle! This is a blade design that dates back to well over 20 years ago. The famous Spanish knife company AITOR have been making knives since 1939 and the fact that this blade design is still available has to say something. Also AITOR supplies NATO.

There are many misconceptions about what steel is being used and "how can such a knife be so cheap"? 

The funny thing is if you start to read Blade Forums, then you will quickly realise a lot of people are talking (like all forums) off the tops of their heads :) about what they "think" or even worse assume/know? that it is somehow impossible for any manufacturer outside of the USA to be producing knives at a reasonable cost at point of sale, out of quality steel, unless they are BSing about it. LOL!!!!!!

Why on earth are the Spanish BSing but the US companies don't??? Really???
The above image I photographed off the side of a genuine AITOR knife box. If we are going to assume they AITOR are full of it, up to the point of telling fibs on their boxed products and laser engraving garbage on their blades, then hell yeah, why not assume the same for every other damn company eh??? 

Hold on, the only way is for me to take samples now from all knives and run an EDAX (yes quantitative) on them to see that the elemental composition is what the manufacturer says it is. LOL! Yeah right at the cost of quantitative EDAX/EDS, I don't think so unless I have absolute proof someone is NOT telling me the truth and fact is that was the only reason we ever did this sort of analysis for people/companies.

BTW the steel they are using is MOVA or MoVa. This is what is actually written on their official catalogue page. I've detailed what this proprietary alloy is in many Knife review videos on BushCampingtools. MoVa, IS NOT X42 pipe steel as has been written in many third party catalogues or by the uniformed.  

Many Spanish companies use this steel for example Cudeman. See above video for the actual analysis.

AND all of this hoo ha is just a waste of time. I mean what's important is that a knife can hold a reasonable edge in the field, can be field sharpened if necessary, resists corrosion from the sea, can be easily maintained (if necessary) and the USER KNOWS HOW TO ACTUALLY get the most out of his or her knife/machete/ whatever. Because at the end of the day no stranding/disaster/camping/hiking trip/hunting trip;  gives 2 hoots what ones knife is made from. 
Don't get me wrong I own knives that are made from THE latest PM steels but as of yet I would be lying if I said their performance eclipses that of non PM steels. MAYBE in the world of machining/dye making etc etc but not in the regular field of outdoor stuff.

Well if you know something about AITOR then you will know that the factory is very advanced and well organised. PLUS it's not a small "backyard factory" and of course these people have been making knives for a very long time, they do know what they are doing and they do it well. 

Let's face it Spain does, believe it or not produce some very good knives at very reasonable prices (labour costs are cheaper) but we are generally moved towards US companies trying to win us over with  this that and the other marketing about the latest steel alloys.

Aitor also show the real, and not just talk about it, HRC diamond imprint in their blades.
BTW PUMA of Germany used to do the same with each blade carrying the diamond imprint from the HRC machine.

Diamond imprint from the Rockwell testing machine HRC 55-58

Knives are individually Serial numbered

"Yes it's a saw back knife, what a gimmick"!!! 

Well it's not a gimmick if the saw is functional in design and clears both green and dead wood from it's teeth. And before anyone starts to rant about  "get a real saw or use an Axe/hatchet, just wait till you see how they are supposed to be used in the field. Saw backs aren't necessarily for cutting down trees. They can be used for: notching; weakening large branches that can then be snapped/broken off by easier means ie utilising the leverage of the branch; cutting artificial hard plastics into shape plus numerous other tasks such as scaling fish; tinder preparation etc.

NOW hold on!!!! You're saying: "Wait on, this knife isn't a full tang knife"! It's got to be crap!

Hold on a minute if that's the case, then all of those ONTARIO Spec Plus knives with a narrowed tang are crap too! BS!! My Ontario Spec plus is a Sh&T hot knife that's seen over 20 solid years of use in the field not sitting locked away in a shed/desk; under the bed/in the garage/barn etc. etc. There is no reason why a narrowed tang knife (if made properly) can't serve you well if not mistreated as a lever. I mean what the heck are the Swedes thinking???


Specifications of the Aitor OSO Blanco Knife

Length 180mm
Blade leaf thickness at Spine 5mm
HRC 58
Steel Alloy MoVa
Blade geometry: Upswept tip, recurve, spine saw, Partial hollow grind to bevel edge.
Natural Olive wood handle with painted brass fittings and stainless steel (blackened).

Cowhide leather scabbard




The proof will be in the pudding. Stay tuned, this knife the Aitor OSO Blanco Olivo is about to be tested in the real world and not some armchair review.

BCT

YES it was a bit of a rant, maybe I got sick of all the BS on BF! And it's my opinion.

Garmont DRAGONTAIL Field Review The Best Approach Shoes!

Hi all, been wearing these approach shoes now for over a year so I can definitely talk with confidence about their performance. And that is these Garmont Dragontail approach shoes are EXCELLENT in every respect: Construction is great with close attention to detail I'd expect from Garmont; Vibram rubber sole with an super grippy compound and tread pattern; semi sticky rubber rand and toe bumper, very nice lacing system with instep features and the tongue is of bellows construction.

If you are thinking of getting some approach shoes or maybe upgrading/moving on to your next pair of approach shoes then look no further. Check the entire range at:

http://www.garmont.com/en/catalogo/approach/dragontail-lt--gtx





I totally recommend the Dragontail from Garmont.