Miguel Nieto WARFARE 1 SURVIVAL KNIFE

Warfare 1  fixed blade full tang Katex handle

The Warfare 1 is a 160mm FULL TANG knife marketed under the banner of "survival knives". It's made by Miguel Nieto SL, a Spanish company which has been manufacturing quality knives since 1957. 

NOW when I see the term "survival knife" it really draws my critical attention.

Let's look at this large knife and see if it fits the name of "Survival Knife"

The blade steel is DIN 1.4116 Vanadium Stainless steel otherwise known as X50CrMoV15. In plain English this means a Carbon content of approximately 0.5%, Cr 15%, Mo 0.15% and V 0.5%.

A high hardness can be achieved of: HRC 55-57. In my experience this is more than hard enough for a field knife.

This is great as it means no fancy diamond sharpeners are required to field sharpen this knife. Too high a HRC is not a great idea for a "survival knife". Try sharpening your 62 HRC on a river stone LOL! This means you must definitely take a sharpening device of some sort with you.

The Vanadium makes the alloy tough, exactly what one wants for a knife labeled "survival" as it means the blade should be, all things being equal, be able to take a pounding and that's exactly what I did to this knife of 160mm blade length and 5mm wide.
The Warfare1 has a great pointy business end. Perfect for penetrating cutting. A fuller helps to lighten the blade and there is a swedge. There is an acute angle to the spine and I could easily strike a fire steel anywhere along the blade spine. 

Residual oxides (easily rubbed off with fingers) shown where a fire steel was struck against the upper guard. The two guard holes can also be used to bend wire for all sorts of tasks.

On that note the upper guard is a perfect place to strike a fire steel as this puts the blade facing away from the user.

Wire cutter notch easily handles standard barbed wire

Big thick spine and wire cutter notch

                       

KATEX is being used a the handle material

The R &D department of Miguel Nieto have developed their proprietary type of micarta, which they call KATEX.

It has the following properties: resists temperatures up to 133C, compressive strength of 190Kg/cm² 

Carry System

Multi-carry position scabbard with detachable firesteel pouch. The scabbard can be mounted either vertically or horizontally. The entire scabbard with knife can be removed from the belt mount without removing the belt mount. There is a leather tie down (brown thong) when you are on the RUN!. Shown also is a depression for a bow drill. This is a great idea although I'd like to see it on the other scale so that the blade edge faces away from you when in use.

Cutting Ability

Hollow ground knives by geometry should cut much better than a flat grind, simply because the area behind the cutting edge is thinner and thus poses less drag resistance through materials. Stay tuned for the upcoming field review on BushCampingTools.