Black Fox Knives GOLEM

 

The Black Fox Golem is a design from Denis Simonutti and manufactured by Black Fox (AKA Fox knives).

What about Denis Simonutti?

Denis Simonutti is a young guy born in 86. He comes from Maniago in Italy. He is a passionate climber and has achieved amongst many, a 6000m peak in the Himalaya's. That's a big deal in my book, I've not gone that high yet, only to just below 6000m, about 5600m so I know this is a very big achievement and takes a lot of dedication. This is seen in his knife designs.

Some background on Denis's design prowess:

I asked Denis to tell  me a bit about his work as a knife designer and how he got into this field/career:

-In 2010 he started working at Fox knives as a CNC operator, and became  "knife addicted". After one year, they gave him an  opportunity to work as CAD designer and since then he has never stopped. During his career he attended several technical courses about CAD and others design programs.

I also asked him about his philosophy behind his designs:

"I don't feel like I have a real philosophy. I let myself free to be inspired by the moment: sometimes I design very functional knives, sometimes I go for original and fancy shapes. If I have to summarise, I would I like to experiment (with) different things".

Now to the knife:

The Golem is a medium sized fixed blade made from D2 tool steel. The blade length is approx. 5.5" long and 5mm thick or 0.2" thick.

The scales are made from olive green drab colored G10 composite.

The handle is very comfortable at the same time grippy however, with not hot spots on bare hands.

It is a medium sized blade so the handle is not huge or big, it can accommodate a size 8.5 hand; any bigger and it's possible that this knife will not be for you.

The blade profile is that of a "recurve". This is a recapitulation of the blades of old and can be seen in many weapons from the Ottoman Empire days (obviously in museums). Maybe tis design dates back even further but I have seen many such shaped blades in museums in the northern hemisphere.

As to the D2 (it is not listed as any particular brand and hence I assume it is a generic Chinese made D2 (as long as it works right?) and heat treatment used in the BlackFox Golem BF-757 OD, it held a good sharp edge despite being bashed into a coconut shell several times (this stuff is very hard).

Denis Simonutti's mark.

The gimping and rounded upper spine profile are spot on!

Giving the Black Fox Golem BF-757 OD a "tropical bash" around the camp fire.

Various tough (a bigger blade is better for these items) fruits are seen here: Sugar cane ( a big tough piece), green coconut and bread fruit.

The BF-757 OD has a good lanyard hole. A definite must for working over water or anywhere where an un-tethered knife could be accidentally lost.

Nice comfortable gimping on the spine.

Peeling and cutting up bread fruit, no problems

Performance:

How did this knife perform?

Quite well indeed considering it is not the right knife for cutting open coconuts, and sugar cane stems. The brea fruit is rather soft so this was ok and doesn't per se require a very large blade, although it would be better with a machete.

Now one of the scales moved a small amount after bashing into the coconut and when I tried to see if the nut needed to be tightened it was found that the T8 torx nuts had been loctited/thread locker or similar and it was not possible to loosen the nut nor was it possible to tighten it. The nut was simply turning, not easily but could be turned. Laterally, there was zero slop. 

So what was the problem and why did it occur? I believe it to be related to the fact that the hole in the G10 scale is ever so slightly bigger than the outer diameter of the nut and the shape was slightly off circular. We are talking way less than 1mm and possibly under 0.5mm! 

How to remedy this?

The application of Industrial grade medium viscosity Super glue, so that it will seep into around the very small space between the nut and the G10 .

Problem solved.

However I'm going to assume that this was a one off thing (plus the fact I am only looking at a sample size of n=1) and maybe this particular scale should have failed QC and that the part wasn't sitting securely on the milling platform? Who knows, but a hole should be a hole and not slightly elliptical.

Overall  Impressions

My overall impression is quite good!

I think the BF-757 OD will make a good camping and hunting knife (possible to skin with) and tough enough for some heavy duty camping chores. With the exception of cold weather use, no gloves are necessary with this knife as the handle is very comfortable.

I came across* this design by chance and immediately thought, hey this looks like a great design and I have to say i was right.

See the video field review here:

Many thanks to Mr Denis Samonutti for kindly providing me with some background info.

BCT

* I find stuff for you my readers by trawling the net, eg Google images and then send many hours determining after some thorough research whether to then get the product in question. this is time well spent so i don't end up with reviewing some garbage that ends up in the metal recycling skip.