Kizlyar Supreme CORSAIR Fixed Blade

It's great to see a knife with a thin but not too thin blade for the outdoors. Yes, the Swedes have their famous knives, and now a great little knife from Kizlyar Supreme, Made in RUSSIA: the CORSAIR. (that means Pirate if you don't already know!). The Kizlyar Supreme Corsair is constructed with 2.4mm thick full tang AUS8 stainless and beautiful dark walnut scales.  This is a really practical thickness for many camp duties, the first obvious one is FOOD PREPARATION. Cutting meat; fish and vegetables; gutting small game; able to be usefully used to forage for wild fungi without having to get embarrassed by whipping out some monster blade that is better suited to chopping; hacking and the more arduous camp chores.............OR tropical* conditions (*more on this later).

Price wise, the CORSAIR sits under 60 Euros!! Totally affordable.

The Corsair from Kizlyar Supreme, a great accompanying fixed blade knife for anyone serious about camping chores.

Stayed tuned to see the full field test video review on BUSHCAMPINGTOOLS

Excellent quality leather scabbard, with high and low carry loops.

MADE IN RUSSIA!!

What's been bugging me ever since I bought my Cudeman 299B???

The grip! It was just too smooth for such a weighty knife and despite the contoured grip, which would never leave your hand during swinging this beast, it was NOT grippy enough for me! So.......


Out with the diamond core drill on my Dremel and this is what the handle now looks like now. 100% better.

Cudeman 299B before my handle modifications

As above

AFTER THE GRINDING

Some somewhat random grinds with a mini diamond core drill! Cudeman 299B Design By A. Corts

Wild Mushroom Picking Day Out in the Pouring Rain

The title says it all. They are Horse mushrooms. PICK WILD MUSHROOMS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Know your survival stuff otherwise you may end up a liability or worse DEAD.

Strider Knives MFS One Tough SOB!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCoLmUWGICs

This is THE ORIGINAL STRIDER MFS made with ATS34 and a FULL FLAT Grind

not anything like the current Strider MFS which sports a completely different blade geometry.

It carries the stamp from Paul Bos who was at the time heat treating knives for Strider.

And a Strider/Military-like Stamp on the opposite side. There is a serial number under the cord wrap.

The TEK lok is an original "Made in America" one not a generic made one.

My Strider MFS is now just a bit over 16 years old and still going strong. Talking about strong, ATS34 is a very tough stainless (if heat treated right-like all good knives should/must be). I busted a very small fraction of the tip once but then I was totally abusing the blade using it to bash/push out a worn bicycle bushing in a free ride bike (no tools available obviously! I simply reground it and it's not noticeable.


Like these guys or not and there seems to be many "haters" out there saying Strider knives are a rip of etc and crap. Well I can ONLY vouch for this knife of mine. It's the only Strider I own and probably will be the first and last. Cord wrapped handles are ok for small knives but larger knives, without those "precious" gloves............come on gloves are for: cold weather work; caving; etc; etc. If you have to wear gloves for all of your knives you need to toughen up those paws of yours, I recommend lots of JUDO and outdoor  rock climbing, you'll soon have hands of steel LOL!


Anyway if you have just watched this video it's not really a review but a bit about the history of this knife I've bashed about for the last 16 years plus, the original Strider MFS in ATS34.

EasyAcc Rugged Power Bank IP67 Rating Twin USB Ports TEST of the SEA!

Hi all just reviewed this Rugged Power Bank from EasyAcc. It's a IP67 rated twin USB charging device full of Li-ion 18650 cells. You can recharge many USB powered devices with it. I gave it a thorough dunking in the sea and looked at the flashlight function as well. It should charge GoPro batteries as well.

EasyAcc Rugged Power Bank powering up a GoPro Hero2 action camera

The GoPro Camera can be powered directly from the EasyAcc Rugged Power Bank. This will allow you an extremely long shooting time, perfect for time lapse!

You can also charge the GoPro battery with the EasyAcc Rugged Power Bank.

RED Charging light ON- GoPro Battery being Charged in situ.

 Also do you like reading whilst out camping? How are you going to charge that Kindle???

Here's how:

EasyAcc Rugged Power Bank battery pack charging a Kindle book reader

Check it out.

JaktKit KNV2 Follow up

The question is am I still using the KNV2 from JaktKit of Sweden?

Of course I am!

Despite  uninformed and basically troll type comments from the stirrers on Blade Forums. I stand by what I said about this knife in my blog and on my video review.

YES it's manufactured in China. When I read "Made in China", to me means generally products are of low quality. However, when non Chinese (or Chinese companies) companies pay particular attention to quality control and R and D then there is NO reason why products manufactured in China can not be of high standard. Unfortunately there is so much junk coming out of that country from companies trying to make a fast buck and don't give a stuff about the negative connotations.

Enough of that now. JaktKit KNV2 is well made, comfortable and stays sharp under tough field usage, that's a fact.

I don't care if the Alloy is called XYZW5543Cr steel. What I really care about is does the product perform according to the manufacturers product blurb. That's all. 

And the KNV2 does exactly and better than what Jaktkit says. Good enough for me. Let's face it, the knife is Designed in Sweden. It's making waves due to it's quality and price point. People don't like that.

Here are the Facts once again:



Construction: Drop forged, meaning super tough aligned microstructure (impossible to achieve via milled stock removal made knives).

Steel alloy: Ahonest Changjiang Steel Company Ltd. made 99CrMoV (proprietary formulation for Jaktkit) ESR production (Electro Slag Removal) for quality raw material.
99Cr19MoV has carbon of 1,08% (tolerances 0,96-1,2 % )

Convex hand ground edge.

Top quality TPEE polymer handle over moulded onto a full 5mm thick tang.

FOX KNIVES FX131 MGT PRO HUNTER 

Fox knives Pro Hunter, I've had my eye on this model for a very long time. Why? Because i think it's a good knife and now I'll tell you why.

Like most of higher end FKMD's or FOX Knive's products, the blade steel, is that now classic N690 Cobalt stainless steel from

 BÖHLER Edelstahl and let's face it, i think

after many years of field testing knives made from this steel, it's a very very good premium stainless alloy for outdoor knives.

The FX131MGT (PRO HUNTER) feels great in the ungloved hand. The handle is just right for a hunting and camping knife, nice and grippy so there is not going to be some blood and slime soaked knife slipping out of your tired wet hands at the end of a long day's hunting.

There is a well placed finger gimping 

and a swedge 

for nice blade penetration durning butchering too.

The scales are made from FOX's 3D machined micarta,

attached via allen bolts. The blade has Fox's black teflon coating. From experience this coating will start to wear off after heavy use ( but I mean heavy use!). I've got several knife models from FOX with this coating and after about 3 months solid use the coating will wear a bit. It's really only cosmetic and doesn't worry me in the slightest. 

The blade length of just 105mm as measured from the guard. This is within a good range for a hunting blade  (under 170mm) as too long will make skinning too tiresome on the hands not to mention very slow. A short blade like this will deliver lots of power to the joint when butchering too. The maximum blade thickness I measured at 4.5mm, 

Blade thickness measured from the
ricasso

perfect for a hunting knife. Generally speaking I don't like "hunting knives" thicker than say 5mm at the  spine, otherwise they start to become more of something else.

It's a drop point with a full flat grind to a beveled cutting edge.

There is a generous lanyard hole

 and extended pommel, with a milled surface that sits perfectly for a reverse grip (though I have no idea why one would need to grip this type of knife in this manner- no matter, it's there).

The FX131 MGT comes with a very nicely stitch leather scabbard belt mountable.

This model is also available with a Santos hardwood handle as shown here.

When I'm hunting, I want a knife I can use around the camp to both help with prep and feed myself too. i don't want to have to carry dozens of knives with me. The FOX Knives FX131M or otherwise listed as the FX131MGT feels like it fits the bill for me in this department.

Anyway, stay tuned, a video field test and review will be coming out soon here.