Kizlyar Supreme Kid Knife Field Test and Review English language

Hi everyone, here is yet another great little knife from the people at Kizlyar Supreme. The KID is made in 440C stainless steeel. Now I'm going to say right now to all of you who think 440C isn't any good. What you mean to say is that 440C is simply not in vogue as a knife steel these days. I want to see all those pictures of this micro chipping in 440C blades. Where are they??? That's right it's all here say or it's simply by knife makers or manufacturers who don't know how to heat treat their products properly. The KID did not suffer any of this micro chipping, in fact I've had knives made from ELMAX that micro chip and ATS34 made knives that microchip too. Let's get over it shall we??? When 400C was being used in knife production everywhere what happened to all the bad publicity regarding micro chipping way back over 20 years ago? Yes there maybe better knife steels out there but we need to define what is meant by  better steels, otherwise it's just a pointless comparison and straight out and out slagging. Firstly you need to ask better for what application. Better meaning: harder?? Tougher??? resistant to chipping??? ( the harder it is the less it will resist chipping) and under what circumstances? A lot of steel manufacturers are quoting data that pertains to industrial applications of tooling and machining with flowing lubricants!!, not banging away at bits of hardwood impregnated with dirt. Yep, dirt, you know that stuff that has loads of abrasive (depending where you happen to be around the world- but mainly abrasive) material covering a non homogenous natural product/s, not some chunk of plastic being machined at high speed.

You need to be able to easily sharpen a knife too.



Ok I'm getting side tracked here. The KID I found to be a comfortable knife to use even for a bit of butchering albeit, just one leg. Yes it's not a butcher's knife and I'm not trying to say it is but you can do some skinning with it and some butchering and even a bit of carving wood work due to the short, strong and pointy blade. It cuts well as it's a hollow ground geometry but it has a lot of "meat" in the blade as it's almost 4mm thick along the spine. The other nice thing is the rounded spine, you can really apply a lot of pressure here without getting blisters over your thumbs.

I'm not a big fan of hollow rivets and would rather see screws in place of rivets holding on the slabs of nicely scalloped micarta. BUT the handle wasn't coming off. Being 440C you don't have to be in big rush to clean off this blade in fear of corrosion. Good chance of getting salt on the blade if you're like me and like to salt those skins back at camp and then realise that you really should have removed more crap of the skin and that means putting a knife back there (provided you haven't got something else).



Anyway check out this short video if you haven't already. The KID by Kizlyar Supreme is a nice little knife with good practical value.

Kizlyar Supreme Alpha Field Test and Review English Language

Hi all in this video I review Kizlyar Supreme's Alpha model second version with serration's. The Alpha comes under the banner of Kizlyar Supreme's Tactical Echelon Series of knives. Clearly an operators knife in design, ie large false edge, anti reflective coating and fully Molle compatible carry system, I field tested this knife for general strength along with it's practicality in usage for tasks other than pure military.



The Alpha is a full width full tang knife, ie the only metal missing from the tang is where the bolts go to anchor those Kraton/ABS slabs to. This gives the knife a hefty feel as soon as you pick it up. I tried to bend or break the handle by applying a load of about 75kg directly across the ricasso. (ie I hung off the blade shoved into some bricks of an old farm house. No chance of breaking here. This model I tested was made with D2 tool steel but the same design like so many of the Kizlyar Supreme range, is also available in AUS8 as well for better corrosion resistance if working near a wet environment all the time.



Despite the Alpha being almost 5mm thick and having a a narrow blade profile, because it is a hollow grind, it cuts really well and of course this is what it should be doing. If the knife had a flat grind and still retained the narrow blade width then the blade angle would be too steep for good cutting and I guess that's why Kizlyar Supreme designed it thus. If you're like me and like to use military style knives for outdoor work then the Alpha could work for you.



Many people don't like serrations but I find them very useful for outdoor tasks. I don't baton much and really have never felt the need to do this to start a fire anywhere except maybe in some parts of Europe where the wood can be really wet then i'm batoning to let it fry out for a couple of days before I decide to light a fire.

Anyway I think after using the Alpha for about a couple of weeks it was a nice knife to handle. I don't think it's suited to Jungle deployment as the narrow blade is not going to be good  here. Better off taking a larger knife and proper machete, JMHO though based on some quick tests. For those too that are hung up about scratches on the blade, well that Ti ceramic coating Kizlyar Supreme are using is pretty tough. Though I couldn't careless about a blade getting scratched i use my knives, none of them are hanging on a shelf somewhere.

Thinking of taking a hunting knife into Australia, then you should read this!

There used to be time when you could bring into Australia in your checked luggage a hunting knife for hunting and camping obviously. If it wasn't a dagger or automatic knife or other banned weapon, No problems, just show the customs officer by declaring it and that's it. 

Not any more. The rules have changed. You now require permit to import a sheath knife even if it's for hunting purposes. 

Don't get caught out or you may find your knife gets confiscated even if it's not an illegal weapon.

Addendum: Best to seek out the approval of Customs and the latest is this single edged knife is Ok to bring into Australia in checked luggage but the rules are different for importing (presumably for resale as apposed to just personal usage)

KizlyarSupreme Maximus Knife Englsh Review

KizlyarSupreme Maximus Knife Englsh Review



Hi here is one of my latest field reviews of Kizlyar Supreme's Maximus knife from their Outdoor Series of knives. Available in either D2 or AUS8, with a black G10 handle. It's a full tang knife with a beefy spine thickness of almost  5mm. Perfect for hunting and camp duties, it's hollow ground and well balanced in the hand as well as comfortable to hold without gloves.

TRC Knives K1 Field Test and review

Hi all here it is my field test and review of TRC Knives K1 flat ground drop point camp hunting utility knife. So after several weeks of real world usage in the field you can see some of the stuff I pit this knife through. It's just the right size (at least for me), with a good solid feel and look about it. Made from Uddeholm's powder metallurgical steel ELMAX. The K1 has very good corrsion resistance. I found the edge retention was good too and this is something Uddeholm is saying about ELMAX for use in knife steels. The K1 has tamperproof (probably not a good idea to try and remove them and for what anyway?) tri screws anchoring those comfortable micarta slabs. The finish as I said previously is great and the K1 just feels good to use, especially having the rounded spine profile as this feature makes it very comfortable carving with this knife. Anyway enough said. Check the video!

LionSteel M7 Knife Field Test and Review English language

Hi all here is the field review finally! Stayed tuned for more testes of the M7 in a mountainous region where I hope to show you some shelter building. Correction to this above video too: There is NOT a problem (I said there was in the video) with switching the safety tab over my mistake whoops!



 Also no probs with corrosion. Anyway stay tuned for more video reviews

What does Full Tang actually mean?

What exactly does full tang mean when it comes to knives?

IS it important and does it make a knife stronger?/Better? and Compared to what???

And what is the meaning of "Stronger"?

Let's quickly look at the word "stronger" This means different things to different people and what those people do with the knife. Unfortunately these days as it appears on YT and elsewhere, "strong" means being able to use the knife in all sorts of applications that a knife was never meant to be used in. For example: levering/prying, bashing the daylights out of metal objects, cutting through steel pipes and the like. Smashing down brick walls. Breaking rocks apart with blade or pommel etc etc. Maybe you are laughing right now but let's face it there is a plethora of videos showing this kind of treatment to knives. It's all kind of funny as I grew up thinking that the main job of a knife was to be able to cut effectively, either during hunting, fishing or camping etc. I don't remember having to slice my way through car doors, refrigerator doors, cut down steel piping and stab away at bricks and rocks, I guess I was missing something. AND for military usage I can't remember the last time some military buddies told me they were slicing through car doors, beating the shit out of brick walls or trying to cut through steel cables! Smashing windows, ok, piercing fuel tanks ok, stabbing vehicle tyres ok, cutting ropes and some levering.



In fact I've had manufacturers contact me and ask me just to check I'm not going to bash the sh*t out of their knife have it fail and then slag off the knife and say that it wasn't strong!

If I want a lever I go get a pry bar or destroy a screwdriver/chisel/lump of steel, not my knife!

 I reassure them I'm not doing the above. That's a job for tools from the hardware/demolition  center, if you happen to be near one not counting improvised tools.

All knives no matter how good the manufacturer says they are, will break or become damaged at some point with the above kind of treatment. Look at what EXTREMA RATIO say about their products. I've even had an infamous STRIDER get damaged when I was using it to remove a stuck axel bushing (because I never had the correct tool with me at the time), and I broke a small part of the tip off. If I never did this then the original tip would still be there 13 years later LOL (i did remove that bush replaced it and got mobile!) . Just read the fine print of the good manufacturers and see what they warranty their knives against, you'll find none of them warranty them against abuse even if it's a military end use.



Let's get back to "Full Tang"

So I figured I'd give it a definition: A full tang knife is a knife blade where the tang is pretty much the full width of the knife at the ricasso ie the full width of the ricasso. This piece of metal then will extend along the full length of the handle of the knife. The tang in this case should not be machined out or have material forged from the tang. It will possess holes for fixing of the handle scales (if not a moulded handle) I would call this type of tang a "machined" tang or a tang which has undergone stock removal.

NOW the important point to note is there is NO substance in saying that the full tang knife as I have defined it above is more stronger/rigid/less flexible than a tang which has been "machined out", in other words has undergone some sort of "stock removal" whether by forging, water jet cutting, CNC machining, drilling or hand grinding. A solid piece of metal may not necessarily be as strong as a carefully designed tang which has had metal removed

However, a poorly designed  or heat treated stock removal tang will definitely not be as strong as an equivalent solid tang. I wonder how many Japanese Samurai's Katana's were busting off at the handle???

Why do manufacturers remove material from knife tangs? There are many answers but here are just a several: 

Overall weight savings, Why?

to: reduce shipping costs believe it or not.

reduce/recover material consumed (excess material can be recycled)

increased strength with reduced weight ( imagine an RSJ girder, now image the same piece of steel as a solid chunk, right, it's not going to work is it.)

Reduced overal weight of the end product- obvious handling advantages.

Added flexibility of the tang to prevent accidental tang breakage- for example in tangs which have been narrowed down (I don't mean a "rats tail" tang here BTW).

Finite Element Method (analysis) says they (manufacturers) can!

If this type of engineering/mathematical analyses are used, it can tell the engineer exactly where material can be removed without affecting or compromising the overall safe strength of the knife.
Material can not simply be randomly removed from the tang without some serious consideration to the resulting mechanical integrity in terms of safety. At the least destruction testing should be conducted under controlled conditions.


From a marketing standpoint and practical design standpoint.

There is a certain kind of confidence that comes from those words "full tang" and this marketing strategy is a very powerful one. No one likes to hear about hollow handles with almost no tang, half tangs, rats tailed tangs, stock removal tangs, stick tangs etc. But the fact remains that a well made knife is a well made knife regardless of the tang. The only knives I've busted were ones that were poorly heat treated  and they will always break with a brittle type fracture, usually quite suddenly without warning and with almost no force applied to the blade. The results of this could be serious injury to user or bystanders!


 Design requirement will necessitate a "full tang" and at other times a stock removal type tang. For example knives where the tang is kept the same but the blade shape varies may help to aid in bulk heat treating as the same mass of metal will always be present in the tang.