Re posting for smoke wrench a-sol Keegan Singleton, his review of the sgian dubh. Thanks for the time taken! Artificum Solis Blue Ribbon Sgian Dubh Review I have had this knife for one month at time of this writing. During this month, I given this knife a thorough wringing out, and felt I would share my thoughts and experiences. First impressions: Very pleasing light grey finish with minor pitting/texture and color patterns that give it a unique look, tightly wrapped cord handle and very nice etched A/S mark on the right side. Nice even cuts on the jimping, which is aggressive enough to be very functional without being abrasive. Handle is wide for its length which fits my large hands quite well. Sheath is a nice riveted kydex unit with a swiveling steel clip. While I am typically not a fan of chisel grinds as a rule, it fits this piece well and did not affect function. The 15N20 steel does a great job of holding an edge. I used it for cutting steak at dinner, cutting the sleeves off a couple of under armor type shirts, skinned a rabbit (I was defending my vegetable garden) opened lots of boxes and cut a lot of cardboard. It did all these things quite well, and held its edge at least as well if not better than my D2 steel BM 710 that is my EDC folder. The big test of edge holding was cutting 2 bundles of honey suckle vines that were encrusted with red clay off of my 2 bottom plow. I used the sgian dubh because I honestly didn’t want to abuse the Benchmade like that. These bundles had formed around the arms of the plow and were about 8-10” thick and full of sandy red clay. After hacking that mess loose, the knife could still shave hair off my arm. The grey acid etch took a good beating, and as the pictures show, the blade as a good amount of silver showing, but no corrosion is taking hold, so I would say the acid etch does a good job of preventing rust. My normal mode of carry with this knife is through my back center belt loop, hilt to left and edge up. This is a very unobtrusive way to carry the knife, allowing access by either hand and the cover for my handgun also conceals the knife nicely. However, due to my method of carry, I had to modify the sheath, as I almost lost the knife on 2 separate occasions. The first was while on the tractor, the handle of the knife caught on the seat and pulled it out of the sheath, at which point it fell and lodged in the seat bracket. Had it not been caught there, it would have been plowed under and found in 500 years as a relic of civilizations past. The other was in my truck, it fell out as I was getting out and narrowly missed landing in a 3 ft deep mud puddle. My solution was to lightly mold the spine of the sheath to hold the jimping on the blade, to act as a positive retention. This was not a fault of the original design, as it would be perfect for carrying in a stocking or pocket with the blade upright in the original configuration. The clip screw also kept working its way loose, a problem solved by a bit of blue locktite. Another change I may make to mine is to add a small hole for a lanyard, though I may just buy another A/S knife better suited for heavier use I tend to find. I have had experience with other sgian dubh type knives on the market, and this one fits the true multifunctional role much better than other offerings. It is a very sturdy little knife that stands up to hard use, by virtue of its good materials and heat treat, as well as a well-designed point that is anything but fragile, unlike some of the others. This is my first A/S product, and I have been very impressed with its quality. It will not be the last.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 09:37:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015