This is a great knife. While it has unfortunately taken a back seat to another recent camping knife purchase, the versatility and durability of this knife is never in question.

rub a drop of oil on either side every once in a while and you’re golden for years and years.

I know very little about knives and various kinds of steel, but for camping chores like splitting wood, hacking at smaller branches in gathering firewood, some kitchen chores, and using the pommel a bit like a hammer to get tent stakes in (with the sheath on for that last one, of course), it works just fine.

Where this larger knife starts to feel a little clumsy in trying to do finer work. Like skinning a small squirrel or chipmunk, whittling a point on a small branch to jerry-rig a tent stake, and similar finer tasks, this knife is just a little too heavy and large. A 3″ blade is best suited for those types of tasks, though a 5″ can get you buy without much trouble. 7″ blades are just a bit too big.

They are also not that great for hacking. You’d want a machete for that. But for most backpacking trips on known trails, hacking is not much of a requirement.