Ontario Joe Pardue Utilitac Folding Knife
Aug 14, 2010 5:30:40 GMT
Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2010 5:30:40 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]Ontario Joe Pardue Utilitac Folding Knife 4" Black Plain Blade review[/glow]
by
[shadow=red,left,300]Sébastien B., Montréal, Québec[/shadow]
by
[shadow=red,left,300]Sébastien B., Montréal, Québec[/shadow]
This is one of my newest bladed toy, it is a very sweet, low-price folding knife from the Ontario Knife company. I bough it a week ago and I am quite happy with this knife, let me explain why ...
Introduction
I bough this knife, along many others, from www.knifecenter.com. Quick and cheap shipping, good price, thumbs up to knifecenter. I was very pleasantly surprised by this knife, it was light, comfortable, easy to deploy and had a very sexy blade for its price (about 30 US$).
Here are some numbers ...
Specifications
•Overall Length: 7.125"
•Blade Length: 4"
•Blade Thickness: 0.12"
•Made in Taiwan
Numbers taken from knifecenter website's, unfortunately, weight isn't given and I don't have anything to measure it.
Fittings
First, there was one, big error in that knife's ad ; it doesn't have a 4'' blade, the blade is about 3 1/4'' long. Personnaly, I don't mind it because I really like this knife, but keep that in mind if you really want a true 4'' blade folding knife.
The blade is made of 440 stainless steel. I have heard it can be a very good or very bad steel, depending on the quality of the forging process. Unfortunately, I haven't done any test on this blade so I can't say anything about how tough or untough it is. However, I can say that it comes with a very sexy curved belly, I can't get enough of that blade shape. It also comes with a paper-cutting sharp edge. It is painted black, but this paint seems on the cheap side, I easily sheared some off with a small Swiss Army knife. The blade's back has a nice-looking, gimped part, but the gimping isn't sharp. It improves the wielder's hand traction, but not as much as good, sharp gimping would do.
The grip is made of green zytel. It is partialy textured ; some of it is slick, some of it is textured. It gives a very comfortable grip, however, I am not sure if it would give strong traction in an hard work, self-defense or tactical situation. The linerlock feels strong, the blade nearly doesn't budge, it has a very slight left-and-right movement, but very, very small.
This knife felt light and comfortable in my pocket. On that front, I think it would be a good EDC blade (if the laws in your part of town are okay with carrying a blade...).
Deployment speed is very good, the blade comes out very fast, it requires only a little, easy to do thumb and wrist action. I think this would be a plus if someone had to draw this knife for an emergency situation. However, I may add that the lock isn't very secure when the blade is closed ; firmly holding and shaking the grip can and will make the blade snap open. After a few try, I was able to fully open and deploy this knife by only doing a single, strong movement with my wrist and arm. Although I think this is good for quick deployment, I fear it might make this knife a bit unsafe to carry in my pockets. I will also add that the lock feels a bit soft and requires little strenght to unlock the knife.
Here is a clip of me deploying this knife ;
Conclusion
Pros
-Nice, sharp, sexy blade
-Comfortable in hand and in the pocket
-Light
-Inexpensive
-Quick and easy to open
Cons
-Unknown quality of the blade steel
-Less than perfect grip
-Very easy to open and close ; knife might be a bit unsafe, IMO
Overall, I like this knife because of the many qualities it offers for its low 30 $ price. It is a sexy, very fun to foul around knife. However, it has a few faults ; we know nothing of the blade's quality and the easy-open-lock could make this knife prone to open in your pocket or close when you don't want it to. This fault could be a serious one if you are a serious knife user. If you aren't and just like to collect knives and foul around with them, I think you should consider this one. It looks good, feels great in hand and is fun and easy to open. To a casual collector like me, that's all that is all that is needed to be a good part of my collection.