Cold Steel Leatherneck by Nutnfancy

Full flat ground version of the Kabar Fighting knife. The KaBar (or USMC Combat) fixed blade has proven to be a tough survival knife in my testing, showing agility in most tasks (except hacking performance). It has an excellent grip, hammer pommel, proven 1095 carbon steel, and the newer versions like the Next Gen and Utlitiy knives (shown) have the excellent KaBar plastic sheath. Enter a newer version of this combat-proven classic, the Cold Steel Leatherneck. It many ways it reminds me of a thinner Cold Steel Recon Scout, a production reference standard for heavy duty quarter inch thick wilderness knife. The Leatherneck has a perfect full flat ground blade in SK-5 steel which performed in excellent fashion in spittling and batoning (shown). At 11.4 oz without the sheath, this FFG Leatherneck version inherits the combat capabilities of the old sage Kabar. The Bowie clip blade pierce cuts, slashes, and slices with adeptness like all good Bowie blades. The knife comes out of box extremely sharp and it wilderness firecrafting over two days, the SK-5 steel still shows an edge. Besides the beautifully clean and easy to sharpen grind, the Leatherneck also upgrades the original design with a thicker guard angled forward, a cast steel butt cap, a more aggressive grip, and a much thicker full tang. The Secure-Ex plastic sheath is outstanding since its light, impervious to water soaking (except strapping), and the blade's guard snaps into it VERY securely. Other than MOLLE attachment capabilities and the use of a Hypalon retention stap (rubberized nylon), this sheath cannot be improved. At $50, value is extraordinary made possible by overseas production. Several other interesting and TNP-proven survival blades are shown and discussed (like the high value Dan Maragni Gen II SP-43 ranking higher for me in woods POU for its size). There is a an example of a Leatherman knife breaking in batoning, a defective knife with improper heat treatment Cold Steel claims. Again in my heavy duty testing with the high altitude available wood types, I saw no flaws. For a medium weight, medium capability 7" knife, the FFG Leatherneck is an excellent choice.//////////////////Nutnfancy Likability Scale for SK-5 Full Flat Ground Leatherneck: 9 out of 10: for Hollow ground 4116 Krupp steel version: 3 out of 10 (buy another KaBar instead!)////////////////