Ok, I finally broke down and bought the thing. It was a silly thing to do, I've got more knives than I can count, more knives than I could locate if I needed to, knives in drawers, knives in boxes, knives in bags, knives in storage...

The thing is, a few months ago I started carrying a Gerber Harsey Airframe for EDC, and as time went by I became fonder and fonder of the design. It's simple, practical, no frills but nothing left out, it works. Bill Harsey is the designer of the "Green Beret" knife, the "Yarborough", a civilian version of which may be had from Chris Reeve, maker of the Sebenza folder that denizens of these forums know very well.

Well, I've been carrying knives for about four decades now, and I've developed some preferences, which I won't bore everyone with. The interesting thing is, on the design points that I didn't much care for when I started carrying the Air Frame, it's slowly won me over to it's point of view. That's saying something. I don't know what Harsey's backgruound is, but he knows what makes a knife practical.

Now, I'm NOT saying that the finish, or build quality is comparable to the Sebenza- this is a production knife that sells for half as much- but I think the design is better than the knife. The knife is not bad, mind, it's a slick, tight, C154 blade with a black powder-coated skeleton handle that works very well, but it just doesn't show the jewel-like attention to detail of a custom knife, or even a Willaim Henry. For Gerber, the quality is very good. Heck, I can say it's better than anything I've ever seen from Gerber.

So, I was impressed enough that when I had a chance to obtain a Lone Wolf Harsey at about half of list price, somewhat to my own surprise, I bit the bullet.

I have to say, my first reaction when I held it in my hand is that I'd been very, very silly. I knew it was going to be big, but still...

This isn't really a "tactical", in the sense that that term's usually a euphemism for a very specialized fighting knife. This is an all-around survival/combat blade.

If the Sebenza is, say, a Grand Cherokee or Toyota Land Cruiser to Willaim Henry's Lexus and Infinity luxury sedans, that makes this the Hummer of folding knives.

My first reaction is that it was ridiculous overkill.

It's big. It's just a bit shorter than my Cold Steel XL Voyager (actually the Gunsite variant), but much thicker, more massive. It make the big Cold Steel folder feel delicate. Heck, it makes almost anything feel delicate. It is 10 and three-quarters of an inch long when open. The scales are black micarta (canvas micarta, I think), with a finish that I suspect was sandblasted for texture, and with enough notches for traction that it shares some of the aesthetics of a snow tire. The titanium frame/liner lock snaps into place with an arresting "CLACK!". It bears more than a little family resemblance to the Yarborough, and saying that it inspires confidence in your hand is like saying you don't think the Matterhorn is going to fall over.

This is the folder you want for Jurassic Park.

The silly thing is, it's slowly starting to win me over, like the much-smaller Harsey Air Frame did.

As massive as it is, because of the titanium frame and clip, it's lighter than it looks, and it balances very well indeed.

And the handle- well, I think it may be the most comfortable, secure-feeling handle I've ever had on a knife, folding or otherwise. I generally hate finger-grooves on a handle, dating back to the Randall Model 14, but these much-more-subtle grooves just work. It fits my (admittedly large) hand perfectly. Once gripped, it's simply not going anywhere I don't want it to, and my hand is NOT slipping forward onto the blade. That's not a trivial consideration for a knife intended for hard use (you guys who like pukkas cover your ears).

And, although it's amazingly large in the hand, it's fairly rounded in contour, and clipped into a pants front pocket ( at least, pants that aren't snug) it's (amazingly) not any more obtrusive than a lot of "normal" folders- all of which are starting to feel wimpy now.

There are still elements I'm not sold on yet. The frame/liner lock is so strong, and so flush with the handle, that despite more notches, unlocking it with the thumb of the hand holding the knife, while certainly possible, will give you a sore thumb if repeated too often. Though it opens very smootly and easily with one hand, it's actually more comfortable to unlock it with two hands- that's one powerful spring. That part does seems to be smoothing a little as time goes by.

Then, there's this second-lock thing that it shares with Harsey's Air Ranger design- a rotating cam that locks the liner-lock in place, so that there's zero chance of it "camming" and unlocking in use. I suppose this is just the thing if, say, you're facing an evening of cutting airplanes into smaller chunks, or carving a living oak tree with it, and you want to be very sure it doesn't close on you in the process, but it still feels like overkill, and, annoyingly, sometimes this device feels "loose" when the blade is open, and sometimes it's "snug". When it's loose, there are times when it rotates and keeps the knife from folding when you try without checking, which is very annoying, considering how much force it takes to unlock the thing anyway. However, it seems to be "snug" more often the more I open the knife, so this may be a break-in thing.

But, all of that starts to fade away when it's open. It's the first folding knife I've ever had that clearly makes no compromises, no concessions at all to being a folder- it feels as sturdy, as capable, as balanced, and as LARGE as a good, solid sheath knife. Once you get past the initial shock, which takes a while, the size, slowly, starts to feel... exactly right.

So- my best advice is, if you like your current folders, don't own one of these. There's nothing wrong with "normal" folders, but, if you let yourself get used to this... like ( I imagine) letting yourself get used to driving a Hummer, the others all start to feel like... less.

It comes with a nice little padded zipper case that looks enough like eyeglasses or something that I guess you could carry it anwhere. For the time being, though, this is my new EDC- but only on weekends. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Is this the knife?

That's the one.

More than most knives, this one seems to change appearance between one photo and another, or maybe the photos just have a hard time capturing it.

In person, I'd say that the scales appear darker- in anything but bright light, a very dark charcoal, and the contrast between the micarta and the hardware more pronounced, the contrast between the bead-blasted metal finish and the lettering is less pronounced...

But that's the one.

Congrats on your nice find!

The blade looks very GP functional (baton hitting aside). Knife looks great in the pic and that grip looks functional as heck. Big sucker! Give us a report after you've used it for some routine tasks, please. I'm interested in your reaction +/- to the swedge / false edge / overall profile after you've used it a bit. Flat or hollow grind? I couldn't tell from the pic for certain.

Wandered around on that site and saw a couple of other interesting knives I haven't seen previously. I bookmarked the site and will check it for new items from time to time.

Tom

It is a flat grind...

Actually, that relates directly to one of the things I expected to dislike about the Harsey designs in general- the high grind line/center line. I'm more used to designs that place the grind line down the center of the blade, sometimes in order to have a usable (sharpened) false edge. In the harsey designs, there isn't really room for that, but the increased distance between the grind line and the edge reduces the angle at the edge and the "belly" at the curve up to the point, and the false edge increases the fineness of the point, and you end up with something that slices very well for the thickness of the steel, taking it away from the old sharpened-prybar school into a much more useful class of tool.