Aloha all!
Before I write my review on Ceya’s Recurve, here are some specs:
OAL: 7 11/16
Blade: 3 11/16
Primary cutting edge: 2 15/16
Secondary cutting edge: 1 1/8
Blade thickness: 1/8
Blade width at widest point: 1 3/16
OA Handle thickness: Approx. 9/16
Primary choil: 7/8
Secondary choil: 5/8
Lanyard hole: just shy of ¼
Okay…at approximately 1341hrs. today, I began testing Ceya’s Recurve. The weather was light rain, and very windy. I ain’t gonna talk TOO much about the weather for fear of getting “gas” from The Deacon. LOL! Anyway, I began with a standard arm hair shave. Very good…next I began whittling on various hardwoods like seasoned Guava, Ohia (This is like petrified wood!!!), some Magnolia. Did some simulated skinning on some larger diameter wood…boring. Cut some cardboard, duct tape…*yawn*. Did a free hanging carpet slash a few times…
I then thought, “What the heck am I doing?” This is NOT a utility knife! I looked into my forest which consists of Guava, Magnolia, Ohia, and coffee trees. There is a LOT of Guava growing…too much in fact. So I went into my forest and well…WENT OFF! LOL! Using a foil and saber grip, I began slashing at the guava tree “Sprouts” and they all effortlessly fell. This went well up to an inch in diameter sprouts. I sometimes had to follow with a back cut to sever the branches completely. I did the same on coffee trees…never realized how dense these suckers were. Did a few thrusts into some Ohia trees. Like I said, this particular wood is like rock! I did an arm hair shave test…not shaving sharp any more, felt like “scraping sharp”. The only “bad” thing that happened on the smaller diameter branches, probably less than ¾ inches, was that I hung up the secondary choil once in a while. I don’t blame this on Ceya’s Recurve…I blame this on my lack of accuracy! LOL! I still wonder about this “twin choil look” of Ceya’s knives. BUT, I did find a use for the secondary choil …more on that later.
After “going ballistic” in the forest for a while, I went under the house, grabbed a piece of 2x4 and began thrusting the Recurve into it. I did this progressively harder each time. On the 5th time, I felt my ring and pinky finger slide, and I was holding the Recurve in a reverse grip…yikes! I took a breather, and tried again…this time though, I was prying the knife out side ways. I stopped after the 13th time and examined the tip. No damage whatsoever. I reinforce my knives if possible with my thumb on the butt when I use the reverse grip…the pommel on the Recurve is not “pointy” but IS felt when doing “stabs” in this manner. No biggee…maybe round it out a bit?
Sorry Jsmith, but I then filled some empty Pepsi cans with water and placed them on the backdoor steps. Doing this made them at various heights…OBTW, this Recurve was rigged in a nice Kydex sheath in a canted crossdraw. I drew the Recurve, manipulated it into a reverse grip and proceeded to “attack” the cans with a Hammer/Backfist strike, one of my favorite and fastest reverse grip techniques! I try to NOT have the cans fall when I retract the strike, but man, just hitting the Pepsi “circle” is hard enough! :D Well, some of them did fall, some didn’t. As I examined all the cans, the ones standing were cleanly pierced and “bleeding” water. The ones that fell were “bleeding” also, but they were CUT by the Recurve upon my retraction, :eek: I never hit the buggers cleanly upon entry!!! That was impressive! I repeated this drill with several more cans…then I heard my wife say, “WHAT are you DOING!?” Soda can test completed at that time! LOL! I examined the blade…not a scratch. (BTW, this is a fun drill!) In fact, it’s SO fun, I grabbed a seasoned Magnolia wood “staff” about an inch or so in diameter, leaned it against the shed, and proceeded to do some “shadow strikes” while throwing in that reverse gripped Recurve at it. I noticed that on the times when I missed, I produced a pretty decent cut on retraction again. I did this “accuracy” drill a few more times…noticed that the sharpened swedge also cut upon retraction! Cripes! I then did various slashes, thrusts, back cuts, cross cuts etc. in foil, saber, even “pikal” style on the staff…all went well, and manipulation was great! Even though this Recurve has choils, I could hold it comfortably in the “edge in, edge out” grips! Anyhow, after the stick drill, I did the arm shave again…no more hair falling…I finally dulled it! So into the house I went, grabbed my Spyderco Pro-File set, used only the white sticks…did FOUR swipes, and man, when the hair on my arm saw the Recurve coming, they voluntarily “jumped off my arm!” LOL! I didn’t understand this part…I did ALL of these cut tests to the knife, and it only took FOUR swipes on the white sticks of my Pro-File. Shaving sharp again… :confused:
Oh yeah, before I forget…that “secondary choil” use…I finally received a package from my buddy “VW” in Canada. I held the Recurve in an edge up grip and placed my thumb on the secondary choil to steer this big bellied Ceya knife! (FYI, IF you have ever been fortunate enough to receive a box from VW, he packs with a purpose!!! LOL! What was it, 1/3 of a roll of duct tape? LOL!) Anyways, I found this to be the only use for the secondary choil…please help here Ceya!
I left the tree gunk on it and had to take our cat to the vet. Came home a few hours later and checked for rust. None. I then cleaned this fine fixed blade…
Ceya, IMHO, I liked this Recurve better than the Trident Warrior! The grip on this one fills the hand in all grips. I also liked the canted sheath attachment, and for all the “neckers” out there, I wore the Recurve in necker mode and jumped around to the sounds of NIN…the Recurve stayed put. I also did some empty hand strikes and kicks with the Recurve strapped on my waist. It did not get in the way at all. I rolled around the floor a bit, but I stopped because I didn’t wanna crack the attachment. I could feel the knife when I was rolling about, but in an ACTUAL situation, I do not think it will be noticed or minded! :rolleyes:
Mahalo MUCH Ceya, for allowing me to test your fine knives! :D Hats off to DMKnives also for doing such a great job!
Now, to test the Trident Mini…
God bless ya Ceya…Hope Sal reads this!
Ceya :spyder: Collaboration!!!