Raven Review
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 9:02 pm
Story begins like many other of my stories:
first day off in ages, decide to go DVD hunting, come back home with no DVD but a new knife...
This time, my victim was a Byrd Raven PE. I have been contemplating buying one of those for a few weeks. I was curious at what Spyderco could make a "made in China" knife any good. In any case, the price tag was 23,75$ CAN, which was attractive enough to take the plunge:
Right of the bat, the knife has a very good feel in the hand, great feel I should say. The liner is rather thin so it doesn't have a solid 'thunk' like my Milie has but it certainly locks the blade open in a very firm position, with 0 blade play. Fit and finish pass the inspection. The double, full-lenght liners and aluminium scales give a nice heft to the knife and the ergos are very good, perhaps better than I had expected, but then again, it's designed by Spyderco! I quite like the comet hole too. Some will find it not as attractive as the simple Trademark round hole but it works just as well with a distinctive design. In fact, you can hide a portion of it with your fingers and see that the comet is actually just a round hole in disguise. Clip is very reminicent of a regular Spyderco clip and works just as well, can be made tip-up or tip-down.
Now, the steel was a concern. I recently aquired a Ronin which made me fall in love with VG-10. That things refinied sharp in my book! So could I be content with a 'lesser' steel, such as 8Cr13MoV? Sure I can! The edge was properly ground out of the box and rather adequate but a few passes on the whites made it shave effortlessly. While the knife only whittled a little so far and fixed diner tonight(open-back construction!), I can tell that the edge retention is quite acceptable and it touches up easily with the 204. It's a working knife with a working blade steel and it suits me fine. My only quasi-bad comment goes to the aluminium scales. I know the catalog says that the feather design improves grip, and maybe it's because I've been EDCing a g-10 Milie for some time but the aluminium handles are still slipery, there's no way around that. Still I like the feel of them and the look is very satisfying, and I just read that some Byrd knives will be offered in G-10 so maybe I'll give that a try too. If they even make a FRN version, I'm in!
Bottom line: I'm really glad I bought this knife. It's a lot of fun in a small and inexpensive package. I'm sure I will buy some more of those but it's not replacing any of my Spyderco. When I really need to use a knife, I'd prefer it to be a Spydie but I will enjoy scattering the Byrds around in the house, car and school bag so there's always a knife handy. I think these two product line-up complement each other very well and offer something for everyone and every budget.
It took me forever to even look at the Byrd products but they are sure worth the money. I'm sure you too can also find something you like in it!
-Dean
first day off in ages, decide to go DVD hunting, come back home with no DVD but a new knife...
This time, my victim was a Byrd Raven PE. I have been contemplating buying one of those for a few weeks. I was curious at what Spyderco could make a "made in China" knife any good. In any case, the price tag was 23,75$ CAN, which was attractive enough to take the plunge:
Right of the bat, the knife has a very good feel in the hand, great feel I should say. The liner is rather thin so it doesn't have a solid 'thunk' like my Milie has but it certainly locks the blade open in a very firm position, with 0 blade play. Fit and finish pass the inspection. The double, full-lenght liners and aluminium scales give a nice heft to the knife and the ergos are very good, perhaps better than I had expected, but then again, it's designed by Spyderco! I quite like the comet hole too. Some will find it not as attractive as the simple Trademark round hole but it works just as well with a distinctive design. In fact, you can hide a portion of it with your fingers and see that the comet is actually just a round hole in disguise. Clip is very reminicent of a regular Spyderco clip and works just as well, can be made tip-up or tip-down.
Now, the steel was a concern. I recently aquired a Ronin which made me fall in love with VG-10. That things refinied sharp in my book! So could I be content with a 'lesser' steel, such as 8Cr13MoV? Sure I can! The edge was properly ground out of the box and rather adequate but a few passes on the whites made it shave effortlessly. While the knife only whittled a little so far and fixed diner tonight(open-back construction!), I can tell that the edge retention is quite acceptable and it touches up easily with the 204. It's a working knife with a working blade steel and it suits me fine. My only quasi-bad comment goes to the aluminium scales. I know the catalog says that the feather design improves grip, and maybe it's because I've been EDCing a g-10 Milie for some time but the aluminium handles are still slipery, there's no way around that. Still I like the feel of them and the look is very satisfying, and I just read that some Byrd knives will be offered in G-10 so maybe I'll give that a try too. If they even make a FRN version, I'm in!
Bottom line: I'm really glad I bought this knife. It's a lot of fun in a small and inexpensive package. I'm sure I will buy some more of those but it's not replacing any of my Spyderco. When I really need to use a knife, I'd prefer it to be a Spydie but I will enjoy scattering the Byrds around in the house, car and school bag so there's always a knife handy. I think these two product line-up complement each other very well and offer something for everyone and every budget.
It took me forever to even look at the Byrd products but they are sure worth the money. I'm sure you too can also find something you like in it!
-Dean
