Marbles Hawkbill Stainless 18

Brilliant for the garden. Cheap, stainless, secure lock. Does the job. Bargain!

It's built solidly, there's no blade play, the grinds pretty good and the lock works very well. The only down side is the blade is way off centre, just short of rubbing on the liner.For the price you pay its still a whole lot of knife and the blade is far from junk. If you need a hookbill that's solid, will take plenty of abuse and do the job, you could do a lot worse.

What a strange little blade. I picked it up on a whim, as I'm more of a collector than a practical user. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. First, it arrived a little blunt, but sharpened up incredibly quickly. There's no indication what the metal is, just "stainless steel" even after a bit of hunting around the web. It doesn't seem the strongest but hey, this is a £9 knife. It's not bargain basement quality and so far has done what little I've asked of it without chipping and hasn't needed *too* much sharpening. I can say it's failed to develop a patina after being used to tactically destroy some vegetables for dinner but that's hardly the most scientific analysis of its composition. Next the odd shape. It's a folder, but when folded, the blade doesn't really enter the handle, instead bulging way out. There's a hook at the end of hilt that looks like it should swing up and hold the blade closed, but it doesn't even come close to fitting, it's odd. Opening it is rough. There's a nail nick but it's a stiff, stiff blade even after oiling it up, you'll have much more luck pinching the blade, which is fat enough and as mentioned, is mostly stuck out of the handle and so easy to grab. Once it's open, it's staying open. The liner lock is remarkably stiff, it takes two hands and way too much effort to unlock so you can close it, and the blade strongly resists being closed until it's halfway. There was also a gritty feel to the opening and closing. While open, the liner lock bulges out where your index finger should rest. It's in the way and completely messes up your grip. The textured steel handle is fine to grip for a brief while. It quickly gets sweaty and slippery though. Overall I bought this thing for its appearance, and I'm very happy with that facet. It looks strange, interesting, and can be polished to a high shine. For practical use though, it's a £9 pruning knife. A beater you'll ugly up real quick. It's not awful, and has a strange charm, but just too many small flaws to recommend for real use.