Otter Hippekniep Folding Knife 18

I often use a knife for daily small tasks, and being ex-military like to know I have a comfortable and reliable tool to hand to get jobs done, cut up the kids pizza or open the mail. With its warm and grippy Grenadil wood scales the Otter does not disappoint . Further the carbon steel blade is easy to sharpen and easily maintained, with the odd drop of mineral oil every now and again. Though this is due to me putting it through its paces in all weather. Though it would also be nice to see this knife offered in D2 etc. Using the blade I have not encountered any issues with it nipping me and its mechanism feels fairly robust. Importantly you can choke up on the small ricasso section (although appears small is effective) if required, which stops the blade from folding on the hand for heavier cuts. My choice to purchase this knife was also partly due to requiring an UK legal knife and wanting one which was not aggressive in appearance, but still held a useful and effective point, as I’m a healthcare professional with a registration to protect, and after chatting with police colleagues (who gave me impartial advice), felt it necessary to choose a pocket knife wisely. Overall I’m very happy with the Otter which ticks all my boxes and would buy it again.

This is a nice traditional knife which potentially deserves a greater star rating than 3 stars but it was unfortunately poorly finished and not sharp. Some of the rivets were proud, there was a metal bur at the back of the knife and the handle was not evenly profiled. I spent about an hour sanding and polishing to rectify the issues and pleased with the final finish. It's nicely proportioned and feels comfortable in the hand. Considering the cost the finish, sharpness and packaging all let this knife down.

Considering this knife is £54.95 at the time of writing, I was disappointed with the packaging. Mine came in a cheap plastic sleeve with a couple of information stickers on it, which was punched at the top to hang on a display stand and was actually open at the top so the knife can fall out. I didn't buy it for the packaging but you might want to consider this if you are thinking about it as a possible present. When you think what nice boxes companies like Boker use, I think they could do better. The knife itself has nice wooden scales which are totally smooth and nicely rounded off. The fit and finish was good, perfectly centred blade, no blade play, well fitted liners. The spring tension is firm. There is no half stop. The blade was sharp (but not hair popping sharp) the grinds and tip of the blade were even. The rivet hinge seems firm, although I wouldn't want to have to follow the suggested tightening procedure if it ever becomes loose (hitting it with a hammer) There are other variants of this knife out there which come with a lanyard. This one doesn't come with a lanyard. The knife feels nice in the hand and seems very capable so far. I really like the knife but feel it's a bit overpriced . There is not a huge deference between this and an opinel other than the nicer wood scales and the shape of the handle. The tang corner (pocket shredder) is very sharp. The lanyard hole is quite small and you have to struggle a bit to get a bit of 550 para cord down it. Overall a nice traditional UK friendly sodbuster. I personally like the fact the whole blade is under 3 rather than just the cutting edge.

Nice traditional penknife, smooth action and despite slip joint holds open well I do like Lovely wood handle. Feels a little wider than I expected and given the dimensions of the knife I don't like,:the sharp right angle corner of the back of the folded blade (don't know the correct name of this part)