Very Sturdy Folder
The fit and finish and centre alignment on this knife are excellent. The cru wear blade is marked Seki City Japan and has less chamfering on the spine than other Spyderco knives I own which means it is great for ferro rod use. This knife is very sturdy and the back lock has significant steel parts. It locks up with a “vault” like click. This enables the knife to use the benefit of the cru wear blade. With a toughness rating of 8 and an edge retention rating of 5 ( see the Larrin Thomas article on knifesteel nerds website) the 4 inch blade shines at bushcraft tasks. It came very sharp and scored 75g on a BESS test. It has since been sharpened to a 16 degree each side secondary convex edge. This scored 50g on testing. It has proved superb at feather sticking and fire lightning. It can baton sticks and scrape birch bark and carve really well. Quite surprising on the carving and how nimble and comfortable it sits in your hand. I have removed the clip which helps and I carry it in a pancake belt sheath from a company called Tourbon. They are on Amazon and their leather work is great. This keeps this large folder very handy and easily covered by a sweater. I am very pleased with this knife. It is a bit unique. It is more nimble than my cold steel AD10 and yet has a lock up strength of similar quality. Way ahead of their liner lock or compression lock knives. I own three Military 2 knives in S110V, S90V and 15V and this Stretch in Cru Wear feels much more able to tackle battoning sticks for a fire. It also does well on gralloching. The closed spine means cleaning it takes a bit more time but you can use a folded pipe cleaner to good effect to get into the grip recess. Then once in a while I use a dental ultrasonic cleaner for all my folders. I have this for cleaning cartridges for reloading but it works great on knives and watches too. I would highly recommend this knife.
