I got a new knife.

[backpacker3]

I finally got an "expensive" knife. I don't actually have it yet but my new Cutco Drop Point is in the mail so I'm pretty excited.

Just a few specs if you're interested

440A High carbon Stainless Steel
Full tang
Kraton handle
9 1/4 inches total length 4 1/2 blade length
Weight 5 oz
Fine edge

I managed to get a pretty good deal on it only 60 bucks for it so that was why I got it. From the display they had there I really liked the weight and feel of the knife the handle was really cool, a buddy of mine has a dive knife that also has a Kraton handle and I love the grip you get with them, I'm really looking forward to putting up a full review once it gets here. But I couldn't wait till then to share lol.

[knife nut]

Looking forward to a report.

[kyratshooter]

Kraton,,,hummm,,,

Isn't that the stuff that messes Superman up?

[canid]

Looks like a very decent quality steak knife.

I only tease, but the one that came up when I looked it up was a fully serrated blade.

[backpacker3]

Kraton,,,hummm,,,

Isn't that the stuff that messes Superman up?

It's a rubber type material but when it's wet it becomes almost tacky (as in easier to hold not like stripes and plaid together) but I've always liked the grip you get with it even dry. It's very comfortable but still a very solid grip.

Looks like a very decent quality steak knife.

I only tease, but the one that came up when I looked it up was a fully serrated blade.

Yeah I made sure to get the fine edge the salesman had the serrated one too which he claimed would stay sharper longer but it doesn't let you get some of the same cutting angles as a fine edge plus Cutco has a free sharpening guarantee so I don't really care if the blade needs to be sharpened quicker cause I'll just have him come out and sharpen it for me. The edge is supposed to last for 10 years with normal use because of the tempering method they use so I'll see how long it last with MY use.

[Sarge47]

Looks really nice. I wouldn't have chose it at that price, but still, it's really a good name so you should be very happy with it!....

[randallss7]

440a steel, not my thing but let me try and play both sides of the fence here. 440a steel is a lower grade of steel in the 440 series, the steel you find in most knives running around 10.00 or so and is a very inexpensive steel. It is not as wear resistant or will not get as hard as say 440c or something better 154cm etc, but that's not necessarily a bad thing that means it can take a lot of abuse (its softer less brittle) and will be very easy to resharpen, good for them and you right. With Cutcos warranty and sharpening policies they need a knife that doesn't show up for a lot of repairs and is easy to sharpen. So for a heavy use stainless knife that is easy to sharpen it might just be the right choice. I have a hunting buddy that will not buy anything but 440a blades from walmart, as the most important thing for him is ease of resharpening and not edge retention. Any way just some thoughts I bet you will enjoy it for years to come.

[backpacker3]

I've got my knife! I been testing it out this weekend and I've got a full review for y'all later today. It's pretty good but there are a few things I plan on changing

[backpacker3]

So I've finished some testing on my knife and here are my thoughts, first though a few pictures

Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

So out of the box it was razor sharp and I don't mean that as a figure of speech, I mean you can shave your face with it quite easily. I was pretty happy with that as most of my other knives weren't that sharp out of the package but they also weren't as expensive. Anyway I headed outside and shaved down a few sticks peeled bark off some branches and made a few feather sticks, easy stuff but still I was impressed by how little work it takes to do all of that with this knife I actually think it might be the perfect knife for feather stick making.

Then I moved onto to some tougher stuff, batoning and chopping up some bigger branches and whatnot, now I'll admit that this was the part I was a bit skeptical about because the knife is pretty light (only 5.5 oz) and the blade is pretty thin compared to other knives I own and have used it's only about the same thickness of a nickel. So it was fine for batoning but it didn't have much heft for chopping but I was expecting that because of the weight.

I did a little bit of bushcraft with it, making a friction fire set a bit of carving and it was really nice the balance is really nice and the Kraton handle is really comfortable to hold and gives a really good grip. One of the things I really liked about it was that it has a little bit of give to it so even when you really bear down on or are chopping it still feels comfortable and not as many of the vibrations come through. The balance of the knife is right where the ridge between where your fore and middle fingers are which may have attributed to the issues I had while chopping with it.

The blade stayed sharp even after all my testing and I couldn't feel any noticeable difference in the sharpness of the edge from before I tested it so that was good. It is a really nice knife and for the price range it's in I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars because it retails for $100 so it's competing with some pretty heavy hitters.

However I do have one big problem and that is the sheath. For starters it's not anything special it's only designed to hold the knife and nothing more, it's just a simple leather sheath, next it's only a right handed sheath which might not be a big deal if I wasn't a lefty but for a knife that costs 100 bucks I expect a better sheath. The other problem is shown in the pictures below

Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

That is the plastic insert that stops the knife from cutting through the sheath and it's cheap and falls out pretty easily. Aside from all that the blade is loose inside the sheath it's just the strap around the handle that holds it in.

Because of all that I'm going to be making a kydex sheath for it something soon which will solve that problem. Overall I love the knife and I'll be using it as my main knife from now on but I hate the sheath and plan to dump it as soon as possible. The only other concern I have is if I want to add a fire steel notch to it I don't know if it would void the warranty or not so I'll have to email cutco on that.

[RangerXanatos]

Thanks for the review. You should be able to glue the plastic liner back in. You may also be able to reform the sheath to hold it in better?

I too have grown fond of firesteel loops but sometimes you need something extra to hold them in. After using them and thinning out the diameter, they get loose and can fall out.

Looks like it is a high rider on the hip. with your new sheath, would you keep it like that or lower it some?

[backpacker3]

Thanks for the review. You should be able to glue the plastic liner back in. You may also be able to reform the sheath to hold it in better?

I too have grown fond of firesteel loops but sometimes you need something extra to hold them in. After using them and thinning out the diameter, they get loose and can fall out.

Looks like it is a high rider on the hip. with your new sheath, would you keep it like that or lower it some?

The liner wasn't actually glued in to start with it just slips in and out I think I'll probably leave it that way as I don't really care too much about messing with the sheath. I'm just going to focus on the new one.

It does ride slightly high currently with my new one though I think I'm going to have multiple attachment points and methods based on some of the ideas I gotten from various other sheaths and some YouTube videos I've watched.

On this sheath I would probably use a ranger band from an old bike inner tube I have sitting around for a fire steel. I've got to stop a local surplus store though because I want to buy a few things to integrate into my custom sheath