This is hands-down my most-used outdoor knife. I say "knife," but I have half a dozen of these too, including a few of the newer redo model and a stainless version (12C27 again), and the patina gets spread over several knives. These were also $10 (just under, actually) back when I bout them. I cut the belt loop off the original plastic sheath and stick it in a pocket or use a neck lanyard.
These are light, perfectly balanced, the handles are extremely comfortable in strenuous use and the blades thin enough to slice and cut very efficiently. The 510 is "carbon steel," similar to 1095 to the best of my guessing ability, take and hold an edge very well and are amenable to my sharpening preferences. They come with the legendary "Scandi-grind," which some believe MUST be sharpened with no secondary edge "just like the Scandinavians do," but I've talked to a few Scandinavians about this and and they laugh. Mine have the "single bevel" (on each side) convexed very slightly on a parabola with the curve becoming more very slightly more obtuse right out at the edge - mirror-polished edge, to make it more durable.
These were discontinued a few years ago in favor of an identical knife with an obnoxious finger guard cast into the plastic handle. If one could cut, whittle, sand polypropylene, the solution was easy, except that the new sheath was made to accommodate the gargantuan guard. I suppose if you're stabbing trees, the guard would be handy though?
The new 510 has a black handle, which is more appealing to some, but easier to lose track of. The garish red handle has grown on me. The new 510 is also thinner - not by much, but the original was already thin enough, so thinner isn't better - if you ask me and they did not. My originals run about .098" at their thickest. Subtract another .017" to .020" for the new ones. Still a great knife, but I prefer the older ones.
Some guys buy expensive knives, big, tough, indestructible tools, but are afraid to take them out and "scratch them." They buy cheap knives to do the actual work, because they won't be out as much if they lose it. Me? I get them out there and get them dirty, regardless of cost and don't use cheap knives to preserve expensive ones, I just prefer how the work. Honestly, I'd be pretty upset if I lost one of my cheap knives.
These are light, perfectly balanced, the handles are extremely comfortable in strenuous use and the blades thin enough to slice and cut very efficiently. The 510 is "carbon steel," similar to 1095 to the best of my guessing ability, take and hold an edge very well and are amenable to my sharpening preferences. They come with the legendary "Scandi-grind," which some believe MUST be sharpened with no secondary edge "just like the Scandinavians do," but I've talked to a few Scandinavians about this and and they laugh. Mine have the "single bevel" (on each side) convexed very slightly on a parabola with the curve becoming more very slightly more obtuse right out at the edge - mirror-polished edge, to make it more durable.
These were discontinued a few years ago in favor of an identical knife with an obnoxious finger guard cast into the plastic handle. If one could cut, whittle, sand polypropylene, the solution was easy, except that the new sheath was made to accommodate the gargantuan guard. I suppose if you're stabbing trees, the guard would be handy though?
The new 510 has a black handle, which is more appealing to some, but easier to lose track of. The garish red handle has grown on me. The new 510 is also thinner - not by much, but the original was already thin enough, so thinner isn't better - if you ask me and they did not. My originals run about .098" at their thickest. Subtract another .017" to .020" for the new ones. Still a great knife, but I prefer the older ones.
Some guys buy expensive knives, big, tough, indestructible tools, but are afraid to take them out and "scratch them." They buy cheap knives to do the actual work, because they won't be out as much if they lose it. Me? I get them out there and get them dirty, regardless of cost and don't use cheap knives to preserve expensive ones, I just prefer how the work. Honestly, I'd be pretty upset if I lost one of my cheap knives.
