Cold Steel G.I. Tanto 7" Durable 1055 Carbon Steel Fixed Blade Tactical Outdoor Throwing Knife, 5" Handle w/ Polypropylene Scales, Integral Quillon Guard, Resistant Secure-Ex Sheath

I bought this knife after seeing the "Destruction test" video for it on Youtube (you gotta check it out). I got it off Amazon for $22. Amazing knife for the money. It's built like a tank yet feels light in the hand. It can obviously take an incredible amount of abuse. There's nothing pretty about it, its a working knife. The tanto blade's piercing ability is amazing. As a self defense blade I have no doubt it could handle anything. Great knife for hunters that might encounter feral dogs or any other nasty critters in the woods.I was ready to dislike the plastic handle but, much to my surprise, it actually feels good in my hand. I also love Cold Steel's secure-ex sheath, which holds the knife very securely, and the velcro/snap belt loop allows you to put on & remove the sheath without taking your belt off. A nice touch I wish other knife makers would follow.The knife came reasonably sharp (the 1055 steel is easy to sharpen), and fit and finish was fine even though the blade has "China" on it. If it was a $100 knife I wouldn't give it 5 stars, but for $22 it's a no-brainer. It'll be a great addition to your kit, bug-out bag, toolbox or hunting pack. Go to YouTube and search "GI Tanto Destruction Test". Watch what this knife is capable of and you'll be amazed at what you're getting for less than $25. You'll buy one. (at least one!!).UPDATE: My buddy and I were working all weekend on our hunting property, both of us with GI Tantos. This is one bada** working knife. My buddy used his to cut a feeder timer off a 55 gallon drum because the screws were unusable. The GI Tanto opened the drum like a can opener. It cut through the metal drum like it was cardboard. We were stunned. After cutting and chopping all day they were razor sharp again after a minute with a Smith's sharpener. This is no cheap Chinese junk, its a great hard-use knife. I still can't believe it costs less than $25. I'm going to buy another one in case I lose this one.

...so I believe I can speak with a bit of authority on knives, and you can be sure this review is an in-depth review of my informed take on this knife. This review is admittedly verbose, but accurate. I don't really know where to start, so I'm just going to jump right in with this. This knife is 100% worth buying, that's the gist of what you need to know, however...If you don't like reading and you don't mind missing a few pointers, go ahead and skip to the end for the "TL;DR" version.As I stated, I'm an avid knife collector with an extensive collection of various brands, types, shapes, sizes, and qualities of knives. I've done extensive research over the past five or so years into what makes a knife a high-quality knife in an empirical sense, with all opinions aside. I'm extremely picky about what knives I'll buy or keep, and I would say that this knife is most definitely a high-quality knife, according to facts and not just my opinion. It isn't the highest quality you'll ever find, that's gonna run you hundreds of dollars, but it's probably one of the greatest, highest quality knives you'll ever find for this price, that's for damn sure, and not only that, but this price is honestly almost too low for the quality here. After holding, inspecting, testing, and getting to know this knife personally, I've decided I'd gladly pay in the $50-$60 range for this knife.Some proverbial "bells and whistles" are sometimes nice to have on a knife, at least for a "tacti-cool" kind of knife, but in my opinion, the utter minimalist simplicity of this knife is a big part of what makes it so great, and it's a strikingly good looking knife as well. The GI Tanto is most definitely a no-nonsense tool/weapon that isn't here to impress or play games, it's here to serve a few purposes, and it serves them 'very' well.The knife came razor sharp out of the box (literally- I was able to shave a patch of my arm smooth with around five swipes, and slice through a sheet of 8.5" x 11" sized, 24-pound paper with one.) This knife's one-piece construction, full-length tang, and 1055 carbon steel mean I wouldn't be afraid to use this knife to chop, dig, pry, et cetera.The polypropylene hand scales are pretty smooth, that might be one "downfall," depending on who you are and how picky you are...if you can even call it a downfall... I suppose if the handle got "wet" then your hand may slip, but I have two responses to that issuance of complaint which I have seen a few times in these reviews... The first is that the notch you see between the blade and the integral quillon guard is useful for removal of a blade with a "wet" handle... Just wrap your hand around the handle as usual, only just a bit higher, enabling you to place your index finger in that notch, and you'll have no problem with slippage. Second, if you want a more textured, "grippy" handle, you can go pick up 100' of nylon 550-lb test paracord (the real stuff, no Chinese knockoff stuff, folks..it's out there...) and spend a few minutes wrapping the handle with that if you don't like the way it feels. Alternatives include removing the hand scales, placing them flat-side down on newspaper, plugging the holes for the screws with wads of newspaper, and coating the surfaces of the scales that your hand touches with something like the spray-on Rhino truck bed liner or something textured of that nature that can take a beating, although I personally WOULD NOT suggest that route, but it's up to you. Paracord is not only a reversible fix, but you can remove it in a survival situation and use it for myriad other emergency applications.The knife is 'perfectly' balanced as well, which means it could function great as a thrower if that's what you'd like to do with it. I tested the balance using the sheath; I set the knife on the thin edge (spine) of the sheath, with the the quillon guard lined up exactly with the "spine" edge of the sheath, and the knife balanced there as perfectly as it possibly could have.The sheath has the same personality as the knife; simple, good looking, functional, and not at all convoluted. I would recommend using paracord to tie the "tip" or bottom portion of the sheath around your thigh for faster, easier removal, and to keep the blade/sheath from bouncing around when you run. Also, as with any solid sheath, try your best to keep the spine of the knife pressed against the inside of the sheath as you insert of remove the knife, so as to reduce the blade contact with the sheath upon insertion or removal. This knife will retain an edge for a VERY long time, even through rigorous use, but any blade rubbed repeatedly against the inside of its solid sheath (plastics, etc.) will begin to dull slightly with time, however, I imagine it would take a very long time for that to really be much of an issue with this knife. This method of removing the knife from the sheath is more of a formality with a knife of this quality. The $19.19 price it was going for when I bought it was an absolute STEAL!!!The bottom line for all of you "too long; didn't read" folks out there: if you're looking for a survival knife, or just a heavy-duty knife that looks good, functions well, and lives for a long time, but you don't want to spend around $200 on a "tool-steel extreme" knife that you could "kill a bear" with, (catch my drift?) this is one of the few knives I'd be fully confident in staking my pride as a collector on by telling you to go ahead and buy without worrying about any of that "latent buyer's remorse" I think we've all probably experienced at one time or another... If you know knives the way I do, you won't regret buying this guy. The knife is strong, heavy, durable, razor-sharp, perfectly balanced (worthy of throwing,) intimidating, simple, functional, and it looks awesome to boot. Don't let the minimalist simplicity and low price of this knife and sheath fool you into thinking it's a "cheap" knife. The GI Tanto is by no means "cheap," unless, of course, you're speaking strictly of price. I definitely consider this knife one of the best knives I own, and I myself own some of those $200 "tool-steel extreme" kill-a-bear knives.

Let's get the most obvious point out of the way... this knife ROCKS!!! For $25 what more could you want? I just got back from a week long camping trip and I took this knife with me. I used it for splitting logs, chopping cut down trees into smaller units, and I even cut down a dead tree approx. 6" in diameter with this knife. I can't speak highly enough about it. The blade is awesome, it's so easy to sharpen and stays sharp for long periods of time. (In my experience). Of course I did sharpen this knife, but only because I'm anal about it. I would not of needed to. I put this knife through the gauntlet and it has passed my standards with flying colors. The ONLY bad thing that happened with this knife is that that very poor custom paracord wrapped handle that I did (first time ever) came loose and I had to duct tape it. Although this is my fault for doing such a poor job wrapping it of course. People say the choil on this knife blows, but let me tell you, it doesn't. I always wear leather gloves when working with wood and it was comfortable for me when I used it. No problems. It was awesome when I needed to make kindling for a fire, when I needed to precisely chop or slice something as well. The blade is long and sturdy, along with the steel. It has scratches and wear on it.. but what good is a knife if you aren't going to use it? All in all this knife is awesome. I trust it in the wilderness, and I definitely trust it with my life. I would easily be comfortable and confident enough with it to cut down a tree and then immediately after have no problem using it as a defensive tool (if necessary) without any sharpening. This knife deserves a 1,000,000/5 stars. Very awesome, high value. Buy 2, or 3, or even 10. You won't be sorry you did.