Cold SteelBushman Durable Resistant 7" SK-5 High Carbon Fixed Blade Outdoor Survival Hunting Knife, 5.25" Hollow Handle, Secure-Ex Sheath with Ferrocerium Fire Steel

The cold steel bushman is definitely an instant hit with its versatility, simplistic design and ability to take a lot of beating. I haven't field tested it yet on a camping / hiking trip so this review is based on some basic outdoor tests that i've done so far. I used the knife to make a spear shaft for the same and it took me less than 15 minutes to get the whole thing set up!Pros:1. Simple design, roach belly shape of the blade along with the double bevel grind is good for sharpening on simple lanskys for outdoor usage2. Versatility: use as a knife, survival knife (carrying stuff in the hollow handle with some mods) or as a spear.3. Quality of steel: excellent tempering, the knife retains its elasticity after insane abuse (bending more than 45-50 degrees)4. Value for money: nothing beats it at its price range5. Utilities: Comes with a nice ferro rodCons or minor gripes1. Handle: The handle has no gripping material and is very easy to slide your fingers on to the edge. Advisable to get a hockey stick grip/ badminton racket grip tape as soon as you buy this knife and secure the handle2. Coating: while carbon steels need the anti-oxidant coatings, the ferro rod is rendered useless if we try to use on this blade. I would suggest to probably remove part of the coating on the spine or carry a smaller knife like the Cold Steel Minitac Skinner (which produces excellent sparks with the ferro rod provided with Bushman). Or if you are really into the knife, follow Chris Tanner's detailed procedure to remove the coating and customise the knife. I live in the tropics so i choose to keep the coating and use an alternative knife for my fire needs)3. Sheath is ok, but not the best i've seen from Cold Steel. understandable at its price range. Also, one must extremely careful while unsheathing this knife and follow the instructions on the sheath!Overall, for the money I won't hesitate to give it a 5* rating. Things that could be improved are probably adding a notch for striking the ferro rod and probably a more durable sheath, but those are minor gripes as i said, for a 20 odd dollar knife!Update: 2 years and multiple jungle trips later, I still think this is my second most trustworthy knife (after the bk-7) for outdoors and camping. The black powder coating has held up well and the knife itself is still working fine. Works absolutely great as a spear.

Upon scanning a few of other's reviews, I don't have anything to add that might be considered to be new info, but I could use the space to emphasize a couple of things. The handle section has a matte finish but is still rather slippery--I wouldn't put this thing into actual use without first wrapping the handle with something to prevent a slip of the hand. Also, the sheath holds the knife very securely and pulling it out with one big yank creates a hazardous situation. Instead, slide the fingers of the right hand down between the handle and the belt clip, curling them around the handle. This forces the plastic down and away from the handle, releasing some of the friction fit. Then use the thumb to push on the rounded top of the sheath and pull. The knife pops out nicely and a one-handed operation is achieved. And, yes, it is made in China, but I must say that the quality is as good as one could wish for. It came so sharp I didn't even have to improve the edge. It is a very impressive blade. UPDATE 5/13/15: I found a pot-metal cabinet door/drawer pull (knob) with a circumference just a little bigger than the hole in the end of the handle to use as a plug or cover for that hole. Holding it in place, I proceeded to pump hot glue thru the handle's top hole. The glue flowed to the bottom, with the result of the drawer knob becoming glued into place. It looks super nice, like it was done at the factory. I never wanted to use this thing as a spear anyhow. Now I will wrap the handle and will have an extra nice Bushman to play with.

This is a well rounded knife, it performs many tasks well but does not excel in one particular area over another. To me I think of this a camp knife, a knife to assist in lighting your fire and any other additional camp tasks you may have.Chopping with this knife out of the box is difficult, the reason being, the handle is slick. To remedy this problem I did a paracord wrap of the handle. Having my handle wrapped in paracord is not my favorite because you have to be careful to keep your handle dry or else the paracord will soak up water like a sponge and make using the knife annoying to use. With this knife I find that problem to be okay because you need to keep this steel dry or it will rust like crazy seeing it's a high carbon steel (SK-5), so I won't be using this knife in wet conditions unless I absolutely have to.The edge out of the box was acceptable, not what I would expect from Cold Steel. In the past all of the knives I have bought from Cold Steel have come with fantastic edges unlike the Bushman, so you will probably need to do a little bit of work.I was quite surprised with how well this knife was able to split wood. I did not expect it to do as well as it did seeing how the thickness is only 2.5mm. If you are worried about the thickness of the knife for splitting like I was, don't it splits amazingly well. I think the reason is the length of the knife allows you have the extra needed leverage for splitting. So the thinness is not a problem for me, it gives me a lightweight knife and it will slice great for doing things like food prep or skinning.I have to say striking the knife on the ferro rod was a disappointment. I removed some of the knife's coating on the back of the blade to be able to throw some sparks but it still did not work well at all. The ferro rod is decent but nothing amazing, it works fine with other strikers. The blade coating itself is not all that great, it will wear off pretty quickly so keep the steel well oiled.The sheath is fine, nothing amazing about it but also nothing terrible.Overall I love the knife, initially when I saw it in Cold Steel's catalog (It's free sign up on their website) I wasn't really stoked on the knife but after getting it in hand and playing with it I really warmed up to it (and after watching Preparedmind101's review of it). If you need a beater knife for camp chores I highly recommend Cold Steel's Bushman, The price is great and its a good lightweight knife to accomplish all your camp chores.