Schrade SCHF37 Frontier 12.4in High Carbon Steel Full Tang Fixed Blade Knife with 7in Drop Point and TPE Handle for Outdoor Survival, Camping and Bushcraft

Great knife for the money. It's been my companion for seven years now, and it is one of my favorite knives ever. The 1095 steel has good edge retention and is relatively easy to sharpen. The powder coating has stood up to quite a beating over the years, and I've never had a spot of rust. It's an incredibly durable knife, being nearly a quarter inch thick at the spine, it's essentially a sharp pry bar. The shape of the handle fits comfortably in the hand, and the large chamfer allows for some extra bite if you need it. The only thing I wish was different about this knife is the serrations on the grip. Unless you tape it, or have some good gloves, you can really feel it in the web of your hand after a while. I've put this thing through mud, blood, walls, and wood whilst camping, hiking, hunting, and construction, and it keeps on going.

I'll give this knife 5 out of 5 stores in the context of its price range. For the price point it is simply very hard to do better and the only thing I can think of that compares are some of the other similar Schrade knives. I will say that I had to return the first knife that i ordered because it wasn't completely straight. While one would hope no company would ever release a product that is flawed/defective, for what you are buying at this pricepoint, you have to be a little realistic. I had read about this possible issue and so was prepared to expect this possibility. I simply returned it and got another one at no charge via Amazon Prime. The second one I receive was perfectly straight and razor sharp.The sheath is pretty uninspiring, but the firesteel they throw in is actually very good. That's worth at least another $5-$10. I haven't used the included sharpening stone so I can't comment on that.A lot of people complaining about the rough coating on the blade being too grippy in wood and rightfully so, but I just took some 1000 grit sand paper and lightly wet sanded it to get rid of the grippy surface. It's still got the coating but it's much smoother now.I may consider grinding down the jimping at some point, but Schrade is also coming out with the SCHF52 soon which is the same awesome knife with some improvements to the coating and handle contour and they fixed the aggressive jimping issue.While the tip isn't as stout as I'd like, but I don't plan on prying anything with it. Always remember that even a nice high quality knife is a poor excuse for a prybar and will usually be the weakest and most expensive prybar you'll ever use. Prying on any sort of strong material with the tip of ANY knife is a terrible idea. It is just fine for stabbing deep into wood or other materials however.

I do like it, but I wanted to love it! No can do, however. It is an excellent value at less than $35. 1095 carbon steel (that's the good stuff, in my opinion) and thick, at 7/32 of an inch (6 mm for those who like Moraknivs, as I do myself), with a handle that feels good, not too fat, and with a generous choil. The sheath is pretty good, certainly functional. Here's what I do not like about it: 1) The grind is good and the factory edge was fair, but far from what I consider to be adequate. That isn't really a big deal, since 1095 sharpens quite easily and this blade was no exception. I was able to achieve a very nice edge, using my Rada sharpener. 2) The top jimping is way too aggressive. Using it without gloves, or without rounding off the edges, would quickly create a raw and bleeding thumb. The bottom jimping is not too bad. 3) The blade coating is very abrasive, almost like medium grit sandpaper. That's a personal preference, but I don't like it. I think that this will be the knife I use to do my first blade stripping. With the removable scales, it lends itself to that action. 4) The thing about the 37 that I really, absolutely, do not like is that the thick blade tapers down in the last 7/8 of an inch to a fine, delicate point. I promise you, I guarantee, that if anyone handling this knife uses it to gouge out a chunk of wood, (prying with it, in other words, even carefully) that pretty little tip is going to break off. Would that be a disaster? Probably not and most outdoorsy types would be able to file it down and make a new tip when they got home. But when it happens, you are gonna direct some cuss words toward Schrade. The point (no pun intended) is that the knife should not have such a glaring weakness. My Schrade 9 and my BK2, for instance, have equally thick drop point blades, but are thick to almost the very end, eliminating any weakness in the tip. Make no mistake, I like the knives Schrade is producing these days. They offer excellent blades at a very reasonable cost. This 37 is the 5th Schrade I've bought in recent weeks. The first four are all five stars (a 3N--a tremendous value; a 9--after I gently worked with it, it earned my love; a 42--much like the 9 but smaller and a thing of beauty; and a 1SM--in my opinion, and to my limited knowledge, the best example of a true survival knife available). The 37 has some excellent qualities and if you can refrain from using the tip to pry with, it should be an outstanding survival-type knife.5-18-15 Update: Using some industrial strength paint remover, I took the black coating off my 37. It was not easy--that paint or whatever it is that Schrade uses is tough stuff. Follow the directions on the remover container and be prepared to repeat the process as many times as is necessary. I found that using a single edge razor blade worked best as a scraper. It won't scratch the knife. Use the blade in a handle designed to clamp the blade in place--don't use your fingers; you want to stay as far away as possible from that powerful solution. When I thot I had scraped as much material off as possible, I took the tray containing the bare knife (of course, the handle scales have to be removed first) out to a lonely spot in the back yard and hosed everything down very thoroughly. But there were still lots of spots where the paint had not been removed. So now I hauled out my bench grinder on which I have a soft wire brush installed and proceeded to work the blade with that. It took some time, but did a good job. At this point I had taken the knife back in time to the end of the manufacturing process and before the black coating was applied. It looks like it had gone through WWII and lived to tell about it. A primitive, very well-used look. The more I studied it, the better I liked it--it now has a character, a personality if you will, that is totally appealing, at least to me. Put the scales back on and line them up to be flush with the tang, resharpen the edge, smear some mineral oil on it and it now is worthy of FIVE stars. But I still don't like that tip. Oh, and using a rattail file, I smoothed that top jimping out some, to where it's not as annoying. I'll tell you, that steel is tough! Modifying this knife was a chore, but a fun one.