TOPS Knives Wilderness Guide 4.0 | Survival Knife | Field Overview

Description

Krik of Black Owl Outdoors gives an overview and his initial impressions on the Wilderness Guide 4.0 by Tops Knives.

TOPS Knives Wilderness Guide - http://amzn.to/1N4KMDk

BECOME A PATRON

---------------------------------

http://www.Patreon.com/BlackOwlOutdoors

UPLOAD SCHEDULE:

-----------------------------------

Sundays - Tuesdays & sometimes Thursdays.

STORES

-------------

Amazon | https://www.BlackOwlOutdoors.com/amazonstore/

Black Owl Supply | http://www.BlackOwl.supply

CONNECT

----------------

website | http://www.BlackOwlOutdoors.com

newsletter | http://eepurl.com/bsv3Rv

instagram | http://www.Instagram.com/BlackOwlOutdoors

facebook | http://www.Facebook.com/BlackOwlOutdoors

twitter | http://www.Twitter.com/BlkOwlOutdoors

Krik's Goods

--------------------

Owl Creek Handmade - http://owlcreekhandmade.etsy.com

stony's Photography

---------------------------------

Things Done Framed - http://www.ThingsDoneFramed.com

Tags: black owl outdoors,nature,camping,hiking,backpacking,survival,bushcraft,wilderness,forest,backcountry,tops knives,fixed blade,wilderness guide 4.0,scandi grind,1095

Video Transcription

hey what's up Turtles its Creek here with blackout outdoors and today I'm going to be doing a video when the Topps wilderness guide 4.0 knife you can get this knife right around 110 dollars online some of the specs of this knife are overall length eight and three-quarter inches blade length four and a quarter it's made out of 1095 steel high carbon steel it is covered completely covered in a black coating it features a clip point blade design with a very wide wide blade the handle material is canvas micarta actually I don't know if it's canvas not sure if it's canvas or linen but it is micarta which is a really great material I like to see that on knives I'm a fan of micarta being held to the knife the handle scales with these black brass hollow rivets the knife weighs six and a half ounces so it's definitely more of a in line with the design for this knife intended use as sort of a bushcraft type you know camp knife eight-inch lends itself to that be able to do some nice carving and slicing but the weight reflects that so definitely not a very heavy knife in the hand there's very aggressive jumping on the spine right here almost too aggressive for my liking I can always take or leave jumping on a knife it's a feature I don't look for when I'm looking for one I really don't find it's necessary for me to put my hand up this much and/or my thumb and if I do I really don't need the jimping but nonetheless it is there the scales themselves are completely 2d there's no contouring or shaping of that and as you can see a very very pronounced defined you know finger choil up here with this handle design kuroh tapering down into here to lend itself to another grip if you'd want to chop with this or swing this but really not going to recommend it there's not much way to it and it's really going to be a waste of energy in my opinion but nonetheless I really like the handle design some of you that might have bigger hands might feel a little bit more comfortably in the hand but as I was doing some tasks with this for me personally if I'm going to be using a knife in this manner doing some feather staking baton iing not so much but or or carving and that in that light I really like a thicker handle because in my experience when you have a thinner handle like this that it just takes a lot more energy to actually grip the knife in the hand as opposed to if this was thicker it would just fit in the hand more naturally my hand can and sort of surround it easier because it is thin I really have to like tense my hand up to keep this knife securely in me now this pronounced finger choil helps keep the knife secure in the hand but for me personally if I could improve upon this this definitely would be contoured one more gripe that I have with this knife is one it's it's coated and I understand why certain blades are coated I personally do not prefer this size of knife built for this task to be coated one because it's taken away a feature of actually having a squared spine which has many uses one striking a Ferro rod shaving tender and tuned not being able to hit this with a hard lithic material to create sparks to potentially ignite a tinder source because of these brass rivets there's no screws in here it's not just as easy as taking these scales off taking this coating off putting it back together now yes I could just spray here and tape this up just to get on the blade but for a bushcrafting knife for me personally I don't want it ever coated and the coatings going to wear off as I was doing some cuts with this I could just tell it shouldn't cut it didn't cut as efficient as it could if this coating was not on this bevel now it was kind of taking me a little bit of resource or excuse me energy to find exactly what this blade grind is there's definitely a big bevel here my fingers tracing the beginning of it here which goes down to this other exposed bevel I can't I don't think it's a full scan D I want to say you know it's modified or saber grind but honestly for carving purposes this coating just needs to go in my opinion but nonetheless I really like this knife it did well on batoning wood made a little bit difficult depending on the size of wood with this clip point coming down as such when I was batani it made a little bit challenging but instead of having coming straight out and sort of keeping this spine parallel to transfer my energy and get a nice point for the baton to catch because this clip point comes down there's a little bit challenging and how grand I was going through birch and I hit a knot and birch is uh one of the hardwoods I'll test the knife with just to you know sort of keep a constant as I use in test knives and it did okay with that feather sticking again I could tell just by trying to keep finesse with this I didn't really like the way this was being controlled in my hand because of the thin I'm thin handle I mentioned before in this coating I just don't like it for already said reasons but I like the look of the knife I like to design with a few modifications I think this could be a really really great camp and bushcrafting knife again coming back to this clip point trying to put say a a divot in a bearing block for a spindle I personally do not like the way this is designed for that I mean it's a clip point that's just the nature of the ergonomics or the design features but it really isn't that great as opposed to I you know I compared it with my more just messing around and the more did was much more efficient and easier to control making a divot like that in a hard wood for a bearing block now this does come with a pretty nice sheath fits in there actually there is the the plastic insert in the nylon sheath is actually molded I have a sharpener in the way right now but as you can see as this drops into the plastic it actually goes down in the handle is actually traveling down into the look slightly molded plastic insert which is nice it's not friction hold but it's just a nice little feature and then we have a retention strap here with hook and loop not a fan of hook and loop not a fan at all but overall it's a nice sheath in this pocket right here large enough to accommodate this easy lap sharpener I have done a video on that I'm gonna actually take the sheath off with my belt now the sheath is a MOLLE compatible and it also can accommodate a thinner belt if you choose to wear the Scout style on the swell of your back could also be accomplished with this these webbing straps and also there's one more feature of the sheath this is pretty cool before I actually touch that the belt loop is a fixed belt loop definitely wide enough to accommodate more of a utility belt duty belt but this feature right here this hook and loop is actually actually accommodates this removable cover which is actually pretty nice and I have yet to see this on any of the knives I've bought and/or have had the chance to use which would be cool be walking through a brush because of this a non excuse me hook and loop retention strap which will not take any force for this to pop out go against some brush hit a branch whatever the knife is still has some security within that molded plastic like I said but it's just cool to have this nice little extra feature whether you want it on your knife or not but all in all it's a pretty very nice quality sheath with some 550 cord coming with it to be able to secure it to the leg of the thigh as is being worn on the hip yeah nice sheath so all in all my impressions of this knife I really like the designs because of the handle and how specific it is I feel like it's going to be either comfortable for some or not comfortable for others and it's just because it's so defined in its shape depending on your hand size it's going to be you know hit or miss and that's for you to decide I have medium hands I feel like I find a little bit larger hands that would fit just a little bit more comfortably with the toil but then again because of the thinness of the handle it might still or might not be that actual comfortable to use for an extended period of time I really like to design it this knife but as I started using it a little bit more and trying to get the control of it I just felt like I had to grip way too much and use too much energy because of how thin the handle was and that's just you know wasted wasted energy I shouldn't have to be gripping a knife that hard which would create hot spots and it just creates more energy of mine to to do certain tasks but I really wanted to like this knife a whole bunch as it's being used in the field because I love the design I love the look of it look of it but I'm just not completely in love with as it is now maybe removing the coating will make it cut a little bit better with the handles I mean we're stuck the way they are that's just the reality of the way the knife was designed but nonetheless could be a very nice knife depending on your preference of knives and you know your hand size and all that being said if you have any experience with this knife you've used it please let me know what you think about it if you share any of my impressions with this knife let me know any questions about this nice about this knife please let me know leave a comment this is Craig signing out with blak outdoors later Turtles