During Blade Show several knife manufacturers provided us knives for hands-on reviews and evaluations – one of those knife manufacturers was Strider Knives and here is our hands-on evaluation.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Duane Dwyer personally during Blade Show and as usual Duane was extremely helpful. His knowledge and understanding of Blade grinds and metals is incredible and he has been known to spend an enormous amount of time picking the brains of those who know while using the new found knowledge to improve the quality of Strider Knives.
We also listened to Duane as he addresses a group of well known manufacturers and suppliers where he discussed future plans and introduced Dick Marcinko. Dick has been working closely with Duane lately and attends Blade Show, and SHOT Show with Strider Knives.
We feel extremely privileged to have had the opportunity to spend time putting these knives through real world tests and with that in mind, put them through the same paces that a normal person in the field might encounter.
As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, knives are a personal choice and will often be misused and abused – we’ll let you decide when and where to do that. While some choose not to carry a knife, others choose to do so and a few choose to carry several knives.
The SNG and RW-1 folders as well as the GW/AR fixed blades are fantastic tools/knives. They are robust and easy to use while having a form and fit that makes them extremely comfortable when put to the test in a variety of daily tasks.
Over the course of the past few weeks, these knives have been used to cut hoses, scrape obstructions from doors, cut or strip wires, dig holes, cut branches for fires, to hack through green-foliage in our way as we trekked through swampland, used to cut vegetables and meat for meals as well as clothing and seat harness/straps, weapon slings, and a plethora of other items which might conceivably be found in the daily activity of most anybody in the field that needed to be cut or removed.
Training and real world ops should never be separated, how does it go? You will Fight like you Train. Thus, we actively promote dressing and equipping yourself during training exactly as you would when going into battle or on an Operation/Mission. This allowed us to conduct our various evaluations although in a training environment, as closely simulating real world events as possible.
As expected all of the knives we exercised were every bit the hard use knife Strider is known for and more if you want this writer’s opinion – there was nothing we put them through that they were not capable of delivering, if not exceeding each and every time.
Whether it was hacking, chopping, slicing, cutting, hammering, prying or dicing these knives came through with flying colors because let’s face it, hammering with the butt end of a fixed blade or the side of a folder is a common occurrence and the (ab)use of knives when in the field, includes being used to pry things open; from wooden ammo crates to opening MRE cases and mail as well as prying open doors and other obstacles faced by Soldiers everyday in the field.
It has been my experience that if you give a Soldier a shovel and tell him to dig he will, and if you give him a knife and tell him to dig, he will. So it goes that if you give him a knife and just let him go about his business, eventually he will dig with it, even if it’s only a shallow hole to identify the solid object under his foot. So it’s important that whenever you run a knife through its paces, you dig with it or use it in the shaping of a hole in some fashion or another.
The Strider Knives we carried and evaluated demonstrated time and again why Duane has spent the time and effort he has and has gone to such lengths to learn as much about metals and grinds as well as how water and other atmospheric conditions effect metals and what metal characteristics and combinations deliver the best results for the knives’ intended purpose. It’s apparent in every facet of every Strider Knife this writer ever seen or used that these knives are built to deliver.
An additional topic Duane discussed with us was the several NSN items available direct through Strider Knives – for more info or a listing of NSN products, contact Strider Knives. www.striderknives.com
We can’t thank Strider Knives enough for the unique opportunity to push their knives to the edge, and for allowing us this opportunity to review/evaluate these knives and share our results with you. We heard a rumor that Strider might be unveiling a new knife at the Warrior Expo this week in Va Beach so visit them at Booth #121 to see if it’s true.
– Stay Tuned & Stay Sharp
