MTECH USAMT-20-35 Series Fixed Blade Knife, Black Drop Point Blade, Plastic Handle, 8-Inch Overall

I'm giving this one a five star rating. It was much nicer than I thought it would be, especially for less than eight bucks delivered. The grind is even, and it shaved the hair on my arm just fine right out of the box. Finish was consistent and very nice. The black coating is even and smooth. Blade spine is plenty thick for this size knife. As for the grip scales - yes they are plastic and slick. So, I wrapped a piece of 220 grit Gator sandpaper around a file and sanded them. Since the attaching screw heads are countersunk, I didn't even have to remove them. They feel just fine now, and the texture looks like G10 rather than the plain old thermoplastic that they are. Comes with a lanyard and I almost tossed that. However, I decided to just braid it and leave it on.Now for the sheath. It is the same construction that MTech uses in a lot of their larger Bowie type knives. I have replaced those sheaths on my other MTechs with better ones. But in this size, it seems perfectly matched to this small knife, and is secure and safe. So I very well may leave it alone.The blade is a half inch longer than a Buck 110 that I compared it to, and the overall length is a half inch less when the 110 is open. It also seems to weigh about half as much. After a couple of minutes on my strop, it is just as sharp as the 110 too. I look at this as a utility or backup camp knife. It is just so small and light that I can't see any reason for it to NOT be on me someplace when I'm knocking around in the desert. It's fine for skinning a jackrabbit or a coyote.This knife - at eight bucks - deserves the high rating that I gave it. I will be buying more of them to put into tackle boxes and camping bags.

Weight: 4.35 oz / 123 grams w/o sheathBlade length: The 0.125" thick blade is 3 3/4" long, as measured from the part that is sharpened. But if you measure the blade from tip to where the handle starts, it's a bit over 4". So beware of your local laws.Primary grind: this blade is hollow ground. Aside from the grind line coming up about 1/16" higher on the left side of the blade vs right, it is nicely done. The hollow grind thins out to around 0.036-0.037" thick at the start of the flat secondary bevel over most of the blade; it thickens up to around 40 mics at the tip. The secondary bevel seems to be maybe 36-38 degrees, ballpark guess. This is fine, out-the-box. This is the typical, sturdy, generic, factory edge that can be further refined without too much effort.The blade dips in just a hair before it flares out at the ricasso. It's so slight, I'm not sure if this is intentional or just the result of hand grinding. I prefer to sharpen on a flat stone, so I removed this miniscule bit of recurve.The tip on mine came rounded over, as some of the other reviewers have also noticed.The finish is a smooth, flat black, and it is flawless. There are no rough or discolored patches. Faint and even grind lines are barely visible underneath the coating, over the entire knife. That said, I personally don't want any kind of coating on a 440A stainless steel knife to begin with, and this coating was easy to remove, once I had ground the blade to where I wanted it.Sheath: the sheath is black nylon sewed over a smooth, grey backing (looks like some kind of high density foam polymer). It's not the worst quality nylon and stitching I've ever seen, but it certainly looks cheap. The sheath loops back on itself to make a very large and sturdy belt loop. For retention, it has a snap loop that closes over the second finger cutout. The thickness of the nylon and backing give the sheath pretty decent shape retention. The blade slides into the sheath, easily, with no fear of piercing. It seems like it would work, but it's ugly.Steel:It didn't take long to put a nice edge on this blade. My previous experience with Mtech 440A steel has been favorable. They use a 440A type of steel for many of their knivs, and the temper is generally tailored to the knife. Their 440 machetes are tempered fairly soft, for instance. Judging from the apex angle this the steel will hold without rolling too easily, I'd call it about medium-hard, which is appropriate for an "outdoor/sporting" knife this size. Wild guess, I would go with RC 56. Plenty tough, I think, considering how keen I made the edge and have yet to suffer chips. This type of steel performs very similarly to a plain carbon steel knife, in that it grinds/polishes very easily and hones nicely on Arkansas/silica stone to a razorlike edge. But the tradeoff for being stainless is that it must be left slightly softer in order to retain appropriate chip-resistance/toughness... so it might need more frequent sharpening. To date, I find edge retention is very good, all things considered. I like these mild stainless (and plain carbon) steels for their ease of sharpening.Cons: the handle is a tad shorter and thinner than I would have liked, and the smooth plastic is not the ideal handle material. It feels really slick if your hands are wet or sweaty. I ended up making larger handle scales out of wood. I used the original bolts to fasten them, but in hindsight I wish I would have pinned it. The bolts may be practical, but they don't look very nice in a wood handle.I would rather 1/4" less blade and 1/4" longer and thicker handle for functionality. The knife balances slightly behind the first finger groove. If you lay the knife on a flat surface, it lays flat on the handle, FWIW.Summary: This knife is an Mtech. Mtech can be hit or miss. This knife is definitely not junk. It has a thick, substantial blade, good steel and heat treat, and is nicely ground and finished. But the handle is too small for average adult male, IMO.

At first I was not impressed with this knife, I think the small size surprised me a little but shouldn't have.I did have to do a bit of re-working on the blade to get it sharp, and the way the blade is shaped makes for a not very sharp point but for most uses that shouldn't be a huge problem.It did end up sharpening up pretty well and I consider this a beat-up or utility knife as opposed to a pretty piece. I haven't beat it up yet and will try to update this if I have unexpected issues. The blade is fairly thick for it's size.Seems very sturdy with the simple design, full tang and plastic handle connected with 3 hex nuts. My biggest concern would be will the handle easily crack, chip or break apart? I suppose if it did you could remove it and wrap it with para cord or something.The sheath is a simple nylon one with no liner but the knife fits it well and with the snap retainer closed it can be shaken out upside down but takes some doing and isn't likely to happen by accident.It also came with a small bit of cord (not real para cord) through the lanyard hole. For the price I may buy another with a different color bright handle.