Buck Knives 853 Small Selkirk Fixed Blade Survival Knife with Nylon Sheath

This is a great knife for the money. The styling and handle ergonomics are excellent. It has a flat pommel that covers the butt of the knife with a nice design in it. The beautiful handle is very grippy with notches on the spine and finger side. It fits size large hands easily and feels great. The balance point is at the middle finger. If you're experienced with bladed weapons, that might not sit well with you. However, despite that, the balance still feels good.The blade is a bit longer than most knives in this category, which I like a lot. The jimping on the spine of the blade is prominent without being uncomfortable.One design flaw: The choil is too small. That may not bother you if your index finger is exceptionally thin. I put my index finger on the choil at my first knuckle. The width of my finger at the point is 7/8th inch. My little finger is 11/16th inch wide and it would just barely work. Any larger and it will cut you. It looks like they designed the choil to specifically work with the ferro-rod. And, in fact, for that purpose, it works great.Note that I prefer a slightly longer than usual bushcraft knife blade length and a folding companion knife. YMMVI really like the sheath. It's made out of hard, durable plastic with a built-in ferro-rod/whistle (comes with) holder. My preference is clip-on and this one is not a clip-on. Minor thing for me, though.I should have given it 4 stars for that flaw but I can't because I love the way it looks so much.

Great knife! Would recommend.The small indent at the base of the blade is great for using with a fire steel, its quite a sharp edge in that little nook too, so it creates a concentrated and hot ember as opposed to a spray - a big plus in my opinion.The blade is substantial, thick and very strong - I feel super confident baton'ing through thick pieces of wood. Full tang is the way to go imo.One other cool thing is the removable and customizable sheath/belt loop/fire steel setup. You can unscrew the 'nut and bolt' style system to rearrange the position and orientation of the belt loop and the fire steel holder.The one feature I'm pretty bummed about is that the belt loop connection portion of the unit is fairly flimsy. Don't get me wrong, the knife is a 10/10 and for that I give it 5 stars, its not about the belt loop - AND the sheath is great! My complaint is simply that after one day after this arrived, I got excited and put it on my belt. I went to go over to my friends and show off my sweet new knife but as I sat in my car, the pressure applied to the belt loop portion of the sheath cracked in a way that totally compromised the structural integrity of the belt loop feather of the sheath. The sheath is totally fine, again it was just that belt loop piece. I actually have the knife and fire steel by themselves now and its hanging on my pack, but its considerably less convenient.Sorry for the rant, and again this knife is super nice and very worth the purchase - just keep it in the first belt section or when you sit you'll apply too much pressure to the loop!

I love this knife! I always keep a fixed blade knife in my backpack, and have respectively carried a Tops Knives Black Rhino, Black TP101, a Benchmade 140BKSN Nimravus Knife Fixed Plain Edge Black Coated Blade/ Sand Handle, or a Gerber LMF II Survival Knife, Coyote Brown [22-41400]. All are great knives, but two of them are really heavy to be carrying around in my bag, and the Nimvarus is just so pretty I don't really want to beat it up.Enter this Buck. This knife is so comfortable in my hand that it's difficult to describe. The material used in the handle, and the shape and angle of the handle are fantastic. I find that the pommel is also at a very comfortable angle when held where it could be used to drive tent stakes or the like if that was something a person really felt the need to do with a knife. The knife is a nice blend of size and manageable weight. It came very sharp right out of the box, and the blade work on the knife appears as refined as some knives I have spent much more money on.The 420HC is the standard steel used by Buck on all of their knives and has traditionally been a good choice for a multi-purpose knife. I made the mistake of trying the fire steel with the notch in the blade and the sparks were plentiful and long lasting to the point I was worried that I was going to have to put out a fire on my desk...I know that some folks are up in arms about this blade being produced in China, but I trust Buck to have good QC both at home and over seas, and ultimately, they are an American business.Bottom line, for the price, I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a better knife.