You can buy this knife, from https://www.knife-depot.com

Search on knife-depot.com site by model number: SCHF43

Currently it is located here: https://www.knife-depot.com/search/?site_search[search]=schf43

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our review, on the SCHF43 fixed blade knife. This knife was designed by Chris Tanner of the YouTube Channel "PreparedMinds 101".

 

Lets get started...

 

Overview:

We tested this knife by chopping some pine logs outside and also did some close up work making feather sticks, choking up on the knife using the larger finger choil. The blade is 9 inches long, is made out of 1070 carbon steel, carbon content is 0.65-0.75% and is mainly used in machetes. The blade features a saber grind. The coating is a light black \ gray titanium coating, and from what Chris Tanner reports in one of his YouTube videos that can be stripped off easily.

 

The handle is shaped like a barong machete and is made from Thermoplastic elastomers or more commonly referenced as "TPE". From definition: "Are a class of co-polymers or a physical mix of polymers (usually a plastic and a rubber) which consist of materials with both thermoplastic and elastomeric properties."

(Reference: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoplastic_elastomer)

The handle also has a lanyard hole.

 

The knife does have a full tang, meaning that the metal continues all the way thru the handle, one soild piece of metal.

 

The sheath goes "cross body" and Chris Tanner refers this as an baldric or baldrick designed sheath. It is a older way of carrying swords, drums or even bugles.

(Reference: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldric)

 

Also, the strap can be taken off, and the sheath can be hung vertically from a belt.

 

What we like:

The blade is wicked sharp right out of the box, and like a Kukri, the knife truly has an awesome forward weight to it. The handle does have that nice TPE material on it and we do find it easy to switch hand positions from from front to back with ease. Even when the handle is wet, we are still able to maintain a nice grip on the handle. The handle is like a Asian style barong machete, and between the curve handle and the angle of the straight blade, again we are able slice thru pine logs like nothing.

As mentioned above, we also made some feather sticks for campfires, using the very big finger choil. We really like how much control we can get, out of such a large blade.

 

We also like the option of carrying the sheath via it's strap or veritical carry on a belt. the leg strap is also a great feature.

 

What to know before hand:

We call this knife by is actual model name the Schrade SCHF43, Chris Tanner has a nickname for the knife that He calls "Jessica-X", some times you'll see that name around the internet as his personal reference to this knife.

 

1) The handle:

You will see some videos in regards that this knife hurts the users hands, either if the user is wearing gloves or not. After we have tested this, we have found that if you put your hand tightly all the way back of the handle, where the "v" or "u" crook is, the weight of the blade moving forward, is going to affect your pinky finger and edge of hand after awhile. The ONLY THING you need to do, is leave "1/2 inch" of space so your pinky finger is not wedged in tightly to the crook of the handle where the forward weight will affect it. If you take the time to modify your hand position, you won't have any issues... AT ALL. One modification that you can do, is tie a bandana where the crook of the knife is, and you will always have that "1/2 inch" space, noted above.

 

If you do get the handle wet for example.. working outside, make sure that you use a hairdryer or a can of compressed air to "blow out" the screw holes in the handle. Water seems to pool up between the TPE and the screw holes. If you look carefully, there is a recessed gap there. One modification that we may do, is put some Elmer's glue in that gap to prevent water from going in there. Some people put loc-tite into the screws and the holes themselves to prevent the screws from becoming loose. We have not seen that yet in regards to this knife, but we wanted to reference what we see in regards to water in those screw holes. Not a deal breaker, just a preventative that needs to be known.

 

Also, we have noticed that some other YouTube videos out there show the TPE material on the front of the handle where the finger choil is, gets marred and ripped if the user chops to close to the "hilt" of the knife. One preventative or modification that we have done, is put some electrical tape where the finger choil is to prevent fraying of the TPE material in that area when chopping. Maybe a better tape to use would be that fabric sporting tape that goes around hockey sticks and tennis racquets? Just another idea...

 

2) The blade:

The blade titanium coating is thin, and we think this was by design as Chris Tanner says in his videos he did not want the knife to have that "trucker bed liner" coating on it. And it is easy to remove. When you use the knife, you will see some wear in regards to that coating. That's to be expected with any knife. Also to note, where we received the knife, there was grease or oil on the blade and also the handle. This is to protect the knife if it is in the warehouse or in transit. What we used, is some paper towels and some"GooGone" which a spray chemical made to take the residue off of items that stickers leave behind.. mainly. It did a great job on the the blade and quickly after that, we use regular mild liquid soap and water to wash the blade again. We also did this to the handle as well, but a WORD OF CAUTION, you may want to skip the handle and just use another cleaner. Even though the "GooGone" spray did a great job and even improved the handle grip, the "GooGone" spray may have taken a very find layer off of the handle. So again "tread carefully" if you choose to spray the handle. We also washed the handle right afterward with mild liquid soap and water. We personally like to put gun oil on the blade itself if we do not think that the knife is going to be used in food prep in the future. Just lightly mind you, as this is a nylon sheath and you do not want any seepage of oil coming thru the sheath and on to your pants and body while wearing it. Remember.. "lightly oil".

 

3) The Sheath:

We really like the baldric or baldrick design of the sheath however one thing that we noted is that the top of the handle comes forward away from the body. Even though the knife is easier to remove from the sheath, we noticed that this causes stress on the single strap towards the hilt of the knife. To cut down that amount of stress to that point, we found some velcro "tie wraps" that are used for cable management, and we put one on the top of the handle. With that simple modification, that eliminates the stress to that one point. We also like the handle more soildly placed into the sheath. This is again.. not a deal breaker, it's just a more of a personal preference that you may want to do. Another idea is to take the leg strap off and use that.. but the velcro may be a better way.

 

Final Thoughts:

There seems to be a lot of negative reviews out there in regards to this knife that we find are not justifiable, AT ALL. This is a "great blade" and we see that some reviewers are trying to compare it to another brand of knife. It's not "THIS BRAND" of knife or "THAT BRAND" of knife... it's the Schrade SCHF43 knife. Where the "rubber hits the road" as they say.. this knife is "exactly" what the designer intended it to be... it's a Kurki forward weighted style knife, with a large straight blade and a curved barong handle for maximum hand positions for chopping. Also, the intended use of this knife is utility outdoor use for camping, bushcrafting ECT. However, because of it "Kurki style" forward weight combined with the hand positions of the handle, there is also an added value of self-defense and other tactical applications that could be used with such a large blade as this. End game, a great knife for the money... Certainly, we would put this on top of any knife users 2015 holiday shopping list.

-Tom