I’ve been on this mission to buy all the fixed blades I like at Fasttech, and these three finish off the list for me. Unlike the Strider copies, I’m not so sure that some are all of these are fakes.
Both the 480 and 009 at the top have passable sheaths except for the fact that they have loose straps, rendering the sheaths almost completely useless. The good news is that the straps can be fixed with some needlework, though they wouldn’t look good afterward. I still plan on someday making my own Kydex sheaths, and when that day comes, I’ll have a box full of knives to practice on!
The 860 on the bottom has a plastic sheath with a whistle on the end. The sheath fits well except for being a little loose. It rattles a little when I carry in my pocket, which is a deal breaker for carrying stuff in my pocket.
The 009 on the top is beautiful but poorly constructed. I would only use it for light duty, such as food prep for camping. The 480 below it is the gem of the bunch. And the 860 on the bottom is a neat little knife.
When you hand this 480 to someone, they will see it’s a quality knife. Well, if it doesn’t fall out of the sheath and stick into their foot. But seriously, all things considered, this is about the most knife you can get for 9 dollars.
Taking it out of the sheath, it looks beautiful. Did I mention this was the gem of my FT purchase?
Not much to criticize as far as fit and finish goes. Here you can see a small flaw in the wood where the screw holes were drilled. But I didn’t notice it until I saw it in the pictures. Other than that, it looks and feels like a much more expensive knife.
I really like the shape of the drop point blade, and it appears to be well constructed.
Here you can see the full tang construction. Again, very impressive for the price point.
Here is last flaw I could find: Some flaws in the way the jimping is cut. It looks like they did a poor job of it with a rotary tool by hand— who knows.
The handle is beautiful polished wood-looking substance which fooled me into thinking it was real wood.
This shot shows a good example of the level of fit and finish on this knife. Again, and at the risk of repeating myself, very impressive.
I really like the big belly on this drop point blade.
Blade thickness is close to ideal for a camp knife I plan on abusing.
Certain aspects of the fit and finish are just fantastic.
The fit and finish on the sheath is very good too, except for being useless with the loose strap.
The 009 is a good looking knife. I didn’t realize how poorly constructed it was until somebody here at BLF pointed it out to me, but oh well, it looks nice. And I still say it would make a fine light duty camp knife. It has what I can only call a “no tang construction” where there’s a metal hook between the blade and butt of the knife.
The handle is awesome on this knife. It has almost perfect ergonomics, which makes it a shame that that the design is so flawed.
The blade is also an ideal shape for a camp knife.
Here’s the problem. As you can see, the blade does not go contiguously into the handle.
This knife has a great look and feel. If someone wouldn’t have pointed out how much it sucks, I might have continued to believe that this was a nice knife. I guess I should just stick to knives which are obviously full tang, like the 480.
Below is the 860. Notice that it says “USA” on it. Yeah, doubt it. It’s got a decent sheath, too, other than the little bit of rattle. It comes with a split ring and mini-carabiner, which I took off.
Overall it’s not a bad little knife, if you can get past some of what I doubt are truthful words on it like “USA” and “S30V”. What’s funny is that Buck does make a cheaper version of this knife, which is also stamped “USA” even though most of their cheaper knives are stamped with “China”. I don’t know where it’s made, but just some food for thought.
It’s a decently constructed little neck knife. If it didn’t rattle in my pocket, I’d try to EDC it for a week. So it’ll probably go in my glove box.
Well that’s it for the FT Bucks! I’m glad I found the 480 which is the gem of the bunch. I will probably give a few away as gifts for the holidays. Hope you enjoy the photos, and sorry, I forgot to crop the last two.