Condor Bushlore Knife - Bushcraft Knife - 1075 High Carbon Steel - Walnut Handle - Scandi Grind - Small Fixed Blade Knives - Hand Crafted Leather Sheath - 3mm Thick - 4.3in Blade - 6.1 oz

UPDATE Used the knife over Memorial Day Weekend and was really satisfied with the performance. I carved wooden toggles, made feather sticks, used it to baton kindling, cut rope and many other tasks. Washed it up and then used it for food prep cutting potatoes and onions. After all that it still sliced tomatoes and raw chicken with little effort and still had a great edge. After touching it up on leather it was back to shaving sharp. The knife is more than worth the price. Gotta say I really like this knife. It would be very hard to find a better knife at this price. The form and function of this knife is spot on. Blade- Was not hair popping sharp on arrival but it would shave. The blade is blued to help prevent rust and should help if you are in the field for a prolonged time without any type of oil. A few minutes on the work sharp field sharpener and the knife is scary sharp. Handle- The hardwood handle slabs feel great in the hand. Holding the knife just feels right. The color of these handles can vary but I am very pleased with mine. They look much better in person than in pictures. Sheath- The sheath is worth the price of the knife. It is of the same if not better quality as most custom sheaths I have seen. Some people say their knife fit loose in the sheath. That isn't the case with the one I received. Function- Man this thing really cuts!!! Feather sticks are a breeze with this knife. I didn't think it would feather as well as my mora knives but I was WAY wrong. Slices very well also. Some people my complain about the blade thickness saying it bends and you can't pry with it.... it's a knife not a pry bar!!! This thing cuts better than many of my more expensive knives. I would definitely recommend this knife to friends and family.

DISCLAIMER: This is my first Condor knife, and I am already in love with this company. The knife arrived in a simple, but attractive box along with full company contact information and complete mini-catalog. SHEATH: + * * * * * is made of veg-tanned 9oz leather (very heavy and incredibly durable, for those who don't know leather by oz weight), and is riveted top and bottom, and it bears the patented Condor 'condor' emblem printed into the leather. In between the rivets is wax-cord stitching to preserve the triple-thick leather edge. *Try to avoid getting the sheath too wet, as leather holds moisture deep and for a long time. If you do get the sheath wet, wipe clean and heat-dry, then cool to room temperature before returning the knife to its sheath. You'll read why below. **FIVE STARS** BLADE: + * * * * is a full-tang CARBON STEEL design with a factory edge razor out of the box, which holds up very well even under bush-whacking duress. Make sure you have gun-oil handy as carbon steel (unlike stainless) will rust easily if exposed to weather. Read note above regarding the care and upkeep of leather sheaths/holsters. My one negative remark here is that the blade has a deep imprint reading "Condor" on one facet, and "El Salvador" (their factory location) on the opposite facet. These deep letter prints are not a good idea on carbon steel (In my opinion) since they 'pocket' water and can easily rust if the water is not quickly removed and the blade oiled. THIS IS NOT A NOVICE or ENTRY-LEVEL KNIFE! Use it daily> be prepared to care for it daily. You cannot use it and then leave it for a week before upkeep-care. **FOUR STARS** HANDLE: + * * * * is what Condor calls 'hickory-type,' but it is made out of a hardwood similar to hickory, which comes from South America. Again, have your gun-oil handy. Out of the box, the handle was properly dried, but it took several applications of oil, drinking deeply before it finally darkened up to what I would call a 'healthier' patina. Don't get me wrong. Condor got this right. I would rather have the wood factory-dry than factory-oiled. I prefer to apply my own products than to have a company apply them for me. Just be aware that this is a step you will need to take quickly. You wouldn't want water to soak into the dry wood and create rusting issues with the rear of the tang. Would've preferred genuine hickory, so **FOUR STARS** APPLICATIONS: + * * * * * The day I took it out of the box, one of my boys shaved the hair off his arm. This is common. Any factory can deliver a sharp edge, right? Sure! But how about after I've already hacked through a bunch of maple boughs to hew arrows for my boy's homemade bow? ...That's what I thought. The second application came after I had to dispatch a deer caught in one of our barb-wire fences. Without graphic details, the knife performed with razor-edged precision and the exactness I would demand from a MUCH more expensive knife. I've hacked limbs, cut through plastic- thick and thin, field-dressed animals, butchered animals, and even hewed fresh bone! ...Then I finally sharpened the knife! **FIVE STARS** SHARPENING: + * * * * the Bushlore holds an exceptional edge, but once sharpening is necessary, I suggest an oil-stone, heavy on the oil. It took awhile to smooth away the horizontal factory grind-lines, (They seemed a little on the deep side, hence the four stars) but once I did, I was able to easily float the edge and smooth away the excess. It took very little dressing to have the knife sharper than it was out of the box. **FOUR STARS** OVERALL 22 of Nater's 25 stars = Exceptional CONDOR INFORMATION: This company, which was founded in 1787 in Germany, was one of the preeminent cutlery manufacturers of that time, and helped Germany rise to fame as the finest blade-manufacturing country in the world. Their traditions and original designs, along with many new cutting-edge innovations, remain today, almost 230 years later. Now factory-based in El Salvador, they continue to turn out simplistic, unassuming quality of the highest order. IN CLOSING: Everyone who has read my reviews of (especially) HELLE KNIVES of Norway knows that I am very high on that company. No one makes a more beautiful knife in that price-range, in my opinion. I mention them now because I believe I have found a comparable match, but for a quarter the cost. For durability and field-usefulness, CONDOR soars above the rest. Since I do survival hikes every year, practicality and longevity are the highest considerations. This is a uniquely valuable knife to me. Having the knife now, I would gladly pay twice as much to repurchase if I lost it. *This is a hacking jungle-type knife: hence the name, Bushlore. Many of Condor's knives are of this design, and most of their products are designed with South-American usage in mind. However, the Bushlore's durability makes it a perfect fit for a more rugged, North-American 'survival' situation in which you might need to hack, chop, eviscerate, self-defend, wedge or spear. The Condor Bushlore knife will do it all, and then beg for more. Thank you, Condor, for making an exceptional tool. If this was a ten-star rating system, the CONDOR BUSHLORE would get ALL 10 Thanks for reading. Let me know if this review was helpful to you. -NATER

TL;DR Condor's quality control has improved, the knife came ready out of box and, and is a great all around blade for the common man who's watching their pack weight in the deep woods while hunting but need a dependable blade that can both prepare game and split wood if needed. Long part: I don't need to go too into detail about this knife, but I will say that Condor has really improved the quality of products they put out. For a while Condor was known amongst us almost as a project company, you'd by a solidly built tool but need to sharpen (sometimes even grind) it yourself really. My Kephart has been a constant companion (along with my old butcher knife and my Mora Classic) for many years now, but out of box I needed to do some sanding to make the Kephart's tip symmetrical and heavily sharpen it. Great steel and was a great little blade after some work. Mora's are almost always perfect out of box. I stayed far away from the old Bushlore, but the newer design as others have said the is not only better but in my opinion should be an industry standard for blades at this price point. Mine came with almost perfect symmetrical geometry (the cutting grind was perfect, the tip grind was a hair higher on one side but the tip is perfectly straight), was effortlessly able to take hair off my arm, and a perfect 90 degree spine for a ferro rod OR shaving bark. Keep it up Condor. As far as the design, the philosophy of use behind this knife is for Bushcraft and camp tasks, though would be perfectly functional for hunting (which I plan on doing a lot). Blades of this size should be complemented with an axe or hatchet if possible, but if needed this blade can baton wood (split wood by hammering it with a piece of wood). I love my Mora and my rummage sale picked butcher knife, but when hunting in the backcountry you want to keep your pack weight under 30 (or 25) lbs, your rifle or bow included. With a partial tang blade like a Mora or a thin blade like my butcher knife, you'll want to bring an axe or saw as well for processing wood. For small game and carving a Mora is perfection, but for deer or emergency fire making I want a more durable and slightly larger blade. Which is why I think the slightly higher price you pay for the Bushlore is just as an exceptional value as a Mora is. If you don't do a lot of backcountry hunting/bushcraft, a Mora will serve you well, especially for you Ultra-Light people. The Mora Bushcraft Black is also great but more expensive than the Condor Bushlore. If you're hunting close to your vehicle or base camp, you could bring an even larger hunting knife like a Buck or a KaBar plus an axe and dedicated skinning or carving knife because weight isn't as much of a concern. The Bushlore is an all around tool for the common man and one that fits the bill for one watching their pack weight deep in the woods but needs a durable blade for both large game and bushcraft, one I will pass on to my children most likely. I've done a bit of testing in the week I've had it, feathering wood, batoning wood (a test, not a practice), and cutting food. So far it functions just as well as my Mora and will be able to withstand abuse in the field if needed. 10/10, couldn't be made better for its intended use without increasing the price. Will be coming with me from now on.

First, the good parts: 1) For the price, mine was very well-made. I realize others may have different experiences, but quality control is always something that is a lower priority when you're getting good components for a good price. 2) The sheath is excellent. I purchased a Leatherman multitool that came with a "premium leather sheath," and that thing's a piece of crap next to this sheath. My only problem is that I'm left-handed, but that's a problem I have with almost any knife, ever. 3) It is so. comfortable. to. use. The weight is excellent, the balance is very good, and the walnut grip is just pleasing. The handle is comfortable and long enough to adjust one's grip depending on the task being performed- you can clench down and get a lot of power, or spread out and get a good, choked grip to do finer work. Since it's a full tang, I also feel a little more confident beating up the pommel a bit- not that I plan to, but I could if I needed to. That thrills me. The thickness of the blade also makes it a bit easier to slip your thumb up onto the spine and do a little bit of fine control. 4) Holds a pretty excellent edge. It made it through slaughtering, cleaning and butchering two roosters without a hiccup. Now the bad: 1) The factory edge is terrible. I mean dull. I'm not really complaining, per se, but it needs to be said. Don't expect for this knife to be ready to use out of the box. Expect to spend some time pampering the edge into a good workable level of sharpness. 2) While the walnut handle is beautiful and comfortable and just feels great in my hand... the leather sheath just leeches the color right out. This isn't really a problem for me; whenever I want it to look pretty, a quick rub of oil brings it back to factory spec, and I don't mind if it looks a bit rough when I am using it. But if anyone looking to buy this knife is ridiculous about looks like that, be advised. 3) If for whatever reason you do want to get this knife just insanely sharp... it'll take a fair bit of work, compared to a more expensive knife. This is because the grind on the blade is just awful. It's too steep an angle to really get a good edge. Don't get me wrong, it's durable, and it's easy to sharpen in the field. But if you want to slide this bad boy through paper, get ready to admit one thing: sharpening a scandi grind blade that is this thick is just a pain. Can you get it sharp enough to be very useful and serviceable? Absolutely. It takes maybe ten minutes out of the box to have it ready to roll. But if you're looking to scrape hairs off your arm, be ready to redo the grind. All told, I'm very pleased with this knife. It's quite possibly the best purchase I've made in a long time. For the price it performs admirably- and for the price, I wouldn't feel bad about modifying it to enhance its performance. The design is great, the materials are great, the performance is very good, and it's cheap enough that I won't worry about modding it later as my skill level goes up.

Purchased through Amazon for $30.35 with free shipping. The Condor Bushlore knife is a rough copy of one that Ray Mears had custom made by a smith in Sweden. The pattern seems to be ubiquitous in ‘bush craft’ knives made by other companies. I purchased this knife to replace a Helle ‘Symphoni’ which was a pretty darn good woods knife, but just not thick enough for my taste. My wife had been eyeballing the Helle because of its curly birch handle anyway, so I saw my chance and she happily approved the purchase. The blade length is 4 5/16” with a thickness of 1/8”. It has a Rockwell Hardness of 56-58, a blasted satin finish and an overall length of 9 5/16”. One side of the blade is stamped “El Salvador” and the other with the company name. Both stampings are modest in size. The grind resembles the much vaunted ‘Scandi’ or Scandinavian type and runs about 3/8” wide. The grind goes nearly all the way from the tip to the handle where it leaves a ricasso of about 3/16”. It has a drop point profile that very nearly resembles a spear point so the point is at the center of the blade. The knife has a full tang, which is a must for me. The very dense and dark colored wood used for the scales is simply described as, “hardwood” in the catalogue. The scales are attached with two 3/16” brass pins and the handle has a brass lined lanyard hole 1/4” from the end. The sheath was a disappointment though, but not because of any defect. I was a little let down that there was absolutely no reason to make a new one, which I often do when I acquire a knife. The leather on the sheath is heavy and the welt is thick enough to more than accommodate the blade and protect the stitching, which is tight and runs between 4 and 5 stitches per inch. The coffee colored leather is riveted top and bottom with good quality, silver colored rivets, not the cheap ones with the hole in the back. The sheath is stamped with a Condor logo about the size of a thumbprint and holds the knife in a solid grip by friction. This last feature is important to me because I prefer not to have a retaining strap on what I call my “handy” knives. I like being able to simply reach for it and pull it out. For that reason I prefer to have a sheath that is form fitted, tight, and deep enough to hold at least the lower third of the handle, that ensures the knife won’t fall out on its own, the Bushlore’s sheath goes up the handle about half way. The Condor Bushlore knife is made of 1075 carbon steel, which seems to be a standard offering in the Condor line and came out of the box, literally, shaving sharp. That’s no real feat nowadays since I’ve seen $8.00 Pakistani “survival” knives do the same. This one though, unlike the Pakistani and Chinese offerings, held an edge. After carving out a spoon, a figure four trapping trigger, half a dozen fuzz sticks and batoning several pieces of 3” ash the edge was still sharp enough to do more. It only took a few strokes on an Arkansas fine stone to return it to shaving sharp. The edge, after examination with a 20X magnifying lens, appeared to take the use and abuse without bending, chipping, or cracking. All in all, I’ve got to say that I’m very pleased with this knife. It’s a solid tool and I’d be comfortable with it anywhere. While this knife is a straightforward affair without any fancy embellishments, I’d gladly take it, over some other knives that I’ve owned and used that cost four and five times as much. As far as the company is concerned, there are posts in forums elsewhere, describing its location, history &c. An item of great interest to me with any company I do business with is consumer relations and from my experience, CTK is very responsive. For example, I had a concern about their Claw Shovel that I purchased and was contacted within hours, via an email from Condor’s National Sales Manager, Richard Jones, who requested my shipping address so they could ship me a replacement. The improvements that Condor has made over the years to this specific knife are in direct response to concerns expressed by the “Bushcrafting community” ( boy I hate that word ‘community’ but it’s so useful), such as fit and finish of the scales. More impressive to me though, they changed both the grind of the blade and its thickness, in response to customer input. Just a final note, this company is not going to stay in the bush-leagues, if you’ll pardon the pun. I suspect that as word travels, they will gain a well-deserved reputation for quality products, then prices will go up with demand, just like a lot of other companies have done. I intend to keep them on my buy-from list and avoid the price hikes.

Great knife for the price. Finding a sturdy knife that doesn't break your wallet can be difficult, but this knife does just that. It's blade is high carbon, so it will retain its edge well and it has a walnut handle. There arent many knifes that have real wood handles anymore. This one is nice. I don't think you have to worry about it cracking under 'normal' conditions. The only real caveat to this knife is one of its pros: the high carbon steel. It rusts pretty easily. Just take care of it like you would any other tool (because it is a tool). Oil it after every use and if it does rust, a pencil eraser will remove most of it. Others have said that the blade doesn't come 'razor' sharp. Because of the high-carbon steel, the blade will never be razor sharp. If you want something that's razor sharp, get a box cutter or something. This thing was made to endure some tough stuff (batonning, carving, cutting real wood, striking flint, etc.) that would break anything that was razor sharp (high carbon steel is relatively soft compared to low carbon steel. It retains a reasonably sharp edge very well and doesn't break easily. However, low carbon steel will give you your 'razor' sharp edge, but it's also brittle and will break if strained). All in all, it's a good bushcraft knife. It comes with a pretty nice leather sheath that I assume also fits a few of condor's other fixed blades. If you're willing to take care of it, then this is a great buy. Plus, it's hard to beat the pricetag.

So after receiving my Bushlore I will say that the knife is well made and balanced. The sheath is beautiful. The handle will need some touching up and a good oiling before I bring it into the field but is also very nice, warm feeling and just feels good in the hand. I mainly wanted to comment on sharpness of the blade. It is "sharp" - as in what a new kitchen knife would be. Sharp enough to do those things you want to do but in order to rely on this in the field i'm going to have to put an edge on it myself. Since i've seen varying comments in this regard, I thought this was an important note. Since the steel is hard (it's not 1095 but it's definitely more work to put an edge on this then on a 440) I was hoping for a sharper blade out of the box. Maybe just put it to a fine stone or strop before going into the field. Either way, it is far superior to anything i've owned/tried in this price range so no stars removed and again exceeds expectations for the price. But this is going to need a little more work now, to make it more durable for real world use. That being said I enjoy sharpening blades and for 40 dollars this is the best knife I have ever handled in the sub 100.00 category. Throw in a free, very nice leather sheath and I can tell you right now i'll be ordering another one as a backup. A great beginner knife for sure, and with some TLC and a little time invested it looks like this can easily become my main carry. If it turns out it will indeed take a long lasting edge after putting in some work on the blade this will definitely replace my main carry knife for in the field here in the Rocky Mountains. This knife really does put to shame any other in this price range with similar attributes.

I have been considering purchasing this knife to use as my bushcraft carry knife for quite some time, I finally made the purchase and I am blown away at the quality of this product, as every review states the sheath is top quality they seem to have recently revamped this product as the bevel is way better than the ones I have seen on YouTube. The new sheath design has a riveted belt loop instead of a stitched on one, mine did not come with the micro-bevel everyone says they do, it was a genuine scandi grind and out of the box it was razor sharp. This knife is a carver like no knife I have ever used, it cuts 1 inch branches clean in half with minimal effort and no hammering, apply pressure and watch this knife cut whatever you want (within reason of course). I am glad I waited on making the purchase as there is many noticeable changes to the newest version, mainly the rivited sheath belt loop. If you are contemplating purchasing a Condor Bushlore I would say contemplate no more and get one coming as the quality surpasses the knife in a mind blowing way! EDIT: After using this knife for quite some time I have to say, its awesome and you can clean it up to look like a very expensive knife, I removed the grey finish from the blade and polished it, re-profiled the top of the blade to have more of a woodlore shape and sanded and re-profiled the handle to be very impressive looking. Now that the good is out of the way, I finally put a very small secondary bevel on the knife. The scandi was just too shallow of an angle and I was resharpening every time I used it to compensate for all the blade roll I was experiencing. Still an awesome purchase, My recommendation would be to avoid the desire to have a full scandi grind.