Honshu Fighter Knife (Midnight Forge)

Perfect size and great feel. Bought it to add to my renaissance costume.

Honshu Midnight Forge Fighter DaggerThe Honshu Fighter dagger fits nicely in the hand and can readily accept a variety of gripping styles.Balance point it just behind the cross guard. Cross guard is very minimal,I would like if it were a bit larger.I doubt this is a true full tang. Probably tapers down, likely a hidden tang ending at the skull crusher end cap.Blade itself is widest (approx.34mmm at approx.70mm down from the tip it then tapers down slowly to approx. 31mm at end of the blade.They did a good job with the tip. This Honshu dagger's spear tip follows the center line much closer than many similar daggers I own and have seen. I have heard that even many Boker and Gerber Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knifes ( some of the most expensive knives one might desire) have the grind is visibly offset, with the central grind farther to one side than the other .If you are interested in the Applegate-Fairbairn Fighting Knife or the Cold Steel Tai Pan I would say this knife is certainly a contender for an acceptable, & far more affordable, alternative.Explaining my rating system:5 - a superior product - I would recommend4 - above average – a great choice3 - average – what one might generally expect2 - below average – I would advise seeking an alternative1- horrible – a waste of your valuable money - avoid if at all possible

Nice knife, especially for the price. My only dislikes are the sheath, not a huge fan of leather sheaths, and the grip is hard and doesn’t feel the best in my hand. Some silicone tape helped that. Over all a good knife, looks good and came rather sharp.

There's a reason this knife (as well as most modern knives and swords for that matter) are made with non-flat grind edges. And that reason is, a mild reinforcement of edge resilience.While a full-bevel flat grind is sharper, and has its place on Japanese swords, the Europeans had the right idea for their far more spring-tempered swords and the lower rockwell-rating their blades were equivalent to along the cutting edges. All the more effective is this feature then, when ground onto a blade that's been tempered to a higher rockwell number.So, the answer was, the thin little isolated cutting edge that was a minuscule bevel unto itself. This was only a slight reinforcement feature, but a notably effective one.Not only that, but if you get yourself one of those 12-piece sets of wide flat metallic diamond blade sharpening plate thingies and a good high-quality leather strop, you will end up with a knife whose cutting edge will scare you. And that is literally personal standard for whether or not my blades are sufficiently sharp: do my own weapons' cutting edges scare me as their owner. If yes, then they are sharp to my high standard.So this knife gets no downgrade from me on the matter.Anyway, moving on:I do wish United Cutlery would've used at least a slightly better grade of stainless steel than anything in the 420 series. I myself hold 440C stainless steel near and dear to my heart, and I own the Down Under Knives Outback bowie which is made of it. And let me assure you, THAT monster is everything it's cracked up to be.Still, United Cutlery also could've gone with even worse grades than they did at the same time. So at this price, it's not catastrophically tragic.As far as balance and wieldiness, I give it a solid 5 out of 5. That part is actually true about this knife. So much so in fact, that in skilled hands this knife is in fact fully throwable. Strap your thigh up with a 3 or 4 slot leg sheath harness, and you got yourself a 4-dagger Assassin's Creed hanging thigh-rig going on.I already have plans to do that, in fact. I'm laying out the cutting and assembly pattern for an all black leather multi-dagger thigh rig as we speak, just for multiples of this knife.So would I recommend this knife or its non-blackened brother-blade?For this price, YES.After that, the proper outfitting and accessorizing in support of this knife itself is up to you, gentlemen.Best of luck to you.