Customer Reviews

Schrade SCHF1 Extreme Survival Special Forces Fixed Blade Knife, with Nylon Sheath

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought one of these knives a few months ago before they were available on Amazon. Like other reviewers, I was surprised how BIG the knife is. In fact, I'll go ahead and say it's TOO big for delicate work. You won't want to use this knife for carving small, precise cuts in wood, for example.

There is a custom knife maker who makes a similar knife that costs several hundred dollars. These are a great bargain. But they do have two major drawbacks, in my opinion. One is the size, but more importantly, the serrated portion of the blade is a HUGE drawback for me. Serrations are great for cutting rope, but for any other type of cutting, a plain edge is best. When doing heavy cutting with a knife, the closer you get to the handle, the more leverage you have, and the safer it is to make the cut. By placing the serrations right against the handle, this forces you to use a part of the blade farther away, and consequently, you have less leverage.

The knife comes with a small screwdriver kit inside the handle, but most people will want to remove that and replace it with more traditional survival knife contents like fish hooks, matches, fishing line, etc.

One big plus that sets this knife apart from other hollow handle knives is that the handle and blade are one solid, continuous piece of metal. In other hollow handle knives, the handle and blade are separate pieces joined together with bolts, welds, glue or other means, creating a potentially dangerous point of failure. This knife does not suffer from that weakness.

If the blade were 3 inches shorter and had no serrations, I'd have given it a solid 5 star rating. Good news is, Schrade makes a smaller version without the serrations. I have one on order and will review it soon. I expect it will earn the 5 stars, but I'll have to see it in person first.

Alright, first of all if you didn't take a good hard look at the size of this thing, start there. This is a HUGE knife. It is absolutely not practical for taking around town and will probably get you stopped at the door of any establishment if you try to take it in.

That being said, this knife won't leave my side when I go to Iraq. Being in the military I wanted a good weapon for those "just in case moments" that come with being in urban combat. This blade is exceptionally well crafted and as the previous reviewer stated you probably could do some serious abuse to it without it breaking. It certainly can stand up against tough hides as I've been using it as a skinning knife on occasion. It doesn't come all that sharp, but if you take the right sharpening tools to it, it will cut through leather like butter. And I'll say it again this knife is extremely durable, you can tell the moment you pick it up that this thing will last you a long time.

Now, the above is what I'd expect from a knife, but what earned it that 5 star rating from me is the pleasant surprise of a fully functional screwdriver and attachment set that is just awesome. I use it a lot in the house for regular maintenance since with the metal knife blade it handles a bit better then the plastic screwdrivers when I get sweaty hands.

I absolutely recommend this for campers, outdoors men, soldiers in a combat zone, fishermen, skinning, and generally looking scary as heck with a blade the size of your forearm.

I own many knives, this is a good solid all around knife, it is large and bulky - and in any survival type knife - the bigger the better. I saw another reviewer who thinks this knife is too large to be termed survival - I guess it's a matter of definition -- but I can honestly say that bigger is better in a survival situation -- providing you can easily carry it on your gear. I own two general purpose knives that were custom made for me - these cost 400 dollars each and are large heavy and perfect for survival, combat etc. I don't think a small knife is very useful in the middle of an emergency situation. Not sure of the screw-driver kit in the handle -- I think matches, fish hooks, nylon cord, etc. would be more valuable.
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I've owned this product several months now - and the quality if the steel is beginning to show - it's very poor - pay a little more and get something with a decent brand name.

This is a very bulky Taiwan made knife with a heavy blade that is simply not a survival tool. It IS a knife that has uses in certain settings but survival may not be one of them. It's just too heavy and the blade design is poor. IF the blade had more thought put into it's design; it may be a very good imitation of a Chris Reeve's knife. but as it stands it's spear point is not dagger sharp so it's function as a weapon is a bit less than it could be, it's tools inside are a moderately good idea but then so would a empty space. If you wanted screwdrivers - get a multi-tool.
HOWEVER.....IF you have some skill at working with steel, this could be altered to achieve all these things because the blade actually appears half finished! If the point were brought down to a more graceful sweep, it would be an extreme improvement. If the blade were made to no longer have a "false edge" but a true partial double edge; it would be excellent: but not for keeping in your backpack but on your vest. or belt. It has a sheath that is a Taiwan copy of a common design that could be worn higher on the belt to conceal the long length slapping on your leg.
But this IS a $50 knife! It's NOT a Chris Reeves $300 hand-made piece. It's actually perfect for alteration...... This company is an LLC of Shrade. The same Taiwan company makes a shorter version that really IS a good length for a survival knife. This would make a cute dagger if you were skilled with a sanding belt. Worth the money IF you wanted to do some customizing.
Some years back Shrade really made a knife with the same name that was very unique, as it was made to survive salt water and was nearly as long but had a great deal of thought put into it's blade design. it was USA made and had a very well designed sheath. But that was 25 years ago.....

This knife is huge, with a 7.5" blade and 5.2" handle it's over a foot long and weighs a pound and a half. It comes with a sheath that is appropriately designed for this big knife with a hard plastic insert, heavy duty canvas, snaps and velcro. When you strap it to your belt it looks menacing even in it's holster.

But besides its looks it's also a very PRACTICAL knife for survival and self defense. The blade is so sturdy and long that it could penetrate completely through a mountain lion, split wood in an emergency, use as a spear tip, or finer purposes such as skinning, food preparation, and woodworking.

The entire knife is machined from a single piece of high carbon steel!! I've never seen another knife that equals the durability of this one. There are no rivets, no pieces to break, and no wood or plastic to wear out.

The only "part" that can be removed from the knife is an aluminum cap that screws into the threaded steel handle. The cap looks like the end of a hex bolt which gives you an excellent grip to tighten or remove it to access the hollowed out handle. The space inside the handle is about the size of a "c" battery which is enough room to store some small emergency items such as matches and firestarting material. Don't worry about the hollow handle compromising the strength- the steel walls are still about 1/8" thick all the way around. The exterior of the handle is knurled for excellent grip and round which makes it comfortable and natural in your hand.

I don't believe you could break this knife if you dropped it from a plane, left it in a forest fire, ran over it with a bulldozer, dropped it in the ocean to rust for a year and them smashed it with a 20-pound sledgehammer.

You should get as many of these as you can afford while tools like this are still available! It's getting harder and harder to find things like this and it's a great value at $50. I paid twice as much at a local store and then returned it once I found them online.

This is the best combat knife I have ever seen, it is better than my Ka-bar D-2, it is better than my Blackhawk, Gerber and ect. It is unbreakable, it lives for abuse. This is the knife you want to take with you to War, to a Field AT, or wearever a combat knife is needed. This knife passes the desk drawer test!!! Place your knife in the gap between the desk and the drawer and give it sharp push down, if it breaks or bends to the point of uselessness it fails. You will break,wearout, or fail before this knife will. BUY IT, ITS WELL WORTH THE MONEY !!!

Received my knife this afternoon, I had read all other comments and was surprised to read , almost to a one, on the HUGE size of this knife, when I checked the specs it listed the blade at 7.5 inch, for me I have never seen a knife with that size blade listed as small or even medium, so I was not at all surprised when it arrived, it is a large knife, the weight is more than others of the same size, due to it's solid construction. Mine came VERY sharp, not sure if it is a fluke? but it is great to not having to spend time sharpening it right away. Now the interior contents, I guess a screwdriver & bits is nice but let's face it, in the wild outdoors that type of tool is not as important as matches/water purification tabs etc. I took the screwdriver out and put it in a small pouch with other small items & that is in my bug out duffel bag, I am putting a dozen or so water proof matches in the handle of the knife. It feels good in my large hands, it is quite handle heavy and not quick, I would have to get used to it (Truth be known my CS Trail Master SK5 is my main survival/combat knife). This knife will most likely have a very soft life, it will reside in my modest collection. Now the reason I gave it a rating of 4 vs 5 is due to the sheath, it is well built can be used in many different fashions, what I do not like is that the knife is VERY loose in it, if I was to put it upside down I would worry that should the little handle snaps fail, here goes the blade. Having it on the belt in the most common position, not great either as it rattles/shakes and makes a noisy racket . In the inside of this nylon/cordura sheath seems to be a hard plastic sleeve, it does NOT grab the blade at all! For those folks in the military, this is a very nice knife BUT one it is too heavy in the wrong place and two you would need to get yourself a custom sheath, I would recommend that you get yourself a better blade and there are MANY out there that will fit the bill of a warrior (SOG, Cold Steel, Gerber etc.)specially if you have to protect your life, I am an old warrior myself and I always prefered a light,quick blade. For others & collectors this is a fine blade to own as it will be a good conversation piece as there are not many that are built out of one piece of steel (BTW 1070 carbon steel makes for great quality).

Hi,

The Amazon transaction went as smoothly as they always do so there's nothing new to say there.
The knife is an amazing value at that price and is a superb reproduction of a CRK Project one piece knife. It balances well, came sharp out of the box, has even grinds, and is a tough piece of carbon steel. The tool kit that comes on the handle is quite handy if your the type to leave it in there and the knife has a FEEL in the hand that's hard to believe without holding one; it's just perfectly executed.

Now here are the only 2 downsides that I found,

The sheath is functional and of a fair quality, it's the STANDARD nylon type with a plastic insert which will get the job done. There is nothing wrong with it other than I think that this knife would've been better served by a different type of sheath such as leather or Kydex, although that would change the price I'm sure.
The other thing that I'd change is the blade coating, I heard that this is Teflon but don't quote me on it. It's done very well and is attractive but immediately started to show wear from just chopping through the box that it was shipped in. I don't mind character on my knives, in fact I like it. I just like a little better coating like DLC or the KG gunkote which was used on the original CRK version.

All if that said, I don't think that you can buy more knife for the money! I have some of the CRK one piece knives and for the cost love this one more! The 2 things that I'd like to change can be easily done, I nay bead blast and then Dura Coat this one and have some Kydex made for it- I'm gonna take it into the woods and thrash it- oh I also like it so much that I bought 2 of them, I think that you will like it too.

Take care