Customer Reviews

Smith & Wesson SWHRT1 HRT Tactical Boot Knife, Black

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

HERE'S THE BOTTOM LINE: There are plenty of great boot knife products on the market, if you want to carry what is legally considered to be a "double-edged dagger", and is therefore ILLEGAL to carry in many states and jurisdictions. This SWHRT1 HRT Tactical is single-edged, not too long, extremely well made, feels good in the hand, has thumb gimping on the spine, has a full tang, and has a deep finger choil to protect you from hand slippage when performing either a thrust or slash cut. The blade is thick, and the scales feel better in the hand than some knives that cost five times as much. (Yes, I have a collection.) SHEATH CHALLENGE: I understand why some reviewers describe problems with the sheath being too tight. However, this can be remedied. Specifically, the first time you extract the knife, do NOT try to pull and pull to remove the knife. (It is dangerous...DUH!). Instead, carefully spread open the plastic sheath where the semicircular molding grips the finger choil, just next to the blade edge. Spreading the sheath at this point will enable the knife to slide out with a firm pull. Using a fine-grained metal file or fingernail file will allow you to carefully reduce the semicircular molding that grips the finger choil.

The other two complaining about how "hard" it is to remove must be pansies, Yes, the sheath has a good hold on the knife, but that is how it is supposed to be! Would you rather have a knife that falls out easily? I use it as a utility blade when I go hiking, and have it hooked to my backpack (hanging upside down, grip down that is) and I can rip it out very easily, you cant "gingerly" take it out, you gotta rip it out! I give it 4 stars for the fact that I haven't found a way to use this as a "boot" knife. But it is thick steel, very well made and is a great camping, hiking, emergency tool. Just don't be a pansy when taking it out of the sheath, and you will love it too!

This knife holds an edge well (with a little stone work) and is great for an underhanded grip in dangerous situations. That being said, the sheath design is a bit...backwards. The best way to work the knife out of its sheath is to press forward/down with the thumb on the sheath side opposite the blade. The drawback to this is that the sheath gets needlessly slashed by the knife every time it's pulled. Still, this knife is of good quality. 4 stars for the knife; -1 for its sheath.

Initial Water Contact Resurface Time -- 0.00
Initial Floatation Time -- 0.00
Sustained Floatation Time -- 0.00
Depth of Water Body Used For Testing -- +/- 25ft.
Total Depth Reached By Product Tested -- +/- 25ft.
Time To Reach Total Depth -- 4.825sec.

In other words, if you drop this knife in a river or any other body of unfrozen water (including ditches, pools and mudpuddles) it will sink... fast and all the way to the bottom. Yes, I too was surprised but this was my experience.

Okay really, this is my second one of these knives due to the abominable floatation efficiency of the first. It's a very, very good knife regardless of what it does when you drop it in the water. If it weren't I'd certainly not have bought another one.

No need to go into alot of detail about the knife. Plenty of that going on already but I will say that it is extremely well designed and manufactured. It's nearly 1/4 inch thick, sharp and LEGAL. It just doesn't float worth a tinker's damn. The sheath I gotta stick up for just a little bit.

It's not that bad and certainly no justification for passing on the knife but it could have been better. To me, almost any sheath design not made of leather is a poor substitute for one that is. This one is no different, however, it is sturdy and not at all hard to draw the knife from. A slight push on the top of the sheath, in front of the thumb gimping pops it right out with no trouble. The clip on the side is some form of plastic instead of the superior spring steel but it has a barb on it that grabs so tightly that it can sometimes be frustrating trying to get it off of yourself, especially if you have it clipped into a jeans pocket where I usually keep it. Kind of a pain but you can count on losing the knife before you ever lose the sheath. I guess that could be seen as a good thing.

As usual, we lefties are left (no pun intended but I'll take it) out in the cold again when it comes to sheath design but if you're like me and have absolutely no use for a knife way down at the bottom of your leg where you keep your foot and under your pant leg (where it gets in the way of your gun) you'll want to keep this thing at either belt or pocket height where it'll work left-handed. I put it in my pocket with the clip on the outside and in this fashion it works as if it was a left-handed sheath. This is the best way I've found to handle the victimization and oppression I experience at the hands of the evil, rich capitalists and until I can find someone to blame for it, and more importantly to give me free money because of it I'll keep doing it this way. Theoretically you could do this in your belt as well or in your boot but it would probably be very uncomfortable.

All in all this knife is probably the best, most useful and practical knife in it's class and definitely worth owning whether you need it or not but when it comes to sharp objects or dangerous things in general what does "need" have to do with it?

This is a good, low priced backup knife. I had to modify mine just a little to make it work for me and will need to make a sheath for it to fit my needs. The knife is very strong and sturdy feeling. I also sharpened the knife I received out of the box, but this is normal for me since most "production" knives do not come very sharp, with exception of CRKT.

I purchased this for a close quarters backup knife for duty use, which is what it pretty much is designed for. It might also double as a strict utility knife since the blade is a straight blade. Just not sure how long the edge might last in that capacity. I was not impressed at all over the "sheath". It is a flimsy plastic cover that basically just keeps you from cutting yourself. I will be making one from true Kydex soon. Also, I modified the handle just a little so the hump for the finger index is not so prominent. I do not want to be locked into a specific grip in a time that this knife may be deployed.

Overall, for 20 bucks, as long as the steel proves to be as sturdy as it feels, this is a decent knife and I will carry it over the next year or so and see how it works out.

This is a good everyday carry knife. I didn't get the first one because someone at the post office ripped the package open and stole my item. Fortunately Amazon is great about shipping out a new item under that circumstance. I received the replacement, it was not hair shaving sharp, so I used the Samurai shark (don't laugh, it a great sharpener,) to sharpen it. I was worried that the blade wasn't sharpened to hair shaving sharp level. I found out differently when I tied a paracord lanyard to it. I was testing the lanyard when the blade slipped out of the sheath, barely skimmed my thumb and cut it open pretty deep-past the first layer of skin, almost to the meat.

I bandaged the wound to stop the bleeding, took the bandage off, clean up the wound a little bit and crazy glued it shut. Long story short that boot knife is very sharp now.

Aside from the sharpness its a nice heavy blade. It doesn't feel light or cheap. The sheath must of already been broken in because the blade came right out. I crazy glue part of it so the knife wasn't so loose. The sheath and blade ride nicely on my belt. Overall a great boot knife. Its longer than Amazon said it is. That is not a criticism, but an observation.

I ordered this item about a week ago and received it earlier today and honestly I have trouble thinking of bad things to say about this knife and its apparently infamous sheath that according to other reviews is cheap, impossible to remove the knife from, and as I believe one customer stated a piece of crap made in china. the sheath that comes with this knife is meant to be a quick draw style sheath and the knife itself is not meant to be a utility knife its a tactical knife. The knife was very hard to remove from the sheath the first time I tried but throughout the day and removing it more and more it became comfortable and quick to remove as well as feeling secure at all other times. the removable belt clip that attaches to the back of the sheath has so far been strong and secure and has only once come free of the sheath when I didn't want it to and it happened to be while I was trying to remove the KNIFE AND SHEATH at once to take the hole package off of my belt which i see as a good thing seeing how strong the clip itself is. i couldn't see this knife being used as a boot knife in a comfortable manner unless a modification was made to the sheath by removing the belt clip and affixing one ore two straps to the sheath itself and that's why I rated this product at four stars seeing as its advertised as a boot knife and I don't believe it would function well as one. All in all very satisfied with my purchase

This is my 4th Smith and Wesson knife purchase, and by far the best of the 4. It is rock solid, with a thick, stout blade, and arrived sharp. I will probably work on the edge a bit to get it where I like it (shaving hair), but I was pleased with the sharpness. I am amazed at the quality of this knife for the money! I agree with others that the sheath may not be the best for a boot knife but time will tell. I've repeated the withdrawal from the sheath over and over, and it has loosened up a bit. I also noticed that when I reach to pull the knife from the sheath, if I insert my index finger into the split between the sheath halves, I can pull the knife from the sheath more easily. This knife is too heavy for a neck knife, but not for a belt carry. This will not be my EDC because of work regulations, but nights and weekends, this will be the one I carry. I am really impressed!

I really like this knife. It fits very well into the sheath, and is snug enough to not have to worry about it coming out on its' own. When you first get it, it is very stiff when removing it from the sheath, but if you work the knife as if your trying to widen the opening of the sheath, it will free up a bit, then all you have to do is put a little forward pressure on the knife when you go to remove it and it comes right out. You can put a really good edge on it. It's not too small, but not to big. The handle is fairly comfortable, but it isn't anything out of the ordinary as far as knife handles.

I haven't gotten to really test the strength of the clip on the sheath, as I have only been hiking once since I have bought it. If I do occur any negatives about it in the future, I will update my review.

Unlike any other knife I own. Very different shape and style.
Its got a very sturdy feel, a very thick back on the blade,
very aggressive thumb groves,
The handle material is a little to slippery for my liking.
The knife sheath is made of a plastic material which grips and holds the
knife in it with great vigor, it takes some tricks to get it out of the
sheath.
Over all I like the knife and quite sure it will find a home in one of
my bug out bags.