Cold Steel Roach Belly 4.5" German 4116 Stainless Steel Fixed Blade Trailing Point Outdoor Hunting Utility Knife, 4" High Impact Polypropylene Handle, Durable Sheath Included

This knife lives on my boat, ready to head and gut fish before returning to port. A comfortable handle and a perfect sweep to the blade makes this knife a joy to use, especially if you’ve got a lot of gutting. The sheath makes the knife slow and awkward to withdraw the knife, ensuring it won’t get lost when not in use. Being plastic means the sheath won’t rot in a marine environment. I drilled a large hole in the bottom of mine so water can escape. If you put olive oil on the blade it won’t rust, and is edible, unlike machine oils.

This is on par with Mora. I think this is one of the best cheap knives ever made. Comes shaving sharp out of the box, and it takes and holds an edge shockingly well given the price. It is a perfect knock around knife. Put one in your boat and one in your truck. If you some how break it or lose it, it is dirt cheap to replace.

Great for a general food prep knife, but A FANTASTIC steak knife. Arrived very sharp, but even sharper after a 17 degree edge with mirror polish treatment. I suspect 15 degree edge with its roach belly edge will achieve such a clean cut that will preserve the steak juice from pouring out from typical steak knife serrated edge. The blade buried deep inside the sheath, adding a bit of lanyard helps with deployment.Keep this knife on your wish list, buy it when its on discount and replace your existing kitchen stocks of steak knives with it. It cuts so well that actually improve the taste of your food!

Wow, what an incredible buy for the price! This is not a high or even moderately priced fixed blade, but for the low price tag of less than $15 with free shipping, it's a steal.First the bad:The handle does not provide much traction. There is a faux-wood grain pattern in the plastic but it does little to aid the grip. Fortunately, there is good jimping on the top of the blade that locks your thumb in and the handle is ergonomically shaped. I'd be wary of having a secure grip when the knife is wet and slippery, but for all other purposes it will work fine.Secondly, the sheath. It comes with a cheap nylon compression-lock sheath. The knife is held in ok, but if you hold it upside down and shake it hard it's likely to fall out. The belt loop on it only accommodates vertical carry. You could upgrade to a kydex sheath, but for a knife this inexpensive it may not be worth it.Now the good:There's so much to say here. This knife is truly a featherweight at 2.6 ounces, but its capabilities far exceed a knife of its weight. The 4.5" blade comes razor sharp out of box. Its thin, upswept belly is perfect for slicing and stabbing. Although the tip lacks strength, it more than makes up for it in its pierce cutting capabilities. For a lightweight knife like this, I don't envision doing much hard-use stabbing, so I think that the tip is perfect. The knife handles well due to its light weight, so anything from food prep to bushcraft can be done with ease. The steel is 4116 stainless. This is an inexpensive German steel. It will rust on you if you neglect it but it should be relatively easy to prevent rust. It holds an edge adequately well and I think that it was a good choice for a knife of this price.Bottom line:If you're looking for a good food prep or lightweight bushcraft knife, you've found it. I wouldn't recommend it for tactical use due to its cruddy sheath and I'd think twice about using it to skin a large animal due to its so-so grip. Even then, I can't believe that this knife costs less than $15. I think that its pros far outweigh its cons and I wouldn't think twice about purchasing one again. Great job Cold Steel!

I mainly like to use carbon steel knives with scandi grinds for myoutdoors activities, however I wanted to put together a knife basedfishing tool kit. This way I would have all the tools I would normallyneed, right at my side at a moments notice. This knife fit the bill.Being stainless, I don't have to worry about rust from constantly beingwet or covered in fish/bait guts. It also has a run of the mill complexbevel, which is good, because part of my kit includes a quick, easy to usesmith and wesson sharpener When I'm out fishing, I don't want to break outstones and or rodes, I just want to run the knife through a basic sharpenera few times, and get back to work).Its got one of these injection molded type plastic handles. Because of this,and the stainless steel...when I get home from a trip, I just toss this thingin the dishwasher and it gets cleaned right up, no problem.Its got a lanyard, which is nice, so when I clean my knife off in the river,I don't have to worry so much about dropping it and loosing my knife.Its got a cheap cordura sheath, and I'm fine with that. I wouldn't want a nicesheath for it, because its going to get covered in guts and scales anyway.I've heard some complain about the steel...but hey...its a cheap stainless steelknife! Mine takes an edge fairly quickly using my little sharpener, and it holdsfairly well considering.My kit includes (this knife obviously) my smith and wesson sharpener, attached to the knifesheath by ranger bands, a leatherman juice in pliers form with its sheath attached by clipand ranger bands to the knife sheath, and a mini measuring tape looped through the bottom ofthe knife sheath.Serves me well.Can't tell you about the tang, I just don't know, and I don't care, because this is not a roughuse knife for me, no battoning or anything like that. I can tell you it feels good in the handand is a mean slicer.It looks like they are going up in price, at least since I bought mine. If it gets over $15I would say pass.