Cold SteelBird & Game 3.5" Lightweight Durable Japanese AUS8A Stainless Steel Fixed Blade Drop Point Outdoor Hunting Neck Knife, Resistant Secure-Ex Sheath

Exactly what I was hoping for! The steel type could be better, but I’m not complaining for the price. So you have to touch it up more often to keep it razor sharp. Overall great quality, as are most products from the Cold Steel brand.My only knock against it is the sheath. It’s pretty basic and you have to depress a small plastic tab to remove the knife. This makes it more difficult to draw smoothly when working, so I used a dremel to adjust its attitude.The pinky ring is what makes this knife so good. You can hang it from your finger while you work with your hands, and flip it up when cutting. So convenient! Simple design, nothing fancy, does what you need it to do.

It's a sharp knife. 😎 it's cold steel, so you know you can't go wrong.

Love this knife! Hate the sheath!

The one I received was made in China, not Japan. Still marked as AUS8. Its a great little knife, minimalist style, with the ring and jimping gave the pencil thin handle good grip with great control. Arrived decently sharp. Plan to use it to gut fish, put on a 17 degrees edge for filet. It felt the steel is authentic, it took a bit more effort than kitchen knives to sharpen like other AUS8. BUT the issue starts, the edge does not stay sharp, sitting in the sheath and it gets dull! I suspect this is largely due to the sheath design and position, plus the index/pinky finger release that secures the blade. (Deploy using index/pinky release is awkward and require practice). The sheath audibly rattles if you shake it, but wearing it as a neck knife makes no sound. With a bit more force, you can draw the blade without pressing the release. However, not sure if it was resulted with these testing, the edge had not burred, but micro rolled. Took significant stropping effort to remove the roll.For small blade like this, missing the crucial cooling time during heat treat can lead to this and its quite common among affordable knives. Re-profiled it again to remove potential soft edge material. Within two cuts of cardboard and practicing the draw (best two handed, if you use a neck lanyard the sheath tend to bounce back and hit you in the face if you yank it, nerveless fish juice mist your shirt. ) It rolled again!!Although I can not confirm nor visually ID the sheath wear, but I suspect the sheath contacted the edge and rapid deployment dulls the edge quickly.Still, a great blade for its price. Could use a custom kydex sheath.I noticed most reviews with low stars tends to be the batch that were made in China. Can't speak for those that were made in Japan, but they seem happier than I do.Lastly, pocket/belt carry with Ulticlip's UltiTuck does fit, but it makes the pencil handle ring sticks out like a sore thumb. It require a bit more effort to conceal. Unless you make a custom sheath, it takes practice to draw the blade without drawing covering garment stuck with the ring.Still, a good knife to have, turning it into a project knife. Going to re-profile it to 20 degrees and hope this was my human error and not Cold Steel's heat treat issue with their new contractor. Wear it as a neck knife and pull out ~ gently!.Enough likes I will post an update.

I wanted a 3.5" legal, low pro boot knife that had a rear ring and wasn't $250.This thing was almost perfect right off the bat, aside from needing epoxy on the "handle." The plastic pieces can fly off.The hard sided sheath locks the blade in quite well, but wiggles annoyingly tbh. prolly an easy fix, case allows you to lace the knife into your boot for hunting and hiking.Perfect knife for the price.I'm buying one or two more and the smaller version as well.

This is a piece of beautiful Japanese cutlery. It’s a very simple design but extremely functional. The aus 8a blade steel is easy to sharpen and takes a razor edge. It’s bigger than it seems but not overly bulky. The sheath is sleek, just like the knife, and adds to its design. The two small holes on the top of the sheath are a bit smaller than the holes on the Cold Steel bird and trout so a chain necklace won’t fit through. That’s most likely the reason it did not come with a chain. The knife can be held in many different positions. The sheath does not come with a mounting point, but cold steel makes good C clip that can be bought separately. This knife really is versatile. The blade thickness and geometry make it good for any task.

I use this to field dress skin and butcher. Sharpens up well and holds an edge for a while. The sheath is the best part. Get the small one and use it to trim!

Handy size knife.. fits well in a front pocket.. I put grip tape on the handle and melted paracord around the finger ring. I honed it to make it a bit sharper than it arrived but I don't mind that. The sheath is cheap plastic.. retains ok but rattles and is not easy to mont a clip. With a combo of grip and duct tape I mostly resolved the rattle . Ideally this would have a clip or angled horn that would allow you to slip it in your front pocket and when the blade is pulled the clip would catch on the pocket leading to quick deployment. This would have been super easy and cheap to mold and would have made this a bigger hit. Overall I'm happy with the blade and have rigged the sheath to be acceptable for now.