A few things have briefly occurred to me.
First, some people might groan about another Esee review in a few weeks, but screw those
people.
Also it occurs to me that the raw male form specifically the ones like myself who are
dads, who don’t get enough sun, and have thin chicken legs, might make some of my viewers
uncomfortable.
And I might say to them, you’re lucky I’m wearing a shirt.
My wife and child were not spared the same consideration at the campsite.
Another thing you might ask, is batoning safe when wearing extremely short swimming trunks
or shorts- yes very as long as you protect your feet with thin tennis shoes.
Sandles may work too if you depending on how many beers you’ve had.
The formula is more beers more confidence… and confidence is all you need when playing
with knives.
Anyway my last review finally won Esee over, and I asked for like the 10th time hey you
got any knives laying around I could review…
And they said yes… as long as I promised to give a full 50% and not a drop less when
doing my Youtube video art review of it.
Done.
I am now the proud owner of a Esee laser strike, that I will mercilessly pummel, like I have
no idea on earth what I’m doing.
And that’s not even because I’m drunk.
But before we even give this thing 25% let’s look at the overall length and weight.
With and without the sheath.
I did have to buy a belt clip for this, because it was clipless.
I bought a $12 half plastic clip from The Knife Connection.
Blade size and cutting edge.
In the review I did use a Cima belt clip until my replacement arrived, keep that on the DL.
Handle size and grip area.
Look a quillion!
You’re like what’s a quillion I’m here for the legs.
Spine thickness and handle thickness.
I should have warned people not to stare directly into the whites of my legs.
Too late I guess.
Tallnesses?
The Esee Laser Strike, not to be confused with the tops missile strike.
Both extremely tactical sounding though.
Is a slightly big ass general purpose or youtube purpose survival knife with a 4 and a half
inch ish blade made Esee’s favorite 1095 carbon steel.
I mean I like it too.
The blade has a textured black powder coat covering it, unless you baton it off, so it
inhibits rust, because carbon steel rusts easy.
The blade has a flat grind, and let’s say a spear point shape.
It looks like older versions of the laser strike have a skull on the blade, which is
definitely cool then the current logo without a single skeleton bone.
No word from Esee if the old logo adds any point multipliers to one handed though- although
I’m pretty sure it does.
Oh and up top there’s some widely space jimping for thumb traction.
The handle.
The handle is that tan micarta on a lot of esse knives.
Which give a good amount of traction, is generally hot spot free, and holds up well to batoning.
There’s a choil up front, which I really didn’t mind.
You’re like (meanie voice) "why because Esee told you to say that shill?
I remember you said you didn’t like choils on the Caribbean review.
" Well a lot of spydercos choils are kind of shallow and uncomfortable- not unlike staring
at a grown man in swimming trunks on Youtube for over 10 minutes..
I don’t feel as safe using those as much because it feels like my hand could slip on
the blade.
The choir here is larger than the finger groove, and is nice and smooth, and the ricasso extends
past the blade edge a bit, and just feels more secure than a half assed shallow folding
knife choil.
I wound up using this choil a bit for better blade control.
The rest of the handle has a decent size grip area, so you move your hand back when doing
your social media batoning.
The Handle has a hidden feature.
You can remove it using the washer on the sheath, if you’d like to add extra time
to your fire starting record, or just use your drill you brought along.
Actually on second thought, you also brought a lighter along so you can just skip the ferro
rod and fire starting fiber hidden inside the handle.
I would have liked a 90 degree angle on the spine for ferro rodding like the see pr4.
You might also notice the bow divot on the side of the handle and are reminded that fire
starting can be slower more time consuming than even a ferro rod.
Don’t worry just like everyone else who reviewed this knife on Youtube, from the comfort
of their kitchen table, backyard, or car I won’t bore you with it either.
The sheath.
The sheath normally comes with a clip, my review sample didn’t but I ain’t even
mad.
It’s kydex, and like other esee gear you can probably buy other stuff to mount it to
your stuff better.
From dangly sheaths, to just out the short shorts like mine.
It’s a little too high a rider on the belt for my tastes, because it digs into my beer
handles, but I found I like to clip Esees to my pocket anyway.
It also comes with a paracord clip thingy with a silver washer that allows you to unscrew
the handle to start a fire should you encounter a survival situation during a backyard vlog.
Comparisons.
I know we’re already there!
First the laser strike.
Not missile strike.
I like this knife…
it’s the larger than 3 inch edge I prefer for my pretend bushcraft outings.
It works well for batoning, however I’d need to try and ease 5 or 6 to be sure.
Don’t worry those will come eventually.
I mean I had the 6 HM but didn’t like the lack of a ricasso.
I would say the edge geometry doesn’t work the best on thin slicy stuff.
I mean it works well enough for eating my steak, but if you’re wanting to skin tomato
for your outdoor cooking youtube channel, you’d want a thinner blade stock.
I got about 1mm behind the edge before a round on my sharpener.
Also when you sharpen blades with powder coats, note that removal of the powder coat as you
sharpen the edge can add additional time, however it only took me about 10 minutes to
get the Laser strike Razor sharp.
And now I can shave arm hair with it.
The Esee 3MIL.
This one is smaller, and thinner behind the edge.
Makes sense if you want to travel lighter because it’s a few ounces less heavy.
I prefer the size of the laser though.
Now the Esee PR4.
I like this knife a little better from a weight standpoint.
It has a slightly thinner blade stock, you can still dabble in batoning though, and it
has a 90 degree uncoated spine, which keeps you from having to use the choil area depending
on how often you flick your rod.
A few subscribers said there wasn’t enough of those jokes in the last video.
I like the handle and the grip better on the Laser Strike.
Let’s see the vangedal Rover.
It’s nice, and has a good size blade, and it’s lighter.
The Laser Strike is beefier and may figure into your batoning lifestyle a bit better.
Let’s see how about something super light, but not full tang that I haven’t showed
in a while.
The Mora Kansbol.
This knife is a great food prep knife, not so much at the bush arts.
It has a very thin blade stock and can be sharpened easily.
The handle is rubber and plastic and green.
You know as shrill as I am about light knives, I never seem to use my Moras.
Huh, what do you suppose that’s about.
Ok is that it on the comparisons…
let’s see a show of hands on who wants to move on.
(Some guy in the back) I haven’t seen the Moschus Tanto in a while.
You know what here you go.
I’ll bet that’s the kind of guy who also watches my beer videos, and likes them.
Even if they do have gratuitous shots of the old money maker in them.
There’s some rust on the blade because apparently last time I threw it down in the yard I put
it back in it’s leather sheath before drying it completely.
Knife foul.
Ok let’s partake in a few of the bush arts.
I think unless my math is off I’ve given this about 35% so far.
If I were a lazier Youtube I’d call it DONE.
Let’s see.
I think I have 5 Esees now, and you know I like them.
I don’t know why I have more of these than others…
like Ontarios or Tops like Zack Spark mused on my Cold Steel video yesterday.
But I do.
I like their warranty, I like the handles, and sheath and the way you can mount them,
if you know what I mean.
If someone asks why this channel doesn’t have viewers, that last sentence is probably
why.
The aesthetics and overall hand feel the Esees have- I guess just hit the right spot for
me.
I mean I like other knives too… a cool subscriber is donating a svord bowie to the channel…
so I’m looking forward to that too.
Ask I rambling?
I’m rambling.
I think you have enough information to decide if it’s right for you.
Esee makes several knives in the 4 5 and 6 inch range for you.
It’s honestly about going into a store, or abusing an online return policy like Amazon
to find the one that fits your hand right.
Think about the wood you want to baton the the things you want to chop if you forget
your axe, or the elk you’re going to gut if you ever learn to shoot.
Personally I think the Esee Laser strike is my favorite see yet, other than my Junglas
2 because it allows me to venture into my back yard, and beat on wood, which reconnects
me to nature or some stuff.
If you like this sort of review, and you want this channel to continue to grow watch all
of my videos, even the dumb ones, which is a clever turn of phrase because they’re
all dumb, baton that like button, leave a comment on how about trying Beckers or Tops,
and I’ll reply because you haven’t bought me one yet.
Also thanks to super star b ach for watching 50 of my videos last week.
The real MVP.
This is a pretty long username… the answer is NO…
And one final point, the reason I ask these things at the end is not because I’m begging
for my self esteem- I mean it’s kind of that… but videos with more comments, more
thumbs up, more views, that are shared more places get ranked higher, so if you’d like
this channel to grow we all have to do our part.
I have to make dookie videos, and you have to tag engagement to those videos to improve
search results, which give me more views overall, and allow me to become more powerful, and
afford better gear, and become a professional Youtube artist, that eventually has an idea
that exploits tragedy, and leads to a very public but completely avoidable downfall.
It was just a prank BRO.
Because people who make Youtube videos are generally pieces of doo doo.
Thanks for watching.