Page 73 - Blade (January 2019)

by Brad Zinker slipped right through
The Bear & Son 114D Butterfl y thrust
through the hanging silk scarf easily.
Achieving a good draw cut on the ratchet strap
with the Santa Fe Stoneworks Damascus Kershaw
Leek required little pressure.
JANUARY 2019 blademag.com 73
everything with little resistance. Part
of that is due to the geometry, the bev-
els and the thin blade. It’s also very
sharp—razor sharp. Hair leaped away
from it when shaving. If I had to shave
each morning with a folder, it would be
this one.
A fast, light slash left a clean 6-inch
cut in the hanging silk scarf. Another
slash severed the trapped silk tie with
so little resistance it felt like cutting
whipped cream. A draw cut with light
pressure and with the handle held
with my fingertips severed the flat silk
tie. Only a tiny bit more pressure was
needed to cut the seat-belt webbing
and the ratchet straps. Cutting the ahi
tuna into paper slices so thin that light
shone though them was no challenge.
When the cardboard cutting started
the blade was as sharp as when it came
out of the box, even though seat-belt
webbing and ratchet straps are tough
and abrasive. The edge became a little
less than razor sharp after the card-
board. Ten strokes, only 10, on the
Spyderco sharpener brought the blade
back to shaving sharp, even though the
edge felt hard.
I don’t know what you might trap in
an urban area, but I have no doubt that
whatever it is this slim blade would
skin it out. The lock was tight and
strong out of the box and after the test
cutting. The Urban Trapper is almost a
perfect knife of its type.
WORLD CLASS
Over the years I’ve done many field re-
views on various Sebenzas from Chris
Reeve Knives. I’ve carried and used
them in a dozen or so countries, in cit-
ies, villages and wilderness. This one is
different in that it has an eye-catching
damascus blade.
I didn’t have a Sebenza with a CPM
S30V or S35V blade on hand to do a
side-by-side comparison, but based on
experience with the knives and trust-
ing my fragile memory I’d say the da-
mascus cuts just a bit better. It’s not
toothy, seems fine grained and gets
deep into a cut very easy. It appears to
hold a precise, razor-fine factory edge
a bit longer than the hi-tech steels that
tend to lose the factory razor edge but
then hold a very sharp edge for an ex-