Eafengrow EF55 Outdoor EDC Folding Knife - Tactical Survival Tool for Camping, Hiking, Hunting & Everyday Carry (EDC)

I've had this knife and have been using it for about six months now. When I first received it, I was a little concerned because it was extremely stiff on opening, and the deep groove on the blade kept catching the tip of one of my fingers every time I tried to open it. Which meant I had a difficult time opening it one handed. On the other hand, when it locks open it LOCKS with an audible *clunk* and there was no give or play in the joint at all.With use, the knife loosened up considerably, in that it became much easier to open. Now I can flick it open one handed as quickly as any of my folders. Once it loosened up, I was a little concerned that there wasn't enough friction to keep the knife from opening in my pocket. But there's something about the blade geometry or the lock design that keeps it pretty securely shut until you decide to flick it open. I even looked in it to see if there was a ball-bearing detent or something, but I couldn't find anything to indicate how this is accomplished. It's a mystery but it works.The joint itself did NOT loosen up in the sense of lateral give or wobbliness and it still locks like a bank vault. You could drive this thing through a two by four with a hammer and that lock is not going to give. I also really like the edge geometry. The straight lines make it easy to sharpen, and the acute point should be sufficient to penetrate pretty much anything reasonable you might encounter in daily life.The edge is slightly hollow-ground, I was a bit surprised to see, and nicely done. Of course, so long as the cutting edge is kept sharp the hollow grind makes it cut better than a flat-grind edge would.As a general rule, I do not use folding knives to pry open crates, or to open tuna cans, or to do anything else abusive like that that aficionados of really tough knives like to do to prove how tough their blades are. If you find yourself having to do stuff like that, you should be wearing a tool belt and not carrying a folder. I use my knives for cutting, which is what the tool is designed and intended for anyway.Having said that, if I needed a heavy-use folder that I could abuse without destroying it, this folder would probably be the first one in my hand. Especially given the outrageously low selling price for it. $500 knives are nice and all that, but there's something to be said for a knife that you can snap in half or lose in the woods without giving yourself a nervous breakdown. This folder is an ideal example. I don't think you're going to break it. It's tough. But if you do, or you lose it, another thirty bucks and you can have a brand new one. Try that strategy with that ridiculously overpriced Benchmade folder you just paid a week's salary for.Is there something I don't like about the knife? Yes. All those machine screws with the funny heads on them. They do give you a double-headed tool that fits both the large and small screw heads so you can keep them nice and tight. And if you lose it you will not be tightening up any more screws on this thing. The heads do not allow themselves to improvisations like needle-nose pliers. I still have the tool that came with mine, but I'd wager most people will lose it or misplace it sooner or later. So note to the manufacturer: Yes the three-lobed screw heads look very cool and all that. Thank you. Please quit using the damned things and use either Allen or star-headed screws instead. They look cool too, and I can easily buy a tool at Lowe's to drive them if I need to. Unlike the screws on the knife right now.This is a good quality, well designed, well made knife. For less than thirty dollars it's a steal. It's easily as useful as any folder I have in my collection, of any brand or any price. And I have a lot of folders.Edit, 1.5 years later: Still using this thing. It's now my everyday carry that I slip into my pocket every morning before I leave for work, and use the knife extensively at work. Mainly for opening boxes and cutting packing straps and the like, 90% of my everyday use is cutting cardboard. Here's the weird thing: I cut stuff with this knife multiple times a day and while it's not anything that is going to chip or break the knife, cardboard is notoriously hard on knife edges and will dull even the best knives quickly. I've been using this thing for two years now and it's still extremely sharp. It only just lost the shaving edge it came with and I brought that back with a few strokes on a diamond sharpener. If indeed the knife is D2, that's a relatively hard steel and one would expect it to hold an edge well. But mine has held an edge phenomenally, amazingly. I don't know what sort of magic dust they used in the blade but whatever it is they need to keep using it.About to place another order for several Eafengrow knives, including one like this to give as gifts. I have someone close to me who just snapped the tip off a nice Kershaw by using the blade for something besides cutting (prying). Incidentally, knives should never be used for tasks that don't involve cutting, and I don't care how much your latest eye-watering expensive folder just cost or how tough it's purported to be, using it for prying, gouging, or hammering or anything that does not involve cutting is an ABUSE of the knife, I don't care what kind it is. Anyway, my close family member who snapped the Kershaw is getting one of these. I defy her to snap the tip off of this one. It's unbelievably tough. And if she does manage to break it, it's a $30 Eafengrow, not a $120 Kershaw and can be easily replaced.Though I hadn't said anything about it in the first review, I also carry this thing as a last-ditch weapon should I run into a dire situation. I'm a former police officer, I've trained in knife fighting and defense, and I've seen plenty of dead people made that way because of knife work. And for a folder, I'd be quite comfortable to have this one if it were all I had. There are other folders that I'd prefer simply because the blades are longer and thinner-profiled and so would stab deeper and more easily, but none of them are cheap enough or robust enough to use as an everyday utility knife.Length and blade profile matters in a defensive blade. Every dead person I've ever seen made that way by someone with a knife, it was stabbing every time that did them in. Swinging and slashing might keep a maniac off you, but if you really need to dispatch him then stabbing is the way to get it done.Since my EDC also has to be a working knife, I carry this one instead of my CRKT Jumbones. The blade is an inch or two shorter than I would prefer, but if some maniac tries to kill me by the time I'm finished working him with this Eafengrow his own mother won't be able to recognise him. So this folder might not be my first choice for a defensive blade. But believe me, it'll do.