By Mike Searson
Review of Colonial Knives L400 aka: The Defiant Knife
USA -(Ammoland.com)- Colonial Knives tasked themselves with making a factory version of one of Abe Elias’ custom bushcraft pieces and has done an amazing job in The Defiant Knife.
For those who may not be familiar with the maker, Abe Elias has been making knives for over a decade, specifically for bushcraft users. An avid outdoorsman and author, Elias’ articles have appeared in numerous magazines such as Knives Illustrated, Blade and American Survival Guide among many others. If anyone has the pedigree to design a bushcraft knife, he is the man to do it.
What is bushcraft?
Bushcraft is often linked to survivalism and prepping, but it is a bit more than that. The ethos of bushcraft is literally: “thriving in the natural environment”. As such, it requires a great deal of skills and knowledge that most of us would take for granted.
These skills range from tracking, hunting, fishing, foraging and fire making to creating rope, carving wood and using the resources of nature in order to not merely survive, but to thrive in primitive off the grid locales.
As such a good knife or an axe is essential to these ends. Enter The Defiant Knife from Colonial Knives.
The Defiant Knife
Colonial Defiant E. Model: COL400. 11 1/8″ overall. 6″ 154CM stainless drop point blade. Full tang. Black micarta handles with lanyard hole. Black Kydex belt sheath with lashing holes.
Deviating from Elias’ initial specs only slightly, Colonial Knives turned this bush craft knife into an admirable military style field knife with a 6” blade of ATS-34 and a swedge ground into the top of the blade.
Blade thickness is 3/16” and the grind is a sabre type that is perfect for chopping if needed, without losing the keen edge needed for carving, fileting and any other chores you decide to throw at it.
The scales are G-10 and are pinned in place. This makes for a stout performing blade, while some folks may prefer screwed on handles in order to remove the scales, we find the smooth G-10 an almost perfect material and see no need for replacement.
We were extremely impressed with the Kydex sheath, particularly as it is ambidextrous and the author prefers wearing a large fixed blade on the left side of the belt as the right side is intended for a handgun.
The unit that secures it to the belt (or pack or vest or what have you) is similar in design to a Tek-Lok but is actually a lot more versatile and user-friendly, kudos to Colonial for introducing this feature.
The Defiant Knife – The Good
When it comes to a knife for hard use we generally prefer the carbon steels and tool steels. Living in Nevada means that rust is never a primary concern. However, most of our readers do not have that luxury and are better suited with a stainless steel blade. When it comes to stainless, ATS-34 is one of our favorites and has been used by knife making legends such as the late Bob Loveless (who also pioneered its use), Ernest Emerson, Allen Elishewitz, Bob Terzuola and many others.
Six inches of ATS-34 with G-10 handles in a knife that can tackle almost anything for $200 out the door is an amazing deal!
The Defiant Knife – The Bad
Even though the Defiant is a large knife, it feels a bit heavier than it looks. Skeletonizing the tang under the scales might lighten the load, but might reduce its potential as a chopper.
Textured G-10 would have been preferred for most of our uses, but we could see how a bush crafter might prefer the smooth feel of the scales, particularly when carving or other fine detail cutting. Still we had an experience on a hunt two decades ago when a smooth handled skinner slipped from our hands into an antelope we were dressing out and since then have preferred a more textured grip in our outdoor blades.
The Defiant Knife – The Reality
We would like to say we used the Defiant to fight off a rogue grizzly, chop down trees and shave the whiskers off a mouse while he was sleeping without waking him up, instead we ran it through some mundane tasks.
Despite what you see in the movies, survival is really mundane so we used our knife for the number one reason everybody reading this article owns one: food preparation.
Even if you are not a “knife guy”, you have a drawer full of them in your kitchen. We first set the Defiant on the road with making kindling out of firewood rounds for our firepit and it worked as well as a small hatchet.
Next we skinned, seeded and chopped up a pair of butternut squash and sliced up some beef heart for dinner. Even after hacking the firewood into kindling, the edge prevailed and we were surprised how well the big knife cut through the beef heart like it was made out of butter. For those not familiar with its texture, this is usually like cutting through leather.
This knife might very well replace the Hartsfield Zahid we usually take with us into the back country and the Defiant is definitely one you can leave down to your grandchildren.
Colonial Knives Company Website: : www.colonialknifecorp.com/products/bushcraft-defiant-model-ce-400
We found the Colonial Knives – The Defiant Knife for under $135.00 on Amazon ~ AmmoLand
About Mike Searson:
Mike Searson’s career as a shooter began as a Marine Rifleman at age 17. He has worked in the firearms industry his entire adult life as a Gunsmith, Ballistician, Consultant, Salesman, Author and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1989.
Mike has written over 2000 articles for a number of magazines, websites and newsletters including Blade, RECOIL, OFF-GRID, Tactical Officer, SWAT, Tactical World, Gun Digest, Examiner.com and the US Concealed Carry Association as well as AmmoLand Shooting Sports News.
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