The second review written by Chris@Hunker Down Homestead
All credits go to the author of Ultimate survival tips & Chris for sharing such an informative reviews on the paracord knife.
Overview
This blade is one solid piece of good quality, gray coated, stainless steel from tip to butt.
The Paracord knife comes with this versatile, kydex-like sheath about 45 inches of orange paracord for the handle, and the Bear Grylls Priorities of Survival Pocket Guide.
The knife measures just about 7 3/4 inches or almost 20 cm from tip to butt. The blade length is 3 1/4 inches or 8.3 cm.
The knife weights 3.5 ounces without the sheath or 5.75 ounces with the sheath.
The knife is full tang construction, meaning that the blade steel runs that full length of the knife through the handle… and in the case, the blade steel is the handle… which is given grip, texture and more substance through the use of this quality bright orange paracord.
The Edge
The Bear Grylls Paracord knife has a fine edge… so we’ve got no serrations on this baby… and the edge terminates with this clip point.
A clip point blade has the spine side of the blade “clipped” off to form a tip that is sharper and more suitable for piercing than most drop point blades, and is strong yet still great for tasks that require more cutting accuracy and precision.
See the difference between the Bear Grylls Paracord knife clip point and the Bear Grylls Folding sheath knife’s drop point?
The blade of this knife came very sharp and is easy to touch up with the Bear Grylls field sharpener .
Between the edge and the paracord handle we have a finger cutout that should help to keep your hand from slipping onto the blade – this area is also call the coil of the knife.
On the blade spine toward handle we have some notches that are called Jimping. Jimping improves the grip of your thumb on top of the knife.
The thickness of this blade is around .17 inches or 4.3 mm which is thicker than the Bear Grylls Folding sheath knife blade at .16 inches and a bit thinner than the Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival knife at .19 inches wide.
So this is a pretty substantial knife for it’s size.
The Bear Grylls Paracord knife is very similar to the Bear Grylls compact fixed blade knife … with the big differences being the fine vs. partially serrated edge and the paracord handle… see?
Let’s Talk About the Handle…
This handle of the Bear Grylls Paracord knife has 5 holes and two large cutouts that enable the primary task of wrapping about 4 feet of paracord through and around them to form the handle of the knife.
But there are surprises here.
Check this out…
When you remove the paracord it’s pretty evident that the 5 holes in this handle were also placed so that this knife could be easily lashed to a branch or pole to make a spear… like the Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife and the Gerber LMF II…
SO that’s what I did.
I used the knife to cut a small tree. I removed the paracord.
And then used the holes and cutouts to lash the entire length of the paracord to secure this knife to my pole.
The knife lashes best to a pole that is slightly smaller in diameter than the width of the handle.
Okay, so. there are many ways to wrap the paracord around a stick and this knife to make a spear…. but I suggest weaving the paracord through the cutouts, through the holes and back through the cutouts and then tying the paracord off at the butt end… like this…
The lengh the stock paracord was a perfect for locking the knife onto my pole… and should be completely reusable as the knife handle as long as you don’t cut it when using it for other things.
Replacing the Paracord
Now, it’s also easy to replace the stock paracord with whatever color and length you prefer.
I like my knives to be a little less conspicuous, so I replaced the paracord with good old OD Green I guess this lets the cat out of the bag on the vintage of my Marine Corps days.
Alright… so, I got two extra wraps around the handle by pulling my mill spec paracord really tight as I wove it around my knife. Then I ran about 6 inches of extra cord out the butt-end and tied it off to make a nice laynard.
So in the end, I was able to get a full 5 foot of paracord on my knife.
One last thing about the handle. Since the metal is exposed on the butt end this knife, you can use it as a pommel to break and smash things.
The Sheath
Now let’s talk about the sheath.
Gerber stepped it up here and really improved on the previous sheath that came with the Compact Fixed Blade knife… which was dimensionally smaller than the paracord knife sheath… but struggled to keep the knife in the sheath in upside down carry.
Also the compact fixed blade belt clip is cool because it is reversible for upside down carry, but has a problem of occasionally coming loose when upside down… which could cause you to lose your knife… and that would be a bummer.
However, Gerber completely redesigned the sheath of the Gerber Bear Grylls Paracord knife so these problems no longer exist.
The Bear Grylls Paracord knife goes into the sheath only one way and locks firmly into the sheath.
Now here’s the cool part.
The top 4 grommets are strategically positioned so this polymer belt loop in the rear can be removed and repositioned using two hex bolts for: side draw, regular, upside down AND for either left or right hand carry.
Now here is something else that’s pretty cool…
If you’d prefer not to have the Bear Grylls logo showing when you wear the Paracord knife… you can also attach the belt carry loop to the front side of the sheath, so that the Bear Grylls logo covered by the belt carry loop and facing in.
Now replace the stock orange paracord with the paracord color of your choice and you have an excellent, versatile paracord knife package that has the look you want for your gear.
Oh, one last thing with this knife and sheath package… So whether intentional or not, the Bear Grylls pocket survival guide fits snug and perfectly between the belt loop assembly and the sheath… see?
So you can carry the pocket guide with you whenever you have this knife strapped on.
For extra security… make sure that you attach the belt loop so that the bolts are below the pocket guide, which should further prevent the guide from falling out.
Now Let’s Talk About Owner Comments…
Owner comments are very positive sighting the surprising quality, good edge holding characteristics and the excellent design of the Bear Grylls Paracord knifeand sheath. Some mention how goofy they thought the sheath initially was but how it all made sense when they got to using the knife.
Others mentioned how quickly the bright orange paracord gets soiled… But most seem to agree that this is a knife worth having.
Our Rating
We rate the Bear Grylls Paracord Fixed Blade Knife at 5 out of 5 stars for it’s well thought out design from tip to butt.
The durability of the steel, how easy it is to sharpen and how well it keeps a blade. We love the full tang construction and the well thought out placement of the handle cut outs for the paracord and the added versatility of being able to easily and firmly lash this knife to a pole to make a spear.
Although we also thought the sheath was a bit of overkill at first… we now appreciate it’s ability to safely hold the knife and carried in many different ways.
I admit, I also like that I can cover over the Bear Grylls logo and I have always like it when Gerber incorporates a way for the Survival Guide to be carried along.
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Second Review by Chris@Hunker Down Homestead |
| Before |
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| After |
The knife is just shy of 8 inches long, with a 3.25 inch blade, a thermoplastic sheath, belt loop that is removable, is made of decent steel and has an orange paracord wrap on the handle. It also comes with the little fold-out “Priorities of Survival” pocket guide. The first thing I noticed after I unpacked the knife is that the sheath really grips the knife, it takes a good tug to get it out! Hint: A little rocking motion as you pull helps. I wanted to be able to carry the knife on the strap of my B.O.B. with the handle down for easy access so I’m quite pleased with this feature. You do have to be careful until you’ve used it enough to “break in” the sheath. In a high stress situation I can see it being difficult to arm yourself quickly if you rarely use the knife. So practice!
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| Safety first! |
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| Re-wrapped |
I had to do some brush clearing at work and figured I could test the knife with some batoning. Perhaps some folks would disqualifies the knife as “full tang” since the handle has two large cut-outs but it is the same thickness as the blade, and I can’t imagine breaking it like you might a folding knife or a rat tail or push tang knife. I used it to cut down a small Paw Paw tree, which is pretty soft and mealy, and then a rather large wild grape vine. The Paw Paw was a breeze since I only had to cut part way and then just push it over, they snap off easily. For my area I’d use them as poles for making short term shelter without burning a lot of calories. The wild grape vine was a little tougher, but only because I worked my way into the vine until I couldn’t whack the back of the knife with my club. I worked around the vine like a beaver and then snapped it loose. It took longer than the tree but it was a pretty big vine, almost 3 inches in diameter. I don’t know if there’s any practical reason to baton a vine that thick in an emergency, I’d probably be cutting it just enough to get a drink from the vine. I’ve also used the knife to baton off bits of kindling from some oak firewood and it performed just as well.
Overall I’m very pleased with the Bear Grylls Paracord knife and would purchase another if I lose this one. The price is fair, the materials are good and it met all my requirements. The only negative comment I have doesn’t really bother me but it might be a deal breaker for a minimalist; the knife has a coating so you can’t use it with your ferro rod for starting a fire.
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