The Buck Strider Solution weighs 330 g and is balanced 1.25" behind the front of the grip. The ATS-34 stainless steel stock is hardened to 60/61 HRC, 0.175" with a sharpened blade of 4.25" in length. The blade is 1.75" wide at maximum with a one inch high hollow grind which tapers to a very fine edge which runs from about 0.022 to 0.030" thick and ground at a very acute 12.6 +/- 1.0 degrees per side. The solution comes with a 130 g cordura/kydex sheath. A shot of this particular Solution :
The initial edge sharpness was low, however it was a used blade and the edge was chipped along its length, not large enough to see, but readily felt with the thumbnail. While ATS-34 isn't that easy to machine, because the edge angle was quite acute and more importantly the edge is very evenly ground, one of the best seen in awhile, the edge was honed to a razor sharpness on a Sharpmaker with 5 passes on the medium and then five on the fine.
Push cutting 3/8" hemp the Solution required 29.0 (1.5) lbs. Pointing sections of hardwood dowel the Solution was able to rough off the necessary wood in only 11 +/- 1 slices.
The point penetration was low as the tip tapers only 1.4" in length and is 1.6" wide at back of the point. The penetration into a phonebook was only 108 (4) pages on a 50 lbs push and 431 (10) pages on a hard vertical stab. Digging in 2x4's, the Solution worked well, able to get decent penetration and withstand even the hardest of torques without the tip flexing significantly. It could make a hole big enough to insert the index and middle fingers and rotate in 29 (2) stabs through 170 (10) seconds.
Using the Solution on trimming fats, cutting up meats and the like it did well, those kinds of tasks are just determined by the sharpness. The same goes for soft fruits and vegetables. It is however awkward for many of the precision tasks such as peeling potatoes or trimming the stalks out of apples because of the blade width. Also because of the blade thickness it tended to fracture vegetables rather than make thin slices. However for shallow cutting it worked well and because the edge is inline with the guard and it works well on a cutting board. There is a problem with the deep checkering on the grip as it is easily contaminated with food and can be difficult to clean, it does however give a very secure grip even when lubricated with fats and oils.
For carving woods, the thin edge of the Solution readily makes deep slices and is easily controlable to allow shallow shaping cuts. It was also used for light batoning and it worked ok however the boxy handle was very uncomfortable and vibrations from impacts made heavy batoning quickly nonfunctional.
The chopping ability was low, even on some soft fresh woods choked back full on the handle it takes quite awhile to work through even a soft piece of 2x4 and the boxy handle is fairly uncomfortable. It is outchopped several times over by the Camp Tramp.
On harder woods there were durability issues. The solution was chopped into 5/8" thick birch, and torqued to the side which left a huge piece of the edge in the wood. This was repeated breaking out another large pice. The penetration into the wood was fairly low, as the handle ergonomic issues prevented serious swings. For similar reasoning it wasn't heavy torque, just wrist rotation. The Solution was then batoned into a spruce log and walked on. with 1.5" of the blade in the wood it easily took 200 lbs on the handle. However a light pop from a hammer to loosen it and the blade broke in half and another piece broke out of the edge up by the handle, not in the impact area, just from the vibration in the blade.
Note : the above was the last thing done with the blade, the work that follows was performed earlier.
Cutting a variety of light materials like bubble wrap, plastics, paper and fabrics, the Solution was very efficient as these materials are too flimsy to exert any pressure on a blade so as long as it is sharp it will cut that class of material well. However on thick cardboard and other binding materials the blade would wedge readily due to the sabre grind, on such materials a higher grind would be more efficient, however it still outperforms blades like the Camp Tramp which while having a higher grind has a thicker edge. In general for a tactical knife it was above average for this type of work.
The Solution was used to dig a hole in rocky soil large enough to fit a one gallon bucket. The edge chipped readily in rock contacts, about 0.5 millimeters deep, three large visible chips, the tip also fractured, lost about a millimeter. No fine cutting ability was left on the edge used to dig, the Solution could not even score ropes for example. This was semi-stressful digging, initially using the knife as pick and shovel, but as the hole progressed more as a pick with the off hand removing the debris. It was not going really light trying to concentrate impacts on the spine, which make it easy on the knife but hard on the user, but nor was it raising the knife up and slamming it hard like a pick, it was more poking than actual stabbing as would be done with an actual pick.
It took 10 minutes to fully resharpen the blade. The edge was reset with an x-coarse waterstone (7.5 minutes), then honed on a 1000 and then microbeveled on a Sharpmaker to a hair popping level of sharpness. The chips were not removed, this would have lost too much metal, the rest of the edge was just brought back to full sharpness. The tip was also still damaged, penetration was 58 +/- 5 on phonebook, less than half of optimal. It would require the removal another half a millimeter of edge to bring the tip back in line, too much material wasted, it would be more sensible to sweep the edge up.
UPDATE : It would have been useful to benchmark this against another blade, one of the tougher stainless steels would have been ideal.
As long as the Solution was restricted to light cutting it is easy to sharpen as the high hardness resists deformation well and the steel also has a high wear resistance so little material is lost by abrasion. The acute and very even edge also allows is to be touched up with a few passes on a Sharpmaker even after long and extended useage. However if the blade is used for rough work, the edge chips readily and then is difficult to resharpen compared to a tougher steel which doesn't fracture.
The grip is made of a G10 with a very aggressive checkering which is secure even when the handle is covered in fats, oils and other lubricants. However the grip is also very abrasive for the same reason and may be problematic to some for that reason. It is also very boxy and was extremely uncomfortable when used for batoning as the squarish edges were very high impact points, cutting through knots was near impossible.
The sheath is a well made from Cordura with a tight fitting Kydex insert with a side accessory pouch, all held together with secure and quality stitching. This type of rig over is much more robust in terms of temperature extremes over plan Kydex, however leather generally holds up better in terms of abrasion. Care needs to be taken in watching the stitching on Cordura sheaths as it it starts to unravel it should be sealed epoxy, or repair the stitching by hand.
Much of the promotion for this knife is centered on extreme toughness "where failure is not an option", however this really isn't a sharpened prybar kind of knife. The blade steel, ATS-34, is a high carbon, high alloy stainless steel, and is uniformly heat treated 59-61 HRC. The steel has good corrosion resistance, high abrasion resistance, high strength, however low ductility and low impact toughness. It is difficult to bend but will snap under a low flex, and will deform very little before it chips. The the Solution has a decently thin and acute edge and thus cuts well for shallow work, it compares for example to some of the better Spyderco folders in this regard. However the efficient cutting edge also leads to a low durablity, combined with the brittle steel leads to chipping readily on significant impacts and blowouts of the primary grind possible even in moderate wood working. This is more of a skinner than a tactical utility blade.
Comments can be sent via email : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com or posted to the following thread on Bladeforums :
| Last updated : | 04 : 25 : 2005 |
| Originally written: | 03 : 31 : 2005 |