A shot of the Steel Eagle from the TOP's website :
The review consists of :
The TOPS Steel Eagle 107D was donated by Louis Buccellato for review. The knife is made by stock removal out of 1095 high carbon steel, uniformly hardened to 58 HRC. The blade is seven inches long with the american tanto point geometry, and ground from a quarter of an inch thick stock with a low sabre hollow grind. The edge is 0.055" thick and sharpened at 27/28 degrees per side. It has an extended tang, draw cutting saw teeth and a chisel tooth serration pattern. It comes with a Kydex sheath which has a secondary retention system consisting of an pin connect to an elastic cord which fits in the tang and thus adds to the security retention of the Kydex. The elastic is simply knotted at the bottom of the Kydex belt loop and can be pushed through untied and taken off. The grip is formed on a full tang from Micarta slabs, and has an index finger contour. The grip is also nicely swelled to increase ergonomics and has ridges on the top near the middle of the grip to aid retention.
The shallow sabre grind and thick and obtuse edge on the TOPS Steel Eagle produce a low level of cutting ability. Compared to the Busse Basic #7, which has a higher flat grind and a more narrow edge profile, the Basic could do more work in less time with a reduced effort. For example in roughing some wood off a piece of scrap, the Steel Eagle took 180 (10) % more slices to clear the same wood. The Steel Eagle matched the Basic in wood chopping ability, as the much heavier blade compensated for the thicker edge.
On some materials, the serrations on the Steel Eagle bring the cutting ability above plain edge blades. Ropes and such will be sliced well with a straight edge with a coarse finish, however light metals and plastics are much better cut with serrations. Since these serrations are chisel tipped and inline with the main edge, they get sharpened right along with the main edge body.
The saw teeth are of opposing pitch though because the knife is so thick compared to an actual saw, it actually chops wood many times quicker than it will saw through it. Even with the chopping is done light and the sawing with full force, the time difference approaches ten to one. The saw is only really useful for scoring straight lines to make shallow notches and such or if chopping isn't functional because of limited range of movement.
The saw teeth were used as wire breakers on some barbed wire, 3 millimeters thick, three braid strand. The point of the blade was inserted inbetween the strands and to separate them, putting one of the strands in a tooth. The blade was then twisted hard to the left and right until the wire broke. While this proved to be functional, the teeth did get significantly damaged, losing notches up to 2 millimeters wide and 1.5 millimeters deep.
UPDATE : TOPS was contaced through email about the tooth cracking - no responce was given.
The tip on the Steel Eagle narrows to a fine point and offers strong penetration. Compared to the #7 Basic for example, the Steel Eagle gets better penetration on scrap wood, from 25% to 50% . The Steel Eagle is also significantly heavier which will increase penetration on stabs simply because there is more energy behind the impacts.
The secondary tanto point had advantages in scoring hard materials, and making shallow cuts. It also serves as a pseudo-tip as a straight chop, similar to working with the heel or toe of an axe bit. However the lack of curvature does reduce slicing performance, as draw cuts are not nearly as effective on blade with nice sweeping curves.
The Steel Eagle lost a piece of the tip when digging an arrow head out of a piece of pine. The edge also lost a chunk (about 4 millimeterlong) when it came in contact on the arrow head during the prying. The Basic was used to dig out the arrow head after a couple of test runs and it was undamaged. The point was later reground to a thicker profile and could then could take full power stabs into pine and spruce wood, getting about 1/2 - 3/4" penetration with pulls to the side to break the wood out with no problems.
UPDATE : TOPS was contaced through email about the tip and edge fractures - no responce was given.
As the factory edge on the Steel Eagle is really thick and obtuse it is very resistant to damage and even takes digging in rocky soil without problems though the edge holding is low. The edge holding was also significantly inferior to a Battle Mistress on both on carpet and wood.
The blade body is very strong given the uniform hardness and shallow sabre grind. Full strength prying did induce a slight bend in the blade, from flexes to 30-35 degrees, but less for example than the bend which was put in the TUSK under similar strains. The Steel Eagle was straightened with more prying.
UPDATE : TOPS was note contaced through email about the bending since no responce was given to previous inquiries.
The ridges in the handle were abrasive and even a small tree could not be felled and limbed out without excess discomfort. The index finger recess in the grip was also found to be to thin at the bottom and a further source of discomfort. However even when mineral oil or liquid soap was applied to the handle the Steel Eagle could still be used for heavy chopping, full power stabs and prying. The lubricants actually made the grip more ergonomic by reducing the abrasive nature of the ridges.
Regarding handle durability, Micarta is very resistant to abrasion and puncture and will even resist open flame. As with all slabed handles that don't fully enclose the tang, exposed metal that will readily conduct heat make for problems in extreme temperature climates, and reduced safety aspects in regards to conduction of electricity.
The sheath fit well to the knife and held it securely and was easy to draw and very functional in regard to ease of carry It is made from Kydex which is strongly resistant to abrasion, cuts, punctures and scratches. However Kydex can get very brittle in cold weather . The Steel Eagle and a Busse Combat Basic #7 in their sheaths were tossed about onto a the crushed stone driveway from a height of about ten feet for a dozen times each. The temp was about -2 degrees C. After the throwing there were no cracks and the kydex was just scuffed up.
Placing the knives and sheaths in the the freezer overnight the impacts were repeated. This time on the third throw the Steel Eagle's kydex sheath cracked across the bottom of the belt loop, on the sixth throw the belt loop came right off. After the 12'th throw the sheath had multiple cracks. There was one three inch long one starting at the top of the front edge and another starting at the bottom of the front face which crossed over and ran up the full length of the back. The Busse sheath suffered no cracks, it just got scuffed up more.
Since the TOPS blade is a fair bit heavier than the Busse which meant that it would recieve a heavier impact from the same height, the Basic was tossed up so it would impact the ground at greater speeds. This was repeated a half a dozen times with no problems. The Basic sheath while also Kydex is much thicker and has an inherently more robusted folded over design.
The butt of the Steel Eagle chipped in several places as a result of the impacts. Two of the largest chips were about five millimeters long, two millimeters wide and about one millimeter deep.
The TOPS Steel Eagle was strong through the blade body due to the sabre grind on 1/4" stock, though the edge fratured readily during digging in woods and the teeth cracked when used to break wire. The chopping ability was low due to the thick and obtuse edge and shallow primary grind and the cutting ability the worst seen on a knife of this class for the same reasons. The edge retention was far behind several tool steels. The grip security was high, though the comfort very low. The sheath was solid in regards to retention and ease of draw, but the durability was behind other kydex work mainly due to thinner stock.
To improve the grip the spine ridges should be removed and more shaping done, especially round the index finger contour. A full enclosed grip would improved functionality in temperature extremes. The sheath should have a webbing belt loop not integral Kydex, which should be thicker and come with a a leg retention strap. The blade really needs a higher primary grind and a more reduced edge geometry . The steel is also really not a sensible choice for a hard use knife.
Comments can be sent to : cliffstamp[REMOVE]@cutleryscience.com. Feedback can also be seen in the following ARCHIVED thread :
| Last updated : | Thu May 8 11:03:08 NDT 2003 |
| Origionally written : | Fri Mar 24 19:56:52 NST 2000 |