SFBL8CF Astor Linerlock 4.75" Folding Knife Black Handle

Great knife model in a great steel XHP, one of my absolute favorite stainless steels. I'm more of a tool steel person my self and enjoy high hardness high carbide tool steels but there are a few stainless steels I enjoy such as s90v, s110v, s125v, m398 and XHP. This Taiwan made knives in XHP are always well heat treated because the company that does the HTs is the same one that did the XHP heat treating for coldsteel and spuderco they run it in the 60-61 range and it performs really nicely, sharpens nicely and strops back nicely making for a very good Edc steel. This design from Les is really comfortable in hand but it's a stout and heavy build this is a full size knife in weight so keep that in mind, it's not no fly weight Edc knife. The talos is much lighter but it's also a much shorter blade grind and very wedge like as a result as where the Astor has a nice tall flat grind and makes for a nice fairly slicey blade. It comes down to around 20-22thou behind the edge thickness so it's a nice slicer, not a laser beam slicer but a decently. The knife is on PB washers and they are nice and smooth as it breaks in and gets nice and buttery smooth with rock solid lock up with no blade play side to side or up or down. The thumb studs are in the right place so opening is very easy the lock bar is kinda tough to get to but at that big a deal. This is a full size knife and it is ready to work! Fantastic knife for the money with a great blade steel that is done/heat treated quite well. The knife is comfortable on hand even after extended work. This knife at under 100 bucks is a 5/5 star knife all day long. You can expect edge retention that is better than that of S35vn and sharpens nicer and holds it's bite much better than s35vn. I have cleaned three white tail bucks one after the next with this knife (I mean from field dressing, skinning, breaking the primal cuts down so full cleaning) and after I was finished all it took was about 5 passes per side on a 5 micron diamond loaded strop and it was back to hair popping sharp. I'll tell you this to give you an idea of the steel performance, cleaning one white tail from field dress all the way to breaking down all the primal in to cuts ready for the freezer on a Kershaw Blur in 14c28n I will have to strop the edge 1 to 2 times to complete the job and after it's complete it will likely need a few passes on a ceramic honing rod and a couple strop passes to get it back to shaving sharp. This XHP, 3 deer start to finish and no need to touch up the edge until after I was finished and even then it was still cleanly slicing paper sharp so it really didn't even need to be stropped. A 119 folder in 420hc it cleaning a deer from field dress to freezer i will have to strop the edge back 3-4 times to maintain a sharp edge during the full cleaning of that deer. So this knife cleaning 3 deer from field dress to freezer without needing the edge touched up tells you must how good XHP is and this Taiwan OEM that makes the knives for Spartan knows how to heat treat XHP well as they the same OEM that did the XHP Cold steel knives. The edge I put on these knives is edge bevel angle reprofile to 16 degrees per side (use a coarse diamond plate to reprofile as this steel is quite wear resistant) on a Atoma 140 then over to the Shapton Rockstar 500 to finish the edge and then to a strop progression of 9 micron on leather to fully deburr the edge even tho most of the burr is easily removed on the stone but a 500 grit edge finish is a little coarse to fully deburr on so the 9 Micron diamond loaded leather strop will remove any burr fragments remaining and refine the apex a slight as I'm only making 3 passes per side on the 9 Micron and then I will finish the edge on 3 of 4 passes per side on a 3 micron diamond loaded rolled buffalo leather strop to bring up the keenness to a very sticky sharp level while still having a lot of cutting aggression/toothiness. This sticky sharp yet very toothy and aggressive edge performs absolutely amazing on XHP and is the main edge that I suggest for anyone that's using this steel for game processing or if you cut lots of fibrous items and do a lot of draw cuts/slicing cuts as the high bite edge digs in and cuts rather than slips. If you do mostly push cutting, like cutting card board for example then finish the edge at 1000 to 1500 grit and use a 6 and 1 micron strop progression and it will do extremely well as a very refined edge that push cuts very nicely and still have good bite but yet isn't to refined to the point of being slick. XHP will start to get slick edged on you if you take it up past about 2k grit once you reach those polishing grits at 2k that is where you will really start loosing bite in the edge with each grit you go up. At 2k you will have very high level of keenness and still a little bite but at 3k or higher you will pretty much have no bite left amd while it will be wicked sticky sharp it won't have any bite. So keep your edge finish 2k or less and you will love XHP.

Great knife, exactly as pictured and certainly the real deal! Would buy again for the quality of the whole knife and how sharp it is!

Purchased purely for the steel for sharpening practice. Low-priced alleged CTS-Xhp (I can’t verify material). Wasn’t sharp out of the box, handle feels well built/sturdy, and has a good heft to the knife. Plenty of trial and error needed for me to get it sharp without scratching my leather strops. Diamond stones are the way to go. Gradual 120 - 3k grit. Start your deburring process on the diamond stones or edge will be toothy. Eventually sharpened to about 18-20° exclusive. Edge holds well under light use (cardboard, leather, and thin craft wood). I liked the knife. Just ordered a second Spartan Blade.

les george designed knives have a great feel in hand. the blade is sharp. cts xhp steel is one of my favorite blade materials. the fluid washers give opening and closing a smooth action. highly recommended.

For me, it is a little big for a EDC knife but I do carry it every day. Good design and blade steel. Feels comfortable in my hand.

Quality knife that is too dull to effectively cut anything, will return and will not buy any more from this company. Very disappointing

The price for the identical knife on some 'knife sites' (like BHQ) ranges from $102.00 - 145.00. This is a good deal and the knife is genuine.

This was my first Spartan blade and I couldn’t be happier. Nice ergonomics, sharp blade that sharpens easily. This may not be my last Spartan blade.