Bear & Son - MANUAL - 2.625" - Sheepfoot - 440 Stainless Steel - Rosewood - Nickel-Silver Bolsters - 2281R

I wanted a well made knife not only was it well-made, sharp blades and beautiful wooden handle Bear & Son Cutlery do awesome work I'm thinking about buying another type of knife ( piece of art ) from them.

I waited a few days after receiving this knife to do my review. Fit and finish is excellent. Both blades were razor sharp out of the box. At first it felt as though the spring on the main blade was extremely weak while the spring on the pen blade had excellent snap. I was pretty disgusted. Then I took it into the shop and dosed it with WD40 and cleaned it up good. The back spring for the clip point blade could still be a might tighter but there was a marked improvement. I took a star off because I shouldn’t have to clean a new knife. All said, the more I carry it the more I like it. It could actually earn the star back!

So when I saw this knife offered I got really excited. The Barlow is the quintessential working man's knife. It came into being in the 1700s. I wanted a true to form Barlow knife reminiscent of the originals, the same spirit. There are so many cheap Chinese imports which I didn't want. As for Bear and Son I'd heard mixed reviews on their knives, some inconsistent QC and the like. However, they are a US based company and I gave them a shot. I am an avid knife collector, from Victorinox to Reeve and Hinderer customs. I know knives and I was blown away. The knife is very well made with no blade play and good snap on both blades. No gaps or obvious flaws. The rosewood is smooth and fits well. It should be noted that a true Barlow is a working knife so it doesn't have that Case polished collector's feel on it like a stockman with true sharp. That being said, it is pretty in the utilitarian context (as it shouldbe). It feels genuine. Like it wouldn't be out of place in a soldier's pocket at Gettysburg. It's perfect for what I wanted, a quality knife at a great price, made in the USA. Some may have gotten lemons and I can't speak to that, but will say the quality fit and finish are spot on with my knife. And it's NOT from China!! Great job Bear and Son, I'll be back for more.Thanks for readingBest wishes

The knife itself is good looking, well made and seems nice enough. But for this price it ought to be sharp when it arrives. A $10 knife from a big box store is sharp. But like others have said, this knife was unsharpened when it arrived. I don't understand why the seller doesn't have someone spend 10 minutes sharpening a knife instead of sending a dull knife out and expecting the customer to do the job.

Perfect! Just beautiful and very well made. Don’t settle for one of the many cheap barlow knives out there. For under $50, you get a classic knife easily worth twice as much. As you can see, the rosewood handle sets the blades off nicely. Great for a gift!

Having owned a couple of other Bear & Son knives I purchased this without any hesitation because the other knives are superbly crafted and sharp as a razor.I don’t know what happened with this one it’s like they didn’t even bother to put the blades on the grinder. The slip joint are gritty and rough. The Rosewood does look beautiful but I will not be carrying this and would not recommend this to anybody else.

I ordered this knife, because I always wanted a Barlow pocket knife for carrying. When the knife arrived, I opened it with great expectation. However, I found that both blades, especially the big blade, had excessive blade play (loose) in the deployed position. The sharpening of both knife blades was really bad; the grind had to be done by a branch kin of Daryle and Daryle: dull and asymmetric. It goes without saying the quality of this knife is poor, and I returned it. Bear & Son implement a quality control program because this knife should have never been shipped given the tremendous amount of blade play and the terrible edge grind!

I order this to replace a cherished Rosewood knife that I lost. While there were some mixed reviews about it, I took the leap and purchased it. It is a well crafted and beautiful knife that has so far been a great replacement for the one I lost. The small custom fit bag that in comes in is a nice touch and protects the Rosewood on the knife from being scratched when in a pocket containing coin or other metal objects.