Buck Knives853 Small Selkirk Fixed Blade Survival Knife with Nylon Sheath

This is a great knife for the money. The styling and handle ergonomics are excellent. It has a flat pommel that covers the butt of the knife with a nice design in it. The beautiful handle is very grippy with notches on the spine and finger side. It fits size large hands easily and feels great. The balance point is at the middle finger. If you're experienced with bladed weapons, that might not sit well with you. However, despite that, the balance still feels good.The blade is a bit longer than most knives in this category, which I like a lot. The jimping on the spine of the blade is prominent without being uncomfortable.One design flaw: The choil is too small. That may not bother you if your index finger is exceptionally thin. I put my index finger on the choil at my first knuckle. The width of my finger at the point is 7/8th inch. My little finger is 11/16th inch wide and it would just barely work. Any larger and it will cut you. It looks like they designed the choil to specifically work with the ferro-rod. And, in fact, for that purpose, it works great.Note that I prefer a slightly longer than usual bushcraft knife blade length and a folding companion knife. YMMVI really like the sheath. It's made out of hard, durable plastic with a built-in ferro-rod/whistle (comes with) holder. My preference is clip-on and this one is not a clip-on. Minor thing for me, though.I should have given it 4 stars for that flaw but I can't because I love the way it looks so much.

Nice blade! Good quality for the piece

Great knife! Would recommend.The small indent at the base of the blade is great for using with a fire steel, its quite a sharp edge in that little nook too, so it creates a concentrated and hot ember as opposed to a spray - a big plus in my opinion.The blade is substantial, thick and very strong - I feel super confident baton'ing through thick pieces of wood. Full tang is the way to go imo.One other cool thing is the removable and customizable sheath/belt loop/fire steel setup. You can unscrew the 'nut and bolt' style system to rearrange the position and orientation of the belt loop and the fire steel holder.The one feature I'm pretty bummed about is that the belt loop connection portion of the unit is fairly flimsy. Don't get me wrong, the knife is a 10/10 and for that I give it 5 stars, its not about the belt loop - AND the sheath is great! My complaint is simply that after one day after this arrived, I got excited and put it on my belt. I went to go over to my friends and show off my sweet new knife but as I sat in my car, the pressure applied to the belt loop portion of the sheath cracked in a way that totally compromised the structural integrity of the belt loop feather of the sheath. The sheath is totally fine, again it was just that belt loop piece. I actually have the knife and fire steel by themselves now and its hanging on my pack, but its considerably less convenient.Sorry for the rant, and again this knife is super nice and very worth the purchase - just keep it in the first belt section or when you sit you'll apply too much pressure to the loop!

Yes this knife is made in China. Yes that makes me a bit suspect at the outset but it performs every bit as well as my Buck 192 at a list price of about $32 dollars cheaper. There are very nicely made things from China and conversely, very badly made things from the USA and vice versa, so don't get too hung up on the origin. That said, one of the things that drew me originally to Buck Knives was their heritage and USA make so I hope this isn't a trend.Knife:This knife is also Buck's 420HC variant on 420 Stainless. 420 stainless is a very hard stainless that maintains excellent corrosion resistance properties. Typical/vanilla 420 stainless has a Rockwell hardness of RC 50 and can be heat-treated to be harder. Buck uses a Higher Carbon alloy of 420 and heat-treats to an "Advertised" 58HRC (Tool-steel is anywhere from 58 to 66). The knife shape is a drop-point with a pretty meaty blade and a full tang. The back of the knife, near the handle, has some ridges to give your thumb some grip for extra control. It came razor-sharp from the factory and had no problem shaving some arm hair as a test. I've sharpened Buck's 420HC alloy before, it sharpens easily enough and they tend to hold their edge quite well.Handle:The handle looks/feels like some kind of composite. It is, in fact, a fabric reinforced phenolic laminate called Micarta. There's a pixelization-look to the wood-grain design. The handle did not have any sharp edges or things to catch on. It felt good to hold and grippy. I've not tried getting it wet but it's got grooves and texture enough to give the water somewhere to go. The handle has a metal pommel such that it looks like you could probably hit things with it.Sheath:The sheath is plastic with some interesting features. The belt clip can be repositioned for various carry heights and for vertical or horizontal carry. It can also be adjusted to fit different width belts. It has a solid "click" to the knife loading and seems to hold the knife firmly in place without it rattling. The sheath also includes a twist-lock storage for the fire-striker/whistle. I like the features of the sheath but it would have been nice to have used a better plastic (maybe something with fiber-reinforcing).Striker/Whistle:The whistle works well and is pretty loud. It's not ear piercing but is probably good enough to get someone's attention if they're near enough. The striker is a typical hot-spark. I preferred using the back of the knife to their notch cutout at the base of the blade.Overall, this is a good knife for a reasonable price. It appears to be well made such that I expect some longevity out of it. I'm using it as my camping/kit knife so it stays in my truck with other survival gear and comes out as needed. Yes, I wish it was made in the USA like the rest of Buck knives and I'd pay more for that, but it's quite serviceable.

Solid knife and strong. The fire stick was a bonus. Running it scout was the primary thing.Figuring out the way to flip the sheath took some time so hang in there when flipping it over 90d.Research for yourself and then buy it. Everybody who got one loves it. I do too.