Great knife

The knife looks great, but the blade was never honed. The blade from tip to base was rounded. Never expected to receive a knife that had NO edge. I am a retiered USAF Colonel, still have my ORIGINAL USAF SURVIVAL knife Givin to me as my pilot survival knife. The knife is 40 years old and is as sharp as it was 40 years ago. I've had to regrind the edge in order to hone it. VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED.

I just recently purchased this knife and was pleased with overall fit and finish. I did go ahead and oil and wax the leather compressed handle and sheath. But what I was not impressed with was the angle and grind on the knife blade edge! It seems to be about a 30•to 40• bevel but there was no burnish or burr on the edge. This may be due to blade thickness, but I did truly expect a razor sharp knife from factory!

Firstly, let me compliment the folk at this outfit. If you have technical questions, they WILL get thru to somebody who knows the answer at Ontario, something not always easy to do.

The (old name) Jet Pilot Knife brings back a lot of memories, of issued knives, and others bought just for fun, and totally faithful to funky old originals, which actually were a Marbles design, and why it resembles the old Marbles knives so much.

The knife has the differentially drawn down tempered areas per spec, getting softer at ricasso and softest back in tang, the higher Rc rating specified for the edged blade itself. Made to be extremely shock resistant and take a beating, and the knife still used at SERE schools, i believe.

About the only functional difference between the current Ontario, and, for instance, and older Camillus, would be edge thickness. Ontario leaves the edge thicker, which cuts down in finer slicing, but increases overall toughness of the knife. The Ontario is a tougher knife period, where often older Camillus knives could be ground too thin, with needle points, not at all up to scoring a Perspex canopy for pounding a hole through it, nor puncturing metal.

If you do not care for the issue color or lack thereof of the leather, a little favorite oil/wax and shoe polish, or even dye, on the rot resistant leather washer handle, and you can have black, brown, or even cordovan if it floats your boat.

A perfect emergency knife to keep handy, takes up almost no room, and one of the toughest little blades in that sized class, to this very day.

For the survival type, please keep in mind military sawbacks were not made for wood, but for ripping through thin sheetmetal, so save the woodsaw complaints for a woodsaw. The knife is true to spec for purpose designed, whether the hex butt originally meant for the socket of a liferaft oar now long extinct, to the Navy spec paint, thickness, and layers sealing the peened tang end.

If you like old milspec and faithful to it, this little ol' knife is for you.