CRKTHVAS Folding Pocket Knife: Compact, Outdoor Survival or Utility Folder for Camping, Hiking, Fishing, or Hunting with Field Strip, and Liner Lock 2817

This knife is great. The blade is thick and sturdy and has a reliable opening mechanism with the cuts in the blade. The disassembly mechanism is also a really nice touch and makes cleaning the knife really easy. I’ve seen reviews saying it didn’t work right after disassembly but that is all 100% user errors. The knife is slim and lightweight yet has a nice feel to it in big hands. Overall nice EDC knife for the money

The Vikings ( Denmark, Norway and Sweden.) warrior cultures, blade cultures, big powerful brutal warriors, but also very smart thinking people, as evidence in the things the made, and make. In a documentary I saw the Vikings would send a few men ahead to the outskirts of the town they wanted to attack and these dudes (when they could) would trap birds they saw nesting in the thatched roof of the houses in that Village and just before the attach they would tie a string with a flammable substance on it to the birds light it and set the birds free. THE FREAKING OUT BIRD with a fire chasing them headed straight back to the security of their nest (a smart fire missile or bomb) then in the chaos of multiple fires they would attack.Pretty smart savage brutes. So anyway this knife is the essence of simplicity with a laser focus on function. Light Strong and razor sharp.there is a small half moon cut at the base of the knife's edge near the handle which leaves the cutting edge moved forward so if you want to sharpen it on a machine (I do) the sharpener runs the full length and does not leave a weird ending near the base where the sharpening wheel could not get to it, kinda like the "PITA" that a bolster presents in kitchen knives. (SEE ATTACHED PICTURE)

Very very nice. Blade comes with a razor sharp, very much evenly ground, high hollow grind. It comes to a very thin edge despite being 1/8" thick at the spine, and the tip is very thin. The blade is intended to cut and not pry especially with the tip. The tip will break, as with any thin tip, if you don't use common sense and do something which it is clearly not designed for. If you want a pry bar, get another knife.The blade steel has been improved from AUS8 or 8cr13mov. I have read that it is the same stainless steel Victorinox uses for their Swiss army knives. *I have not used it*, this is a tabletop review, but the blade seems sharp and solid.The knife is made in Taiwan, which normally would be a deal-breaker for me, but it's not made in China, and the tolerances (as with the Ontario RAT series, also made in Taiwan) are excellent.Surprisingly smooth and fast opening action even though it runs on Teflon bushings-- which I would normally absolutely shy away from, they work very well with the design here. CRKT has again impressed me with attention to detail regarding manufacturing tolerances, significantly improving from the past. Everything is perfectly flush and there are no obvious transitions from one part to another.The thinness of the blade and the high hollow grind make this knife one of the best slicers I have seen and the lack of a thumb-stud will make sharpening easy for free-hand as well as with sharpening systems which clamp onto the blade. There is a slight finger/sharpening choil which I also normally shy away from as big sharpening choils are counterproductive to certain cuts which need leverage by putting the material to be cut as close to the handle as possible, but in this case, the choil size is negligible.The opening mechanism utilized is a thumb hole with grippy 90° edges, which are absolutely not uncomfortable, and with only a few seconds of practice (for those used to using thumb-studs, flippers or spring-assisted opening mechanisms) allows the knife to be opened very smoothly and quickly-- and this is without oiling and playing with the pivot screw. The knife also opens well simply by sliding it open using the thumb-hole, making deployment "less scary" to knife snowflakes.The Hvas (pronounced VAS with a silent "H") has a sharp 90° spine which will work well with Ferrocerium Rod fire starters and is also not uncomfortable. There is no Jimping on the spine, which in this case I feel is unnecessary.The handle is comfortable and has a convex palm-swell. Your grip is aided by front and back angles keeping your hand in place-- and the curves sweep softly enough to fit all types of hand sizes (I wear large to extra large sized gloves for reference). The angle on the belly of the palm-swell may appear at first-hand to possibly create a hot-spot but it does not. The handle is fiberglass-reinforced-nylon (FRN or GRN, basically hard plastic) there is some texture but not super grippy. This is acceptable for a $50 knife, micarta or G10 would make the knife more expensive, and I intend the knife to be a "user" work knife anyway. The handle does not feel cheap as some users state but understand it is also not a Chris Reeve Sebenza.The knife locks up tight using a jimped liner-lock which repeatedly engages solidly and opens with normal effort. The blade centering is dead-center, and remains dead-center with repeated opening and closing and with repeated disassembly/reassembly.There is zero blade-play, vertical or horizontal, even with repeated opening/closing or disassembly/reassembly. The blade retention is designed with a ball detent on the locking liner and there is very good, and repeatable, retention which does not affect the opening of the knife.There is minimal etching on the blade and it does not look like an advertising billboard.The knife is disassembled *quickly and with surprisingly minimal effort* in order to clean and make maintenance and oiling easier. CRKT has a short YouTube video detailing concise instructions and adherence to these instructions allows for easy disassembly and reassembly. Designer of the original "field-strip technology," Ken Onion, also has short YouTube videos with instructions for the CRKT Homefront which introduced the award-winning feature (recreated exactly on the Hvas knife). CRKT currently holds the patent for the industry's first and only knife series so far that requires no tools to disassemble them. I have watched and read reviews of people having problems disassembling/reassembling the Homefront knife but it is an easy two-step process which people do not perform according to instructions. I feel that the knife disassembles/reassembles well and easily (even if you do it backwards from the short easy instructions). The manufacturing tolerances are spot-on, repeatedly, even after numerous times taking apart and putting the knife back together.I don't know why some people (🤕) find it difficult because with the knife I received, it is absolutely not hard to do at all. This is achieved by holding the knife scales together snugly with the blade ***closed*** (duh) both at the pivot point AND the back of the knife, first unscrewing the rear thumb screw (metal) *clockwise* when looking at the show side of the knife, counterclockwise when looking at the pivot screw side of the knife until you hear a slight click, then sliding the lever (also metal) up towards the top of the knife. Once completed, a small shake or short soft drop onto a hard surface frees the pieces. To reassemble, also start with the thumb screw and finish with the lever. If the lever does not move, the pieces are not perfectly seated or you are not holding the scales together snugly enough while reassembling. In Ken Onion's video, he tells you to basically drop the knife and the pieces (only three) will come apart so this is directly from the designer and will not damage the structure of the knife or the tolerances. One of the washers may come out, ***and you should expect that this may happen,*** but the washers are easily put back in place and doing so does not affect the performance of the knife when reassembled.The pocket clip is short, deep-carry, tip-up only, milled into the handle, with 2 screws, right/left reversable and unobtrusive. It is tight, not knurled or jimped in any way, and will not damage pants. It is smooth steel, unpainted, and will not show scratches.The knife is sturdily held together by the lever and thumb screw and the only other screws (torx) are the pivot screw and where the recessed clip is attached. Taking apart the knife does not require tools, but a torx driver is necessary to adjust the pivot if desired (not needed-- unless a tighter opening is desired-- as the opening action comes very smooth).The only marginal Cons to the knife I feel are that the FRN edges are sharp, but once you decide you like the knife you can lightly use an emory board to smooth them a little-- which is all that is necessary. Again, the washers may at some point come loose (like I said, this is to be expected and understood before hand) so don't run the knife under running water without first being prepared that the washers may come off, take common sense steps to ensure they don't get washed down the stream or into a drain. You can probably Krazy glue them in but I myself like the ability to oil and clean both sides of the washers. The liner lock is a bit jimpy but not overly so. Lefties would want to reverse the clip because in the right hand position it may be uncomfortable. Understand also that the hollow grind is thin and the tip is thin. This knife is not a prying tool. Do not Baton with the knife, do not chop with the knife. These are not good ideas with the design, if you want to do this get another knife and don't knock it because it can't do these things because it's not intended to. These are the only slight Cons I have. I would very much recommend this knife at this point and I am very very pleased with it, am pleased with the advances CRKT has made with tolerances, neat new unique concepts nobody else in the industry has thought of, and quality vs price point. Get it, for $50 you won't be disappointed.

Great quality blade. Sharp out of the box, cuts very nicely, but the handle and field strip technology is really bad. Handle feels very cheap, and the as soon as I took the knife apart, it wont go back together. Good idea executed poorly.

I will always buy from this company. The metal, the designs and the performance are excellent. Sharpness retension is top notch and if you have a question or problem, the company is right there to assist.

Nice design, quick disassemble and reassembly.

Had this knife for a couple of months, the field strip tech is junk in it. Washer and blade pin have both fallen out when taking it apart to clean the knife. Scale material feels cheap, not worth the money. Just buy the home front, it’s better built and nothing falls out when taking it apart.

Quality control is pretty bad on this model. I own the Homefront EDC and decided to add this HVAS slicer with the Field Strip Tech. Despite the bad reviews, figured I’d take a chance. I’ve taken a chance - twice. The blade is not centered on the first one. The second one had uneven grinding (you can see one side is higher than the other) and the back wheel is loose (bracket that secures the wheel is installed a few threads too high). Only decided to give it an extra star because of respect for the knife designer. Poor execution by CRKT. You’d expect something even better construction following the Homefront series.Just to help other buyers, if the lock lever is too loose or has too much resistance then there are 2 star screws on the inside of the scale that you can adjust. And, if the lock lever doesn’t want to budge to lock the scales (even though the lever is loose enough) then the big pivot screw may be too tight. Always tighten the pivot screw when the knife is assembled and the blade is deployed to feel the resistance and it helps with centering the blade since the liner lock is out of the way.