When I first opened the knife I thought I'd probably return it, the box was a little beat up, the swedge was asymmetrical and uneven which surprised me for a knife at this price and the handle felt too small(I can squeeze into an xl work glove but usually need xxl so most handles seem a little small). I decided I had researched the knife far too long to not at least try it out so I started with making some feathersticks and immediately started to believe some of the hype I've read about, the convex edge shaves wood with much less effort than several of my other knives of this size(USMC,bk2,lmf2,esse,etc). Next I figured I'd try to test out what I've read on a few forums about the factory edge chipping/microchipping, I batonned through the hardest most knotted sections of wood that I could find for a while and had no issues to speak of with the edge and it batonned like a champ. The factory edge was very sharp and held up well enough through the wood processing that I was able to make pretty nice cuts through 10 pieces of 3 inch wide semi load ratchet straps before it noticeably dulled. The last thing to find out was how hard it was to resharpen the convex edge which I found to be much easier than I expected using the sandpaper/mouse pad method. The knife is a little expensive and I wish the handle was a little thicker but I've actually already sold several other knives since buying this one because its just a better knife for the woods in my opinion. Some people hate the sheath but its serves its purpose well and the knife carries much smaller than my other knifes of this size which is always a plus. Just buy it and enjoy it.