Condor Operator Bowie: Tests Failed
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
- With further experiments, I think this was ultimately an issue of a poor heat treat, and (hopefully) not a good representative sample of what you might get, but the finish and blade geometry are also pretty disappointing. As this is the second overpriced knife-like-object I've gotten from Condor, my luck with them is running 50/50 and I'm reluctant to try again.
I bought this knife because I do really like Bowie knives and the idea of a modern variant appealed to me. With the sheath I ran into the same problem, so I cut of the top and worked on it with a heat gun to bring it up to my expectations. Shouldn't be necessary to begin with but it works satisfyingly now. Concerning the edge...I gave it a convex grind and sharpened the false edge. All in all, that shouldn't benecessary for a knife in this price range but I like to fiddle and tinker with things and now I'm happy with it. On the other hand I bought a Condor Atrox and that thing ROCKS right out of he box!
I recently did give the edge a re-profiling to a keener convex (along with the Hudson Bay Mini). Update coming out later this week. There's still a good 5 inches of edge I can shave steel off of with another knife, it's so soft.
That's not okay. Mine is definitely not that soft. My biggest problem with it was the sheath. Even though it was a struggle to draw and resheath the knife, it rattled inside the sheath quite substantially. @@michaelrizzo5523
This was a good review! I appreciate it as I have been looking at buying this. I have been looking at buying this or the Tops Prather War Bowie. After watching this I am going to go with the War Bowier 👍🙂
Granted, I probably just got a bad one, but didn't hear back from Condor about it. I've relegated it to being a yard digging tool. I've heard great things about Tops products.
Hi Michael! I think that you simply got a poorly heat-treated model with your Operator Bowie. I also think that Condor should have taken it back and sent you a properly made knife. I took mine into the forest for the first time today to make a small fire in the hobo box and used the Operator to split the wood I needed for it. These weren't whole trees, but rather pieces of dry pinewood about the thickness of my forearm, and the knife really took it all without any problems, there are no breaks or rolling of the blade. I've been carving for a while now and the Condor is still very sharp and a really tough piece of equipment! After buying it, I honed it on leather straps with three different polishing pastes to remove any fine burrs that might have been on it at the factory. I wish you could talk about the Operator like that too.. By the way, thanks for your entertaining videos about many different knives, whether more expensive or cheaper😃I wish you all the best, best wishes Daniel
They never replied, and I'm done with them.
I'm not surprised ot had so many issues, they have better knives and Kukris ,and that one had potential.
But the sheath & coating as well as the clip point could be done better.
Thanks Mike 😊
Thankfully, I've never had a knife with that Traction coating. The only point I can see of it, is to cover up the rough finish of the blade.
Considering the work involved to get it to function well, I wouldn't go above about £70 for it.
I definitely don't think it was worth the price. I'm still working on this thing.
I bought 2 of these, on BOTH blades the guard cracked and broke off from very minor impacts from chopping thin pieces of willow to make a fire, the blades themselves were fine but the guards were absolutely horrible quality, I absolutely wouldn't recommend it as a field knife (which really pissed me off because aside from the guard issues it has a REALLY GOOD BLADE PROFILE) I haven't had any further issues on my other condor models- I carry their K-tac Kukri literally every day, that thing is a BEAST
In my last follow-up video, the guard snapped like glass on mine too. Haven't had any issues with my Moonshiner or Hudson Bay. I think I just got a lemon.
@@michaelrizzo5523 i love my Hudson bay, its a fantastic bush blade 👌
Beautiful knife. How many inches wide is the blade? How many inches long is the blade? How many inches long is the knife handle?
I like Condor knives, but the best ones are the Hudson Bay ones. Generally, most of the knives from this company have a quite low grind and require regrinding.
When it comes to production Bowie, my favorite is the Ontario SP10 Marine Bowie.
Perhaps the blade lost its temper during the grinding process by getting too hot?
I'd thought so because the edge was the softest part, but with further testing (see follow-up video) it's just uneven throughout. I was hoping Condor would get back to me on this, but so far no response.
I don't know, mine is ok, it came hair shaving sharp and I can pop it out of the kydex sheath with my thumb when I pull on the grip. Maybe a QC issue, this does happen, I had to buy a couple knives twice because of that and they were not made by Condor. It's not my favorite Condor Bowie knife interpretation, but it's nice to have. :)
That's good to know! I was really hoping this one just slipped through QC.
I really like the Atrox.
If it is in your inventory or interest to buy, could you do a review of the Cold Steel Polish Saber?
I'm between that, the cold steel 1796 Saber and the cold steel indian talwar right now
I have the Talwar and the 1796. The Talwar is nice but you really have to get used to a whole different system of swordsmanship to use it. The 1796 I'll be doing an update on again soon: I had to take a LOT of steel off the blade to give it enough distal taper to handle well for me instead of like a bent crowbar. I have similar fears about the Polish Saber based on the specs, though funny I was just thinking about giving it a try as a project sword since I can do the work on it, and the 1796 turned out very well. I'd also consider the newer Windlass Royal Armories version of the 1796, or LK Chen's, as I hear they are much better swords.
Thank You for sharing! Is there such a thing as getting a bad batch?
It is possible with any brand. Sadly, Condor didn't reply to me when I reached out to them about it.
They had there chance! I guess all things considered would you recommend for a collection and occasional use?
@@minnesota-hk1vp I like their Hudson Bay and Moonshiner. But my favorites so far have been the B&S Gold Rush, the Cudeman 106M, The CS Leatherneck Bowie and the CS Marauder.
what test files do you use?
A Japanese set, pretty much identical to other 5HRC increment sets: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TGHFLC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
I hate Kydex because of how noisy it is. As for it being tight. You could have fixed that with a good Hair Drier, yes I know you do not have much hair. But if you use a hair drier, set on high. You can heat that Kydex up just enough, so you can form it better. But I guess thats a moot point now, since you damaged the sheath. So the knife didn't really fail, but the sheath did. Good enough.
Actually I did fix the sheath with a hair dryer tension-wise (last section of the video). It's the blade that's 45HRC along several inches of edge that failed for me.
I boycott south america so this knife is not an option for me. Looks like garbage anyway. Not one penny of my money will ever wind up in south america.
You are boycotting a whole continent? That is extremely strange. I mean i could understand boycotting Venezuela being communist. Guess that also means no American car parts because they are all made in Mexico.
Last I checked El Salvador is technically in North America, unless this person is considering anything south of the US border as being "South America." That aside, I personally can't justifying holding everyone in any country responsible for the behavior of some percentage of its population. I hope others will give me the same benefit of the doubt.
@@michaelrizzo5523 doesn’t central an South America exist anymore or are we just calling them all North America since everyone is coming here for free stuff.
In the country of America, people have the right to decide and choose things, more and more people decided to be fucking stupid but it istheir right