Ontario TAK-1 w/Nylon Sheath

This is a perfect no nonsense, tough as nails knife. People automatically compare these blades to Esee so I added a picture of an Esee 4 and a Becker Eskabar for size comparison. At $57 this knife is pretty close to half the price of the Esee 4. The fit and finish are on par between the two knifes, people claim that Esees have a better fitted scales, better grinds, etc but honestly both the esee and the Ontario have the same level of workmanship. The coating on the Esee seems more resistant but I plan on stripping the blade anyway. One of the common complaints about these is the sheath, I will say that the Esee sheath is more convenient but the Ontario sheath is fine. Mine doesn’t rattle like most people claim, and even if it did I don’t know where this concern over sheath rattle came from. If you’re some kind of ninja assassin and you absolutely MUST have a silent sheath then you can get one for about $32 online which still comes out to a lower price than the Esee. I want to make it abundantly clear that I’m not knocking Esee. I have 3 of their knives and I love them, but the reason I chose to pay roughly double for the Esees I own is because Ontario doesn’t make those models (Candiru, Izula, and Esee 4). If you’re loosing sleep about shelling out the extra cash then don’t hesitate to get an Ontario knife. On the other hand if spending the extra dough makes no difference to you then just go with Esee.

It feels really good in my hands. Sharpe out of the box, but made it sharper with creamic rod and leather strop. Took the coating off to put a apple cider vinegar patina. Looks cool. It can throw sparks with the coating off. Love the knife and I will upgrade the sheath foe leather soon.

Nice sturdy blade. Sheath is not great. Not perfect fit and finish but definitely manageable. Overall its a great knife for a good price.

Four stars - This knife meets or exceeds all but one of my criteria. It’s an out of the box, sharp knife. Great feel in my hand. Don’t buy the knife for the shealth... it’s junk. I made a leather sheath for it. The ONLY reason it was one star short was that the spin of the knife isn’t a 90 degree edge. Also, it has a black matte coating that makes throwing sparks with a ferro rod very difficult. I contacted OKC and the only recommendation they had was to file the finish of. But that opens the carbon steel to corrosion. Don’t get me wrong - I really like this knife and have no doubt I’ll get years of great work out of it. I’ve had it out on a couple of backpacking trips already and it’s performed great. I would recommend this knife, just plan to bring a striker for your ferro rod.

Have quite a few Ontario Knives. all well made of good spring steel and great heat treatment . sad they are not making knives anymore. get em while you can. best bang for your buck…

Really nice knife for the money. It's a little on the thicker side but still cuts well. Definitely not as thick as my RD4 Sheath is okay. It does it's job and you can carry either left or right side. It's 90% of an ESEE for 50% of the price.

The knife is well made and has good “heft” in my hands. Sharp enough to shave hair from my arm.

Comfortable in the hand, sturdy, with an adequate yet unimpressive nylon sheath. The grind bevels are absolutely horrible though. It's about 35% angle on one site and 5% on the other. Will have to completely re-grind the edge to get the geometry even. Very disappointing. I have a RAT 1, RAT 2, and RAT 7 with perfect edge geometry, so not sure what went wrong here.

持った感じの重さバランスは非常によいが刃の仕上げがひどい。どこで刃を付けているのかわからないがまったく切れない。先端部分では刃の上で指を滑らせても切れない。しかも裏と表の刃の角度が全く違っている。残念。

Superbe couteau. Belle finition. Étui pratique.