Byrd Raven PE

[Pete1977]

I took some time to play around with the Raven and put it to some cutting tests.

Specs:
BY08BKP
Length overall 7 7/8" (200 mm)
Blade length 3 1/2" (89 mm)
Blade steel 8Cr13MoV
Length closed 4 3/8" (111 mm)
Cutting edge 2 7/8" (73 mm)
Weight 4.3 oz. (122 g)
Hole diameter 15/32" (12 mm)
Blade thickness 1/8" (3 mm)
Handle material Anodized Aluminum
The blade is coated black and has enough of a curve for most cutting chores. I found it easier to make a pull cut than a pushing type cut.

Fit and Finish:

The fit and finish is what is expected of a spyderco product. excellent. The blade opens smoothly, the clip is secure, and there was slight up and down play in the blade, but it was barely noticeable. The black finish on the blade had no scratches or scuffs, nor did the clip. The liner lock up was secure when thumbing the blade open, and with the "spyder drop", but with an inertia opening in both a forward and reverse grip the liner actually passed the tang of the blade to settle on the opposite side. The blade seemed to be locked up tight, and there was some difficulty unlocking it. The clip was tight, and held the knife securely both in the waistband, and in the side pocket. The textured handle (in a fish skeleton pattern) did not hinder drawing the knife from either position. The steel, similar to 440C was impressive in its edge holding ability, and ease of sharpening. I have yet to use the medium sharpmaker stones on this knife. All sharpening so far has been touch ups.

Ergonomics:

The knife seems to be a sturdy knife, and is somewhat heavier than I expected, although I prefer a heavier knife for harder use. It is well balanced and is comfortably held in a variety of grips. The handle feels slippery at first, but I found that it was actually quite secure, even with wet hands.
The opening hole is somewhat difficult to get used to. I prefer the circular spyderhole, and I had some issues at first with opening the blade with the comet shaped hole. the tip of my thumb tended to hang up in the comet's "tail". I got it after some practice, but again, I prefer the round hole.

Cutting:

The knife shaved hair right from the box. The first thing I cut with the Raven was an apple, and I made 30 cuts. the blade was somewhat thick to be a good slicer, cracking off the pieces at the end of the cut, but it is hollow ground, and my delica behaves in the same way.
Still with the original edge, and still hair-shaving sharp, I cut up a plastic 12 oz water bottle. I made 10 cuts and the knife still shaved hair from my forearm. I then made three 12 inch cuts of a 9x12 piece of cardboard, and then proceded to cut them into smaller (inch wide) pieces. I made 28 cuts. This made it a little more difficult to shave hair, it tended to catch on the hairs and pull them before taking them off. It still easily sliced a free hanging piece of notebook paper on both a pull cut and a push cut. I made about 50 cuts on the paper. The knife hung up more on shaving hair after the paper, but stropping it on a piece of cardboard got it shaving sharp again.
I then cut up a soda bottle that was slightly heavier plastic than the water bottle. I made a continuous cut, creating a spiral of plastic about 1/3" wide, like a slinky. Then I cut an 8x8 piece of cardboard into small squares. It took about 88 cuts to do.
The Raven still sliced free hanging paper in both a push and pull cut after these tests, and the belly of the blade still managed to shave hair with some difficulty.
I then took a 7/16" piece of pot warp, (sinking line used on lobster pot trawls, consisting of 3 strands of nylon and polypropylene fibers. Rope of this type is extremely hard on a knife's edge.) After 2 cuts the edge was noticeably duller, and the blade had somes scratches on the polish of the bevel. Also, there was a chip or burr in the edge, visible to the naked eye at arm's length. The third cut on the rope took 4 tries to completely sever the line, and left the blade dull. all of these cuts were made with the rope bent over the edge of the blade, and were made by pushing the blade away from me, and drawn downwards at the same time. This steel is very good for the money. I was impressed so far.

I sharpened the raven on the sharpmaker after the rope cuts with 20 passes (10 per side) on the corner of the fine (white) rods at the 40 degree angle. This left the knife sharper than it was when I took it out of the box. did I say I liked this steel? well, i do.

After sharpening, I made another cut on the rope. It took 2 strokes to part it, but that seemed to be due more to the shape and length of the blade than to how sharp it was. Then edge was noticeably duller after this try, but it was not dull by a long shot. I sharpened it again anyhow (I like a SHARP edge) on the sharpmaker. 10 more strokes per side of the blade, again on the corners of the white stones at 40 degrees.
Next I shaved the bark from a 2 foot, 3/4 inch thick maple branch and made 150 shaving cuts. When i was finished, I was still able to shave a patch of hair from my forearm, which now looks like steve carrells chest in the 40 year old virgin.

Overall impressions:
I like this knife. It is small and unobtrusive. I'm not really a fan of black blades, but other than that, this is a great little knife. The coating was scuffed after these tests, but I could not see the metal underneath. I carried it around for the rest of the afternoon in my right front pants pocket, and I hardly knew it was there. It offers a very positive grip and opens smoothly. For $20 I don't think you can beat this knife. The steel is very good, and takes and holds an edge as good as, if not better than, 440C. I plan on carrying this knife for a while and giving it a workout on the boat.

Pete

[Pete1977]

after almost four months of using my raven solely around salt water, i have very limited superficial rust on the non-blackened edge of the blade, and after a quick swipe on the sharpmaker or even a cut through a piece of rope it is gone. the steel is actually very decent for what I need it for, as I prefer to sacrifice corrosion resistance for edge retention. I can get a very toothy edge on this knife, and it's retention is equal to 440c and very near vg-10. The blade still has very very little play to it, and locks up solid. the aluminum scales are chipped slightly at the corners from normal wear and tear, and it has fallen on the deck of the boat a few times. I can't tell if I have chipped the tip off (about a mm or so) or rounded it on the sharpmaker. The black coating, although scuffed, doesn't show bare steel yet, except for about a mm of the tip from where I stuck it into the wood cover of the lobster tank.
I did notice today that the handle scale on the non clip side of the knife (edge down, point left when open) is loose, and when pressure's applied, it shifts a hair's breadth towards the spine of the knife. there is no visible rust on the liners inside of the handle, spacers, or in the screw heads.

I don't normally like liner locks, but I find on the boat with my gloves on, I can open the knife with a flick of the wrist, or spyder drop it. this hasn't resulted in any blade play so far. The lock on occasion does seat too far to the right side of the blade when opened too hard, and was a little tight at first to disengage but it has loosened with time. The knife hasn't slipped in my hands even when wet, slimy or cold, although the aluminum gets COLD in the winter.

One of the washers between the blade and the handle scales appears to have part of it's edge about 1/4 inch long broken off, and i cant remember if it came from the factory like that (if it did I didn't notice) or if it happened with usage.

I expected to replace this knife when i got my pacific salt, but i can't seem to leave it home. its been on the boat every time i have since i've gotten it. even when i use it to cut a lot of rope during the day, i strop it on the leg of my oilskins and the rubber brings it right back to sharp. the quality of this knife can't be beat for 20 dollars.

now if the hole was only round.

pete

[Pete1977]

another month of use, with only one cleaning, and that is because it was starting to smell like fish. I cannot edc this knife, except for work, because it is filthy.

The knife is starting to show rust spots on the blade, there is wear on the peaks of the grind lines, where the black coating is thin or gone. There is a screw missing on the non clip side of the handle, near the lanyard hole. the tip is blunting, and it still takes a scary sharp edge, but it does not hold it for long. it may need some reprofiling. there is rust on the liners, and a little blade play.

beside taking it to work on the boat, i have used it to cut up cardboard boxes from moving, an old, heavy carpet we didn't want, and numerous other plastics, rope, etc.

I have to say, that this knife has taken more than it's share of abuse for a twenty dollar knife. I am debating retiring it before the summer, but I think it has a LOT still left in it.

the conditions this knife has worked in have ruined other knives. beside continuous wetness in salt water and spray, the knife has been in a puddle of brine (heavily salted fluid and water that seeps from bait that has been stored in salt, in this case, herring), dropped, flung across the room (accidentally of course) and i have been less than religious in cleaning it or otherwise maintaining it, aside from a daily sharpening.

If you havent tried a byrd knife yet, you have to. there are perfect edc knives, and are priced right to keep one in the car, one in the tool box and one in your pocket. quality materials for a working mans price is hard to beat.

pete

[Pete1977]

I have been edcing the raven on the lobster boat for the last few days, and today I got a lot of use out of it. 2 months ago we lost 12 pots on a 20 pot trawl. We tried grappling for it on several occasions and eventually picked up something on the hook, but, when near the surface, we parted off the grapple's rope, and lost a 70 lb grapple, a 50 lb weight, and about 70 lbs of chain, plus, we didn't recover the lost gear.

fast forward to today.

about half way through the morning, we got another lobsterman's tag buoy in the rudder. We used a long gaff to get the buoy line to the surface, and the raven cut through the whale safe sinking line with one cut. The line had a significant strain on it though, and it parted with one stroke.

Then, at the end of the day, although we didn't know it yet, we picked up the remaining 8 pots of the lost trawl. and what comes to the surface with the first pot? A clump of rope, twisted badly, the double buoy, marking the eastern end of the trawl, and a taut line leading overboard and into the water. We made a line fast to the groundline leading to the other pots, we knew it was ours by the color of the buoy. We got it into the boat, and along with the massive tangle, and the dismantling of the trawl (which we decided to bring in, rather than setting it back and finishing the day out) came several reasons to use the Raven.

It was used to cut the neutral buoyancy whale-safe rope mainline, floating polypropylene buoy line, floating poly-steel buoy line, light sinking buoy line, and several pieces of polysteel groundline. The knife was dull by the day's end, but it held it's edge for 95% of the time.

My only concern with the raven is the blade length. I find that I need to make 2 or 3 cuts to sever a piece of rope, and the blade is still sharp. I believe that if I use a longer blade, I won't have this problem. I'm looking for a military to take on the boat, but in the meantime, I have a caracara I'd like to try.

Pete

[Pete1977]

I took the raven again yesterday, when I was supposed to take the native

well, it was sharpened the night before on the medium sharpmaker stone on the angle, to have the roughest edge possible. It was a fairly easy day, we only hauled 160 pots, and moved a lot of gear around. I did get a chance to cut some rope, however. The lighter (@1/4") sinking rope, polyester/polypropylene was cut easier than the 3/8" polypropylene floating line. I think this was a combination of the rope's diameter, the blade's length, and the composition of each style of rope.

after a couple of cuts on the poly, I needed to strop the blade on the wood and fiberglass lobster tank. It worked in a pinch and got a useable edge back on the blade so I could finish what I was doing.

At home later, I have noticed some "spotting" on the black coating of the blade, and a tiny bit of discoloration on the un-blackened grind of the edge, which is, in all likelyhood due to the almost constant exposure to seawater. The knife, although filthy, still opens and locks up smoothly, even with herring scales between the blade and handle liners, in the locking liner, and mud and grime in every concevable place.

It cannot be denied however that this is one of the best knife values for the money. It may be the boat knife for some time.

pete