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Product Description
The traditional Condor Bushcraft Basic Fixed Blade is equally suitable for skinning, slicing, chopping, and more—all of which you’ll encounter in the great outdoors. The scandi-ground 1075 steel blade is coated with black epoxy coating to reduce reflection and help prevent corrosion buildup Read More
That's odd, it shows $54.98 for me at Amazon and camel shows the last time it was $30 was exactly one year ago on 20161114. There's a used one for $27.13
Regardless, the total lack of a guard or finger choil concerns me. Anyone with experience with the knife have any feedback on your finger slipping forward. Seems the new design has the sharpened edge all the way to the handle.
A push cut is indeed the opposite of a draw cut. I'm actually not sure of the correct name for cutting with the blade perpendicular to the direction of travel (like is done with batoning or when cutting a cheese block.)
Personally I consider a guard/finger stop to be a good safety feature. While it's unlikely that your fingers will slip onto the blade during any normal use, I don't see any reason not to have one, and cutting your fingers while away from civilization is trouble.
MDDogeOk, I see. I did a little more research and it turns out the terminology is a little complicated. The bushcraft and culinary communities use the same terminology to refer to different techniques.
In the culinary world:
A draw cut is where the tip of the blade stays on cutting board and you draw the knife toward yourself, slicing through the food.
A push cut is where you start with the knife above the food, and move it forward and down until it contacts the board. This is the reverse of "slicing" in which you move the knife down and back (toward yourself) as you cut. Although, sometimes "push cutting" is called "slicing" and "slicing" is called "back-slicing". There seems to be a lot of variation in the names, and sometimes very subtle variations in the descriptions of the technique.
Slicing and push cutting are different from draw cutting because the edge is generally parallel to the board, where as in the draw cut the tip of the blade stays on the board but the edge is held at roughly a 45 degree angle relative to the board.
In the bushcraft/survival world:
A draw cut is where the knife is held perpendicular to the material with the edge facing you and is pulled toward yourself. In this way, you are using it similar to a draw knife for shaving material.
A push cut is where the knife is held perpendicular with the edge facing away from you, and you press the knife forward into the material without moving the edge laterally. Sometimes, you use your thumb or even the thumb of the hand not holding the knife to press on the spine of the blade.
Slicing is any motion is which the blade is moved laterally while cutting, such that the point of contact with the material travels either from handle to tip or from tip to handle during the cut.
Here are a few references of the terms being used and techniques demonstrated.
https://youtu.be/sH8pgoMzVSs?t=1m17s
https://youtu.be/cwvwxbdIU4w?t=4m46s
https://www.knifeplanet.net/survival-knife-safety-grip-techniques/
So in a culinary "push cut" you are indeed applying pressure in such a direction that your hand could plausibly slide forward onto the blade. Except, that never happens. Because when performing a push cut the knife is held in a pinch grip. This knife in particular would NEED to be held in a pinch grip because otherwise your fingers would hit the board and prevent most of the working edge from making contact with the board and completing the cut. Indeed, in order to use this blade for push cutting, it CAN'T have a finger guard. The finger guard would hit the cutting board the same way, preventing the completion of the cut.
So the only way to use this knife for the push cut technique is for it to not have a guard so the edge can come all the way down to the cutting board. But that's not a problem because you would be holding the knife in a pinch grip, so your fingers, if they slid forward, would slide onto the sides of the knife, not onto the edge.
These are great knives over all. Unless Condor has made improvements their edges aren't very impressive. Not dull, but not very sharp and not a true scandi grind.
Fit and finish is good on them for the price, and they come with decent quality leather sheaths. Great company putting out a solid product.
I have a Jeff Morgan fixed blade, custom made for me, that is functionally similar to this. It has been my go-to utility knife for more than 20 years. Everyone should have a well performing fixed blade utility knife.