KaBar TDI Law Enforcement

Reviewed 11/11/2013 by Dante

-Price Paid: $30.00
-Used for Self Defense
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

This knife is a great knife. I rated it at an 8 primarily for the sheath system that comes with the knife as well as personal preferences. The carbon steel the knife uses lives to its name sake and takes quite the edge. I would have no doubt this knife would perform well in self defense or utility tasks. The fit and finish of the knife is well executed with my grinds even and coating durable. The handle and grips give good ergonomics to the hand and give great control. One thing I would nit pick is that since the blade length is so short, I would wish the handle was a tad shorter as a lot of it sticks out of my hand. It would make the overall profile shorter and still give the same amount of control it has. I wear a medium men's glove although my fingers are short (not stubs by any means). This is personal preference and I do plan to take the handle down half an inch in order to be able to cap flush with my thumb in reverse grip. The only thing that is terrible in this package is the sheath which is loose enough to fall out with a little bit of shaking if upside down. Even if something catches the handle, you risk it being pulled out without much force. I made a kydex sheath for mine which works very well and allows a full grip which incorporates the choil when drawing without having to readjust. To me, this knife is more of a push knife whereas its larger cousins are more suited for slashing and thrusting. I purchased this second hand but if I got another one, I think I would get the larger or ankle version as they offer more reach.

Reviewed 02/22/2011 by rwasham

-Price Paid: $32.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

The TDI has many proponents within the Law enforcement and ccdw communities. I do not carry a gun on a daily basis, yet, but I still love carrying the knife and use it for more than just self defense. The knife lends itself well to many edc tasks. For me the ergos on this knife extremely comfortable. The knife fits my hand and stays there with no noticable hot spots. I really enjoy the canted axis of the knife. This feature puts the blade in a much more natural position for cuting tasks. The knife came shaving sharp out of the box and so far has not been touched up. Another good feature of this particular knife is it's sheath. With the provided clip the sheath and knife ride close to my body but are not overly irritating. The retention is good but not overly tight. I like this because it allows for fast deployment of the knife. One complaint I have is that the screws to hold the knife handles on seem small and cheap. They also mirror the screws for the sheath clip assembly which also seem on the small lightweight side. Along these same lines the clip itself seems like it's made of less than stellar materials. Only time will tell how the whole thing will hold up, but for now I like it just fine and it stays on my belt almost every day.