TOPS Knives Lite Trekker Survival Operator TLT01 Operators Black

Did not come with the bare area on the spine for using on a ferro rod.

This knife is quite light in the hand, and due to the narrow blade width, has a good handle diameter for smaller hands. The edge came hair-shaving sharp. I haven't batoned with this yet, but I wouldn't try to split anything wider than 2". I removed one star from my review because my knife didn't come with the bare 90 degree spine to use as a fire steel striker. I'm not sure if they forgot to add it or if this one doesn't come with it. If you look at the Tops website, most of the photographs there show the bare spot on the spine. There is no model number listed on the Tops website for this knife, only the variations of the same knife with different colored handles. Amazon lists different model numbers, but nobody seems to indicate whether the specific model they're selling has the bare spot on the spine. Tops should make this clear on their website, and I wish the seller had indicated it in the product description. Also, the fire steel Tops supplies with this knife tries too hard to do too many things. The flint ends up being very small in diameter to make room for the two magnesium pieces. I highly recommend upgrading the factory fire steel to the www.firesteel.com SHTF fire steel. At 7/16" x 3.15", it is the exact diameter and length for a precise friction fit into the fire steel holster on the sheath. If you get the model with the striker attached to the paracord lanyard, you can shorten the paracord an appropriate amount and loop it around the sheath between the sheath and the belt clip so you'll likely never lose it, even as the you use the fire steel and the diameter starts to shrink. The factory fire steel/magnesium rod was re-purposed into a small Altoids tin emergency kit. This knife also comes with the Tops whistle, and they apparently added a new "freebie" of a small section of hacksaw blade. The hacksaw blade is not the proper steel composition to create sparks from the fire steel. The hacksaw blade also went into the Altoids tin.

Excellent knife from a great company, hand made in the USA. Check out the Tops factory tour video on YouTube to see the type of craftsmanship they put into every knife. I bought this after extensive research, and for my uses this knife fits the bill exactly. I wanted a lightweight fixed blade to carry while camping that could be used for anything from preparing kindling and batoning slightly heavier stuff to preparing dinner. I use this knife in combination with a hatchet and folding saw for all my needs while camping. In my opinion it's a great all rounder. Comes with a high quality kydex sheath that holds the knife and included firestarter very securely, and has a 360 degree rotating clip. All in all great product, razor sharp right out of the box, and a home run for a vast variety of tasks. I will absolutely be buying Tops products again.

Great product