Honeybadger Flipper Camping Knife - Black, Medium

This is an early review of this knife. It may change over time. Right now I am impressed with the fit and function of this knife. It opens with a light flick and feels secure with the liner lock. The blade came shaving sharp and hasn't needed a touch up yet. This model has the D-2 steel blade and it is worth the extra money. It has a deep carry pocket clip that works nicely. Others have mentioned a problem with opening or the lock malfunctioning. I have had no problems of any kind with this knife. I have opened and closed it over 100 times now with no problems. Each time I use it I purposely open and close it 10 or 20 times as a test and I'm pleased with the action and feelof this knife. I highly recommend this knife to anyone locking for a light weight EDC. This is the medium sized model. Big enough to handle your EDC needs.

This knife was bought after seeing online buzz about "Honey Badger" knives on YouTube & blogs.Initial impression: The knife seems well built, came well packed, was delivered quite quickly.Lockup is solid, blade is well centered when closed, knife flips easily will fall closed but won't deploy when given a hard shake.Knife was not shaving sharp as it came. I sharpened it after checking it out initially... Used another South African product to do that, a Warthog sharpener. Kind of a theme going on here? Apparently, factory sharpened to about 15°, I chose to sharpen at 17.5° with a micro bevel li at 20° due to experience with other D2 blades as EDC.I have previously tried several versions of budget D2 knives by Ganzo/Firebird. This knife costs nearly 2X the price of these (rather decent value for price) knives. The thin, tough FRN handles are a plus over the thicker, heavier, more susceptible to impact dammage G10 scales of those Ganzos. After sharpening this one, I believe the blade steel of the Honey Badger is also left a bit harder than the Ganzo knives.See the 3 knife side by side photos to compare Medium D2 Honey Badger with Ganzo/Firebird #21 and #71, a couple of my favorite Chinese D2 picket knives. Honey Badger is 20 to 26 grams lighter, quite noticeably thinner and disappeared into my pocket more easily. The Honey Badger has more liner skeletonizing than the FG71, is much lighter. Slimmer than the FG21, as nd a bit lighter too. All 3 cut quite well, will add more to this review after I get a feel for edge durability.Compared to such knives as the Ganzo FH12, FH21 or FH41 which I have regularly carried? This knife is a bit easier to carry, thinner, lighter. I like the handle texturing, I expect the Honey Badger FRN scales to be more durable (we shall see?). The blade is apparently harder, will report further about edge durability after a couple of sharpening cycles.

Update; I did a run of G10 scales for my medium Honey Badgers. Makes me like the knives even more (See pics). Hopefully Western Active will start producing them with G10 scales too.Action is very smooth, locks up tight with no play. Blade came very sharp. Nice ergos. Looks great. Blade centering is good. What makes this D2 version stand tall amongst it's peers are the usable blade vs. handle length proportions... The sturdy .130" thick blade is 3.19" long, but has a full 3.1" of actual, usable, sharpenable, cutting edge that's completely uniterupted by thumb studs, grind lines, finger choils, etc., and is housed in a very pocketable 4.09" handle. Full 3" of usable blade, with less than a 1" increase in handle length over blade length... I don't know of any other knife in it the 3" class that can make a similar claim. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because as-delivered the pocket clip had little tension, and therefore gave rather poor retention. I removed the clip, gave it about .060" squeeze between padded vise jaws, reinstalled, and now it has the tension a pocket clip should have, without being too tight (the torx wrench included in the box was a nice gesture, but the teeth broke off the wrench like glass with little effort... if you need to disassemble the knife or move the pocket clip, might be a good idea to have good-quality T-6 and T-8 bits at the ready:-)

I've seen this one evolve over a couple years, and they are clearly listening and improving it - upgraded steel (D2), pocket clip has a nice subtle honey badger instead of loudly announced company print, left-hand carry option. For this price, I can find no flaw but the jimping on the nylon right where the flipper is (just a personal preference from a fidgeter). One super classy thing I love: the pivot pin and screw are perfectly symmetrical in size, fit and finish - you have to look closely to see the torx teeth - job well done! This one behaves better than most $100 knives...

Have 3 previous configurations of this knife prior to the addition of D2 steel. Absolutely love the original 3 and bucked up and purchased the D2 version in medium size. The loss of the finger choil did not bother me as much as I thought. Actually appreciate the additional blade space. Really appreciate the simple appointments of the badger markings on the blade and pocket clips as well. Ergonomics are unchanged. Almost seems like the refining process has declined on this version of the knife. Lots of sharper edges on the plastic that need to be sanded down or they scrape up your hands. Also, don't know whether to consider this a positive or negative, but the pocket clips actually sits above the knife, allowing the knife t to be invisible in the pocket. However, it looks funky in the hands like this. Overall, it is a relatively inexpensive knife, but for the extra cost of the D2, I personally don't think it is worth it. Stick with the original version or look at the offerings from so many other companies for a sub $70 knife.