Unbelievably great knife! As I heard in watching a few knife reviews, a few months ago, there's the question, is this a good knife -- for the money? And then there's the question, money matters aside, is this just a good knife? This Schrade answers both with a huge YES. This would be an epic knife at nearly any price, frankly, and the fact that it's forty bucks only makes it an even sweeter deal.Some time back, I invested in a Fallkniven A1, based on reviews, and, hey, it's a nice knife, but it just did not impress like I thought a few hundred bucks should. Stacked against this blade, the Shrade is a hands down winner, and I wish it had been released a few years back, since my A1 is mostly a wall decoration and doesn't get much use in the field. I do love the smaller Fallkniven S1, but a larger companion or solo all purpose bigger work horse has been a slot left empty.....until now!I was lucky enough to stumble across this in a promotional email from some mailing list I wound up on, and, on this rare occasion, I was actually glad to be on a junk mail list! The knife looked beefy and solid, and, after doing my research, I could see it showed a lot of promise and was impressing everyone who took it out for a spin.I ordered it up, and, after a few months of use, I had to add to the current five star review to echo my absolute happiness.What I love -- takes a razor edge, stays sharp through use and abuse, EXCELLENT feel in the hand, stays put through any task, and, despite seeming a "large" knife it remains incredibly versatile, and I don't find myself needing to switch blades too often, since it handles finer tasks as easily as the bigger jobs. Clear brush, do some machete work, then chop, baton, split, go on to create stick kindling and wood shavings -- just this one tool does it all. It is amazing how sturdy and solid it feels, yet avoids being cumbersome or unwieldy in the hand -- it's rare to get a knife that can be "a whole lot of knife" when it needs to be, without having to be set aside for suddenly becoming "too much knife" within a variety of tasks.Take this one bad boy and a trust EDC along, and you really do have about as much steel as you'd need.True, you don't get a stunning leather sheath (the sheath of the A1, for example is a work of art, a real beauty -- more attractive than the knife itself, almost!) and I'd say that's the trade off perhaps in a forty dollar blade -- BUT, the nylon sheath provided (with protective blade insert) is no slouch. It's definitely not a "cheap sleeve" like many lower priced knives provide. It is a bit ungainly maybe, but it does the job in securing the blade and, let's face it, we can always get another sheath! But the BLADE itself is the real steal here and it easily can stand alongside knives ten times the price point.This is apparently the newest version of an already popular Schrade model, and all of what I've read says they took that well-liked blade and basically addressed/fixed all of what folks didn't love about it -- a better coating on the blade, extended handle, improved grip, got rid of extra/annoying jimping, and provided that little elbow kind of bend, at the butt end, so the knife never slips out of your hand, even with a more rearward grip for chopping tasks. So, it's a great blade made even that much more brilliant. How about that, for a company actually listening to its customers! Pretty impressive, I'd say.There's really nothing NOT to love about this knife. To speak to Schrade's efforts here, for which they deserve much congratulations, even the "accessory" pieces included are great performers. The front pocket of the sheath comes with a sharpening stone and a fire starter rod. Often, included freebies like this are a mere token to pretty up a purchase, and sometimes are kind of useless on lower end knives, but the diamond sharpening block here is a good size and is actually useful. The ferro rod, with striker attached, is top notch and better than a lot of the supposed "survival" ones out there -- so not only can you fully prep a fire with this blade (and sharpen it up afterward), but you can ignite your fire with the excellent rod and striker that puts out a very significant shower of flame-starting sparks.I'm really glad I took a chance on this knife -- there's the old adage of getting what you pay for, but in this case you get a product that far exceeds the asking price. You could pay far more and still NOT get this kind of quality and performance.If Schrade keeps this up, I'm sure I'll be adding a lot more Schrade blades in the future!Bottom Line: I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!