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Wednesday 24 August 2016

Survival Bear Claw Review

Aphoristic Does Bushcraft


5x Survival Bear Claw Pack


Price: £3.98 for 5 bear claws free shipping
Manufacturer: Unknown
Design: Hawk Bill neck Knife/Bear claw
Description: Survival Finger Knife/ Neck knife / Bear claw x5
Shipped From: China
What's in the Packet?: 5x Stainless steel Bear claws each with leatherette pouche and paracord lanyard
Vendor: Seller via ebay


First Impressions
I came across these things purely by accident by way of a YouTube video about survival. A guy in the US was raving on about how good these were for a wide range of practical uses - including as a last line self defence weapon!. At the end of the review the guy recommended these finger knives for EDC (every day carry) use. You can forget that! The 'Points' and 'blades' law here in the UK is very strict when it comes to carrying a knife in a public place without good reason concealed or not. (even your car is considered a public place!) So perhaps it's not advisable to wear one of these everyday depending where you live. - But that's a side issue of ownership and not a deal breaker for me at least.
I ordered these in a bundle of 5 for just under £4 including postage. That's less than a pound each so if these turned out to be crap it wouldn't be the end of the world in financial terms.

In little over two weeks the package arrived. Inside we the 5 claws each in their own faux leather sheath. Attached to each little knife was a small loop of black paracord.  On first glance this tiny lanyard seems a little pointless but it soon becomes obvious that its real purpose is for allowing the knife to be drawn by finger at a moments notice - the self defence aspect.

Each finger claw is made from a thick piece of stainless steel.
A thicker gage of metal that I had expected. It's really tough and not likely to bend under pressure.
Placed along the top and bottom edges of the knife are grip cuts in the steel. These add grip once a finger has been placed through the hole.

The faux leather sheath is pretty crap to be honest, it's not the best quality but it does house the blade adequately. Each sheath has two holes pre-drilled which are intended for threading paracord to make a neck lanyard if desired.
All in all, great quality knives

Hawk bill design with grip cuts top and bottom


Testing
Using this tool is really easy. by inserting your first, second or third finger through the large hole on the side your hand becomes a potent cutting tool.  You can of course put one on every finger if you feel the urge.
This Knife only has a small one inch blade. That doesn't sound very exciting. However, due to the Hawk Bill design and blade thickness this knife manages to perform very well across a number of applications regardless of having a short cutting surface.
Starting with the easy tasks like box opening, fruit peeling and cloth cutting posed no resistance. Moving on to thicker materials like bark stripping, leather and wood carving and again the knife didn't break a sweat. I can see the potential of this item in a survival situation. I totally get it.
Simple but impressive


Rating: ✅✅✅✅  5 out of 5
Practical, good looking and best of all CHEAP! - despite the 1 inch blade it's good enough for most applications and it won't buckle or bend.  Better than a Swiss army blade.