DOWN UNDERThe Walkabout

DOWN UNDER knives make some beautiful knives, I own several of them. there are a couple problems with the WALKABOUT bowie I just received. I am comparing it to other DOWN UNDER knives that I own.knife. the blade is a beautiful mirror polish finish. the edge is not very sharp and the grind towards the tip section is off. the tip of the knife is dull. it will not cut paper like they show there knives doing. this knife should be shave sharp out of the box, it is not... the leather and brass are very nice, the brass has what looks like polishing marks, which indicates to me that the knife may have missed a step in the final polishing process...sheath. the leather appears to be a lower quality than other's I have. the alligator pattern they put on the front of the sheath is not centered, and looks like an after thought. I am amazed that there is no rivets on the high stress arias of the sheaths, especially on the larger knives. the stitching on the sheath does not look like it would hold up to being used an a daily basis. I have had leather sheath's and holsters custom made by saddle makers in the past, and the stitching they use is heavier and tighter. and they use brass rivets on all the high stress arias. I understand that this is not a custom made knife, but they pitch the knife as a super quality knife and in my opinion, the quality of the sheath is an indicator of the quality of the knife. I have German made production Bowies that have beautifully made sheaths, with saddle quality type leather. and the price point of them are about the same... the sheath that came with the knife kind of reminds me of a few PAKASTAN made sheaths I have, which I consider to be junk.It seems that the quality of this knife is not as good as other DOWN UNDER knives I own. I wish the leather was a higher build quality on all of the DOWN UNDER knives, especially the big Bowie's. Interestingly, the knife came with no paperwork. no care instructions, no thank you for buying a DOWN UNDER knife? all other's did, and the box appeared to be factory sealed... go figure?I am returning this knife for the reasons above. the seller is going to send me another WALKABOOUT that I hope is better than the first. I will let you know my finding's after I receive it. if it has the same problems as the first, I will return it and have to stop adding to my DOWN UNDER collection.SELLER has been ULTRA helpful, STELLAR customer service. they get (5) Stars. for being so quick to ship, quick to respond to my emails and as of now, could not be more happy with them.AMAZON. they keep a tight ship! no wonder they are such a sought after source to buy things. customer confidence is what they give. they do have the customers best interest as priority #1

Before ordering i tried to do some research and everything i found on this company was positive. 440c ok so its not a sword so i had no worries, i wasnt planning on bashing it or serious abuse. It wasnt until after it was in the mail i started stumbling upon some negative reviews. One video of a guy who broke his at the rat tail tang. Reading online 440c steel is actually a pretty good steel for knives but.. It has to be forged and tempered carefully. It cannot be forged in an open air forge, it must be heat treated in a purified, restricted or non decarbonizing atmosphere to preserve its alloy content and for best results cryo tempered in liquid nitrogen. It is also a very unforgiving steel as in if the forging falls short during the process theres no going back to fix it. I contacted the company and they finally got back to me with some very generic answers. The company is located in finland. They would not say where in asia these knives are made, they did say all the knives come through them for inspection? I asked about the forging and tempering process and again didnt get a straight answer other than them acknowledging that if it is not done right the steel will be ruined? I have to say i love the design of this knife, the handle is beautiful, it feels solid. The blade is thick and heavy and feels capable. Its shiny, almost too shiny? The blade was not very sharp and was very dull 2.5 inches to the tip. I attempted to sharpen and got it sharper but it will not take a hairsplitting edge like my silent hero? The blade also sharpened quickly which makes me think this blade is not hardened/tempered well? The sheath.... It is ok but i can see where its glued inside so idk how long it will stay together. The included sharpening steel i would not use it, it looks like you would scratch up and damage the blade. I had a feeling about that before ordering but i was hoping i could fit my ferro rod there instead, no luck its too small. My overall impression, a great looking collectors item, possibly a decent med to light use knife, but for almost $200 thats too much. I have some serious buyers remorse and was going to send it back but would have to pay the S&H myself plus a 20% restocking fee would be taking almost a $55 loss so i might as well keep it. I will be putting through some actual outdoor use over the next few weeks and will update my review. Until then ill leave it as 3 stars but i have to say right now i would not recommend this blade for almost $200. I have a feeling as soft as the steel seems it is not going to hold an edge long.8-22 Update 1 Ok i have not put this knife to use yet. I thought i should do a quick update though. I noticed the other day the sheath is scratching up the blade when you remove or replace it. They are light scratches and as shiny as this blade i didnt notice it at first but can certainly see it now. The top of the inside of the sheath is soft leather but after looking closer its only about 1.5 inch piece and past that its rough and dry. Damn.

The knife is pretty nice. Thick and heavy. It needed a bit of sharpening when I got it but no big deal. It's the little brother to the Outback which is an overly huge knife. It's so nice, that I like to remove it from the sheath, admire it and replace it within the sheath. But I noticed right away that doing so caused lots of fine horizontal scratches on the surface of the blade. It's obvious that there's something slightly abrasive inside the sheath and/or the glossy finish on the blade is sub-standard. I'm very disappointed in that regard but it's still a fun knife to have even if it's only a collectors item.

Just a great knife. Very sharp and feels great in my hand. Like it so much, i bought two.

A tremendous knife and a sheath to equal it.

I just received this knife on the mail came very sharp yes the tip was a little dull but I fixed that I love it very solid very heavy and a gorgeous knife the sheath sucks but the blade itself is absolutely amazing when I use it in the field I'll change my review but for know just holding it all I can sy is NOW THAT'S A KNIFE!! lol

I love it so much.

quality and price all good