Ontario Knife Company 498 Marine Fixed Blade Knife - Black

Another great knife from Ontario, these people know how to make a knife, beautifully balanced and lays in your hand perfectly. Holds a good edge, surprisingly light for the size and for whatever reason simply feels good in your hand, buy one!

not quite as sharp as i thought, but is strong and has been used many times in the forest, still my goto knife for most tasks

Very impressed with the overall product

You're only as sharp as your knife. This is the only survival knife I need.

Doesnt come sharp, but its been thrown, used for chopping and splitting logs it has earned my respect. Tough knife, keeps an edge fairly well. Its my go to camping knife and does what ever i need it to do

Exact same knife I was issued in the Marine Corps. If you want a knife that will last through anything, this is it. However, these knifes are NOT designed for prying, they are brittle by MIL-SPEC DESIGN. They are a true combat knife and as such, you WILL break the tip or edge if you use them inappropriately such as trying to use it as a wood chisel with a hammer. I would recommend a Kydex sheath for Molle gear, but you can get by with the one provided. This is a no frills, ugly duck; so ugly she's beautiful. That said, if you are into bling such as gold chains around your neck, 24" gold plated rims on your Monte Carlo, pass it up. If you want form to fit function, this is it. This knife can and should be sharpened if you want to 'slice cut' with it. I would caution you on trying to put too much of an edge on it because it is made of Parkerized (brittle) high carbon steel, FOR COMBAT REASONS. A thin edge can easily chip the edge if you get too energetic while chopping something or using it to pry something open, and you WILL EVENTUALLY BREAK IT. IT IS A COMBAT KNIFE. PERIOD. It is designed to do that exact thing! If you want to chop wood, use an axe. If you want to pry nails or car doors, use a nail puller. Use it for those other things and that's outside the scope of what it was designed for. Those of us trained in combat knife tactics and use- know the phrase "thrust, twist, break it off." That not only applies here- but also to rifle bayonet training. Skippy, you simply can't 'break it off' when the knife gets stuck in your enemy combatant's rig cage if the steel isn't brittle enough to break from a nice upward or downward prying action. THAT is part of the Mil-Spec of this knife- and all bayonets after WW2. Want proof? Look at the steel on a WW1 bayonet and one from Vietnam. Very different. What this knife is: IT IS SIMPLE, COST EFFECTIVE, NO CHROME, NO GADGETS, NO FRILLS, durable, hard as nails, can be sharpened (if you are smart enough to know how), serious military combat knife. What it is NOT: a Deer Skinner, a fishing fillet knife, a paper cutter (still scratching my head on that one), a car window smashing tool, a hammer, a screwdriver, it's not tacti-cool (Oh gosh, what what will we do?), doesn't come with a Kydex doo-dad sheath, a compass, gps, a saw back, knitting needles, doesn't take batteries, you can't plug it in, you can't text from it, and it won't make you cool, good looking or attract women, men, animals or robots. It is not ready to cut paper right out of the box, pluck gnats off your dog's hairy globes, shave your girlfriends back, or provide the secret squirrel password to your video games. There. That pretty much covers it. Buy one, if you don't like it, sell it on EBay, Amazon, Craigslist, whatever. It won't be the first time your threw away money at something you didn't like. Won't be the last either.

A fantastic knife! It's my favorite camp knife!

Its a good knife, great length, long enough to fight, short enough for detail work ..Enough of a curve at the tip to skin with. Sharp point to penetrate easily. Blade is light, and fast to handle, good in a fight, Handle is grips well wet or dry, and sized to fit a wide variety of hands. Perfect. This is an mli spec US issue knife, it is phosphate finished this allows for more oil retention on blade. Steel is 1095, a spring steel used forever for knife blades, it sharpens fairly easily but holds an edge very well. Far better than the normal mass produced stainless junk available everywhere today. Yes it can rust if you don't oil it and don't prep the sheath right. Allowing it to do so indicates a failure in the owner not the blade. The rat tail tang is larger than the WWII version. addressing the failures of the first Kabars. No sane outdoorsman would / should pry with a knife any way. I noticed some reviewers complaining about the factory edge, My specimen was received sharp. It was sharpened on a belt like every other factory blade I've bought in the last thirty years. Granted the belt was coarser than I like , but it would shave hair. Frankly if your old enough to order this knife and you don't know how to sharpen a knife , you don't have any business owning one. Seriously time to man up. Splitting wood [batoning] with any knife is abuse, pure and simple, Axes are for chopping , knives are for CUTTING. Use the right tool for the right job! I have had a number of these over the years a couple of WWII specimens that were carried with 1st marines(uncles), a Korean war specimen(dads) Vietnam specimen, mid 80's specimen and current issue. Some are treasured heirlooms who saw their owner though some rough times. some are working knives that have been carried on more pleasant adventures. They have all served well, Handling any thing thrown at them. If i could only own one knife, this would be it. When you receive yours , line the box with aluminiumn foil put sheath and blade in box bottom .Pour either mineral oil or olive oil in box ; immersing. in the oil. Let set for 48 hours, or as long as you can stand it. this will saturate the leather . drain and wipe excess off. Repeat as needed .About once every 5 or so years. The oil protects the blade from rust and protects the leather as well .Wipe blood off of blade before reinserting in sheath, Now I know some of you 21st century types will buy a plastic sheath, they are noisy in the field, rattling on brush . noisy when drawing knife ,and prone to break when your on the back side of the world. You're carrying a knife that GI 's have depended on for 75 years and 5 wars ; carry it in leather the way they have. With a 7 " blade you may have issues carrying this blade; depending on you locality, unfortunately we live in a politically correct sissified world. Check your state and local laws. I have to have a permit to carry ANY fixed blade in my state. AND IM WEST OF THE MISSISSIPI RIVER A 5" knife is about as short as a utility knife can be and be useful; I think 7" is more versatile These knives have a tradition of being liberated .Military lost quite a few that way. You will need to buy one for your son too, before he liberates yours. I believe this knife is superior to the Ka bar in everyway. The overall design makes a great utility knife. Its not fancy, but its durable ,holds an edge and is a time proven winner . For under 50 bucks what more could you ask for?

The knife has a 7" blade with a 5" handle. The handle is a painted stacked leather handle with a pinned pommel while the blade is .165" thick and is made out of 1095 carbon steel with a zinc phosphate finish. The 498 has a rat-tail tang and comes with a black leather sheath. It is an ugly knife but because it is ugly, you won't be afraid to use it. that's the reason I got it. I have used the knife as a pry-bar, can opener, and as a hammer. After a couple of months, the knife has held up well. The 498 is easy to sharpen and has a decent edge retention. The only problem I had with the knife is when I bent the guard while using it but I was able to bend it back with pliers. the guard is a bit easy to bend so be careful not to hit it. The finish is starting to wear off but it held up surprisingly well. Overall, it is a VERY good high quality knife. Oh and it's made by the Ontario Knife Company right here in the USA.