Schrade Knives SCHF40L

Schrade Knives SCHF40L Survival Knife

I recently received another box of goodies from Taylor Brands and when I opened it up I saw a huge green Schrade box inside. I had received the SCHF40L for review and I was pretty tickled from the moment I opened the box. The SCHF40L is one of the really large offerings in the survival knife lineup at Scharde.

The design of the SCHF40L is quite different from the previous survival offerings. Much of that new design is in the sheath. This one is a combination of nylon webbing and hard glass filled nylon that gives the user a lot of options. The sheath offers a snap closure and a generous nylon belt loop with MOLLE compatible backing. While the snap closure may offer peace of mind I find it somewhat unnecessary due to the grip of the mouth of the glass filled nylon portion of the sheath. This positive retention is one of my favorite aspects of the sheath. The glass filled nylon portion of the sheath is removable and can be used alone. Another nice addition to this package can be found on the back side of the glass filled nylon portion of the sheath; a sharpening stone has been mounted for field sharpening.

As for the knife itself; the SCHF40L is nearly 8 inches of powder coated 420J2 stainless steel with a full tang inside a glass filled nylon grip. The drop point blade has an ample serration and both the plain and serrated edges are quite sharp from the box. The blade is fairly balanced so it’s not intended for chopping tasks but more as na all around task blade.

As a test I chopped a sizable oak tree down with the SCHF40L and found the blade up to the task. The coating on the blade held up perfectly. The edge suffered from the task a bit. After chopping the tree the blade wasn’t sharp enough to shave paper any longer but it was able to carve and shave wood for a feather stick without issue. The thin one sided serrations shouldn’t be used in such a task and the result was a slight bend in the tips of the first couple teeth. This was easily corrected with a serration sharpening tool. On the up side the blade remained smooth and shows no chipping despite the blade being stainless. All in all, I call this a win in the face of such abuse.