Made by whom and where is the big question for me.

I hope Ontario comes back to life.  They are about the only company I know of making bayonets like the M7, M9, and the Marine Corp version.

JMHO.

I would love to see Ontario revived under NEW ownership, last guy fucked them up big-time. Some changes I would like to see (mostly reversing stupid stuff they did that led to their downfall).

1. Dump that 1075 stuff. Use 1095 or better yet see the following points.

2. Start using 5160 again.

3. The real revolution in carbon steel is now 3V thanks to improvements in heat treat (thank you Nathan Carrothers!), USE IT.

4. Harden your blades all the way though the tang. Yes a knife is not a prybar, but sometimes you do need to pry a bit with it, a blade that's 7-10 inches long with 1/4" thick stock, SHOULD be able to handle some prying. Nobody likes a broken blade, but nobody likes a blade that easily takes a bend either, or to be told once it's bent that they just need to pound it straight with a hammer FFS.

IMO they just didn't handle the youtoobers who were/are trashing knives doing stupid shit properly, most makers simply said abuse isn't covered under warranty, Ontario reacted instead by going soft on materials so stuff would bend or deform instead of breaking/chipping.

Older Ontario blades in 5160 are really nice. And the older 1095 blades work fine too, was a great value for big knives.

The RTAK in 1095 was a huge mistake, that really got the ball rolling. Big long blade in 1095 would have been okay, IF they hadn't done that full flat grind, IMO that grind is only useful for kitchen knives, there's so little edge support, doesn't surprise me they chipped like crazy. Later they switched to 5160 though and it did better, but then a few years later they stopped using 5160 on anything.

ETA: Rant over, lol, sorry about that, just was a fan of Ontario and it sucked watching them go down, I have some really nice knives from them. I hope new ownership steers the ship in the right direction.

Yeah their 5160 was great. I have a Bushcraft Woodsman? in 5160 before they switched over to some shit stainless. Awesome blade.


Their Gen II SP series knives were great values.
I loved to rehandle them as they were such bargains. I believe this was 5160 also.

Funny, my sheath started to disintegrate.

Well that is disappointing. I’ve noticed that some of the leather and/or nylon sheaths are made in Chyna.

Here’s a post from the OKC website about 1095 vs 1075: 1095 - 1075 Switch
I don’t know enough about knife blade steel to have any opinion; just posting as FYI.

I recently picked up an Ontario Ranger Knives NS-4: CKW- Ranger Knives “RD4” fixed blade factory second

Despite what the description says, it’s actually a NS4 (Night Stalker), with a recurve blade. The cosmetic defect is in the wood handle, and could be lived with. Like the reviews at the link say, this thing is a BEAST. The tang is slightly over 1/4 inch thick. I picked up a G10 handle from The Knife Connection, and it really makes the knife even more of a BEAST. Well worth the money, IMO.

Very nice! Yep, I have have several of the SP knives, good stout blades. And I have a couple of the 5160 blades, a Ranger RD4 and a giant SP-53 bolo.

Wife has one of the SP-10's, she's a tiny lady that likes giant blades like that, lol. Problem is she has an anaphylactic allergy to latex, and the handle material has just enough in it to cause her to react. I dealt with it in the interim by covering with camo cloth tape and sealing with fiberglass resin, but one of these days I really would like to re-do it with stacked leather, I just have never done one and don't know where to start.

I read that when it came out, and his posts on Bladeforums. My impression, and I could be wrong, was that he himself was actually not very happy about it, or them dumping 5160, or any of several other things they did, but as a loyal employee he was toeing the company line and defending their bad decisions.

Keep in mind that this is the guy who almost singlehandedly resurrected carbon steel blades while working at Cold Steel, i.e. Carbon V, I can't believe he was happy about regressing to soft blades and softer steels.

Having owned some Carbon V blades back in the 90's, I can tell you that was outstanding steel. And Carbon V was essentially 1095 with some additions, very similar to Kabar's 1095 Cro-Van. So I have a hard time believing the guy turned his back willingly on his greatest success in carbon steels.

Wow, that's a smokin deal, I bought one for a buddy for a birthday gift many years ago, almost didn't give it up after I messed with it for a while, lol. I paid like 75 bucks IIRC.