ESEEPR4 Fixed Blade Survival Knife –Field Tested, Durable and Reliable Bushcraft Knife with Dark Tan Sheath, Ideal for Survival, Outdoor Use, and EDC

I was searching for a Kephart style knife, but wanted something more robust than an Old Hickory, and different from the traditional walnut handle and specs laid out by Kephart like the K-Bar Becker Kephart.So, first Impressions??I waited 36 hours from the time I ordered it to the time it arrived! Outstanding!It arrived in a box. Cool in and of itself. I hate getting knives floating around in mylar envelopes. This particular box has some survival type info printed on the back. I need to look at it further when I have time. But it's a nice touch.The knife showed up sharp from the factory. A quick pass down my arm shaved hair cleanly! On a paper test, no burrs or imperfections on the cutting edge! Next was the feather stick test. I effortlessly made both fine and thicker curls, which readily took a flame using my ferro rod. The 90 degree spine is sharp!The blade finish is called Tumbled Black Oxide. Basically a stone wash with High Tech Rust added on top. Sort of a fancy forced patina. Looks cool. We'll see how it holds up.The blade itself is quite nice. With a high saber grind. A Kephart like spear point. And a rugged feel. It immediately says, "I can get the job done, any job"The knife has a slight handle heavy bias. The balance point is just behind the first bolt. But it feels nice and neutral in hand. The HTR coating is on the spine where the slabs are. But ground off out front on the blade. Presumably for fire steel striking and shaving tinder.I like rounded pommels. So I can tap or pound with the palm of my hand for splitting down kindling into smaller sizes. With the placement of the spine above the slabs. I'm guessing you could beat on the pommel with a stick and incur little or no damage to the handle scales.The handle. I was at first put off by the thinness of the handle from what I was reading on the internet. They’re perfect!As you can see. The micarta slabs are quite thin. They are also quite polished.Yesterday was just a quick test drive. But even in the pouring down rain. The knife always felt secure in my hands. I may have preferred the slabs to be rougher in texture. I figure it's easier to rough them up. If I go that route. Than it would be to polish them up.I read somewhere that the knife wanted to twist in the hand. I didn't get that then. After yesterday, I still don't. The slabs are thin, but vertically, the handle is wide. It locks in pretty good in my hand. No rolling forces exhibited. More testing needed.I will add.The shape of many handles seems to want to force my hands forward towards the blade when I'm working a knife. The PR-4 had no such effect. It was just kind of neutral. My hand stayed where I put it. Nice.Overall, the knife has enough going for it, to make me want to go back out and try more projects. That is a good sign.You have to give some credit to a knife company that takes chances. Even if you don't like what chances they are taking. Innovation arrives from chance taking. I applaud them for that.Is this knife for you??Probably.Is this knife for me??.Most definitely!Hope this helps folks who have been pondering this knife.

This is my fourth Esee, I own an Izula (in venom), 3 (in venom) and 4 (tan with micarta). They are all great in their own ways however I do prefer the 4 size and the Izula the most. I decided on the pr4 after going back and forth between it and the rb3. Nothing wrong with the rb3 but decided I wanted the spear point Kephart style more.I was afraid the handle would be too long but it's perfect, I usually wear a medium size glove. The handle isn't too long or narrow, it might be for those with an XL glove hand size but medium to large is fine. Small hands may find the handle longer than needed but it will fit and be comfortable I'm sure.The spine is thinner than a standard Esee 4 but still plenty thick enough and makes for a better slicer, which the 4 does perfectly fine. This is basically an Esse 4 minus the choil and is more of a hunter shape than a tactical. It's a great camp and hunting knife with a really nice and thick leather sheath.It is a fine knife well worth the money and if on the fence, just buy it. It does all the 4 will do but without a drop point style blade. It's a situation of just picking the style you like the looks of better. I prefer the spear point over the drop point, in a camp style/hunting style knife but would readily take either if I had to.Esee knives are just solid tools with one of the best warranties you could eve hope for.

I am by no means a primordial God of the wilderness. That being said, I would honestly say I'm pretty far towards the right side of the bell curve when it comes to outdoors experience.I am also not an ESEE fanboy. I do have an ESEE-5 that has taken some serious beatings on three continents and come back thirsty for more. The ESEE-5 is a massive chunker, and was great for everything from carving holes in mud walls to chopping up shipping crates to cutting straps and prying open doors. It's a great knife that has a purpose, and this review isn't about that knife.It's a classic Kephart design. It doesn't look mean, it doesn't look TACTICAL, it doesn't look like it might kill a man just to watch it die. The 1095 steel is old fashioned, but whatever trade secrets Rowen (the company that does the heat treating for ESEE) is holding makes 1095 blossom into a seriously impressive performer.After recently trying a couple of brands and models, including some marketed towards "bushcraft", I picked up a PR4 fully expecting to hate the handle and being ready to buy one of the aftermarket Micarta sets that a couple makers are offering. That didn't happen.Instead, on its first trip out last year to the family acreage where I like to tool around in the woods, I took it as my only knife and gave it a hard three day evaluation. It was on my hip any time I had pants on, and I used it for everything from food prep to fire prep, debarking and carving a standing dead poplar sapling to make a walking pole for the swamp, and carving notches in timber to repair and extend a lean-to.I didn't do anything crazy, like use it as a piton to repel down a thousand foot rock face, or baton it through an oak with a diameter double the blade length. I did process all my firewood for 3 days using it and a cudgel, including quite a lot of baton work through wrist and calf sized white oak, poplar, smaller hickory, jack pine, and hemlock, all of which it handled without complaint. A couple quick touch ups and it was ready to absolutely breeze through fish, rabbit, and porcupine.The balance is superb. There is exactly enough steel in the blade to make the knife strong enough to do anything you might want to do with it in the woods, aside from perhaps chop through a car door or dig a drainage ditch in rocky soil. The profile of the blade makes it easy to touch up, and also easy to use different parts of the blade distinctly for different tasks. I did some basic leatherwork using various grips including a pinch grip near the tip of the blade and found it comfortable for extremely delicate work. I also didn't find any hot spots with a classic power grip while batoning.The handle is shockingly comfortable even for my large hands with long fingers, and aside from adding a short, fat tassel to the pommel to make it easier to pull out of the deep (and well made) leather sheath, I've done nothing to it but the occasional touch-up on a pocket stone and a small bit of oil before putting it away between trips.Honestly, for what I'm looking for (a woods knife), this one is going to be just about impossible to beat without going full custom. I actually ended up giving away a handful of knives (a Garberg, a Falkniven F-1, and a couple of Bushlores/Mini Bushlores) that I wasn't necessarily displeased with because I just didn't need them anymore, and the older boys at the family camp trip didn't have more than a couple of cheap pocket knives between them.