Ka-Bar is known for making solid, reliable knives that are usually in the medium-low price range of quality knives. Their Zombie line that came out a few years ago features four large different blades with black coating and interchangeable black or bright lime ("toxic") green handle scales. A small task knife and some 550-like cord are also included in a large sheath. (Smaller Zombie line knives are now available, as well, including versions of the Dozier folder.)
I found the "Zombie Death Dagger" on a dramatic sale by BladeHQ last week. While not my favorite blade shape, I did like it better than some of the others. The steel is the perfectly adequate SK-5, and the knife was made in Taiwan. I figured that, for the price, it was hard NOT to buy a Ka-Bar with an 8.5" blade for less than $35 shipped!
Initial impressions: The box is fairly attractive, black with just a few toxic green accents. The sheath is close to being terrific. At least one review I saw online claimed that the sheath itself was worth the cost of the knife, and that's almost true.
The top of the knife has two straps, each secured with a snap. I can get the lower one on, which is enough to hold the knife in, but I haven't yet been able to manage to snap the top strap shut. Also, the little Archeron task knife has its own pouch, nicely lined with a hard liner. A strap with snap goes over this pouch, too.
The Archeron has a skeletonized handle with two main spaces.
If the snap fit through the top of the Aracheron, the little knife would be almost impossible to accidentally dislodge. The snap only fits through the bottom space, however. This is still fairly secure, but it would have been so easy to ensure it was completely secure.
The Cordura sheath in other respects seems very well made. There is room for a few additional small items in a pouch on the outside of the sheath.
I think the there is no real point to the "squiggle" in the Archeron's blade. I believe the blade shape might make sense on a defensive knife, but detracts from utility on a task knife, while making it harder to sharpen.
The ZDD is a fairly good weight and balance. It's obviously much more a thruster than a chopper. The problem is the handle.
The handle was probably designed with the idea of being able to use multiple grips...but it's an abject failure. The over-prominent finger ridge 1/3 of the way down the handle ensure that working with the knife for more than a few minutes will be painful. If the handle was smaller, it could probably be comfortably held. If the user tries to get a low hold for maximum leverage, just holding under the finger ridge, there's not enough handle for even my medium-small hands to get a secure grip.
There's an additional problem. All of the large Zombie knives appear to have the same handle. On dedicated choppers like the Pestilence, an upper guard is probably superfluous, but in the case of an outright dagger, for once, at least a small upper guard would have been a better choice than the ridged thumb ramp that's present.
This knife will be unsuitable for actual working. I'm going to send mine to someone to grind off the stupid finger ridge. I think the Zombie theme is cute, so long as the knives can actually be used. I am disappointed that no-one at Ka-Bar has realized these handles are badly designed.
The ZDD is out of production. I was going to wait to post a review until I had some time to see if the blade was capable of doing a decent job of slicing, piercing, and chopping light brush, but an email today has motivated me.
I am making this thread today because CDNN has the ZDD at an even lower, incredible price of $19.99. BladeHQ completely sold out theirs for $5 more.
So, the handle isn't well designed, but it's up to you to decide whether you're willing to drop the price of a mediocre small folder on a large knife by a company with good QC...which happens to have a cruddy handle.
John
I found the "Zombie Death Dagger" on a dramatic sale by BladeHQ last week. While not my favorite blade shape, I did like it better than some of the others. The steel is the perfectly adequate SK-5, and the knife was made in Taiwan. I figured that, for the price, it was hard NOT to buy a Ka-Bar with an 8.5" blade for less than $35 shipped!
Initial impressions: The box is fairly attractive, black with just a few toxic green accents. The sheath is close to being terrific. At least one review I saw online claimed that the sheath itself was worth the cost of the knife, and that's almost true.
The top of the knife has two straps, each secured with a snap. I can get the lower one on, which is enough to hold the knife in, but I haven't yet been able to manage to snap the top strap shut. Also, the little Archeron task knife has its own pouch, nicely lined with a hard liner. A strap with snap goes over this pouch, too.
The Archeron has a skeletonized handle with two main spaces.
If the snap fit through the top of the Aracheron, the little knife would be almost impossible to accidentally dislodge. The snap only fits through the bottom space, however. This is still fairly secure, but it would have been so easy to ensure it was completely secure.
The Cordura sheath in other respects seems very well made. There is room for a few additional small items in a pouch on the outside of the sheath.
I think the there is no real point to the "squiggle" in the Archeron's blade. I believe the blade shape might make sense on a defensive knife, but detracts from utility on a task knife, while making it harder to sharpen.
The ZDD is a fairly good weight and balance. It's obviously much more a thruster than a chopper. The problem is the handle.
The handle was probably designed with the idea of being able to use multiple grips...but it's an abject failure. The over-prominent finger ridge 1/3 of the way down the handle ensure that working with the knife for more than a few minutes will be painful. If the handle was smaller, it could probably be comfortably held. If the user tries to get a low hold for maximum leverage, just holding under the finger ridge, there's not enough handle for even my medium-small hands to get a secure grip.
There's an additional problem. All of the large Zombie knives appear to have the same handle. On dedicated choppers like the Pestilence, an upper guard is probably superfluous, but in the case of an outright dagger, for once, at least a small upper guard would have been a better choice than the ridged thumb ramp that's present.
This knife will be unsuitable for actual working. I'm going to send mine to someone to grind off the stupid finger ridge. I think the Zombie theme is cute, so long as the knives can actually be used. I am disappointed that no-one at Ka-Bar has realized these handles are badly designed.
The ZDD is out of production. I was going to wait to post a review until I had some time to see if the blade was capable of doing a decent job of slicing, piercing, and chopping light brush, but an email today has motivated me.
I am making this thread today because CDNN has the ZDD at an even lower, incredible price of $19.99. BladeHQ completely sold out theirs for $5 more.
So, the handle isn't well designed, but it's up to you to decide whether you're willing to drop the price of a mediocre small folder on a large knife by a company with good QC...which happens to have a cruddy handle.
John
