[Mr. X]

Magpie kindly let me have his old Effesub knife. I thought I would post some impressions for others who might be interested.

The size & shape of the knife are just what I was looking for & quite clear from the above images. A few things surprised me when the knife arrived. The metal used is somewhat thicker than I had expected and consequently the knife is quite heavy despite its diminutive size. It uses a less shiney stainless steel like my cheap but good Taiwanese spearo knife.

I cleaned the knife up with an oil stone & was shocked when the tip snapped off!! Fortunately it was only a small piece and I was able to reform a new tip with file & sharpening stones. Unfortunately the new sharp tip pieced the thin sheath material first time out -- but I can easily tape over that (I have been thinking of using the simpler, deeper RA Limpet sheath with it anyway --I have happily used one of these for my main leg mounted knife for a couple of years now).

The weight is potentially an issue if you wear this on your arm as it will increase the likelihood of it falling out of the sheath. The camo (nice touch) sheath does include a cloth cap to help prevent this but as Magpie already pointed out, it makes the knife difficult to unsheath with gloved hands. The unusual open spanner end hinders matters further. Magpie already modified the cap with an ingenious velcro side opening and I have added a braid cord with an old RA wishbone toggle/bead to help pull the knife out (I think this is near essential when using a flat knife with a flat sheath like this or the RA Limpet sheath).

I've yet to catch a fish while wearing this, so more on that later...

[Pity RA (or somebody) doesn't make a shorted version of the Limpet sheath specifically for the arm. The existing Limpet sheath has a slightly longer top strap for the calf, the opposite of what you'd want for arm mounting but, being elastic, it will probably work despite that.]