Utica Cutlery 11-32579GB Stockman's with Big Pine Handle, 3 7/8-Inch, Green/Stainless

It looks nice and shiny at first glance, but there are some ugly problems.First is the problem easiest to describe. The buffing process is not done well. There are areas on both sides of all blades, where the bevel meets the tang, where the coarse grinding lines are still showing. If you buff a blade by doing each surface intentionally and individually, you can get a consistent shine. But if you just drag the whole piece across a buffer in one motion (which Utica appears to have done), you end up with unbuffed areas which still show the grind marks from the shaping process. (see uploaded image)Second is something difficult to describe but very simple to look at. For two opposing blades sharing a single backspring (the sheepfoot and spey on a stockman), you would normally choose one of two methods for allowing both to close into the handle. One way is to bend one of the blades a little so that the other does not run into it. Another is to offset both blades slightly, either by doing a step-down grind on different sides of each blade or by making each blade from thinner stock than the backspring and using washers/spacers on opposite sides. The first method makes a slightly crooked blade, but it is full thickness and strong. The second method results in straight blades, but they are only half as thick and weaker. Utica did BOTH things, which is unnecessary and results in the worst of both options: blades which are both flimsy AND bent. If you look the uploaded photo, you can see that on the sheepfoot blade (the short one on the left), you could draw a straight line from the tang to the tip without bothering anything.Especially obnoxious is the fact that Utica did the offset grind on THE SAME SIDE (relative to the handle--see my other photo) on both the sheepfoot and spey blades. So they actually do have to bend the blades because the offset grind on one of them was done on the wrong side and that trick wouldn't have worked.

They must have read the review above because my blades are lined up correctly. They do still have a little roughness near the ricasso. Pull is kind of light. The bone handles on mine are a light green and the jigging is far apart, so it kind of looks like alligator skin. Overall I am very satisfied with this nice knife made in NY for a fair price.