I’m glad to see ESEE moving towards making a rescue knife. Between working as a first responder, hunting, camping, fishing, edc, etc, their products are great. Here’s my thoughts coming from a first responder: 440 is a great choice. Stainless steels would be a could choice for a knife that’s gonna get wet. No maybes in the business. Using the Izula (from what I saw) it a similar sized knife is great. All too often large blades make their way in. It’s all show and no go. Unnecessary bulk and size. I would be wary of “adding” features. My experience the more feature “rich” the product, the less likely it will be used. O2 wretch is a good idea, I would argue against a glass breaker, especially with modern windows on cars (I watched a baseball swung Haligan bounce of a passenger window) as well as the safety of the responder. The o2 wrench can be cut into the blade and honestly I do not see any hinderance of that. The Leatherman raptors are a great tool, BUT, it’s just too much for one tool. Usually carry one or two trauma sheers in my turnouts as well as a leather man OHT. My biggest criticism is the blade shape and style. My personal experience for a “rescue knife” would be for a sheep’s foot/wharncliffe style blade, chisel ground fully serrated. A drop point is probably the best for a general purpose blade, but, if I’m cutting cordage, straps, seat belts, etc I would prefer a straight edge to maintain contact on what I’m cutting. Chisel groups is to good for ease of production but I don’t make knives. The serrations need to be substantial but not overly aggressive. The standard ESEE serrations probably wouldn’t do it, but the large super aggressive ones that newer CRKT blades have are too much. Blunting the tip is also good, either tear drop like or a blunt chisel/screw driver like would be good. Think peel and peak, not try and pry; good way to break and blade and look like a idiot. Handle material is questionable. I would say the plasti dip stuff would work. I personally would probably used paracord or 3-5mm float cord with resin like my fishing pliers. Plastic or kydex would be great as a sheath. Bigger concern would be glow it is mounted as well as retention. Most of my experience is with the nrs knives on swift water rescue vests. Sometimes they make their way to the rope rescue gear as well. Again, these are my thoughts on the matter. I honestly do not do water rescue all that much, but it may be a possibility in the future. I do however do plenty of vehicle extrications and the here and there rope rescue. Just my thoughts.
Appreciate the input on this. We plan on releasing this thing during the first half of 2019 so we will see how it does. The rescue market is a limited market so we don't expect a lot of sales but the prototypes we have been using in ropes and swiftwater classes seem to work well. The secondary retention is a very nice feature and will be even nicer once the molded parts are finished.
I would much rather use your product than the nrs. Nothing against NRS but I do believe in using gear from awesome and reputable manufacturers. Mystery Ranch, Ironfox Axes, Lonestar Axes, Rogue tools, to name a few.
