Today’s military-style fixed blades are ready for duty. These four are certainly ready to earn their stripes.

What Are The Top Military-Style Fixed Blade Knives:

• Condor Tool & Knife’s Neck Gladius
• DoubleStar Blades Chico Diablo X
• Kizlyar Supreme Senpai
• Halfbreed Blades Medium Infantry Knife

The history of cutlery has many different facets but none any more glorified than the fixed-blade knives that have seen battle for centuries. Fixed blades are still a major part of our fighting forces’ need for strong steel and they’ve become more diverse since the modern tactical age began in the early-to-mid 1990s.

Condor Tool & Knife’s Neck Gladius

One thing hasn’t changed: such knives must perform duties outside of combat. An example is Condor Tool & Knife’s Neck Gladius, a diminutive version of the classic Roman combat sword. Designed by writer/outdoorsman and BLADE University instructor Joe Flowers, its double-edged blade is handsomely ground in Condor’s favorite blade material: 1075 high carbon steel. The black-paracord-wrapped handle has a tail at the base. A black Kydex neck sheath includes a nice length of paracord for neckwear.

One of the best uses I’ve found for small neck knives is preparing tinder as a firestarter. The neck knife makes for an excellent companion to a larger knife for doing detail work, so I put the Neck Gladius to work doing just that.

Hitting my sweet spot, a pine forest north of town, I used the small blade to dig out some nice chunks of pine resin, which burns nice and long as tinder. I complimented the pine resin with some fine pine shavings to complete the kit. The little Condor will handle other small tasks as well, such as cutting paracord to length. “Handy” is its middle name!

Condor Tool & Knife Neck Gladius
Designer: Joe Flowers
Blade Length: 3.14″
Blade Material: 1075 high-carbon steel
Handle Material: Baracord wrap
Weight: 2.12 ozs.
Overall Length: 6.06″
Sheath: Kydex with paracord lanyard
Country Of Origin: El Salvador
MSRP: $54.98

DoubleStar Blades Chico Diablo X

Designed by BLADE® field editor Kim Breed, the Chico Diablo X from DoubleStar Blades is, as you might expect, tough as nails. It is a medium-sized sheath knife with a harpoon-pattern blade. A deep index finger groove extending from the bottom/front of the checkered scales into the tang adds grip when getting down to business. The black Boltaron sheath has a real-deal Tek-Lok for carry options. Weight is a manageable
6.24 ounces.

The knife’s size is perfect for medium-duty field tasks such as dressing game, prepping meals, cutting rope and working wood. It’s not heavy enough for chopping but is a serious slicer. I tested the blade across the grain on a 4.5×2.25-inch slab of cold corned beef brisket. Despite the blade being shorter than the chunk of beef, the Nitro-V stainless steel glided through the brisket, taking off one clean quarter-inch slice after another. The Chico Diablo X is a well-built multi-tasker worth every penny of its surprisingly affordable price tag.

Doublestar Blades Chico Diablo X
Designer: Kim Breed
Blade Length: 3.75″
Blade Material: Nitro-V Stainless
Handle Material: Black G-10 with green G-10 liners
Weight: 6.24 ozs.
Overall Length: 8″
Sheath: Black Boltaron with Tek-Lok attachment
Country Of Origin: USA
MSRP: $149.99

Kizlyar Supreme Senpai

The Kizlyar Supreme Senpai is the longest knife of the test group, including a tanto blade in more of a traditional Japanese curved-tip style. The handle is spare of curves save for a slight finger groove and short guard. The scales are nicely rounded and Kizlyar provides a sandwiched matching green synthetic belt sheath for carry.

Given its weight and slim blade profile, I liked the Supreme Senpai for slicing and shaving from a utility standpoint. I roughed out a seasoned hardwood tent peg using a small hatchet, and tested the blade at finetuning the pointed tip and shaving the sides. The long blade came in handy as I could pull it through while slicing and shaving rather than simply pushing it downward against the tough hardwood—my reasoning being, if it could handle stout wood, simpler chores like meal prep and cutting rope would be a snap. The Supreme Senpai blade performed well shaping the challenging wood, leaving no doubt it could be handy around camp.

Kizlyar Supreme Senpai
Blade Length: 6.75″
Blade Material: AUS-8 stainless
Handle Material: OD green Kraton/ABS plastic
Weight: 10.3″
Overall Length: 12″
Sheath: Polyamide Nylon
Country Of Origin: Russia
MSRP: $150

Halfbreed Blades Medium Infantry Knife

How brutish is the Aussie-made Halfbreed Blades Medium Infantry Knife? Consider this—it’s around just one ounce shy of the other three test knives combined in weight! The blade is a whopping .23-inch thick at its thickest, features 1.5 inches of serrations from the tang forward, and has a black, rust-resistant Tefl on coating. The ample handle scales are “chunked” black G-10 and there’s a wicked skull crusher. The sheath has rear attachments for MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying
Equipment) or belt carry.

This overbuilt brute is a handful capable of chopping, slicing and shaving. Given its near three-quarter-pound weight it will no doubt chop, but the serrations somewhat limit the chopping ability of the blade’s plain edge portion. (Serrated edges will chop but it’s hard on them, and resharpening the teeth is a royal pain.)

I tested the knife at slicing and started with lengths of ⅜ -inch synthetic rappelling rope. Working my way up, I was able to slice cleanly through five lengths of the rope side-by-side before I ran out of rope. The handle offered superb grip throughout the testing process. The Halfbreed entry has the ability to perform heavy-duty camp chores like
shelter building, chopping branches for firewood and shaving wood.

Halfbreed Blades Medium Infantry Knife
Blade Length: 6.69″
Blade Material: Bohler K110 D2
Handle Material: Black G-10
Weight: 17.08 ozs.
Overall Length: 11.77″
Sheath: Black Kydex
Country Of Origin: Australia
MSRP: $335

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