Ninja Gear Review: Pathseeker

Naked and Afraid star, To-Shin Do Ninjutsu Fourth Degree Black Belt, high level Filipino and Malaysian Martial Arts practitioner, author, speaker, and all around great guy, Hakim Isler, has designed a knife called the Pathseeker.  After getting my hands on it and putting it through its paces I have to say that if I was in a true survival situation I would be very grateful to have this blade with me.

The Pathseeker is made by the Double Star Corporation (www.star15.com) and is manufactured in the USA. The knife comes with two handle color options, black or a hi-visibility fluorescent green so that you can find it if you place it down in the leaves. The handle itself is pretty chunky but ergonomic and comfortable to use.

The full-tang six inch long blade is a quarter inch thick.  This makes the knife a substantial 14.56 ounces. The blade kicks forward just enough to make you think of a ultra maneuverable small kukri and it makes you want to chop something. The overall length of this beast of a knife is 11.25 inches.

Some of the features include a kydex sheath, a ferrocerium rod striker integrated into the spine of the knife, a 90 degree spine above the striker, a small but effective guard above and below your hand to keep your fingers safely where they belong, and four lanyard hole/lashing points integrated into the handle and guards.  These lashing points were one of the most significant features on the knife in my opinion. They allowed me to string a piece of 550 cord through them and create a “hand guard” that allowed me to keep a relatively loose grip while I was chopping with the Pathseeker.

I chopped through a dead but very pitchy piece of pine with ease and took down a thick sapling with a few hacks.  The thickness of the blade made it great for splitting thicker wood by “batoning” and the ferro-rod striker not only threw sparks fine it served to scrape some pitch wood into powder for me to catch the ferro-rod sparks.

The grind on the blade produced an edge that allowed it to be such a great hard use tool and allowed me to perform fine cutting tasks like making a feather sticks really easily.

As a survival tool I think you would be hard pressed to find a better knife option. You can feel the time that Hakim spent on developing this knife to be what I would consider one of the best designed survival knives that I have ever used, and I have used a lot. If you are looking for a serious knife for some serious adventure check out the Pathseeker.

NinjaEveryday.