Ontario Knife - Old Hickory 7-7 7" Carbon Steel Butcher / Kitchen Knife

I bought the Ontario Knife - Old Hickory 7-7 7" Carbon Steel Butcher / Kitchen Knife back in November and have been using it for several months now, and I have to say, it's my go-to for everything that requires slicing or carving. It chops vegetables with ease, and makes quick work of processing pork, chicken, and fish. Knife gets some patina from cutting acidic things, but that's to be expected from a carbon steel knife. It came quite sharp out of the box and it keeps a decent edge. I was cutting paper pretty easily. Given that it is carbon steel, you should hand-wash this knife and dry it thoroughly after use, and if you really love your knives, lightly rub down the blade with mineral oil or vegetable oil to add some extra protection. DO NOT PUT THIS KNIFE IN THE DISH WASHER OR LET IT SOAK. It will rust if you do that because it will be in a moist environment for a prolonged period of time (and it's not good for the wooden handle, either). This is a no-frills knife, but that doesn't mean you should treat it like a beater. Anyway, as I said, I use this knife for most everything in the kitchen anymore and am extremely pleased with my purchase. The only complaint I have is that the rivets seem to be loosening. At some point, I may pop them off and epoxy the handle together, but until then, it's not really an issue.

I have Wusthofs, Henckels, Anolons, and Chicago. The Hickories are the knife I prefer. They can take a good deal of abuse and still do the job. As has been noted, these are carbon steel knives. Yes, they dull quickly … they also sharpen quickly. Yes, they can rust …so, if it bothers you brush the rust off and apply a little oil. These are not the knives you will be likely to see on a gourmet cooking show. You are watching the wrong channel. Instead turn to a homesteading show where a hog is being butchered. As has been noted, these are like the knives your great grandparents used. These are high quality, reliable, unpretentious knives.

Great Knife. This knife is thicker than a lot of other knives. This has turned into my kitchen workhorse. It holds an edge and sharpens easily. I put such a sharp edge on it after 4 swipes each way with my Work Sharp sharpener, that I sliced my finger wiping my blade down. There is some discoloration on the blade. But I don't care. I am chopping things up with it. Not entering a beauty contest. My only minor complaint is the wooden handle needed some Boos lock applied to it. I take care to wash and dry after each use. I apply a little oil on the blade to keep it rust free. For the price and as versatile as this knife is. I highly recommend this knife.

TL;DR This is a great knife, but will require some work from you to allow it to achieve its potential. This is a great knife for the money. 1095 carbon steel isn't exactly premium top-tier steel, but it holds a mighty fine edge and is easy enough to fix. I expected it to come rough, and it met those expectations (it's a $15 knife, and they spent $15 worth of time on it). Be aware that the handle scales were larger than the tang, which will create hot spots. This is easily remedied by a belt sander, or even by very carefully whittling most of the excess material away with a knife and hand sanding the rest. The spine will come mostly unfinished. Again, 2 minutes on a belt sander and a steady hand is the best solution. The edge profile wasn't extremely consistent the whole way to the tip, but that can be fixed with a Work Sharp sharpener (which is expensive) or repeated sharpening sessions on a set of stones. All in all, this knife is well worth the money, but don't expect a perfect product out of the box. That's kind of a benefit, though, because you can customize it to fit your own hand or needs without worrying about destroying an expensive knife.

Perect

To be honest, I threw my knives away yesterday. They were that bad. I bought them for use in the kitchen. They did not cut well and I could not get them to sharpen. I put them in the dishwasher and the blades rusted and the handles could not handle the water. I kept trying to use them, but they were more effort than they are worth. Went back to my older and cheaper knife that worked fine.

Use to use these when I was growing up

Simply the best knife you can buy for home processing of food and meats, we Process all our own meats from animals we raise, I have used Old Hickories more than 40 years for this task, they sharpen easy and hold a good edge, I am in the process of replacing knives that have been used a lot and the blades are getting thin from years worth of sharpening, they will need sharpened out of the package, and they seam to hold just as good of a edge as my 40+ year old knives, they are simply a hard working home processing knife that Works and the Old Hickory Brand still works as good as the ones 100 years ago did, Thank You Old Hickory keep up the good work, you don’t find very many products that work as good as the ones that were made 100 years ago worked.

Good knife, dirty metal