ESEE Izula Fixed Blade Knife w/Molded Polymer Sheath and Clip Plate

Update 8/21/25: I went ahead and bought the S35VN Izula. I've decided to limit (for now) myself to two EDC fixed blades, both Izula, one 1095 and the other S35VN. The S35VN will be pocket carried in a custom sheath from Etsy seller EpochHandmade for more dressier occasions, and the 1095 will be carried all other times horizontal. Although both knives can push cut newspaper, it wasn't as smooth as I prefer, so I put them to the Spyderco Sharpmaker and strop. Both knives are now razor sharp. Obviously, I like the Izula. It is the perfect size to EDC and the choice of steels and colors, along with affordable pricing and made in USA craftsmanship makes this knife a winner in my book. Original review: The Izula may be the perfect edc fixed blade knife. The 1095 steel is tough and easy to sharpen. Knife comes sharp enough to push cut newspaper. The size is perfect, and itʻs kinda fun to change paracord colors for the handle. The sheath is good. Not great, but good. It allows horizontal and vertical carry and is ambidextrous. But the retention is stiff. I had to partially insert the knife so that the opening would bulge a little and leave it like that overnight. It seems to have helped, but it gets tight again. Iʻve ordered a couple of replacement leather sheaths, so Iʻll see how that goes.

The everyday Izula. Okay, I’m not batoning or using this as a survival knife, just an all around awesome edc fixed blade for mundane tasks. It fits my needs and looks awesome after every use via the stonewashed finish. I own the Izula 2 DT and keep it in my go bag just in case a zombie apocalypse happens. I’ll have that piece of mind with the 1095. Until then, S35VN is my practical performer and Esee of choice. You really can’t go wrong with any Esee product. Like others have mentioned, the warranty speaks volumes for the company. Spend the cheddar and enjoy a great knife that’s easy to maintain.

In my honest opinion, ESEE probably makes the best knives of any knife manufacturer in the world today. I am absolutely amazed at the quality of their products, and quality is a hard thing to come by these days in America or anywhere else for that matter. Interestingly, ESEE touts their 1095 carbon steel knives as the pinnacle of their survival knife catalog, and there is no doubt that my ESEE 5 and 6 have lived up to that billing. However, with that being said, ESEE's stainless steel knives in S35VN steel deserve a lot more credit than even ESEE itself gives them. I now have an ESEE 3, 4 and the Izula in S35VN, and once again, I am amazed at the quality of ESEE knives. They do an outstanding job on their stainless steel blades. I just wish they would offer more knives in stainless steel. I would buy their entire line in S35VN steel, and I wish they would make more folder knives, so if ESEE is reading this, you guys have a big fan right here, and I think you're not giving your stainless steel knives enough credit. I have found them to be extremely sharp right out of the box (probably the sharpest factory edges I've ever seen), even grind, perfect edge, and just extremely well made and more than capable of standing on its own merit in terms of survival knife applications. In fact, while the 1095 steel knives may have some advantages, I've found that the stainless steel ESEE knives offer more versatility, less maintenance and excel at more tasks around the campfire than even ESEE's 1095 line. Of course, I live on the coast in a very moist environment, so your mileage may vary. Still, even with that said, there is no denying the quality, utility and functionality of ESEE stainless steel knives in survival, camping and hunting applications.

Very nice knife for EDC I’m very happy with it. Blade is thick and sharp what else could you ask for? The handle fits your hand perfectly. Only complaint I have is with the sheath that it comes with. The sheath is a insanely tight fit it’s very difficult to get the knife out of the sheath I will be buying a better one from a different manufacturer but the thought is there and the quality is good it’s just insanely tight. Highly recommend to use blue loctite in the screws. I also bought the micarta handle for the knife and it’s super comfortable and grippy. Only complaint I have with the handle is it doesn’t come with an Allen wrench or bit to mount it. Thankfully I had an extra bit to get it nice and tight. Overall an amazing value I’d buy it again. Probably will once this one gets enough use but I don’t see this knife every having to be replaced it’s solid

Absolutely my new favorite knife. Last year I wanted to switch over from folding knife EDC to looking for a fixed blade that was around the same weight and size without feeling cumbersome. I had read reviews and watch a lot of videos recommending this knife but I couldn't get myself to buy a 1095 blade(doesn't hold up to the humidity, rain and snow in the mountains. I like low maintenance gear and don't like coated blades). I found a cheap copy cat of this knife claiming to be D2 and decided to go with that for that time being. I recently found that they started making these in a stainless S35VN! I had used that Knockoff knife for a year and finally decided I had to take the plunge on the OG with this new stainless knowledge. Now I'm wishing I had the authentic one from the start, the knife is lighter than the copycat and has a much more retentive sheath and a lifetime warranty. With a Paracord wrapped handle and pocket clip added this is now my EDC that I bring with me everywhere and can rely on for everything from SAR missions to cutting apples. I'm praying they don't discontinue this model in case I ever lose it! Sidenote: The ESEE survival instructors/knife creators have a great channel on YT that they discuss this knife and it's limitations which with this transparency further solidified my purchase.

UPDATE: I also bought the ESEE 3 after this and have use it to cut fruit. But as soon as I wash it in the sink, for no more than 10 minutes, I saw rust developing on the edge as I was drying it. That kinda caught me off guard, I didn't expect rust to form so quickly. At the end it's not acceptable to me as I don't see myself using the knife away from water for long. At the very least I will wash it and the constant maintenance and oiling can become a pain in the neck. So I returned the ESEE 3. Since this knife is made by the same 1095 material I've decide to return this one as well. This is a good knife, too bad it didn't workout for me. I ended up buying the Izula 440C stainless steel. I think I will keep that instead. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I have a collection of about 15 knifes. Some folding, some fixed blade, and some neck knifes. But this is by far the best knife I've ever own. I've known of the Ontario RAT series knifes and I was told to check out some of the ESEE knifes as RAT and Ontario have part ways. I found some of the other ESEE knifes are a little too expensive for me but I want to see what they are about. So I've decide to pick this up and test them out. The steel material is 1095 carbon steel. Just need to pay attention to the maintenance as 1095 steel do rust. The knife arrived EXTREMELY SHARP. Honestly this is the sharpest knife I have seen right out of the box. The skeleton handle is fine for me. I just put some paracord on the handle and it fit my hand extremely well. The sheath is ok, it also came with a belt clip that you can attach to the sheath with screws. I don't foresee myself using the clip much so I just put paracord on the sheath and make it a neck carry knife. If i need to attached it to my backpack I can just tie it to one of the MOLLE straps using the paracord. This is a great purchase. I will buy it again in a heartbeat.

There seem to be a lot of reviews warning about "fake ESEE's", but mine (sold through Tacitcal Intent in April 2016) I believe to be real. ESEE products I currently own: ESEE Candiru ESEE Izula ESEE Izula II ESEE 3MIL-P ESEE 6P Of the Candiru, Izula, and Izula II, the Izula is my favorite (the ESEE 3 is in a different category). The Candiru is hard to pull out of its sheath (even in warm weather), and is too small for my liking. The Izula II has a larger ring on the end than the Izula, and I find that my pinky finger slips into it and kind of gets caught. I wear men's "Large" gloves. At first I thought the Izula would be hard to hold on to because of the narrow handle and paracord wrap, but it's not hard to hold onto at all. One of my favorite things about the Izula (and the II) is that the knife won't freeze in the sheath. I always take new knives and throw them in the freezer with the stock sheath to see how they do, because where I live we have lots of freezing weather. The Izula can be pulled out of the stock sheath even when frozen! Not to say that the knife is loose in the sheath though, because it isn't, just something about the design allows it to not freeze. My only complaint with the Izula is that paracord wraps always kind of slide around a little, but I believe that's something you'll face with anything that is cord wrapped. It's really not a problem at all though; perhaps I just need to try wrapping it tighter. There are a couple of different ways you can wrap an Izula, I recommend looking up instructional videos on YouTube because the better ways aren't necessarily intuitive. I made a "ranger band" out of a bicycle tire (a little less than 2" I believe) and have attached a Firesteel.com striker, ferro rod, and magnesium rod to the sheath. So I basically turned it into a mini-survival kit (cutting tool, combustion, and cordage) that easily slides into a backpack or pocket. It fits very well in the side pocket on a pair of carpenter jeans. I plan on buying more Izulas and making these little kits for family and friends. Oh yeah, and BE CAREFUL YOU DON'T CUT YOURSELF WHEN WRAPPING THE HANDLE OR MESSING WITH THE SHEATH. It's easy to zone out or get carried away when tugging on the paracord or pulling a ranger band on, and next thing you know you might cut or gut yourself (learned that the hard way). Great product, I'll be buying more of them.

For the past 2 years this knife has been my EDC every single day. This is an absolutely awesome knife worth every penny. It maintains an edge unbelievably well, I cut things like boxes, tape, rope, ... regular daily (?) knife things. I am not one who batons a compact fixed blade knife as I own a hatchet as well as a saw. This knife is certainly well suited for much, much more than I have ever put it through. If you are looking for a dependable friend in an EDC knife this, is it. If you do want to baton smaller pieces of campfire wood, if you want a knife with decent ergonomics This is the knife you are looking for.

Great knife, strong, capable, just the bare minimum, no spare parts hard to clean. The sheath is holding firmly the knife, even upside down, it won't be pulled out easily. Maybe by loosening slightly the the bootom screws it may be released more easily The knife is well made, sharp from the get go. The cutting edge is holding well even after batonning, cutting and splitting wood. Very light and easy to carry. The only thing I would maybe change is the paint on the blade, I may sand the blade later on.

Conozco esee hace mucho tiempo...han mejorado mucho los controles de calidad.perfecto.

Absolut tolles Messer, wer eh schon ein Fan vom Esee Izula ist, der sollte zuschlagen. Gerade als EDC Messer ist der S 35VN zu empfehlen. Gutes Messer.

Coupe très bien, solide et discret

EL MEJOR CUCHILLO EDC/NECK KNIFE QUE EXISTE ACTUALMENTE, TENGO VARIOS CUCHILLOS EDC: TOPS, BLACKJACK, SCHERADE, CRKT, KABAR,KIZLYAR, ETC. PERO NINGUNO SE COMPARA EN MI OPINION AL ESEE IZULA, FUERTE, PRACTICO, LIVIANO, EXCELENTE FILO Y FACIL DE AFILAR; TE DA LA SENSACION DE SEGURIDAD DE QUE TIENES UNA HERRAMIENTA QUE NO TE VA A FALLAR. ES GARANTIA DE CALIDAD AL100%. SI DE VERDAD ERES AFICIONADO A LOS CUCHILLOS, ESTE NO TE DEBE FALTAR, UNA VEZ QUE LO TENGAS LO USARAS DIARIAMENTE.