Sharps: Shadow Tech Talon B

When I go to a gun show I don't go shopping for guns. Generally I don't come home with any ammo, either. But just as I did almost two years ago, when I went to last weekend's gun show on the west side of Columbus, I picked up a new knife.


It was a purposeful purchase -- for business reasons, actually, I sought an affordable small blade that was handmade locally. Among the limited choices, what I ended up getting was a Shadow Tech Talon B. Here are the specs and measurements:

• Overall length: 7.0625"
• Blade length: 3.1875"
• Blade thickness: 0.1875"
• Blade width: 1"
• Blade tang: Full
• Blade steel: 1095 @ 59-60, coated
• Blade grind: Hollow, sharpened swedge
• Blade pattern: Spear point
• Handle: Cocobolo, brass pins
• Sheath: Kydex with multi-position belt loop
• Price: $65.00

I'll be candid here -- out of the box, the Talon isn't a particularly good knife. Geometry of the too-thick blade is poor, in addition to being roughly ground and crudely coated, and it doesn't cut worth a damn.

The performance of the Talon is hamstrung, I think, both by its geometry and by the Ziebart-grade coating. Eventually I was able to strop the edge to where it was acceptably sharp, if not ideally so, but the blade desperately needs to be stripped and re-profiled.

The portly wood handle fills my large hands nicely. I can't help wondering if the slabs are unreasonably thick, though, and they certainly add weight to an already heavy (albeit well balanced) knife.

After all that, the Kydex sheath is a pleasant surprise. It's decently made with good retention in all positions. I like that it offers a range of practical ways to mount the belt loop, as well as providing hollow rivets for lashing the sheath to gear.

Shadow Tech aims the Talon at the personal-protection market, and the sheath carries the heavy knife well horizontally on the belt in the small of the back. For now I've settled on horizontal carry in front (right-handed cross-draw, to the left of the belt buckle).


In concept the Talon B has promise, but not without some changes.

Reducing the thickness of the blade by 33% (to 1/8") would be a good place to start. It'd make the knife much lighter and (with thinner handle slabs) far more manageable.

The coating and the "sharpened" swedge have to go, of course. And although I'd prefer either a flat or convex grind, the current hollow would be okay if done properly.

Don't touch the sheath.

That's not asking much -- just attention to details and a focus on performance -- but it's the small things that make a big difference.