Half Face Blades is owned and operated by former Navy SEAL, Andrew Arrabito. Half Face Blades fills the niche of hand crafted knives built for a specific purpose; to be functional and lethal. When Andrew builds his knives, he injects an artistic feel to them. Don’t be fooled though. Many of his knives, although they look like works of art that should be in a shadow box, are sent to our freedom fighters to take down range to avenge the death of those that have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
One of his more popular designs is the Crow Scout knife. I recently received one of the Half Face Blades Crowe Scouts for review. After opening the packaging and looking over the knife, it reminds me of something out of the movie Last of the Mohicans. Think of it as an 18th century design with lethal intent.
The attention to detail given to this knife is something I haven’t seen with other knife manufactures (at least not to this level). Let’s start off with the blade.
The blade on the Crow Scout is an S35-VN steel. S35-VN steel offers greater strength, edge retention and wear resistance for extended periods of use; something that is required when working in austere environments. Although this is a beautiful blade, I plan on putting it through some use in the field. The acid etching that is used is applied with perfection. The blade comes with the Half Face Blades logo etched into one side of the blade which I personally think looks bad-ass. It gives the blade a subtle hint of violence.
The spine of the blade has a really cool artistic touch to it. This is the area where you would typically see jimping done, but on this blade Andrew has added a really cool texture to the blade steel.
The handle of the Crow Scout is equally as impressive. Made from burle wood and polished, it is an absolute work of art, yet functional. Yes, it has a smooth finish to it, but due to the design you don’t have to worry about ‘riding the blade’ when using this knife. There is also a generous sized lanyard hold at the end of the handle.
Last, but not least is the sheath. The first thing I immediately noticed is how quiet this sheath is. Usually with Kydex sheaths when you draw the knife or sheath it; they usually make a click when the knife is fully seated. With the way Andrew designs his sheaths it is totally silent on both the draw and re-sheathing. The first thing that came to my mind was this being a truly silent killer of our enemies; It makes no sound when drawing the blade from the sheath. The retention is solid as well with zero wiggle room or rattling.
All in all this is a worthwhile investment if you have the money. You can follow Half Face Blades on Facebook to get a chance to own one of these bad-ass edged weapons. Even if you can’t afford to buy one, I recommend still following them for the pure enjoyment of the pictures they release of their blades. Many of which are going downrange to dispatch our enemies.
