Los Olivos Ibex Fixed Blade Knife

Sometimes all you want is a large, basic and strong general-purpose ‘camp knife’ with a good edge that can stand up to heavy use. You can spend a lot of money on a high-end knife and then end up worrying about damaging your investment or you can choose a very cheap tool and not worry about damaging or losing it. Alternatively, you can go for something in the middle that combines all of the features you need and costs a reasonable amount of money. Enter the Los Olivos brand of knives.

Check it out

Los Olivos knives are all handmade in Albacete, a region of Spain known for knife making. Their chief knife maker has won more than 20 national and international awards for his knives. Knife Warehouse sells this brand exclusively and they carry an impressive range of knives from this manufacturer. The Ibex (on test) is a big hand-crafted knife that has an overall length of 9” and a 4.5” blade. The full-tang construction is an extremely strong design and with the knife weighing in at 7oz, it has a good heft to it. The heat-treated Bohler N690 steel blade is 4mm thick and over 1” deep at its deepest point, making it extremely rigid all the way to the tip. The straightbacked design, with only the very slightest drop in the most forward section of the blade, is one of the most durable you can get and the knife comes razor-sharp straight out of the box. The advantage of these large blades is that you can use them for anything from splitting reasonably large branches to cutting and preparing food. Edge retention on the Ibex is good, and after cutting piles of thick cardboard and carpet it was still sharp enough to do more work.

Get a grip

The handle is curly birch and has a slight bulge in the middle that fills your palm, plus there is a deep thickening at the front to act as a guard. In use, this design feels comfortable, although the spine of the handle is completely straight, so perhaps does not sit as well as it could if it was profiled to fit a palm better. You can use the knife safely when wearing gloves and even when wet, you can still maintain a safe grip on the knife and avoid your fingers sliding forward. The sheath is made of very high-quality brown leather with heavy-duty stitching and there is a nice Los Olivos logo embossed on the front. There is a belt loop on the back.

Verdict

At under £100, the Ibex is a lot of knife for the money and it represents a real bargain. Los Olivos is one of the best brands of mid-priced knives and the balance between cost and quality is certainly tipped in the favour of quality. How they do what they do for the money is a good question, but at this price, the Ibex is a bargain well worth taking advantage of