Darren Chard Damascus Ranger Knife

Reviewed by corwin99 on January 20th, 2008

This is the first knife I bought from Darren, and started me on my road to collecting his knives. Darren was a member of the CKG at the time and I had found out about him on the CKG website. I remember feeling that his prices were very reasonable and that his work looked great. I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again: Darren is a perfectionist, and his work reflects that!

The blade on this knife is Raindrop patterned damasteel, which is a type of stainless damascus that Darren used quite often. Bolsters are annodized titanium, fully contoured and mirror-polished, with rare pale moon ebony scales. Darren stabilized these scales himself, and went through great lengths to make sure they would remain exactly as they were when making its way to me on the west coast here. He is truly dedicated to making a quality knife that will last!

The scales look as perfect today as they did the day I received the knife, several years ago. Some people don’t like the purple with the pale moon ebony, however I really like the combination. Liners are blue annodized titanium, and Darren even went through the trouble of jeweling (circular graining) the insides of both sides of the scales, with a very fine finish, better than many I’ve seen. The backspacer is a solid peice of titanium, annoidzed purple.

If there is one thing I would change about this knife is the ergonomics. I wish there was a bit of a recess where the index finger usually goes when holding a knife, because it feels overly large in my hand when holding it. Having said that, these are not knives that I would ever use, so perhaps that is a moot point.

The lockup on this one is good, however it does not have that “stickiness” that Darren has been able to acheive with his later knives. I remember him asking me how I felt about the lockup when I first received the knife, and I told him what I thought. It may or may not have had anything to do with what I said, but it’s better now, but this one is still great.

Blade Length: 3 1/2″
Overall Length: 8 1/4″
Blade Steel: Raindrop Damasteel
Handle: Pale Moon Ebony
Bolsters: Titanium

Video Review:

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