French Army Bivouac Knife

[Outback in Idaho]

Is this decent, or le junk?
http://www.leevalley.com/US/gifts/page.aspx?p=58244&cat=4,104,53210&ap=2


French Army Bivouac Knife
Standard issue in the French Armee de Terre (infantry), this knife is compact and lightweight yet sturdy. The tough ABS body contains a foldout knife, can opener and corkscrew, as well as a spoon and fork that store in the handle. Honed ready for use, the 3-1/2" knife blade is hardened to Rc50-54, holds an edge well, and secures positively with a lock-back mechanism.

All attachments are stainless steel. Weighing only 138g (5 oz), it is 5-1/2" long by 1-1/4" wide by 1-1/4" thick when assembled. Comes in a nylon sheath with a belt loop and a belt clip. An excellent camping knife.

Made in France.

[Styerman]

CaCa .

Chris

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

I think Jie had one

[jzmtl]

Yeah I got one out of curiosity. It's okay for what it is, I've used it on trip cooking outdoors, comes in handy and I'm not afraid to dull the knife cutting on glass containers. But if I do it again I'd never pay $30 for it, you can buy knock offs for $5 in sporting stores which are just as "high" quality.

[Gareth]

Can anyone confirm that this is issued to the French Army?  The only reference I can find to it is from US sellers, or is it just that my Google-fu has let me down?

[jzmtl]

Might be at some point but not now, some guy from france says it's not. The belt pouch attachment is pretty ancient.

[Turnstone]

I got something that looks like this for my birthday. But I guess only a knock-off that looks the same, as there is nothing written on the blade, and it was much cheaper (I know because the person who got it for me wouldn't spend so much  )

The blade is OK, and it is locking. That's the best thing about it. The teeth of the fork were never aligned. The can opener is very hard to open. The blade is hard to unlock, and I am afraid to cut myself one day while unlocking it 

I have better outdoor cutlerly, and I guess I will never use this one...

[jzmtl]

The geniune french made one actually open/close pretty smooth and the components are well formed, so I guess at 6x the price of knock offs it is a bit better quality after all. 

[ducktapehero]

Actually I like the idea, it'd make a great camping knife.