Lion Steel Opera Spear blade Palo Santos Wood handles D2 steel 8800ST

There is a lot to like about this knife, but there are two important things that made me rate this knife down. First, the action is gritty. There is no reason why a beautiful knife like this should leave the factory gritty. That could be viewed as a flagrant insult to the buyer. Plus, there is no apparent way to service the knife to make the action run smoother. Second, the tip of the knife in the closed position is too close to the edge. After one sharpening, I can catch a fingernail on the tip if I try. A few more sharpenings will make it unsafe. There is no excuse for that. GEC does the same thing on some of their knives, and it is just as irritating when they do it. At least on the GEC knives, a little stoning of the kick will remedy the fault. Where to stone is not clear on this Opera, at least for me. Plus there is no nail nick to open the knife after the blade is lowered and a squeeze grip opening is no longer possible. It’s a beautiful knife with great steel. If that’s all you want it for, I’d give it five stars. But if you want the option of actually using the knife, it has to stay at three stars.