Black Fox TORA_review

Past weeks I have tested the Black Fox TORA knife. The knife was provided to me by the designer, Antonio Di Gennaro (ADG), which I want to tanks.

TORA is a medium sized field knife, made by Black Fox. Black Fox is a division of Fox Knives of Maniago (Italy). Designed by Antonio Di Gennaro (ADG), the knife is of full tang construction using black-coated 440 steel, with G10 handle scales

TORA is available in two different variants: 1. tan scales with black blade and tan sheath, 2. black scales with black blade and black sheath.

TORA has a well formed jimping both on the spine blade and handle, the blade is a combination plain/serrated edge. The handle has the well-known Coca-Cola bottle shape

Specs of the knife are as follows:

Blade Material:	440 Stainless Steel
Blade Length (cm):	12.5
Blade Thickness (mm):	5.0
Overall Length (cm):	24.5
Handle Material:	G10
Sheath:	Cordura molle belt sheath
Weight (g):	273g

The knife is supplied with a fairly good cordura belt sheath, with a nylon liner and press stud loop to secure the knife. The sheath is MOLLE compatible, to be attached to your rucksack or kit. The belt loop is very large, 70mm. Attached to the sheath and the knife there are two good pieces of Paracord, a treasure if you are in a survival situation. The knife is enough compact and light to be carried in a rucksack pocket without problems.

TORA G10 handle is well designed and well realized, is comfortable and safe. The handles shape and measures are just the right ones for my XL hands. Ventral and dorsal guards add safety, anyway I didn't like them in a camp knife, so for me they are more an encumbrance than an advantage. The glass-breaker should be useful to break various materials without ruins the blade. After some hard works I had to fix the Torx screws, for that you need a 10 Torx key. On the tang there is a empty space, useful to store some tiny emergency material like a fishing kit or matches. It's a clever solution...but who carry a Torx key on the field? I should like more slotted screws, that you may work with a simple multitool or even a simple coin. That said, my score for the handle is  7.0/10

Let's speak about TORA blade. I really like the spear-point shape, the thickness-lenght ratio, and even the serrated portion make sense on a camp/survival knife like that one. TORA works fairly well on carving wood, being not a true bushcraft knife the result is good. The serrated portion works well on cutting ropes and plastic. Making feathers to light a fire it's not easy, for two reasons: 1. the blade grind and 2. the nonsense finger-grove-likes that is so tiny that you can't place your finger on it. As a result feathers are too thick....Luckily it's possible to work a ferro rod on the spine blade, at least on the first third of it, because the spine angles were not rounded on this portion (see footage). No problems with heavy works like batoning. The blade surface treatment is very good, very few marks also after some hard works. All that said, my score for the blade is 7.0/10.

Facing-off  TORA with some survival/camp/bushcraft knives, TORA seems to be a fairly good mix of them, with several plus and some minus points

In conclusion, I give a full 7.0/10 score to TORA knife. What I like: I like the handle for the comfort and safety, the versatile spear-point blade, the compactness, the robustness of the knife, the sheath.What I didn't like: didn't like the tiny finger-groove, Torx screws, two big guards (but they make sense if you value this as a combat knife).

Enjoy your bushcraft!!

Alfredo Doricchi