Dawson Knives — American Made Perfection (Plus an EDC from Tekto)

We're back at the new ranch in Pennsylvania with Dawson Knives. In full transparency, they sent these out for me to take a look at, and I'm very thankful they did, because all three of these are badass knives — designed and made right here in the great United States of America, down to every screw.

First up is the Nomad. It comes with a nice carbon fiber sheath with belt attachments, plus a slim utility clip so you can drop it in your pocket or inside your waistband — a really cool included feature. The blade is CPM 3V steel — about two to three times stronger than D2 — in their blacked-out Stealth cerakote, with a gorgeous UltreX camo G10 handle. It's got rigging slots so you could lash it to a stick as a spear, a finger indent up front, and a thumb rest on the spine. Blade runs 3.75 inches with a little extra width, and the whole knife comes in right about 6 ounces. This one's meant for the outdoors — hunting, camping, fishing — skin a deer, skin a hog, whatever you want to do.

Next is the Outcast, the first of the two EDC knives. Same carbon fiber sheath with zero play in it — no wiggle at all — belt clips plus the utility clip. It's CPM 3V-95 in the bright flashy steel finish, which I really love; I think it makes it sexy. And even sexier: black and blue G10 grips. Same quality story — all American, lifetime warranty, lifetime sharpening. Who does that? Dawson does it.

And then the Contractor. CPM MagnaCut steel with a copper finish that is freaking phenomenal — out of the three, this is probably the most beautiful knife. UltreX camo G10 grips like the Nomad, lanyard hole in back for your kit or belt. This thing just exudes sexiness — I'm in love with this knife, and it might become my new everyday carry. Look at the spine on it too: how thick that steel starts and where it ends is insane. These are all full tang — they're not breaking in half.

Let's talk money. These come in right around $300 each, maybe slightly more or less depending on sales. I'm not even going to call that expensive — for really quality knives it's middle of the road, and with the lifetime warranty and lifetime sharpening these are lifetime-purchase knives. That's a steal for this type of knife.

Before we wrapped up — while dodging what I'm pretty sure was a bear up in these woods — I threw in one extra: a manual flipper from Tekto out of Portland, Maine. D2 steel, blue accents on black-camo-looking G10 grips, deep pocket concealment clip, and the smoothness of the action is phenomenal — reminds me a little of the CobraTec knives. For a flip-out folder EDC knife, you can't go wrong.