There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
I'd likely carry a cold steel recon 1 (partial serration) or something similar that's beefy but not expensive if I were still in service. At least for "hard use", in a defensive situation, likely something with wave opener and good steel that I wouldn't use/dull for everyday tasks. On a personal level I don't buy anything serrated though and carry a p'kal that is reserved as flesh only (and pray I never need it).
I've found it to be a good, solid knife. The steel is arguably not excellent, but it's good enough in my use case, and tempered to be tough, but not super high edge retention. But it is easy to field sharpen.
And since it has a guard on both back and front, the back guard functions like an emerson wave feature with a bit of training.
The only drawback is the AutoLAWKS feature which is completely unnecessary. But it is easy to remove this feature if you're confident taking your folders apart.
Not a 5/5 by any stretch of the imagination, but good value, very tanky design and easy to maintain. And it looks tough as nails.
I think there is a black version as well if you're by ninja persuasion. :-)