A while back Jan Carter sent me  a Kabar Hobo Knife.  She asked me to put it to good use and let her know what I thought about.  So here it goes.

First off  Kabar markets this all stainless steel knife as

the Kabar HOBO, the Complete Slide-Apart Outdoor dining kit.

Despite their marketing I mainly used the knife indoors eating a variety of food, many of which I probably would not EAT in the wild!  That said, I think the food choices I made actually tested the limits of the knife better than the foods I normally eat while outdoors, especially camping!

My first impression of the knife was it was kind of small and wasn't going to work very well.  I especially thought the fork was going to be too small.

I also found it hard to pull apart.  I discovered it is easiest if you open up the fork and pull it forward and then do the same with spoon.  Then the parts come apart more easily.  It also became easier after using it for a a week or so.  I'm not sure if things loosened up or if my learning curve improved.  Either way, I'd suggest getting comfy with the knife before your first use of it in the out of doors.

One of the big pluses on the the utensil is the center mounted blade.  I prefer this arrangement over the fork being in the middle.  I also really appreciate that the blade is a lock-back!  What a concept, so many of these knives don't have a locking blade!    Unfortunately the blade is somewhat dull (or at least mine was) So you'r e going to need to sharpen it unless all you want is a butter knife!

The entire knife goes back together easy enough and fits snugly in the ballistic nylon sheath.  The sheath only allows for vertical carry.  (Not a big deal in my book, especially at the price point of the knife.

Okay now for the meat and potatoes of the review - literally!

I ate a variety of meal and my actual intent was prove that the fork on these trapper style knives is really useless for anything other than poking chunks of cut up meat and tater tots!

Here is what I wrote to myself when I attempted to eat spaghetti with the fork:

"On day two I attempted what I thought would be impossible.  Eating spaghetti with the teeny fork.   Stick the fork in the noodles spin it around a few times.  Bring food to mouth and chew.  It was actually quite easy.  There was some left over sauce when I finished so I used the spoon to scoop it up; thus the spoon did come in handy! I'm beginning to think the people who have made negative comments and these styles of hobos have never actually used them!"

And then there was eating a garden salad with the fork:

"Using the fork to eat salad takes some practice. The problem is the fork is flat so it has no spoon like properties.  It is essentially a three pronged spearing device.   No doubt a full size fork is easier to use but this one worked surprisingly well at least for the salad.  (this one is about half the size of a salad fork.)"

Then there was Chicken Cordon Bleu:

"After cutting up the chicken cordon bleu in to bite sized chunks, the fork worked as good as any other fork would.  Poke the chicken, pick it up and eat it."

I found the spoon to be of adequate size.  It is slightly smaller that a standard teaspoon but it does work fairly well. I would say it matches up nicelty in size to those cheap unbreakable plastic spoons  I used it for soup, rice, and variety of other vegetables.

My only real negative comment was about the sharpness of the knife. It was not nearly as easy to peal and apple with this knife as it was with my Swiss Army knife.

That said, I was very impressed with the Kabar Hobo. It is much smaller and much  lighter than my Walmart Ozark Trail and in situation where space and weight are important I would choose this economically priced take apart over the Ozark Trail.  The fact that all three utensil separate on the Kabar is also an major advantage.  One thing the Kabar lacks is a key ring or bail.  Kabar should consider adding a small king ring similar to  what you find on Swiss Army knives at the pommel of the knife section.  This would allow a user to attach a lanyard to the knife which in turn would allow easy submersion to to boiling water for sanitizing.