Downsides? Quality of the blades, no doubt. Like simply carrying a utility knife? And, when in the field (on my farm), no place to store the used blade. I can't simply stick the used blade in my pocket.

Other than that, opinions?

I like them for hunting purposes like skinning but are too fragile for a camp/general purposes knife.

thnx

Love the Havalons with replaceable blades for skinning type things. For everyday use, like amc says, too fragile

I carry a Milwaukee fastback 1505 at work.
There is a compartment in the handle to carry a spare blade. You can swap the blades out in the field without having to worry about where to put the used blade.

Cold Steel makes something called a Click n Cut which is basically like a heavy duty utility knife with replaceable blades of difference shapes and uses.
https://www.amazon.com/Cold-St...i%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-5

Love my Havalon for hunting. One proviso though, you must learn to use it for slicing motions. If you have some sort of wrist English or start a prying motion the blade comes right off.

Hunting with a professional meat cutter demonstrated this superbly. He couldn’t get 5 minutes of use without disabling the knife. Mind you he’s cut more meat in a week than I will be able to do in a lifetime. But, I’ve skinned and quartered 3 elk and a deer and probably pop off one blade per animal. There are a couple other brands that might address the blade issues some find. I simply shove the used blades into the dirt. I imagine a kid finding it a thousand years from now wondering about it like a stone arrowhead.

For use on the daily I carry one of the Milwaukee Fastback utility folders. I’ve had 3 different models, for me the most compact hit the sweet spot. If I used it a bunch on abrasive material the one with the blade reservoir would get the nod. The all metal if I was wearing heavy gloves all the time and stored it in a tool belt.