Just received this today so have only done a little testing and checking. Overall, I am pleased, especially for this price point.
I have several US made Schrades and a few imported ones, and while the quality of the imports isn't up to the old ones, it definitely is improving. There are no obvious flaws on this knife or sheath. I just wish they didn't use this type of coating - it feels like sandpaper. I might remove it later, but I did know this was an issue before ordering. Otherwise, the grinds are even, the handle scales fit well, the factory edge is decently sharp, and it is full tang. It will strike good sparks from a firesteel, though not as good as a carbon blade. You don't have to remove the knife's coating - scraping the firesteel will remove it for you. I tried to get a pic of what happens with one scrape of the steel. In the pictures, you can see that I was around some old pallets. I did test the tip quite violently on the pallets and other than removing some coating, I did no damage to the blade.
I'm torn on the sheath. It holds the knife very tightly, but it feels brittle, especially the belt loop. I imagine a good hard fall could crack the loop. I've had that happen in the past. Guess I'll just have to see what happens. I do like the alternative mounting options if for no other reason than it gives a good place to put some paracord. In the pictures, you can see where i wrapped about 7 feet of cord.
The handle is a good fit for my hand, but I have smaller hands. I usually wear a medium in work gloves. The scales are rubbery and work well when wet. Really nothing to complain about here.
This is going to be used wadefishing, spending hours under water. Generally, I wind up using a knife to cut branches, process cut bait, kill the random cottonmouth that I catch, etc. It's just time to retire my Blackjack AWAC, so I'll mostly be using this knife and a stainless Mora. I'll update in a few months on how this has worked out.
Chicago screws
Update: Survived through fishing season, including many hard falls onto slippery rocks. The sheath has superficial scratches but has not cracked. That said, I wouldn't want to fall on it now that the cold is going to affect it. I did drill a small drainage hole in the sheath as it collected sand pretty easily. I never did get around to stripping it, but the finish is wearing off anyway, especially where the blade is contacting the sheath. No big deal. The knife itself worked perfectly and I never had to worry about it. Edge retention and sharpening seem to be on par with decent 440C. Overall, still a good buy.

I was out of state and needed a replacement knife for cheap and settled on this one. 10 months later, I have zero regrets. I've used it for a number of hiking, camping, and general gardening tasks. In almost an entire year, I've only had the edge roll a tiny bit once. The blade belly is perfect for cutting, while the point is still sufficient for stabbing. The edge geometry is steep enough to allow for fine angles, as with making feather sticks. Overall handle ergonomics and balance are perfect for me.

Some people have complained that the sheath locks in the blade so a quick draw isn't possible. This is true if you push it all the way in, but I just nudge it in slightly and can withdraw the knife easily. For 24 dollars, this is a no brainer. Would I trust my life with this knife on a 3 week expedition? No, probably not, but for a cheap knife to use and abuse, this has been perfect.

In terms of how it compares to other knives, the steel maintains an edge and is razor sharp, but feels more brittle than the steel on the gerber strongarm. I do not pry with my knives, but the schrade is an example where this would definitely cause a blade failure. That said, the weight balance is 100x better on the schrade than the strongarm. I could never get used to the gerber, but schrade felt natural right out of the box. All in all, it's an amazing knife.

The knife is very well put together. The sheath, not so much. If you buy this, find another sheath to go with it. I cannot bicker, or find any real fault with the knife as a stand alone piece. This is one of those times I would like to have a half star rating. Knife = 5 stars. The sheath = 4.5 stars. The knife is awesome. Does everything I ask of it. Well weighted, hefty but not heavy. Well balanced, just to the handle side of the mid point. The scales, gripy without tearing up your hands. The sheath is this package's short fall. The body of it holds the knife secure. You have to give it some effort to get the knife out. The blade does not rattle inside. Here is the lose of half a star. The belt loop design is not one of the better ones. It is molded as part of the back of the sheath, so you cannot remove it. The belt opening is high enough for an almost two inch wide belt to fit, but too wide for a garrison belt, and too narrow for a duty belt. If you want to go the M.O.L.L.E route, you cannot remove the belt loop portion, and it is thick enough to cause the handle to stick out. If you try to cut, or mill, the loop off, you compromise the structure of the sheath. The part of the loop that faces the handle seems to help secure the knife.

Back when Imperial Schrade went out of business and its good name sold to Taylor Brands, which sells knives under many different brand names, there was a lot of of lamentation. And for a while, the Schrade name was besmirched by having its name put on many a substandard knife.

The knife industry has been burgeoning for about a decade now and many of the "crap knife" brands are actually putting out fairly good products. This has happened with MTech, as I've noted in recent reviews, though a lot of junk has MTech stamped on it as well.

This Schrade SCHF30 is my first Schrade in a long time and let me tell you, it's impressive. It is certainly one of the best "bang for the buck" knives I have.

Let's get into the specs first.

Overall length: 10"
Blade length: 5" of which 4-5/8" is sharpened
Blade thickness: 5/32"
Blade coating: Teflon(?)
Blade steel: 8Cr13MoV stainless steel
Full tang construction.
Handle scales are a rubbery plastic

As for the pros, the knife is well designed and constructed. The blade shape is very nice, a modest combination of drop and clip points.

I was extremely impressed with the initial sharpness. This is one of the few "budget" knives I've bought recently whose sharpness was right up there with the standards of Cold Steel and Kershaw. In the budget end, being almost as sharp as blades from those manufacturers is a compliment. To be just as sharp is more than you can reasonably ask for in this price range.

(BTW, as a bit of an aside, for about two years I worked Sundays in a cutlery shop in downtown Portland, not because I needed the money but because it gave me access to a variety of the kind of knives I was collecting. During my two weeks of training, I was warned by the manager to be extra careful handling the Kershaw folding knives because they were the cause of most of the cuts employees had experienced, and one day I cut myself on one despite being forewarened! LOL)

This knife passed the thumbnail test (does the blade catch on my thumbnail enough to keep me from sliding the blade?) and the paper test. It sliced paper as effortlessly as my Talwar, which is dangerously sharp. By "dangerously sharp," I mean that a small mistake closing the Talwar"”which is spring-loaded when it closes"”could easily take off a fingertip.

The handle is very comfortable and between the deep forefinger cutout and the thumb jimping your hand is well-protected from sliding forward onto the blade should the knife meet a solid object while thrusting.
There is a generous lanyard hole, which is nice. I don't really use lanyards, but I know many people who use knives in military or emergency situations want them.

The sheath is of the Secure-Ex type. I see no trademarking on it other than "Schrade," so I assume it's proprietary to Schrade. I'll assume it's ABS and not Kydex plastic. The plastic belt loop can easily accommodate a belt 1-1/2" wide and probably one 1-3/4" wide, though snugly. There are also slits for thigh straps.

Overall, the sheath is pretty good, though I'll talk about it a bit more in the cons section, which follows.
Now, for the few cons. This knife is NOT for you if you have hands the size of dinner plates. I have small hands for a man and it's just the right size for me. A man with big hands will find himself gripping it with his little finger behind the handle. Of course, this could be an additional safety factor in addition to the forefinger cutout and jimping.

The other major con has to do with the sheath. The fit of the knife into the sheath is very tight. It takes a good hard pull to extract the knife and I can imagine an accident happening while doing so, and with a blade this sharp it could be a fairly bad accident. I'm sure that if you applied a small file and worked carefully, you could reduce the grip of the sheath, though of course you'd have to be careful not to make it too loose. This is one knife you really don't want sliding out of its sheath unexpectedly.

As a practical matter, supposing you were a spec ops soldier, there is almost no way to withdraw the blade silently. Likewise, returning the blade to the sheath results in a rather loud snapping sound. Were I a spec ops guy, I'd make a more practical sheath of cordura or leather with a snap or Velcro strap to secure it.

If you've been looking for a seriously dangerous fixed blade knife that's not too big and not too small, and you don't want to spend more than $25, this is more than worth a look.

(In the photos, I show the knife with two other serious combat/self-defense knives so you can get an idea how it compares in terms of size. Directly below it in the 3-knife shot is the Cold Steel Voyager Vaquero XL, and below that is the monstrous MTech MT 20-39. )

UPDATE, six months later:
Still really love it. Removed the silly black coating with a combination of brass brush and paint remover because, so far as I can tell, that coating actually *increases* friction while cutting. In fact, removed that coating from all my knives that had it. Honestly, people, knives need to have (a) sharp edges, and (b) as little friction as possible.

Recently used it to kill and process an entire boar (about 100 lbs) and knife was still pretty sharp, though after a job like that you expect to sharpen your tools a little. Which is all it took: a little. Really love it. Truly a bargain. Still really do not love the sheath, but it truly works. Went stomping all over a rocky, hilly portion of the Edward's Plateau with it and it stays out of the way and in the sheath, so that's what you want.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I bought, and love, the Schrade SCHF9. But it's a big bruiser. By the time you're carrying and using that one, you're probably also carrying your assault rifle and 4 extra mags, or you're in the woods trying to keep your family alive. It's also too long for legal carry in my state (Texas).

I bought, and love, the Schrade SCHF16. But it's pretty small. It's great for small, precision cutting. The sheath doesn't have a belt clip, and I'm in the process is making a sheath for it.

The Schrade SCHF30 is just right. It's big enough and thick enough for hard, daily work, but it's small enough for daily, legal carry. And it's a stinkin' BARGAIN. All these Schrade knives are a BARGAIN. High quality steel, comfortable grips, and useful (not great) sheaths. Honestly, I'm close to just buying two or three more of the SCHF30 because of the out-and-out utility of the design, quality of execution, and wonderful, affordable price.

Sheath: quick note. The sheath isn't great--there's play in the belt loop, so extracting the then replacing the knife requires some care. But it's a good, durable (seeming) sheath. Again--a real bargain.