This is the preliminary review of my made to order custom FK-SM. I saw the knives made by Josiah Gravelle on the maker's sale sub-forum and contacted him about working in CPM 3V.
We talked back and forth, I told him what I was looking for and he said he was game and provided a price. The knife I ordered is his standard FK-SM, or Field Knife- Small. This one is based on one he sold on the forum with green and black G10 layered handle and a blasted finish, I also asked for cryo quench on the 3V and a target hardness of Rc 61. 3V is very tough steel and many makers dont harden past 59. But its still exceptionally tough at a hardness beyond 60 even as hard as 62. I wanted to improve edge holding by pushing it up hence the 61.
Finally I asked for a tan kydex sheath as it lightens the look of the knife. A couple months later I was notified it was ready and time to pay the remainder, shortly after that it arrived. It would have been faster Im sure but in that time Josiah had a lot of personal stuff happening including getting married and moving into a new house. Still thats a pretty good turn around anyways for a basically unique knife.
Here it is:
FK-SM-3V by rapt_up, on Flickr
FK-SM_3V by rapt_up, on Flickr
Specs:
CPM 3V, Tested at Rc 60.9
Blade tip to plunge - 3.4
Blade tip to scales - 4.0
Thickness - 0.197
Height/Width - 1.57
Handle (scale) length - 5.28
Handle thickness - .70
The knife arrived with both the tan sheath and a black sheath, with a large teklok on the tan sheath. All was carefully packed. Very solid, the sheaths are very secure but still function easily extending up over the first scallop on the scales.
The edge was very sharp, dry shaved easily, and when checked proved to be hair whittling sharp out of the package, the sharpest knife I have ever had as new.
Fit and finish was overall very good with only two very minor, non performance affecting points. The flat grinds are slightly different on the two sides of the blade, and there is a ghost of what I guess is a grind mark that shows through the bead blast in some light. Pretty darn great for it being his first knife in 3V and the very fast turnaround. Neither issue affects the functionality or bother me since this is a hard use working knife. Certainly the first time you use it for real its going to get marks that show more than this. I certainly have no complaints, but if you're the sort of person who has pristine knives that spend more time in a safe than in the field then this might bother you. It doesn't bother me.
The handle is has a nice shape and great feel. The scalloped surface is great for grip, very aggressive, but not painful or uncomfortable. It would work well with gloves as well as bare hands as the texture goes deep enough. Its plenty large for any sized hand in my opinion and for me gives a good range of grip positions and styles.
Carried on my belt just behind midpoint (think over the outer corner of your back pocket, it rides high and tucked in against my side. An untucked shirt covers it all, and makes it very nearly invisible. I love this aspect of carrying it. Its very unobtrusive for carry.
On to performance. In the past week and a bit,this knife has been my go to knife for everything knife requiring. I have sliced paper, whittled hairs, dissected 4 large boxes, two double wall boxes, sliced tomatoes, cut up avocados, cubed chicken, minced garlic and herbs, trimmed weeping willow branches, made fire starting supplies and its done it all very well. I havent batoned with it yet since thats something I rarely do, but Im not worried.
Slicing and cardboard box dissection is hampered slightly by its significant thickness. But it still slices as well as most standard commercial chefs knives, and cuts boxes better than any box cutter Ive used. (My mainstay box cutters are Olfa and use the UltraMax blades.)
After a week and half of this, it still push cuts easily. Slicing news print, dry shaving, and whittling hair with ease. As far as I can tell the edge is unaffected by my use to date.
This is impressive in my book, the thing that impressed me most though was the willow trimming. Holding the butt of the handle in a three finger type grip and snapping my wrist allows me to cleanly sever free-hanging weeping willow branches up to ½ in diameter. They just drop. This is something one wouldnt typically consider doing with a thick 4 blade, but its sharp and it just does it... Easily It is better at this than my 18 Ontario Knife Issue Machete. (which is admittedly not even close to this sharp.)
There has been no signs of patina, or staining while doing this work and I havent been in any way careful about cleaning it immediately after use or wiping it down after handling. My O1 knife has more patina formed 30 seconds after cutting a tomato than this knife does after a week of steady use at everything I need a knife for in a week. So for me at least 3V is at least somewhat stain resistant.
All in all a really great, smaller hard use knife. Im already thinking about how great this will be in a bigger knife, maybe even a chopper . Just have to save the money to make it happen. Thanks to Josiah at Gravelle knives for being a great guy, and making this awesome knife!
We talked back and forth, I told him what I was looking for and he said he was game and provided a price. The knife I ordered is his standard FK-SM, or Field Knife- Small. This one is based on one he sold on the forum with green and black G10 layered handle and a blasted finish, I also asked for cryo quench on the 3V and a target hardness of Rc 61. 3V is very tough steel and many makers dont harden past 59. But its still exceptionally tough at a hardness beyond 60 even as hard as 62. I wanted to improve edge holding by pushing it up hence the 61.
Finally I asked for a tan kydex sheath as it lightens the look of the knife. A couple months later I was notified it was ready and time to pay the remainder, shortly after that it arrived. It would have been faster Im sure but in that time Josiah had a lot of personal stuff happening including getting married and moving into a new house. Still thats a pretty good turn around anyways for a basically unique knife.
Here it is:
FK-SM-3V by rapt_up, on Flickr
FK-SM_3V by rapt_up, on Flickr
Specs:
CPM 3V, Tested at Rc 60.9
Blade tip to plunge - 3.4
Blade tip to scales - 4.0
Thickness - 0.197
Height/Width - 1.57
Handle (scale) length - 5.28
Handle thickness - .70
The knife arrived with both the tan sheath and a black sheath, with a large teklok on the tan sheath. All was carefully packed. Very solid, the sheaths are very secure but still function easily extending up over the first scallop on the scales.
The edge was very sharp, dry shaved easily, and when checked proved to be hair whittling sharp out of the package, the sharpest knife I have ever had as new.
Fit and finish was overall very good with only two very minor, non performance affecting points. The flat grinds are slightly different on the two sides of the blade, and there is a ghost of what I guess is a grind mark that shows through the bead blast in some light. Pretty darn great for it being his first knife in 3V and the very fast turnaround. Neither issue affects the functionality or bother me since this is a hard use working knife. Certainly the first time you use it for real its going to get marks that show more than this. I certainly have no complaints, but if you're the sort of person who has pristine knives that spend more time in a safe than in the field then this might bother you. It doesn't bother me.
The handle is has a nice shape and great feel. The scalloped surface is great for grip, very aggressive, but not painful or uncomfortable. It would work well with gloves as well as bare hands as the texture goes deep enough. Its plenty large for any sized hand in my opinion and for me gives a good range of grip positions and styles.
Carried on my belt just behind midpoint (think over the outer corner of your back pocket, it rides high and tucked in against my side. An untucked shirt covers it all, and makes it very nearly invisible. I love this aspect of carrying it. Its very unobtrusive for carry.
On to performance. In the past week and a bit,this knife has been my go to knife for everything knife requiring. I have sliced paper, whittled hairs, dissected 4 large boxes, two double wall boxes, sliced tomatoes, cut up avocados, cubed chicken, minced garlic and herbs, trimmed weeping willow branches, made fire starting supplies and its done it all very well. I havent batoned with it yet since thats something I rarely do, but Im not worried.
Slicing and cardboard box dissection is hampered slightly by its significant thickness. But it still slices as well as most standard commercial chefs knives, and cuts boxes better than any box cutter Ive used. (My mainstay box cutters are Olfa and use the UltraMax blades.)
After a week and half of this, it still push cuts easily. Slicing news print, dry shaving, and whittling hair with ease. As far as I can tell the edge is unaffected by my use to date.
This is impressive in my book, the thing that impressed me most though was the willow trimming. Holding the butt of the handle in a three finger type grip and snapping my wrist allows me to cleanly sever free-hanging weeping willow branches up to ½ in diameter. They just drop. This is something one wouldnt typically consider doing with a thick 4 blade, but its sharp and it just does it... Easily It is better at this than my 18 Ontario Knife Issue Machete. (which is admittedly not even close to this sharp.)
There has been no signs of patina, or staining while doing this work and I havent been in any way careful about cleaning it immediately after use or wiping it down after handling. My O1 knife has more patina formed 30 seconds after cutting a tomato than this knife does after a week of steady use at everything I need a knife for in a week. So for me at least 3V is at least somewhat stain resistant.
All in all a really great, smaller hard use knife. Im already thinking about how great this will be in a bigger knife, maybe even a chopper . Just have to save the money to make it happen. Thanks to Josiah at Gravelle knives for being a great guy, and making this awesome knife!
