Fallkinaven F1 Question

3Guardsmen said:
I guess some people just don't give up, no matter what the thread title or the OP says.:rolleyes:




Well, the Swedish Air Force doesn't seem to have a problem issuing the F1 as a survival knife, so, either they (the Swedish Air Force) have it all wrong, or the knife simply works. I guess it's up to you to decide.

"Mod. F1 is the official survival knife for pilots within the Swedish Air Force since 1995." http://www.fallkniven.com/a1f1/f1_en.htm

I have an F1 and wouldn't feel a bit slighted if it were the only knife I had in a "survival" situation. You might consider spending some time reading in the "Wilderness & Survival Skills" forum.;)



http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=692

Regards,
3G
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Thanks!

I've been browsing the W&F forum right now :-)
 
I love my F1. I add a Gerber folding saw and SAK Trekker. It is definitely enought knife for your needs and carries effortlessly on the belt.
 
I carry an F1 in my survival kit in my plane and I carry one in the woods hiking. It is one strong little knife. You don't need a bayonet as a survival knife.
 
I also carry the keep the F1 with me as soon as I go outdoors.
I complement it with a folding saw and a LM Fuse.
 
I certainly wouldn't bash Fallknivens, but using the logic that its an issue item with the Swedish Air Force makes it great ain't necessarily so. Fourteen years as a naval aviator, I can tell you the USN issues a piece of crap knife in the SV2 survival vest. I certainly wouldn't choose any item just because it has a NATO stock number or is issued. Sometimes cheap is cheap. Certainly not in Fallknivens case, I'm just saying beware of this basic logic.

pete
 
pedropcola said:
I certainly wouldn't bash Fallknivens, but using the logic that its an issue item with the Swedish Air Force makes it great ain't necessarily so. Fourteen years as a naval aviator, I can tell you the USN issues a piece of crap knife in the SV2 survival vest. I certainly wouldn't choose any item just because it has a NATO stock number or is issued. Sometimes cheap is cheap. Certainly not in Fallknivens case, I'm just saying beware of this basic logic.

pete
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I hear you, Pete. The Swedes apparently give their guys better stuff than we do.

Regards,
3G
 
I'm really tempted to get this knife. Or I just drop the extra $20 and get a S1.

I think why i'm worried about the blade size is that if I get the F1, I'm going to have it for a while. I don't really buy new knives often, because I'm not picky. All I really need is an SAK, a mid-size folder, and a good fixed. Right now I have 2/3
 
I recently got a LMF II and started naturally to compare it to the F1. First of all, the LMF II is HUGE and heavy and the sheath is enormous.

Well, they are both survival knives, but for different types of survival. The F1 is for outdoor survival and the LMF II is for combat survival so I can understand the difference.
I will do a comparison review some day.
 
pedropcola said:
I certainly wouldn't bash Fallknivens, but using the logic that its an issue item with the Swedish Air Force makes it great ain't necessarily so. Fourteen years as a naval aviator, I can tell you the USN issues a piece of crap knife in the SV2 survival vest. I certainly wouldn't choose any item just because it has a NATO stock number or is issued. Sometimes cheap is cheap. Certainly not in Fallknivens case, I'm just saying beware of this basic logic.

pete
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Well, you need to consider who we're talking about here. Take a look at the Swedish armed forces compared to the US armed forces. The Americans have a budget about a million times larger than the Swedes, obviously. This means two things: 1) Americans get neater toys in greater numbers, because they can afford them, but on the other hand... 2) The Americans can also afford buying and issuing crappy tools that no one will use anyway, because that kind of expense doesn't mean much in such an enormous budget, while the Swedes need to count every penny and can't afford wasting money on tools that won't be used anyway or won't do the job. And that means when the Swedes buy something, it's going to be either very high performance and durable and a little on the pricy side, or it's going to be the cheapest, most worthless piece of crap ever created, so cheap that it can be bought by the bucketload again and again, so you can just drown your troopers in them so they won't ever run out no matter how many they break in a day. Guess which the Fällkniven F1 is.

On the whole F1 vs S1 vs A1 thing, I own a number of all of those models, and in my view, the S1 is kind of a fall-between. I find it hard to justify carrying an S1, when I could carry the F1 or the A1 instead. The F1 is pretty much the best bushcraft Fällkniven, unless you want a guardless model, in which case the H1 is your choice. The A1 is much larger and heavier, and is less precise - if you want something to beat things up with, then out of the Fällknivens, look at the A1 and up. The A1 is very, very different from the F1.
 
As Elen says I think you will be better off with the F1 than the S1. The S1 is thicker and has a flat saber grind convexed edge which makes it a worse slicer than the F1 I guess...
I have an F1 and I am happy with it. If I were about to get another Fallkniven... it will be an A1 for sure. I have that size range pretty much covered with a RAT7 so it will take a while.
Mikel
 
The F1 is more compact and portable, meant to be put in the thigh pocket of a flight suit (or something to that effect, iirc). The blade thickness makes it robust. I already like it for those two reasons.
 
My vote is with the S1 since I own one and like it a lot, but the F1 and H1 get rave reviews as well.
 
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