Fallkniven A-1

Mistwalker

Mistwalker

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2007
Messages
19,053
A short while back I acquired a Fallkniven A-1 in a trade with Mick (Southern Cross) for some various pieces of camping supplies. While it was a trade the knife came directly to me new in the box from Knives Ship Free and I have to say the service was excellent. All questions were promptly answered and the knife came very quickly.


These shots are from the day I got it. Over all the knife is 11.125" (roughly 28.5 cm), the blade is 6.25" (16cm) long, 0.25" (6mm) thick, and 1.6" (3.4cm) wide at the widest point, and made of laminated VG10 Steel. It has a molded kraton handle with an extended tang. It came with an amazing edge.

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A few days back I took it out on a photo shoot with me and played around a bit with it. I liked this shot.

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I found some hard seasoned Dogwood to test the edge with. The edge did wonderfully, but the coating seems to wear off fast.

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Today between rains...we're having some violent thunder storms today...I took it out to test it out a little more with some seasoned Black Walnut. I did a little batoning and whittling.

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This piece is rather knotty and you can see how the coating is wearing off fairly quickly.

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But even driven through knots the only wear I see is in the coating, the blade itself shows no damage all all even though I was only striking about a half inch or so of the tip that was sticking out on the other side.

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I split off a few flat pieces that I could have used for hearth boards, cutting boards, fire bases, shingles, or "plates". On the last one I only split down to a very hard knot and then pried off the piece. The knife handled beautifully, and other than the coating is no worse for the wear.

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The edge seems to be doing just fine so far.

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The sheath is a little different that what I am used to. It is molded Zytel with a webbing belt loop, and a webbing retention strap with a snap fastener.

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It has a "flap" molded into the side of the sheath that via a raised surface on the inside works to help hold the knife in place without the retention strap engaged and as a temporary holder for the knife when carried in a tip-up manor. It isn't strong enough to secure the knife in place in tip-up carry but will hold it in place plenty long enough to engage the retention strap...as long as you're not running or jumping at the same time.

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I'm thinking I can tighten this secondary retention system a bit with the use of some inner tube. Even if I get it really tight there is a good "thumb-push" on the sheath for drawing the knife.

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I do have one issue with the tang extension but that may be a personal thing. I'm not crazy about the slant.

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All in all I really like the knife and expect it to fill its intended role quite well. However I decided against trying it in food prep just yet until I learn a bit more about the coating. Anyone here have experience with removing this particular coating? Any ideas that won't damage/scratch or contaminate the blade?


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Great review buddy, that truly seems to be one knife that could do it all eh !!!

I'm always confused as to why they coat a stainless blade in the first place unless it's for tactical reasons ?
 
pitdog said:
Great review buddy, that truly seems to be one knife that could do it all eh !!!

I'm always confused as to why they coat a stainless blade in the first place unless it's for tactical reasons ?
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Thanks Pit!

Yeah, that's its intended role as my belt knife on longer hikes. If I somehow manage loose my pack and am down to one knife I want it to be really tough and all weather.

Yeah, it's the issue knife for the Swedish Army so it's coated to deal with reflectivity, but the coating is nothing like the coating on the RAT or TOPS knives...nowhere near as durable. Now I just want to get it all off and I'll know to be sure to order the next Fallkniven in an uncoated blade. I do really like the knife.
 
The only Fallkniven knives I've handled were only lightly used and their coatings were already showing a lot of wear. That would worry me as well with food. I suppose it isn't meant as a knife to cut food, but an overall campknife would need to do that.

Thanks for the review bud :thumbup:
 
excellent review! seeing as i like black coated blades in general, i think i'll stick to an esee-6 instead for the coating durability if i ever buy a ~6" blade.
 
Great review Mistwalker. Just today, I put inner-tube on my 3 Fallkniven sheaths.( F1,S1,A1's) I put it around the tab near the top. I cut the tube about 1 1/2 " . It tightens it up some, but not a heck of a lot. Still an improvement. Those sheaths are slim, and don't get in the way of things. Plus, no worries about getting the whole affair wet.
I got my three without the black, and i've seen it wear off quick in a lot of posts. It doesn't matter really , though. I just got the knives cheaper.
Really well designed stuff, Fallkniven is. Great steel on those units. :thumbup:
 
Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it :)

I can take or leave coated blades...carbon steel I can patina, stainless, well stainless is stainless :) but if this coating is going to come off so easily I want to just take it all off and be done. I do tend to use my knives for food prep but seldom have just one on me so no big deal while i am taking it off.
 
hiwa said:
Great review Mistwalker. Just today, I put inner-tube on my 3 Fallkniven sheaths.( F1,S1,A1's) I put it around the tab near the top. I cut the tube about 1 1/2 " . It tightens it up some, but not a heck of a lot. Still an improvement. Those sheaths are slim, and don't get in the way of things. Plus, no worries about getting the whole affair wet.
I got my three without the black, and i've seen it wear off quick in a lot of posts. It doesn't matter really , though. I just got the knives cheaper.
Really well designed stuff, Fallkniven is. Great steel on those units. :thumbup:
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Thanks.

The knife won't come out at all if the tab doesn't move so I know I can tighten up the retention even if I have to use two pieces of inner tube and back it up with another piece of zytel to get it where I want it to be.

I am liking this steel so far :thumbup:
 
If it's not as tough as the coating RAT knives have, it'll be a piece of cake to remove. I got the coating off of my RAT3 with True Value Hardware brand paint stripper and it worked extremely well. Slather it on, let it sit for a while (read the label), wipe it off with whatever you have handy (plastic scraper, lots of newspaper, handfuls of sawdust from a table saw, jointer or planer...) and finish with a scotchbrite pad or steel wool.

I'd tape up the handle material so the stripper won't mess it up, but I'm not sure it will.

Have fun!
 
Nice review Mistwalker. Looks like a great blade. I'm sure a little bit of 800 grit sandpaper will remove that coating without any effort whats so ever.
 
Great pics and review Mist!! Thanks!!

I've seen in a couple other reviews about the coating wearing easily, so any more Fallknivens I order will be satin finish.

I really like the knife just need to decide whether to get an A1 or an S1 next. Been a Fallkniven fan since I trade a knife for an F1. Impresive blades.
 
Thanks guys glad you liked the review.

I don't think the coating will be too hard to get off. I really do like the knife, I'll definitely go for satin next time when I get an F-1.
 
That is one sweet knife. On my top 10 for sure. Great pics too. Looks even better with some worn coating. :D
 
thanks for the review :)

I have their little WM1 (well two actually :D) and I really like the knife(ves)- I'm thinking about one of their bigger ones, I'm pretty torn between the S1 and A1
 
Tyrkon Lawson said:
That is one sweet knife. On my top 10 for sure. Great pics too. Looks even better with some worn coating. :D
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Yep, it is sweet.

Lol, I don't like for them to look new for long but this one is going quicker than I expected :)


mtwarden said:
thanks for the review :)

I have their little WM1 (well two actually :D) and I really like the knife(ves)- I'm thinking about one of their bigger ones, I'm pretty torn between the S1 and A1
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Glad you enjoyed it. I was torn between the F-1 and the A-1 for a few but went with the larger one first because it filled the void. I'll be getting the F-1 later...but more because of want than need. I'd like to get an NL-4 but it's a little beyond my reach at the moment.
 
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