My personal A-1, which was sent back to Peter Hjortberger in Sweden to have its edge re beveled, is a great heavy duty performer. Thanks Peter. Short of heavy chopping, it is quite stong and efficient on almost any type material I may come across in the shop on a daily basis. Paper, cardboard, industrial strapping tape, heavy duty copper staples, rubber tires and tubes, plastic jugs, carpet, light twigs and branches, paint cans, and of course some food. It can slice, pry, chop, and pommel as good as any comparable size/ quality fix blade I' ve used. The checkered rubber grips are quite secure around oily, chemical environment. But does not bite the skin hard enough to hurt after prolong use.
Because of the somewhat steep edge bevel and its considerably thick stock are not characteristic of a good slicer IME, my model was rebeveled as mentioned before and is a great improvement for what I need it for. I suspect a lot of us may own large thick stock blades but may not use them really hard. Perhaps a thinner edge is preferrable as it makes it a bit easier to sharpen. BTW, the VG10 steel holds an edge quite well. I don' t know about it reacting around organic environment, but it has remained pretty "stainless" since the beginning.
IME, the convex grinds on the WM1, F1, and S1 do not slice as well as a "conventional" edge bevel. But the Fallkniven steel line of blades were geared towards survival. And delicate slicing perhaps was not the number 1 priority for what they designed the knives for. To each his own I guess. But overall, the A1 is a great reasonably priced user blade.
Nakano
