Okay, I had a chance to play around with the FFG17 the last few days.
I repaired to the back yard to play around making some shavings. The blade came with a decent working edge to it. Normally I prefer to Fisk my Tweeners and make them really, really sharp, but the edge on the FFG17 right now seems to last forever. I honed it up, and then proceeded to work on the wood.
Then I grabbed my excellent Tommythewho firesteel from my usual Tweener pouch, and I decided to make fire with them.
Although it looks nice, I didn't really care for the small choil K-9 did until I needed a place to strike the steel. The choil made a great surface.
I got the scales a little dirty, though.
It cleaned up just fine, but you might have to media blast the scales again to get them back in the white completely.
And speaking of the scales, I think they're great. Much more hand-filling than the normal scales, yet you can still use the factory sheath.
The sheath K-9 supplied is great. I carried it in this sheath at work for the last two days, and it retains the knife perfectly, but doesn't actually lock the blade in like one of AZWelke's or Godspeed's rigs. Makes it much easier to draw from, and is a perfect rig for casual carry.
The white scales are a bit wide for my other sheaths, though. I could barely get it into my Skystorm sheaths, although if I were to regularly carry it in them, the leather would probably stretch out over time. Looks good in them, though.
The clip is perfectly done, and the thumb depression and new jimping is awesome. It makes the FFG17 feel like a whole different knife. Very aggressive in the hand. I did some blade drills with it, and this would make a dandy fighter, especially with a sharpened swedge. I'm going to swap out the scales for the black ones K-9 supplied and try them out. He media blasted them so that they're grippier than the factory ones.
This is the perfect Tweener, IMHO. The looks and stabbiness of a 17, with the sliciness of a 16. Man, this is a cool blade.
Personally, if this was my knife, I'd Fisk it so that it would be scary sharp, but the edge it came with did well as is.
I don't really care for the choil, however. It was too small for my finger to fit in, and when I was making shavings with it, the choil kept getting in the way. For my money, I'd take either a larger choil identical to the 15's, or no choil at all. I think I'd go for no choil on mine.
Anyway, that's my thought on the FFG17 so far. I'm going to play around with it for a few more days, and send it out on Tuesday. Thanks for doing this K-9. You do some damn fine work, bro. :thumbup::thumbup:
Just an observation: Seeing that this knife started out as another knife, does that make it a trans-gender knife, or maybe a trans-Becker knife ? Just curious
