Back Story - the Short Version:
Rotte had a contest - I won the contest. I chose Fiddleback Forge to cash in on Rotte's generosity. I decided to plan my own knife. Rotte came along for the ride. TonyM helped a lot with details. Andy worked his butt off. I now have a knife.
Fit and Finish:
The first thing that must be said is that Andy is doing the finest laminates on knives that I have seen. His stock and trade used to be a bilaminate with two hardwoods. Now he has expanded things - this is a trilaminate of G-10, Canvas Micarta, and Osage Orange. He makes these scales himself - and his attention to detail comes out in his scales.
The three colors Andy chose are so well matched and the Osage was just gorgeous. I cannot wait for it to turn a more orange, but am psyched about the color as it is. His finish on these scales are esssentially perfect. No sand lines, no issues, nice and solid. There is a slight glue line around a few of the pins - but this will weather very well as the Osage mellows.
I have handles dozens of Andy's knives (mostly for sheaths) and I have yet to see anything like a gap, or essentially seamless fit from the handles to the blade.
Andy is relatively new to the Scandi grind - but due to a nice jig in his shop - he is making them very consistent. On this knife, the plunge line from right to left was ever so slightly off - but was easily fixed with my 800 grit stone. I wager that these little things are soon to be a thing of the past with Andy care of detail.
The grind itself was VERY flat, very even, and very well done. I keep my stones very flat and hate to work convex grinds out of scandi's. This was no worry here - within no time I had the grind lines taken out and a nice polish.
His small logo looks great in the two spots it is at on this knife.
Feel in the hand:
This is where I feel like I can't say too much. I designed the thickness of the slabs, and how the knife would fit, so of course it fits my hands well. Andy changed my design slightly - but I wanted him to make my design his execution. I cannot argue with any of the slight changes he made to the handles. Love the handles and there essentially can't be a hot spot on these.
Let me shut up and just show some comparison pics:
The Blade and the using of the knife:
I think that Andy's heat treat is right on the money. I sharpened the blade and ended on a 6000 grit stone - went outside and attacked a bit of hard wood that I had. The grind is slightly steeper than my Koster, Bernie Garland, and other scandis. This, I think, is because the blade stock is a little thinner. (3.34 mm v. 4 mm) However, I think this is a proper grind angle. It makes for a VERY robust edge, but also one that slices well. It sizzled though the hard wood, had no issue hogging off meat in the chest lever, and made THIN feather sticks.
In short, it does everything a scandi should do.
Lasting First Thoughts:
I really like this knife - and I know that this review is a bit sparse. It should be considering I helped design the knife. I cannot wait for the next person in line to get a hold of this blade and tell me what Andy and I wrought.
Special thanks to Rotte a GREAT guy!
TF
