Helle knives???

O

Oregon Knife Guy

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Mar 27, 2009
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A friend of mine told me to look at helle knives. I browsed around their site a bit. One knife I saw that looked decent was the "winner" pretty low cost- $90-$100. Anyone have any thoughts on these knives?
 
I have a helle harding 3.75in blade and it is the cadillac of mora/puko style. Laminate vg-10 with curly birch and maple with a great leather sheath, what's not to like! Really comfortable handle.
I also have the 8.4in lapplander from helle and it is a great knife too.
 
I have the Helle "Harding" and it's as functional as it is pretty. If it weren't for small gaps where the bolster is fitted to the blade, it would be faultless.

The laminated blade steel is excellent.

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
I have a Futura. It is sharp like only a Scandi can be, and has the most comfortabe handle of my knives.

However, the sheath unique to this particular model isn't great, and the tang seems weak on mine - I can bend it with my hands! :eek: It makes me afraid to use it except for the lightest sort of duty.
 
I nearly bought an Eggen once - it looked a good usable knife. When reading up on a few opinions of it, I found a case where the handle had cracked and broken during use, causing severe damage to the user's fingers.

Maybe just a one-off, maybe the knife had been used hard, I don't know. Might never happen again. But it put me off big time!
 
I have the Nying and Hellfisk. I have been carrying the Nying on and off for a couple months now, it is a really nice little fixed blade and SHARP! I would recommend holding this one first before you buy, the handle is quite different.
I have only had the chance to use the Hellfisk(filet knife) once and it was very nice, the cork handle is quite comfortable and again it is very SHARP!

I don't think you will be disappointed with any of the Helle knives.
 
I've had two Helles so far. A Futura and a Fjellkniven. Both were super sharp. The Futura's handle was a little goofy for me but someone with really big hands might like it better. The Fjellkniven's handle is a dream to hold. I foolishly traded mine off and then discovered how nice it is to use for carving with TonyM's. I now have a Harding and a Brakar on their way to me through trades. I've been drooling over their Odell model for years.
 
Like Marcelo said, I have the Helle Fjellkniven. It is a great carver and cutter. Came very sharp, in a pretty package. Fit and finish were good. there are some minor gaps between blade and fittings, but nothing to hurt it functionally. The handle is not only pretty, but extremely comfortable if you don't have very large hands.
 
I've got about a dozen or so Helle's, they are hard to beat for for the money, and they are really well made. Most models have birch handles, so they are not really meant for "hard-use", that is I would never baton or pry with them. My Nying is probably the one that I use the most, it's handle is really very ergonomic and fits my hand perfectly, and the sheath is a work of art. My only complaint is with my Symfoni, the front of the handle is capped in reindeer antler, which it is very porous and readily absorbs water (in my opinion it should be sealed somehow at the factory). They offer models in both tri-laminate steel and sandvik 12c27, I prefer the laminate.
 
I think I got this off their website. I gave my Eggen to a nephew to use in Scouts, but I liked that blade a lot. Very light, great for backpacking, took a very good edge: Most Helle blades are made of triple laminate stainless steel, a sandwich of tough stainless panels with a core of high carbon steel. It is especially made for Helle, and does not correspond to any of the standard types of steel. High carbon steel is tougher than stainless, easier to sharpen and holds a superior edge. For the technically minded, the composition of the high carbon steel core is: Carbon -0.67%, Silicon -0.70%, Sulphur -0.002%, Phosphorous -0.19%, Manganese 0.44%, Nickel -0.28%, Chromium -0.28%, Molybdenum -0.52%. The high carbon steel core is hardened to 58-59 HRC (Rockwell Scale). This is the harder part of the blade that holds the edge.
The outside layers are tough 18/8 stainless, 18% chromium and 8% nickel. Together, this makes a blade that can be sharpened to a very fine razor edge, and yet is not brittle. It is also easier to re-sharpen than conventional knives because much of the steel being removed (the outer panels) is softer than standard cutlery steel. This type of blade will bend long before it would break.
 
I've been wanting to get one too, couldnt justify it yet, but when I can it'll be the Fjellkniven. Short handle (10.5cm), 10cm blade, and deep pouch sheath. Thats the one for me.
 
I have a Harmoni ($65 from Ragweed Forge) and I like it a lot. It is nice to have a knife that most people don't view as a weapon. The handles are a little thicker than most which is a big plus and the birch is nice and warm. The laminated steel came shaving sharp but just like TonyM's there were small gaps between the blade and the bolster. The steel is also pretty bendable so if you want to use it as a pry-bar you probably shouldn't look to Helle. However, if you use your knife as a cutting/slicing tool then Helle is a great way to go.
 
I have a Futura, and a few others I don't remember.. :o They are good knives and pretty common here in Norway.

The tri-laminate takes a very keen edge and holds it pretty well. It sharpens easily and is very good with fresh wood. The handles on the Futuras are large (the knife on the right):

IMG_5498.jpg


Blade compared to a Bark river Canadian Special:

HelleogCS2.jpg
 
NoFair,

Nice photos. That comparison shot tells people a whole lot about the handle size of that Helle! (I'm putting one on my list!)

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
Take a look at Ragweed Forge for a good selection of Helle's. I have had my eye on the contemporary Harmoni model.
 
kgd said:
Take a look at Ragweed Forge for a good selection of Helle's. I have had my eye on the contemporary Harmoni model.
Click to expand...

That, the symfoni, and the eggen are really attractice to me!! Between wanting one of those and wanting to get a bare M2K blade to rehandle, I'm in a bad place. :D
 
I have a brakar, it was my go-to blade even before i found BF. It still sees alot of use and i like it ery much. My only complaint would be that the handle is too thin, but i dont think that is a problem on most of their other models. The nying has been on my short list for a while now......
 
sorry to go off topic but what would be the best way to rehandle m2k. i would love to make make my own handle. thanks

erik
 
I have a Helle Eggen and it is one of the sharpest knives I've ever received NIB. Great shape and design.

Too bad to read about a failure with on of those, but since so many Scandi knives have been historically made using birch wood, I think that was a "one off" instance.
 
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