Helle Wabakimi

Halfneck

Halfneck

Joined
Jun 30, 2005
Messages
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Anyone else seen the new Helle Wabakimi? It's a new collaboration with Les Stroud and it looks like a good bushcraft style knife. 3.3" blade of Helle's laminated stainless steel with a 3/4" full tang and a 4.6" long birchwood handle.

One of my go-to woods knives is a Helle Symfoni and it has served me well. The handle on the Wabakimi looks like it should be very ergonomic. The 2 other Les Stroud collaborations were bigger than I liked (Temagami) or too small (Mandra). Hoping this one splits the difference and is just right.Wabakimi.jpg Wabakimi1.jpg
 
Why are the collab-blades always named something japanese ?

Looks like a good knife, as expected really.
 
I don’t own any of these low scandi grind knives. They seem specialized for, I guess, wood working?

I like the look of a lot of these Helle handles, but have worried the grind isn’t general purpose enough. I’d appreciate any reviews on them for tasks other than feathersticking. Does anyone ever grind the shoulder off to make a convex?
 
Dangerously said:
I don’t own any of these low scandi grind knives. They seem specialized for, I guess, wood working?

I like the look of a lot of these Helle handles, but have worried the grind isn’t general purpose enough. I’d appreciate any reviews on them for tasks other than feathersticking. Does anyone ever grind the shoulder off to make a convex?
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I have and use a Helle knife. The scandi grind is great for the outdoors. I guess there are better knives for food prep, but a Helle will still get the job done. Easy to maintain and comfortable to use. Also, it’s surprisingly light.

nOhPOVU.jpg
 
Michael Pattarozzi said:
Wabakimi is a wilderness park in the boreal region of northern Ontario
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Quite so. Norway is in similar latitudes to parts of Canada, and both are partly in the arboreal region of the northern hemisphere. Not surprising that Les collaborates with Helle, in that respect, as the conditions are not dissimilar.
 
Dangerously said:
Does anyone ever grind the shoulder off to make a convex?
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Some people regrind the edge to what gets called a Scandi-convex edge. Reality is, if you use & resharpen your scandi-edge knives, you get a sort of convex edge to it anyway. Hard to maintain a true zero-grind by hand.

Regardless, for a small fixed blade woods knife I prefer a scandi-grind with a comfortable handle. Sure it's geared towards wood-working, but that's what I use it on. Making stuff to help around the campsite - tent stakes, pot holders, etc.
 
I have one on order. I'll post some pics compared to the other knives he has and some popular bush style knives.
 
Helle doesn't offer many of their knives in carbon steel. The only one that comes to mind off the bat is the Viking.

Generally prefer carbon steel too, but my Helle Symfoni has held up fine.
 
Halfneck said:
Helle doesn't offer many of their knives in carbon steel. The only one that comes to mind off the bat is the Viking.

Generally prefer carbon steel too, but my Helle Symfoni has held up fine.
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Yeah, have to say I think the laminated stainless they use is very good.
 
Coming from a brand that caters to hunters, fishers and outdoorsmen this is not very surprising. Even the basic Sandvik 12C27 is a very good steel. I've found that Fallkniven's Lam Cos is quite amazing at holding an edge "forever". Then, Mora has used laminated steel for quite some time and these blades are quite outstanding, too. This said, I have currently no use for the narrow scandi grind, so this outrules most of Helle's offering. Sad...
 
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Rykjeklut, I also thought the "Temagami" which Les Stroud also designed, sounded Japanese until I looked it up and again another Boreal area and a Native Canadian name. John
 
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