I recently picked up a Helle 'Dokka' folder (yes, a Scandi
folder; a lockback) at the local Sportsman's Warehouse. I'd gone in there looking for something else, and did a double-take walking past the knife display cases and seeing a few Scandi knives in there (all Helle).
Mine has the 'triple laminated stainless' blade, and curly birch handles with nested stainless liners (completely unseen at casual glance). The original factory edge grind had what appeared to be a very small microbevel on it, which wasn't very sharp (or as sharp as I would've hoped). That aside, I didn't waste any time re-grinding the bevels to a true zero-edge, and the core steel ended up taking a fantastic edge. I still don't know exactly what steel is used at the core (they only describe it as 'high carbon core'), though the softer outer layers are 18-8 stainless. Helle apparently uses Sandvik 12C27 in some of their other non-laminate models (at least), and I'm hoping they also reserved it for the core steel in the triple-laminate stainless blades. It sharpens up at least as well as a stainless Opinel (12C27Mod, by Sandvik), and that's a very, very good thing. Helle apparently spec's the hardness of these triple-laminate blades (the core steel) at RC 58-59, which is right in 12C27's wheelhouse. :thumbup:
BTW, the scandi bevels on mine are large/wide enough, I was able to get a decent estimate of the grind angle, using a folding protractor. I laid each side of the protractor against the bevels, and read an edge angle at approximately 17-19° inclusive. With a zero-edge applied on mine, it's a wicked slicer.
All that said, I'd definitely say 'Yes' to these; I'm impressed. I shouldn't be spending the money, but I'm awful tempted to go back and take a hard look at one of their fixed-blade models as well. :thumbup:
David
