- Joined
- Oct 17, 1999
- Messages
- 98
I recently received my Fallkniven S1 Forest Knife and I thought I would share my impressions of it.
I probably wont be saying anything that hasnt been said ten times already but here goes:
The knife has a convex ground, 5 1/8 long, 1/5 thick (factory specs) clip point blade made from VG-10 stainless steel. Rockwell hardness is 59. The blade is polished to a fairly shiny satin finish, which is rather attractive except for some visible grind marks in a ladder array going from the middle of the blade to the tip on the left side. These marks are faint, but visible. Also the grind line is slightly off on the left side of the blade near the spine just ahead of the guard. I guess you cant expect perfection for $75.
The handle is made from what they call Thermorun. Basically a hard black rubber, much harder than the Kraton on my Trailmaster, and not at all tacky. It actually feels like plastic. It is checkered on the flats of the handle and smooth on the outer edges. The handle is comfortable and secure in my medium sized hand.
Out of the box the knife shaved arm hair but was not hair-popping sharp. It sliced magazine paper with a fairly smooth, non-ragged cut.
For the next test I tried using it as a throwing knife. Its not half bad for throwing! I tried about 40 throws into a Willow tree in my backyard from a range of about 10 feet. I managed to make it stick about half the time, which is on par with my True Flight Thrower. With the knife sticking about ¾ inch into the tree I pulled it sideways to check tip strength. The tip is plenty strong and did not break or even bend visibly.
Surprisingly the handle took quite a beating. After all the throws the handle was noticeably gauged and cut. Nothing serious, but enough to notice. The handle material clearly does not stack up to G-10.
Next, I checked chopping performance on a piece of some kind of pine about 5 inches in diameter. I had to choke back and was holding only the bottom third of the handle to get leverage. The knife bites into the wood very well causing chips to fly at every chop. My fingers soon became sore from the checkering and I had to stop about half way through.
After all that the blade would still shave, but not as well as before, and there were very slight chips in the edge from bouncing off dirt and rocks during throwing, I believe. Still, a decent level of edge toughness. I did not try resharpening.
My only real complaint is with the sheath. Its a cheap cordura affair. It works, and keeps the knife secure, but you can tell that its not heavy duty at all. It is a standard belt sheath with a strap that holds the knife just below the guard.
So, all in all a decent knife for the money. The blade is very strong. Edge holding seems much better than on my Gerber LMF and Buck Vanguard. The grip is comfortable, but not for chopping, and can be destroyed if you really try. The sheath works but I question the durability. If you like the sharpened prybar style of knives in this size range then this one should be on your short list.
3.5 stars. Half a star off for excessive blade thickness, half a star off for a cheap sheath, and half a star off for cosmetic defects.
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I just like to cut things.
I probably wont be saying anything that hasnt been said ten times already but here goes:
The knife has a convex ground, 5 1/8 long, 1/5 thick (factory specs) clip point blade made from VG-10 stainless steel. Rockwell hardness is 59. The blade is polished to a fairly shiny satin finish, which is rather attractive except for some visible grind marks in a ladder array going from the middle of the blade to the tip on the left side. These marks are faint, but visible. Also the grind line is slightly off on the left side of the blade near the spine just ahead of the guard. I guess you cant expect perfection for $75.
The handle is made from what they call Thermorun. Basically a hard black rubber, much harder than the Kraton on my Trailmaster, and not at all tacky. It actually feels like plastic. It is checkered on the flats of the handle and smooth on the outer edges. The handle is comfortable and secure in my medium sized hand.
Out of the box the knife shaved arm hair but was not hair-popping sharp. It sliced magazine paper with a fairly smooth, non-ragged cut.
For the next test I tried using it as a throwing knife. Its not half bad for throwing! I tried about 40 throws into a Willow tree in my backyard from a range of about 10 feet. I managed to make it stick about half the time, which is on par with my True Flight Thrower. With the knife sticking about ¾ inch into the tree I pulled it sideways to check tip strength. The tip is plenty strong and did not break or even bend visibly.
Surprisingly the handle took quite a beating. After all the throws the handle was noticeably gauged and cut. Nothing serious, but enough to notice. The handle material clearly does not stack up to G-10.
Next, I checked chopping performance on a piece of some kind of pine about 5 inches in diameter. I had to choke back and was holding only the bottom third of the handle to get leverage. The knife bites into the wood very well causing chips to fly at every chop. My fingers soon became sore from the checkering and I had to stop about half way through.
After all that the blade would still shave, but not as well as before, and there were very slight chips in the edge from bouncing off dirt and rocks during throwing, I believe. Still, a decent level of edge toughness. I did not try resharpening.
My only real complaint is with the sheath. Its a cheap cordura affair. It works, and keeps the knife secure, but you can tell that its not heavy duty at all. It is a standard belt sheath with a strap that holds the knife just below the guard.
So, all in all a decent knife for the money. The blade is very strong. Edge holding seems much better than on my Gerber LMF and Buck Vanguard. The grip is comfortable, but not for chopping, and can be destroyed if you really try. The sheath works but I question the durability. If you like the sharpened prybar style of knives in this size range then this one should be on your short list.
3.5 stars. Half a star off for excessive blade thickness, half a star off for a cheap sheath, and half a star off for cosmetic defects.
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I just like to cut things.