- Joined
- Apr 26, 2013
- Messages
- 771
Just a quick set of initial impressions on a recent purchase I made on the exchange here: an "Outdoor knife", originally listed by the maker, 'Gollik' (aka Jakub Golla), as the SLSR #2. I've made a bunch of comparisons to the Ambush Alpha throughout the review, since I also had that knife on-hand, and figured it could provide some context.
Overview:
It's essentially a 6" drop-point blade (though the 'drop' is a straight/linear drop to the point, so you could argue that it's a shallow unswedged clip-point? happy to stand corrected on my classification...), in Bohler Uddeholm "Sleipner" steel, and HT'd to 60hrc in a vacuum forge + cryo (all according to the maker's details). Handle scales are some kind of medium/dark layered brown G10 that gives the vague impression of wood grain, with red rubber (gasket material) liners. The blade is 1/4" thick at the spine, and has a full-height flat grind (ostensibly flat, but does have a very slight convexity), tapering to about 0.015 behind the edge. The knife, minus the sheath (which I'll get to in a bit), weighs 363 grams on my Hario coffee scale just shy of 13oz.
From what I've been able to ascertain, through searches on this forum and on the maker's Facebook page, this knife is one of two that he made in this pattern, with these materials and specific finish. I might be wrong on that, but so far that's what I've been able to dredge up.
Shown with Ambush Knives 'Alpha' (DLT + Bark River) for comparison.
Impressions and features:
I purchased the knife 2nd hand from another forum member, in new/unused condition. As received, the knife's overall fit and finish is excellent: scale to handle fitment is perfect, the grinds are perfectly symmetrical, and the shallow convexity to the primary bevel from the spine to edge is uniform and sweet, and the plunge lines are gently radiused down to meet the shallow sharpening choil. The exposed flats of stock at the ricasso and pommel are finished with what appears to be a hammed stipple pattern (not sure exactly how it was done), in which the stipple depressions seem etched (they're darker). Really nice.
The pommel has a design feature that seems relatively unique to Gollik: the pommel extends back and down from the rear of the scales, following the contour for the usual "bird's beak" handle style, but in this case one side of the pommel extension is ground concave, turning what would be your usual glass-breaker or smashy-smashy pommel into an effective prying/scraping surface about 1.5mm thick at the thin edge. The only other knife I've personally seen this type of feature on is the Carothers/Lorien field knife, but the orientation of the pry is different in that case (downwards on an angle on the Gollik, and straight back on the Carothers). There are probably other knives that have this sort of thing, but I found it novel. TBD whether or not it's useful for much in practice, but it does throw a mean spark with the included firesteel (more on that in a bit).
The only small gripe about this feature is that the corners of the business end of the pry-thing are fairly squared off. If the knife were to be somehow wrenched forward, through your grip, there's the possibility that one of those corners could tear your skin. Unlikely scenario that may be, but at some point I'll probably wind up easing the corners a bit with some shop cloth. A smidge of radius there would eliminate that (admittedly small) danger. (update: I performed this small radiusing operation, and it was both easy and effective)
The handle ergos are awesome. I have size-lg hands, and the handle fills them nicely, and the gentle contouring and palm swell are very good. No hotspots, and very secure with bare hands or gloves, with a bit of room to spare. I compared the handle with my BK9's handles (ie. the infamously comfortable becker handle that folks seem to love, as do I), and the proportions/dimensions are pretty similar, with slightly different contouring. You could definitely beat on the knife with little hand fatigue, and to me the heft and contouring of the handle seem to invite rough use. A nice touch is that the chunky blade jimping extends into the handle scales which has the effect of distributing thumb-pad pressure out over a much larger jimped area, and giving it both better traction and more comfort. Really nice touch.
The knife balances roughly on the first finger around the front contour on the scales. Nice. Given that the handle length is around the same as the Ambush, which also balances at the same point (but is close to an inch shorter), I was impressed with this, as I wasn't sure before buying the knife where the balance would be.
The edge itself seems to be about 18° per side, and crazy sharp as received probably the sharpest new knife I've ever handled. With next to no pressure, it was wiping hair from my furry kneecap/shin, and push-cutting super-thin receipt paper. Impressed. The edge geometry in general seems very aggressive for a knife of this size, and supposed usage: it definitely seems to have been created with the intention of being a fantastic slicer, as even with the hefty 1/4" spine on the thing, the relatively tall blade height (about 1.5"* I need to check more specifically) makes the knife considerably more acute than I expected. It's certainly a more proficient cutter than my Alpha, which arrived with a 0.04" thickness behind the edge, and an uneven (and chunky) primary saber grind. I've thinned out the Alpha considerably, which improved its cutting performance a lot, but the Gollik, despite being considerably thicker at the spine, simply cuts circles around it.
Sleipner steel seems to be in limited use, with only a handful of makers employing it. That supposedly has to do with limited availability in relevant stock thicknesses, up until recently, but from what I've read, Lionsteel (who uses Sleipener a whole bunch) was instrumental in lobbying for other thicknesses, and I suspect that's changed the availability a bit for other makers. Anyways, Sleipner is supposed to be a kind of "Super D2/A2 hybrid" which is to say, more toughness and less chipping (on account of finer grain structure) than D2, and more edge retention than A2. I'm no metallurgist, so I can't remotely comment on any of that, but I can say that after putting the knife to work gratuitously shredding a bunch of cardboard around the garage, wantonly cutting some old/dirty/sandy 12mm climbing rope, boning out a few chickens, prepping a few curries, and feathering a bit of wood for a campfire, the thing was still very sharp, and had no chipping or deformation to speak of. A couple of minutes of gentle freehand work on the fine and ultrafine sharpmaker rods, followed by a quick strop on leather loaded with 8 micron CBN, and it was as sharp as new. Maybe sharper. I'd rate it as easy to sharpen certainly easier than 3V (though I've only used 3V on the Alpha, and that knife's geometry isn't doing me any favours in that department).
Overall, the only misgiving I had/have about the steel choice is that Sleipner's supposed to cut like the devil, but is considerably less tough, on paper, than 3V. In other words "will it be tough enough when I get around to batoning with it?" and the answer, so far, is that I don't know. I haven't had occasion to baton with it yet, but in theory, I'm not too worried. Ultimately a 6" blade limits the size of wood it can reasonably span, which to some extent limits the likely stress from batoning. And the fact that Lionsteel has gotten away with this steel in their larger choppers (eg. the Lionsteel M7, which folks seem to love) seems to indicate that while it's no INFI or 3V it's probably still fit for purpose.
I had some initial anxiety that the heat treat might not be dialled, given that the maker seems to be pretty new, but some digging revealed that he sends his blades out for professional heat treating.
I need to put the knife to more sustained heavy usage, and figure out how it holds up, but my suspicion is that it'll do fine. To be continued.
Sheath/Carry
The sheath system is actually really nice, particularly considering the price point of the knife (around $200 USD). It's a kydex sheath, with good retention / no rattle, backed with a leather dropper w. leather snap loop for additional retention, which is attached by way of nylon cordage which captures the leather between a set of eyelets. Handy, and easy to reconfigure. The kydex is about .080" thick (I think need to put a caliper on it), and overall the kydex work is good. Not top-notch (eg. AZWelke: I have his BK9 sheath, and it's awesome), but better than others I've used (I have a buybrown sheath for a Scrapyard Scrapmax 460 that has rotten retention, and chews up the resiprene handle).
Most impressively, again considering the pricepoint, is that the sheath comes with a nice snug firesteel loop (which has a nice internal chamfer to help guide the rod in), and a firesteel with a matching layered-brown G10 handle.
In a nutshell:
I'm very impressed with this knife. Time will undoubtedly tell how it holds up, and I'll need to update this once I've beaten on the knife more, but so far it feels like a superb tool, and one that really beckons me to use it.
Overview:
It's essentially a 6" drop-point blade (though the 'drop' is a straight/linear drop to the point, so you could argue that it's a shallow unswedged clip-point? happy to stand corrected on my classification...), in Bohler Uddeholm "Sleipner" steel, and HT'd to 60hrc in a vacuum forge + cryo (all according to the maker's details). Handle scales are some kind of medium/dark layered brown G10 that gives the vague impression of wood grain, with red rubber (gasket material) liners. The blade is 1/4" thick at the spine, and has a full-height flat grind (ostensibly flat, but does have a very slight convexity), tapering to about 0.015 behind the edge. The knife, minus the sheath (which I'll get to in a bit), weighs 363 grams on my Hario coffee scale just shy of 13oz.
From what I've been able to ascertain, through searches on this forum and on the maker's Facebook page, this knife is one of two that he made in this pattern, with these materials and specific finish. I might be wrong on that, but so far that's what I've been able to dredge up.
Shown with Ambush Knives 'Alpha' (DLT + Bark River) for comparison.
Impressions and features:
I purchased the knife 2nd hand from another forum member, in new/unused condition. As received, the knife's overall fit and finish is excellent: scale to handle fitment is perfect, the grinds are perfectly symmetrical, and the shallow convexity to the primary bevel from the spine to edge is uniform and sweet, and the plunge lines are gently radiused down to meet the shallow sharpening choil. The exposed flats of stock at the ricasso and pommel are finished with what appears to be a hammed stipple pattern (not sure exactly how it was done), in which the stipple depressions seem etched (they're darker). Really nice.
The pommel has a design feature that seems relatively unique to Gollik: the pommel extends back and down from the rear of the scales, following the contour for the usual "bird's beak" handle style, but in this case one side of the pommel extension is ground concave, turning what would be your usual glass-breaker or smashy-smashy pommel into an effective prying/scraping surface about 1.5mm thick at the thin edge. The only other knife I've personally seen this type of feature on is the Carothers/Lorien field knife, but the orientation of the pry is different in that case (downwards on an angle on the Gollik, and straight back on the Carothers). There are probably other knives that have this sort of thing, but I found it novel. TBD whether or not it's useful for much in practice, but it does throw a mean spark with the included firesteel (more on that in a bit).
The only small gripe about this feature is that the corners of the business end of the pry-thing are fairly squared off. If the knife were to be somehow wrenched forward, through your grip, there's the possibility that one of those corners could tear your skin. Unlikely scenario that may be, but at some point I'll probably wind up easing the corners a bit with some shop cloth. A smidge of radius there would eliminate that (admittedly small) danger. (update: I performed this small radiusing operation, and it was both easy and effective)
The handle ergos are awesome. I have size-lg hands, and the handle fills them nicely, and the gentle contouring and palm swell are very good. No hotspots, and very secure with bare hands or gloves, with a bit of room to spare. I compared the handle with my BK9's handles (ie. the infamously comfortable becker handle that folks seem to love, as do I), and the proportions/dimensions are pretty similar, with slightly different contouring. You could definitely beat on the knife with little hand fatigue, and to me the heft and contouring of the handle seem to invite rough use. A nice touch is that the chunky blade jimping extends into the handle scales which has the effect of distributing thumb-pad pressure out over a much larger jimped area, and giving it both better traction and more comfort. Really nice touch.
The knife balances roughly on the first finger around the front contour on the scales. Nice. Given that the handle length is around the same as the Ambush, which also balances at the same point (but is close to an inch shorter), I was impressed with this, as I wasn't sure before buying the knife where the balance would be.
The edge itself seems to be about 18° per side, and crazy sharp as received probably the sharpest new knife I've ever handled. With next to no pressure, it was wiping hair from my furry kneecap/shin, and push-cutting super-thin receipt paper. Impressed. The edge geometry in general seems very aggressive for a knife of this size, and supposed usage: it definitely seems to have been created with the intention of being a fantastic slicer, as even with the hefty 1/4" spine on the thing, the relatively tall blade height (about 1.5"* I need to check more specifically) makes the knife considerably more acute than I expected. It's certainly a more proficient cutter than my Alpha, which arrived with a 0.04" thickness behind the edge, and an uneven (and chunky) primary saber grind. I've thinned out the Alpha considerably, which improved its cutting performance a lot, but the Gollik, despite being considerably thicker at the spine, simply cuts circles around it.
Sleipner steel seems to be in limited use, with only a handful of makers employing it. That supposedly has to do with limited availability in relevant stock thicknesses, up until recently, but from what I've read, Lionsteel (who uses Sleipener a whole bunch) was instrumental in lobbying for other thicknesses, and I suspect that's changed the availability a bit for other makers. Anyways, Sleipner is supposed to be a kind of "Super D2/A2 hybrid" which is to say, more toughness and less chipping (on account of finer grain structure) than D2, and more edge retention than A2. I'm no metallurgist, so I can't remotely comment on any of that, but I can say that after putting the knife to work gratuitously shredding a bunch of cardboard around the garage, wantonly cutting some old/dirty/sandy 12mm climbing rope, boning out a few chickens, prepping a few curries, and feathering a bit of wood for a campfire, the thing was still very sharp, and had no chipping or deformation to speak of. A couple of minutes of gentle freehand work on the fine and ultrafine sharpmaker rods, followed by a quick strop on leather loaded with 8 micron CBN, and it was as sharp as new. Maybe sharper. I'd rate it as easy to sharpen certainly easier than 3V (though I've only used 3V on the Alpha, and that knife's geometry isn't doing me any favours in that department).
Overall, the only misgiving I had/have about the steel choice is that Sleipner's supposed to cut like the devil, but is considerably less tough, on paper, than 3V. In other words "will it be tough enough when I get around to batoning with it?" and the answer, so far, is that I don't know. I haven't had occasion to baton with it yet, but in theory, I'm not too worried. Ultimately a 6" blade limits the size of wood it can reasonably span, which to some extent limits the likely stress from batoning. And the fact that Lionsteel has gotten away with this steel in their larger choppers (eg. the Lionsteel M7, which folks seem to love) seems to indicate that while it's no INFI or 3V it's probably still fit for purpose.
I had some initial anxiety that the heat treat might not be dialled, given that the maker seems to be pretty new, but some digging revealed that he sends his blades out for professional heat treating.
I need to put the knife to more sustained heavy usage, and figure out how it holds up, but my suspicion is that it'll do fine. To be continued.
Sheath/Carry
The sheath system is actually really nice, particularly considering the price point of the knife (around $200 USD). It's a kydex sheath, with good retention / no rattle, backed with a leather dropper w. leather snap loop for additional retention, which is attached by way of nylon cordage which captures the leather between a set of eyelets. Handy, and easy to reconfigure. The kydex is about .080" thick (I think need to put a caliper on it), and overall the kydex work is good. Not top-notch (eg. AZWelke: I have his BK9 sheath, and it's awesome), but better than others I've used (I have a buybrown sheath for a Scrapyard Scrapmax 460 that has rotten retention, and chews up the resiprene handle).
Most impressively, again considering the pricepoint, is that the sheath comes with a nice snug firesteel loop (which has a nice internal chamfer to help guide the rod in), and a firesteel with a matching layered-brown G10 handle.
In a nutshell:
I'm very impressed with this knife. Time will undoubtedly tell how it holds up, and I'll need to update this once I've beaten on the knife more, but so far it feels like a superb tool, and one that really beckons me to use it.
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