New from Fallkniven

James Mattis · May 12, 2000

Tom Lagan of LagaNet told me on the phone lst week that Fallkniven has an H1 "puukko" in the works, and a chef's knife, and a santoku, and a double-edged pointy thing, that perhaps most of us would only use for assassinating junk mail, called the Garm. Garm, in Norse mythology, is a hellhound.

This morning I went to Fallkniven's web page, where there had been no news the other day, and behold there was news!

Estimated delivery dates are, as always, approximate, and prices in Swedish Kroners translate today at SEK 9.09 to one US Dollar.

H1 Hunting Knife
I want this knife!! 4" convex-ground VG10, guardless kraton handle, leather dangler sheath, kydex optional. SEK 1,100 in leather, SEK 1,300 in kydex. Delivery - soon, maybe, since there's a photo of a real knife on the page, with kydex to follow c. 10/00.

K1 Blue Whale
8" VG10 Chef's Knife, .10" stock, black Tefflon coating, Kraton handle. 09/00, SEK 980.

K2 White Whale
7" VG10 Santoku, same specs., 09/00, SEK 930

G1 Garm Fighter , 11/00, c. SEK 960
3.54" VG10 double edge, Kraton handle, Kydex neck sheath.

To be continued . . . .

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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001

[This message has been edited by James Mattis (edited 05-12-2000).]

misque · May 13, 2000

James,
Thank You very much for this heads-up on these new products. I agree with you, that H-1 has got to be mine! Looks like I might as well just start signing my paychecks over to Fallkniven as I try to get my hands on everything that comes down the line from them.
And now, I can't wait to get my hands on those kitchen knives either. Aaahhh...kitchen knife perfection at last!

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The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.
Sun Tzu

James Mattis · May 12, 2000

BTW, in American knife nut usage, "puukko" has come to mean a woodcrafty knife of a certain size and shape, of Norwegian, Swedish, or Finnish heritage.

In the European north country, "puukko" is specifically the Finnish word for a knife. Finns and Scandinavians are geographically and now culturally close, but the Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish languages are more closely related to Spanish, Greek, and Hindi than they are to Finnish.

The word in Swedish or Norwegian is "kniv," which tells you where the English word "knife" comes from. The Norman-French word for knife moved indoors and became "cutlery." Right of hand I can't think of a modern English derivation of the Anglo-Saxon/German "messer."

That H1 looks like one could bring the whole edge down on a cutting board if one wanted to treat it as a kitchen paring knife on steroids, or take it to a picnic.

The upscale H1 variation I'd like to see (notice how we hord-core knife nuts want new variations of models that ain't even in production yet?) would be not micarta but curly birch. Nickel-silver bolster, 3/4 length narrow tang notched for epoxy. Have their Japanese source do the blade and bolster, and get a nearby company in the tradition (Brusletto?) to do the woodwork. Let Cliff Stamp test the Kraton version.

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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001

Jeff Clark · May 12, 2000

BTW. It looks like $1000 SEK is $109 USD. The Blue Whale is around $100 USD list.

I prefer the F1 as a hunting knife. I like a little bit of guard on my knife. I'd actually like even more.

il Coltello · May 12, 2000

Ah! Behold them beauties...

I had the pleasure to have a little chat on the phone with Mr Hjortberger on monday this week and he revealed the forthcoming release of theese new tools. I keep on beeing surprised by the rugged goodies that evolves from Fallkniven.
The H-1 in particular seem to be worth waiting for. If the handle of the H-1 is bigger and more comfortable in my hand than the one on the F-1 I guess I will have to get me one.

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Tea drinker and hellraiser from Northern Sweden, above the arctic circle.

Pelle · May 16, 2000

Mattis; I am very, no extremly, impressed with your knowledge in scandinavian language and history.

J. J. Magnum · May 16, 2000

Its funny how the more things change the more they stay the same. Thanks for the heads up on the new "Fall"kniven line. Looking at the G1 (Garm)it appears to be the spitting image of my trusted and faithful old Gerber Guardian.
I have carried the Gerber in my boot since 1986 on and off duty. It has always served me well as a last ditch back-up (thankfully never needed but much appreciated for its presense)and as a working tool for the crime scene processing work I do for a living. I'm not real sure what type of steel Gerber used in the blade but I have heard great things about VG-10. Perhaps it is time Mr. Gerber was given a rest and Mr. Garm put to work? I wonder if Swedish will be hard to learn?

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Where no law exists there still must be justice- Dan Mahoney

James Mattis · May 17, 2000

Pelle - Thanks, but I am monolingual in English. I have always enjoyed history and geography, but my knowledge of Scandinavian history or anybody else's is pretty haphazard and spotty, with gaps of a century here, a couple of centuries there.

Hmmm . . . alternate scenarios . . .

What sort of language would whoever was sitting where I'm sitting now be using, if King Harald Hardrada of Norway had set sail for England a couple of weeks after Duke William did, so that Harald Godwinson's full force would have fought the Norman-French before doing a forced march the length of the country with a diminished force to tangle with the Norwegians, instead of the other way around which is how it really worked out? That might have put the British Isles firmly in the Scandinavian world, with no French connection.

We wouldn't be here if they hadn't been there, and they wouldn't have been there, except....

Starting with the tumultuous three-way marriage of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and French, English has soaked up words without rule or regulation from dozens of other languages, building up a huge vocabulary over the centuries. Puukko is in the process of assimilation, so an American knifemaker who makes a woodcrafty knife that's inspired by some traditional Norwegian pattern will call it a "Puukko" as an English word, and will be correct.

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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001

Pelle · May 17, 2000

BTW; Fällkniven (yes, the two dots over the a are pretty important...) means folder or folding knife. Fäll=to fold. Pronounced fellkniven. The k is not silent. Fell as in "he fell from the top of the stairs..."
While at language, why not call the Blade Show "The knife smorgasboard"...

James Mattis · May 18, 2000

Yes, strange isn't it, that Fällkniven, the "Folding Knives" company, should be a first class source of fixed blades. I understand that they started out as a Swedish retailer for sport-utility pocket knives. I wonder when they'll design their own one-hand folder!

And thanks for the pronounciation lesson. Now, if I could only remember routinely that Alt-132 on the numeric pad of an Yankee-style keyboard gives me an ä!

Now, what about the usage in Swedish of the letter V? Is the "-iven" in Fällkniven pronounced (using English usage) "ivven" or "iffen"?

Of course, if I write "Fallkniven" without the two little dots, and I pronounce it, not "fell-k'nivven" or "fell-k'niffen," but "fallniven" (lettter I as in high), I'm calling the company, in my unregulated English language, "The Knives of Autumn" - for when the leaves turn gold, and two-legged carnivores lawfully stalk herbivores with antlers.

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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001

[This message has been edited by James Mattis (edited 05-17-2000).]