OPINIONS. first friction folder

S

SilentJohn

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Feb 11, 2008
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i want to buy my first friction folder and i found this FF for sale. its $65 is hand made and here is the description

"Handmade, heat treated 1084 steel, Tiger maple handle with vinegroon stain. Brass pins with steel pivot. File worked blade. Arm shaving sharp. Feels great in the hand. 2.25" cutting edge, 6.5" long completely open"

since you guys know more about traditional knives than me i would appreciate opinions

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That's a nice looking knife, but a) it's a fairly unique style and b) a good chunk of change.

The basic style you're looking at is similar to the Svord Peasant's knife, which can be typically found for around $20-$30.

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The other classic friction folder is the Opinel. They can typically be found for under $20.
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My recommendation would be to file away the information for the expensive knife and get either a Svord or Opinel or both and see which you prefer before dropping bigger dollars.

I'm a huge fan of the Opinel, but the other style has it's proponents too. Definitely the sort of thing that the hand can only figure out in practice.
 
I'll let the Svord users pipe in here but they have a tremendous reputation for being very tough.

I *can* speak for the Opinels as a user... They're pretty much indestructible. Jackknife (Carl) has posted a great and very believable story of a drunken bet that ended up with an Opinel with it's blade in vice and a muscle man trying to bust the pivot. Eventually, the guy busted blade, but not the pivot.

The low cost of either is rather humbling compared to super knives made with super steel. They're great reminders that basic and crude looking designs can actually be really, really refined and highly evolved and super functional. There's really nothing to bust on an Opinel (other than the blade) and the blade has good quality carbon steel with an incredible convex grind on it. Amazingly, it will cut on par with a knife costing 10 times as much, so long as you undertand that you will need to sharpen it regularly (it is carbon) and that it won't be as pretty looking as a custom knife.
 
It's nice. The blade is pointy. More for like SD?
The Svord Peasant Folder shud be on your list.
 
I have an op #6, and a Svord i've customized into a necker. Both have gone above and beyond what I expected. Though I wish I had bought a Op#8 or 10 for the longer blade.

I will say the Svord grind can be a little uneven. Baryonyx (a member here) has a store that will even out the grind for an extra $5-$10. Worth it if you plan on modifying it and making it lok snazzy. Get a regular if it's gunna be a beater.


It should be mentioned on mine, the shown side has the grind halfway (obviously), the other is almost a full height grind. Doesn't hinder the performance too much, but aesthetically not the prettiest.
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I think you should contract someone to make you a friction folder. Then you could get one exactly to your specs, for right around that cost.

Of course, they aren't hard to make, and relatively cheap if you wanted to try yourself. :D
 
I have gotten a couple of the Svords for less than 20$ by surfing the Bay, they are excellent first friction folders...
The wood handle version can require a bit of fiddling with at first to get the right amount of tightness to it, while the Polypropeline handle versions are much more forgiving in the pivot screw tightness dept. They are made with excellent steel which takes a wicked edge and holds it quite well, but it requires a bit of care as it is not stainless...
As in all things, buy what you like...
 
The Higonokami friction folders are nice and feature excellent blade steel (super blue or SK-5) also I'm pretty fond of my Svord and feel that the blade profile is very nice for general use you can adjust the tension increasing or decreasing friction pretty easily with it. All in all friction folders are kind of an acquired taste but can prove to be serviceable knives for just about anybody IMO.
 
I like the handle on the hand made one, but not as much the blade style, grind.

Opinel's, you could buy 3 different sizes, and have them shipped for that price.

65 for a hand made knife is a good price, but as I said, the grind does not impress me on that one. Does not look like to great of a slicer.
 
If it's the style of knife that attracts you to the one you posted, Then I have a suggestion. Buy a similar size Opinel, and modifiy it to that kind of style. Thats one thing about the Opinel, is it's so easy to change the shape to your own taste. A little sandpaper and a file, and an Opinel can be made to look like just about anything. There are some pretty far out Opinels out there, and I even took a number 12 and made a very Spanish looking Navaja out of it. Once you get the handle sanded down and reshaped, use whatever Minwax stain and seal of your choice.

With a nice flat mill smooth file you can drop the point and make it a different blade shape. For what the knife posted costs, you can buy at least 3 Opinels and have an instant collection/hobby in different sizes. The blade grind on the posted knife does not look that good, and I'm reasonably sure an Opinel would out cut it with ease. And contrary as to what a lot of people think from the light weight, Opinels are very durable.

Carl.
 
Carl,

As much as I like modifying Opinels, I can't see a way to modify one to produce the style of peasant knife like the one the OP posted. The least expensive option I could think of in that style is the Svord.
 
You could get a Svord peasant and make a custom handle for it, very easily.
On the handmade one advertised, I would be wary without having a close up look at it.
Part of the solidity of the "lockup" relies on friction of the tang against the scales and the pivot friction. The photos look as if there's quite a large gap there between the tang and the scales.
(It might be that the edges are rounded for comfort, though, giving the appearance of a gap). While the backstop pin stops the blade from over rotating and the thumb is usually placed on the tang when doing powercuts, there can be the issue that on a powercut that suddenly cuts through the material, the blade might try to close due to momentum. It is here where you want some friction in the tang to stop this. It can also be a problem with the Opinel friction folders (the ones without a locking ring), the blade has a tendecy to "swing through" and close on your fingers if there's no friction in the pivot.

EDIT: Michael Morris makes some great friction folders for around that price point.
 
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