Praise for Svord Peasant

B

bonusmarple

Joined
Sep 27, 2009
Messages
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I purchased a red-handled Svord Peasant knife a few weeks back. I got a chance to put it through its paces over the past 2 weeks and I wanted to post my thoughts on this knife. First, lets talk about the bad. Frankly, the grind on this knife was really really poor. I mean p-ss poor. Scratches on the bevel, uneven angles, etc... Being a cheap knife, I decide to use this to hone my skills on the Apex. I went to work and about an hour later, I had back-beveled the edge at 15 degrees. This put a decent primary bevel that I could build off of at 18 degrees. This also took out most of the scratches and evened out the grind. Next I did a full job at 18 and finished by polishing up to 2K. The secondary bevel was 1/2 the size of the primary bevel and the edge looked funky but it cut like crazy. A bit of time on leather and I had a good edge.

If I didn't own the Apex and have some time and energy to burn, I would have sent this thing back. Now that the work is done, I have an ugly but highly functional knife. Over time the 18 degree bevel will wear in and the wonky appearence will be a memory.

Now for good. This knife is some seriously good steel. Good wear resistance and it takes a very fine edge. Polishes like crazy as well. I was able to do cuts down onto a ceramic surface with no dings on the blade. Like I said, good steel. The friction folder design works really well for me and with a decent lanyard, this knife is almost ready to go. It needs some time with the dremel on the spine so it will strike a ferro-rod. All in all, this knife will do it all. Cut rope, food, thin metal, plastic, you name it. It is a cutting machine that is pretty much indestructable. I keep it in my pocket on the weekends ready to go.

It literally is a multi-tool. An all-purpose cutter to keep around the house. I have another on its way. I have decided if the bevel is as crappy as the one I got, I will still work on it. I really love this knife once I got it dialed-in. My only word of caution is to be prepared to deal with the vendor if you are not prepared to put in the time to get the bevel worked out. I assume they do come with a good bevel and I got one of the "off" ones. Be warned. Other than this, for <$20 shipped, you really can't go wrong.
 
I think the bevel is off on most, if not all of them. My personal experience and everything I read supports this. My guess is it would take a few tweaks in the tooling to fix this, but they are too busy churning out these knives for $12. After all, this is the "peasant" knife, not the "Henry VIII" knife. I take this knife to work outdoors. If it gets dinged, oh well. Like you said, good steel and it cuts. I am quite satisfied with that.
 
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I have one and like the op said it's a cutter. Just a little big for pocket carry for me. But over all I like the knife.
 
I love them. Bought myself four so I've got spares. They get scary sharp easily and are tough as old boots.
 
How does the plastic handle hold up? Is it at risk for cracking, splitting, or otherwise loosening up? How tight is the pivot? Would it be easy enough to tighten, if loose? The blade gets all the attention. My concern is the handle. That's the only thing keeping me from purchasing one.
 
The plastic handle to me is pretty tough (polypropylene?). It is harder than I expected. I do not think it is fiber reinforced, but it is adequate. The pivot and the end screw are identical. On my knife, the blade does not wobble when fully deployed. I find if you over-tighten it, the scales will loosen to the same threshold with use. For my knife, the blade will turn freely, but are firmly gripped by the scales when the blade or tang engages them. This works well enough for me, but you can experiment with spring-loaded washers or loc-tite thread lock if you want more tension on the blade.
 
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Daniel Dorn said:
How does the plastic handle hold up? Is it at risk for cracking, splitting, or otherwise loosening up? How tight is the pivot? Would it be easy enough to tighten, if loose? The blade gets all the attention. My concern is the handle. That's the only thing keeping me from purchasing one.
Click to expand...

I haven't used the knife long enough to say for certain, but if there is any weakness in the handle, I would be surprised. The handle is two 1/2 inch slabs of plastic held together by two 3-4 millimeter pins. The handle is very strong.
 
I belive the steel is Sandvik L6 wich I heard is the same that is used by Gränsfors in their axes, I have two both with the wooden handles, one is left un modified, on the other I removed the varnish, used the dremel to smoothen out the handle left it to soak in linseedoil and began to convex the blade. It is a very good knife. It will outcut most of my other blades including the Stretch 2, Delicas ffg and Ritter MK1. Very well worth its cost and the small effort to uppgrade it.
It is light, it cuts well, has a comfortable handle, one handed opening, seems to keep an edge decently well, quite easy to sharpen.
 
Gosh, you've just sold me. Think I'm going to pick up two right now (wood and plastic).
Thanks for the review! :)
Alex
 
cheap, reliable and steel gets wicked sharp... must have for people who like friction folders. I think it makes excellent back up buschcraft knife and anyone with bail out bag should have one of them in there.
 
I reduced the blade length to about 2 & 3/4 inch, so it would be legal for edc over here. (UK)
I really love this knife & I think its the best edc I can legally carry, it will just take everything I throw at it including battoning small branches.
I can't imagine doing that to a Spyderco UK or a sak.
 
I have the black plastic handled version. The biggest problem with it I see is that in the closed position, the stop pin is badly misplaced. The blade edge hits the rearmost handle pin instead. It's a basic sort of knife sure, but even still that shouldn't happen. On the up side, the friction folder concept is great and I like using it.

If I were to get another, I would get the wood version.
 
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The solution I've found to the whole stop pin thing is to adjust the two handle screws so that the blade is gripped snugly by the scales when closed and given just a gentle squeeze--much like a straight razor handle. This method works best with the plastic handles models, as they are less likely to bind against the blade as the wood one. :)
 
That would probably work. I plan on making a wood handle for it eventually so I'll take care of it then.
 
Here are some solutions for the common problem of the blade touching the rear Chicago screw:
1. Install a larger diameter limit pin. This is what I did, making a pin out of a brass hook. Here is my video about the peasant: LINK
2. Put something around the existing pin to give it a larger diameter, like a nylon sleeve.
3. Put something around the rear Chicago screw, like a nylon sleeve, o-ring, tape, etc.

#1 is a more permanent solution. #2 and #3 will wear and need occasional replacement.
 
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