Looky looky what Santa brought me this year; a Roselli Hunter! Ive been wanting to try one of these for years and Ive been curious about the all-Finnish high carbon steel (UHC) also. I've used an old Roselli Grandfather on many many hikes, and I really like the handle, so I suspected it's big brother would fit my hand too.
Roselli puukkos have a nice rough finish. Ive actually met Heimo Roselli and he is kinda making a point there; according to his philosophy, a tool should not be over-decorated. Works for me, even though I do appreciate the beautiful decorations of Tommi puukkos and such, as long as the decorations do not affect the functionality.
Comparing old and new Roselli
Comparing the new Hunter to the old Grandfather knife some differences are apparent immediately. The old knife is sturdier, the blade is more rugged and has clearly visible forging marks. Also, the structure is "rat-tail" full tang, the tang is riveted to the end of the handle. The new UHC Hunting knife has a hidden tang. By looking at the pictures of plain Hunter edges (also sold by Roselli) it looks like the hidden tang is long and wide enough to make the knife plenty strong. If modern epox glues are used, I suspect the hidden tang structure might even be stronger than the rat-tail.
The upper-ferrule, ie the ferrule between the blade and the handle seems to be fixed size with the Grandfather, meaning that the handle was made to fit the ferrule. With the hunter, the ferrule seems to be sanded with the handle. I prefer latter, since it gives a flawless result as far as the fit goes. The Grandfather knifes handle is sturdier, though that might be an individual difference more than a design-one. The difference in the quality of the arctic curly birch used is painfully obvious, and almost disturbingly poor on the Hunter. For a few extra euros, Roselli could have bought higher quality birch, giving the knife an entirely different look. It does not affect the toughness or quality of the knife itself, but come on Roselli; if I buy a ~120 EUR puukko that is advertised to have an arctic curly birch handle, I expect the wood to be high quality.
Sheath
The leather sheath is widely considered to be poor, and I both agree and disagree on this. It's actually a nice sheath, the leather is adequate, and the design, even though not traditional, is ok. Its not possible to make a traditional tight "click" fit sheath to this knife due to the handle design, but like with the handle, I would expect some sort of hand picked fitting on this pricepoint. The sheath I got is actually so loose, that the knife will fall off on its own weight. Even though this problem is easily solved by soaking the sheath and letting it dry (this is what I did), or by e.g. glueing a small piece of leather behind the belt loop, it is unacceptable for a ~120 eur knife to have a dangerously loose sheath. This is not the right place to be saving with the production costs! Id pay 10 EURs more for the knife if it would include a hand picked well fitting sheath.
Blade
Ok, enough ranting. What about the knife itself? The UHC (Ultra High Carbon) steel is marketed to be a "super" steel, and the method of processing this steel is developed by Heimo Roselli himself. Its has a high carbon content, over 1,5%, and should keep an edge exceptionally well. The blade has a really nice finish (maybe some sort of acid treatment?) to show off its distinctive titanium-gray texture. I really like the way the blade looks, it just screams "SHARP!". The blade was not super-sharp out of the box, but a few passes with a diamond sharpener made it shaving sharp easily. I made some cuts with the knife through hemp rope, cardboard, frozen moose meat and a few other materials and checked the blade with a loupe to see if there was any minor (or almost microscopic) wear. The UHC steel seems to keep an edge exceptionally well and the knife really cuts! To have this kind of steel in a form of a sturdy puukko is just awesome. I cant wait to get to use this knife in the woods!
I've heard rumors that the high carbon steel might be somewhat brittle due to its hardness ('round ~65 HRC) but Ive yet to hear a confirmed story of a UHC blade failing. It is apparent, that this knife is no pry-bar, but lets be honest: thats not what a puukko is. I did use the knife on light battoning, something a puukko should be able to do, and I have no complaints. Roselli advertises that UHC steel is both edge-keeping and hard, but also more "sitkeä" ("resilient" might be a good enough translation?) and I have no reason to doubt this claim. So, I will assume that the rumors of the blade being brittle are just rumors based on the announced HRC, and use the knife as it was meant to be used. If it breaks, I'll send it back and proceed by whining about it in this thread, so if your reading this later on, and the thread is whine-free, the knife is tough enough
Handle
The handle is heat-treated and oiled birch, and is a bit on the large side as far as trad. puukko handles are concerned. I personally really like it; it fits the hand. This is, of course, something that everyone has to try and decide for themselves.
Fit and finish
The grind is even, the blade is flawless, and the knife is straight and nicely fitted in every way. The handle is pretty roughly sanded, but it kinda fits the overall appearance of the knife. Like stated above, I like the Roselli philosophy about knife being a tool rather than a piece of jewellary. This means that the knife will be used without worrying about it too much.
Nutshell
A great blade, great design, but corners cut on few issues. That's how I see Roselli today. I have to admit I am dissapointed about the minor issues I explained above. They do not affect the functionality of the knife itself in any way, but a little extra effort would rise this knife "to the next level". If your looking for a functional scandi bushcrafter with an exceptional blade, but you're not ready to pay for a hand-forged custom, this knife might be for you. A collectors item this is not - not with this finish, handle-material and sheath. All that said, Im am excited about the blade, and this knife is definately gonna see some bushcraft-use in the near future.
Pros:
+ Blade!
+ Design
+ "user" -look
Cons:
- Sheath too loose
- low quality curly birch
Roselli puukkos have a nice rough finish. Ive actually met Heimo Roselli and he is kinda making a point there; according to his philosophy, a tool should not be over-decorated. Works for me, even though I do appreciate the beautiful decorations of Tommi puukkos and such, as long as the decorations do not affect the functionality.
Comparing old and new Roselli
Comparing the new Hunter to the old Grandfather knife some differences are apparent immediately. The old knife is sturdier, the blade is more rugged and has clearly visible forging marks. Also, the structure is "rat-tail" full tang, the tang is riveted to the end of the handle. The new UHC Hunting knife has a hidden tang. By looking at the pictures of plain Hunter edges (also sold by Roselli) it looks like the hidden tang is long and wide enough to make the knife plenty strong. If modern epox glues are used, I suspect the hidden tang structure might even be stronger than the rat-tail.
The upper-ferrule, ie the ferrule between the blade and the handle seems to be fixed size with the Grandfather, meaning that the handle was made to fit the ferrule. With the hunter, the ferrule seems to be sanded with the handle. I prefer latter, since it gives a flawless result as far as the fit goes. The Grandfather knifes handle is sturdier, though that might be an individual difference more than a design-one. The difference in the quality of the arctic curly birch used is painfully obvious, and almost disturbingly poor on the Hunter. For a few extra euros, Roselli could have bought higher quality birch, giving the knife an entirely different look. It does not affect the toughness or quality of the knife itself, but come on Roselli; if I buy a ~120 EUR puukko that is advertised to have an arctic curly birch handle, I expect the wood to be high quality.
Sheath
The leather sheath is widely considered to be poor, and I both agree and disagree on this. It's actually a nice sheath, the leather is adequate, and the design, even though not traditional, is ok. Its not possible to make a traditional tight "click" fit sheath to this knife due to the handle design, but like with the handle, I would expect some sort of hand picked fitting on this pricepoint. The sheath I got is actually so loose, that the knife will fall off on its own weight. Even though this problem is easily solved by soaking the sheath and letting it dry (this is what I did), or by e.g. glueing a small piece of leather behind the belt loop, it is unacceptable for a ~120 eur knife to have a dangerously loose sheath. This is not the right place to be saving with the production costs! Id pay 10 EURs more for the knife if it would include a hand picked well fitting sheath.
Blade
Ok, enough ranting. What about the knife itself? The UHC (Ultra High Carbon) steel is marketed to be a "super" steel, and the method of processing this steel is developed by Heimo Roselli himself. Its has a high carbon content, over 1,5%, and should keep an edge exceptionally well. The blade has a really nice finish (maybe some sort of acid treatment?) to show off its distinctive titanium-gray texture. I really like the way the blade looks, it just screams "SHARP!". The blade was not super-sharp out of the box, but a few passes with a diamond sharpener made it shaving sharp easily. I made some cuts with the knife through hemp rope, cardboard, frozen moose meat and a few other materials and checked the blade with a loupe to see if there was any minor (or almost microscopic) wear. The UHC steel seems to keep an edge exceptionally well and the knife really cuts! To have this kind of steel in a form of a sturdy puukko is just awesome. I cant wait to get to use this knife in the woods!
I've heard rumors that the high carbon steel might be somewhat brittle due to its hardness ('round ~65 HRC) but Ive yet to hear a confirmed story of a UHC blade failing. It is apparent, that this knife is no pry-bar, but lets be honest: thats not what a puukko is. I did use the knife on light battoning, something a puukko should be able to do, and I have no complaints. Roselli advertises that UHC steel is both edge-keeping and hard, but also more "sitkeä" ("resilient" might be a good enough translation?) and I have no reason to doubt this claim. So, I will assume that the rumors of the blade being brittle are just rumors based on the announced HRC, and use the knife as it was meant to be used. If it breaks, I'll send it back and proceed by whining about it in this thread, so if your reading this later on, and the thread is whine-free, the knife is tough enough
Handle
The handle is heat-treated and oiled birch, and is a bit on the large side as far as trad. puukko handles are concerned. I personally really like it; it fits the hand. This is, of course, something that everyone has to try and decide for themselves.
Fit and finish
The grind is even, the blade is flawless, and the knife is straight and nicely fitted in every way. The handle is pretty roughly sanded, but it kinda fits the overall appearance of the knife. Like stated above, I like the Roselli philosophy about knife being a tool rather than a piece of jewellary. This means that the knife will be used without worrying about it too much.
Nutshell
A great blade, great design, but corners cut on few issues. That's how I see Roselli today. I have to admit I am dissapointed about the minor issues I explained above. They do not affect the functionality of the knife itself in any way, but a little extra effort would rise this knife "to the next level". If your looking for a functional scandi bushcrafter with an exceptional blade, but you're not ready to pay for a hand-forged custom, this knife might be for you. A collectors item this is not - not with this finish, handle-material and sheath. All that said, Im am excited about the blade, and this knife is definately gonna see some bushcraft-use in the near future.
Pros:
+ Blade!
+ Design
+ "user" -look
Cons:
- Sheath too loose
- low quality curly birch
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