The Termite knife

[martineden]

Hello everybody.
I spent my last WE trekking here in the Alps and testing a new knife, the Termite by R. Kappeller from Salzburg (Osterreich)

The battlefield
I was in the middle of Dolomites to try the Termite, to be exact we (me and my wife) were placed near the Centro Cadore lake, a beautiful place surrounded by any of the most famous Alps mountains (Pelmo, Antelao)

The knife itself
The Termite is a compact, sturdy knife. I asked Mr. Kappeler why the name of this knife is “termite”, he said that one of his employees, a skilled survival expert, got a trial to this knife and said “he eat wood like a termite”. My first feeling – some days ago – was that the blade it’s maybe too thick, but I changed my mind in few hours. Anyway, specs of the knife are as follows:
OAL 200mm
Blade length 95mm
Blade thickness 5,0mm
Steel N690Co
Wood handles (bocote)
Here the link to the Kappeller knives site http://www.messermacher.at/messer/413


First look and feelings (score 7,0/10)
The Termite look it’s simple and essential, I like the simplicity of his design

The wooden handle it’s well made and fairly well rounded, handling the knife it’s comfortable and safe

We are not speaking anyway about a high level fit and finish knife. The Termite it’s a fairly well made, robust knife, that looks like a tool. He didn’t want to be a piece of art, and I agree on that.


Carrying the knife (score 6,5/10)
The Termite knife has a simple leather sheath. The sheath it’s enough well made, and retains the knife firmly and safely, but I should like more a more larger fibula, or even better a dangler sheath, more comfortable IMHO. Anyway, that’s the sheath and how look when worn

 

[martineden]

Precision tasks (score 7,5/10)
For my outdoors activities, my knife need to be robust and sturdy, but even able to do precise tasks, as wood carving, notching, making feathers. I’m glad to say that the Termite has both these qualities. You may do carving, notching, feathering fairly easy, as I made several times with it. The blade it’s razor sharp, the grinding angles are fairly good to these tasks, the handle it’s designed to allow prolonged job without problems

 

[martineden]

Besides all the other tools and tasks, I made with the Termite a Figure 4 trap, a trap for small animals like mouses and similars. If you made the same you know that this involve very precise cutting notches, the Termite was great and I made it in few minutes

Here is the sequence of the trap in action

Note: hunting with traps it’s forbidden in Italy. I made the trap to try the knife, not to hunt animals, and I destroyed the trap just after.


Working on man-made materials (score 7,5/10)
When you are in a survival situation, rubbishes are often a gold mine. I found these cables in the woods, and the internal copper wire it’s great to made a lot of items like traps, cordages, bandages and so on. So I stripped the plastic cover with the Termite from a 2 metres section of the cable, to find the internal wire: the knife was well on that, just great

Cutting medium-soft materials (score 7,5/10)
If the cutting efficiency of your knife it’s not good, you will had some issues to cut exactly soft and spongy materials, like this Chaga-like mushroom, that I wanted to try for collecting sparks (he did’nt work for that like the real Chaga, sadly). Again, a well done job by the Termite, which has confirmed his cutting efficiency.

 

[martineden]

Making fire and like-heavy tasks (score 8,0/10)
Making fire involves several tasks: making feathers, batoning, sometimes chopping, sometimes stumping, and of course using the firesteel. I made all these tasks except the chopping with the Termite, to realize a small camp fire to boil (sterilize) river water and arrange a cup of tea. Again, the Termite performed great, both on light and heavy tasks

The use of a ferrocium bar it’s easy, because of the correctly made 90 degrees spine of the blade you will obtain a lot of sparks

So, in few minutes we had our cup of tea

 

[martineden]

Friendly-looking and public admissibility (score 7,5/10)
I’m pretty sure that this face it’s becoming more and more important, especially here in Europe. Huge, heavy knives have still their rooms, but I like more and more to carry small and friendly looking knives: at least I will not be looked as a killer or a crazy every time I take my knife in front of other peoples. The Termite knife it’s enough small to be carried everywhere, well maybe not in the center of the city, but surely for a cold beer in a log cabin with other peoples, without problems

Conclusions
With an average score of 7,36/10 the Termite knife has passed his test, IMHO. I had some doubts at the beginning of this test, but I changed my mind soon, and I appreciate this compact, robust knife. There are some corners that I would like someway different, the sheath for examples, or a bit more large hole for the lanyard, but I still have to found the “perfect” knife. The Termite it’s a practical knife for practical outdoors enthusiast, peoples looking for a positive tool to actually be used in the woods.

Alfredo Doricchi

 

[Chris Larrikin]

Thank you for the read. It was fascinating, entertaining and the scenery photographs are wonderful.

 

[The Zieg]

This is a great review! Thank you for taking us along with you on your trip in the Alps and for the beer at the end!

Zieg

 

[JD Mandrell]

Absolutely great review, great picture and cool knife!

 

[Twindog]

Thanks for the great review and all the photos. Beautiful country.

What's your sense of how the knife would have performed if the blade stock had been 3 mm (1/8th of an inch)?

 

[dogstar]

First, excellent review and photography. Second, that is one beefy knife. I thought only Americans liked overly thick knives.

 

[lambertiana]

Looks like a very nice knife.

One question - Are you sure it's bocote? It looks nothing like any bocote I have ever seen.