Friday the Valkyrie Knives K9 that I sharked in the FBF thread arrived. I've been playing with it all day and wanted to share my thoughts on this little blade and Adam's work in general with you.
Here is the pic of the knife from the 7/4/14 FBF thread:
The blade is 6" OAL and has a 2 3/4" cutting edge. It's a lot of knife in a very small package. From the moment I picked it up, I knew it would be capable of much more than its small stature would have suggested. It just felt like a very capable blade. The fit and finish of the blade is very nice. The symmetry is dead on, and the grinds are beautiful. Adam clearly knows how to make a knife.
My only reservation about the knife was the top swedge. I'm not a fan of them in general and find that while they look cool, they typically are not very useful and often get in the way.
The knife is really in its own class, given the blade to handle ratio. You don't see a lot of knives with such a little handle and so much blade. I have to say, Adam really makes it work. I used this knife for a good 4 hours today and my hands were fine. I can't say it's the most comfortable knife I've ever used, but you have to keep its size in mind when considering the comfort. I would have never guessed it would have been so comfortable to use. Really no complaints at all in comfort category when it comes to my strong hand (I'll get to my weak hand thumb later, but it's not the handles fault).
The blade is best held with a 3 1/2 finger grip. Given that my pinky was always half way off the grip, I was surprised how secure the blade was in my hand. You really have to handle one to understand how well the grip works. Here's a pic of how I gripped it most of the time:
You can technically get 4 fingers on there if you have fairly skinny fingers, but it's very uncomfortable and leads to your index finger getting a hot spot from the guard. Fat fingers folks won't stand a chance of getting all 4 on there. Here are my four digits crammed on there:
All in all, the contour of the grip and the large guard make this knife very secure and comfortable even with a 3 1/2 finger grip. I was extremely pleased with how it felt. Speaking the large guard, I really like it on this knife. When you're using a little knife to do bigger knife things, it's not hard to have your hand slip and potentially injure yourself. The guard on this knife takes any of those fears away, it lets you really use this knife to its fullest
So how did it cut? This little monster came very sharp. Adam did an excellent job in the shop. I wanted to see how his edge would hold up, so I took the dog for a walk and started whittling and doing all kinds of stuff with it. It made fuzz sticks very easily:
Notched without effort:
And worked very well to make stakes:
I whittled several sticks along my walk, much more than what these pictures show, but I snapped a few pics at the end just because�well, we all like pics.
Even after several hours of playing around, my hands were not sore and the blade remained hair shaving sharp. I'm very pleased with the way the edge held up. I'd say Adam clearly knows what he's doing when it comes to heat treat; I'm very happy with the edge. I like to put a toothy edge on my knives, and before I started typing this review, I played around with the knife and it did an awesome job taking a nice toothy edge. Adams edge came nice and smooth from the factory, so no matter how you like your edges, this knife will make it sing.
The one part of hand that got sore was actually the thumb on my weak hand. My strong hand was fine. The small handle meant that I was doing a lot of push cuts to maintain control, and as you can see below, this meant that my thumb was on the swedge a lot. I was by myself trying to take these pics with my phone, so forgive my crappy picture, but I tried to capture what I'm talking about:
As I stated above, I'm really not a swedge fan, and this is a prime reason why. Leaving the swedge off the knife would increase the comfort factor a lot!
Speaking of the swedge, you might have noticed in some of the pics above that the tip of the knife is broken off�yep, I broke my brand new knife. Dang
. When I got back, I went into the garage and got a scrap of 2x4 and started drilling/prying a hole in it.
This is something I like to try out on new knives because it really give you piece of mind knowing your tip is strong. I knew this was a bit risky given the swedge on the knife and thus the thin tip, but if I am going to carry and use this knife, I needed to know it wouldn't fail in the woods. About half way through, I noticed the tip was bent:
Then it broke:
I'm not sure if this falls under what Andy refers to stupidity in his warranty section, but I've done it with several knives without fail.
I even did a little light chopping just to see how it would fair. Obviously this knife is not a chopper and you can't swing it very hard, but as you can see in this pic, it bit into the 2x4 rather well.
Really, the only downfall of this knife is the swedge IMO. Without it, the knife would be much more comfortable when making push cuts, and given the small size of the handle, controlled push cuts will be used a lot with this knife in the woods. Also, as you can see, the tip is just too delicate. Removing the swedge would beef up the tip.
I leaned on this little knife pretty hard and the edge held up great! I'm not sure what more I can ask for from O1. It performed great. You can see some hair on it in the pic below despite me using it roughly (the breeze blew most of it off, but trust me, it was there).
This knife is really something to behold. I'm not a wordsmith by any stretch, so it's hard for me to describe how cool this little knife is. You could make the handle longer, but then it wouldn't be in the pocket/compact class any more. It's the most capable knife I've ever used in this small pocket class. I absolutely love how much knife there is in such a little package. I think this knife is the absolute perfect companion to a larger blade (I hate to keep harping on this, but, if it didn't have the swedge). This knife is far more capable that similar knives I've used (the ESEE Izula and Bark River Bravo Necker come immediately to mind). It's so close to being the ultimate compact blade.
I'm bummed that I broke the tip and will definitely buy another one, IF I can get one without the swedge. I know they look cool, but I want to use this little guy and for what I use a knife for, the swedge is the only limiting factor this knife has. If you tend to use your tip to penetrate and not much else, then you'll love the swedge, but I think the tip would penetrate fine even without it.
Here is a shot comparing it in size to a Runt and a HB:
If you guys have any questions or comments, feel free to share. I've tried to be as honest as I can and give this young knife maker a review for others to learn more about him.
PS, while I didn't skin anything with it, I have a feeling this would make a quite capable skinner as well. Compact and has a good bit of belly to work with.
PPS, I want to get my hands on a Valkyrie Companion to test out as well. The tip breaking was a function of it being so thin, not any fault of the heat treat. I feel confident in saying this because the edge performed so well. Basically, I'm so happy with every other aspect of this blade that I want to try out other designs he offers…mainly the swedgeless ones
Here is the pic of the knife from the 7/4/14 FBF thread:
The blade is 6" OAL and has a 2 3/4" cutting edge. It's a lot of knife in a very small package. From the moment I picked it up, I knew it would be capable of much more than its small stature would have suggested. It just felt like a very capable blade. The fit and finish of the blade is very nice. The symmetry is dead on, and the grinds are beautiful. Adam clearly knows how to make a knife.
My only reservation about the knife was the top swedge. I'm not a fan of them in general and find that while they look cool, they typically are not very useful and often get in the way.
The knife is really in its own class, given the blade to handle ratio. You don't see a lot of knives with such a little handle and so much blade. I have to say, Adam really makes it work. I used this knife for a good 4 hours today and my hands were fine. I can't say it's the most comfortable knife I've ever used, but you have to keep its size in mind when considering the comfort. I would have never guessed it would have been so comfortable to use. Really no complaints at all in comfort category when it comes to my strong hand (I'll get to my weak hand thumb later, but it's not the handles fault).
The blade is best held with a 3 1/2 finger grip. Given that my pinky was always half way off the grip, I was surprised how secure the blade was in my hand. You really have to handle one to understand how well the grip works. Here's a pic of how I gripped it most of the time:
You can technically get 4 fingers on there if you have fairly skinny fingers, but it's very uncomfortable and leads to your index finger getting a hot spot from the guard. Fat fingers folks won't stand a chance of getting all 4 on there. Here are my four digits crammed on there:
All in all, the contour of the grip and the large guard make this knife very secure and comfortable even with a 3 1/2 finger grip. I was extremely pleased with how it felt. Speaking the large guard, I really like it on this knife. When you're using a little knife to do bigger knife things, it's not hard to have your hand slip and potentially injure yourself. The guard on this knife takes any of those fears away, it lets you really use this knife to its fullest
So how did it cut? This little monster came very sharp. Adam did an excellent job in the shop. I wanted to see how his edge would hold up, so I took the dog for a walk and started whittling and doing all kinds of stuff with it. It made fuzz sticks very easily:
Notched without effort:
And worked very well to make stakes:
I whittled several sticks along my walk, much more than what these pictures show, but I snapped a few pics at the end just because�well, we all like pics.
Even after several hours of playing around, my hands were not sore and the blade remained hair shaving sharp. I'm very pleased with the way the edge held up. I'd say Adam clearly knows what he's doing when it comes to heat treat; I'm very happy with the edge. I like to put a toothy edge on my knives, and before I started typing this review, I played around with the knife and it did an awesome job taking a nice toothy edge. Adams edge came nice and smooth from the factory, so no matter how you like your edges, this knife will make it sing.
The one part of hand that got sore was actually the thumb on my weak hand. My strong hand was fine. The small handle meant that I was doing a lot of push cuts to maintain control, and as you can see below, this meant that my thumb was on the swedge a lot. I was by myself trying to take these pics with my phone, so forgive my crappy picture, but I tried to capture what I'm talking about:
As I stated above, I'm really not a swedge fan, and this is a prime reason why. Leaving the swedge off the knife would increase the comfort factor a lot!
Speaking of the swedge, you might have noticed in some of the pics above that the tip of the knife is broken off�yep, I broke my brand new knife. Dang
. When I got back, I went into the garage and got a scrap of 2x4 and started drilling/prying a hole in it.
This is something I like to try out on new knives because it really give you piece of mind knowing your tip is strong. I knew this was a bit risky given the swedge on the knife and thus the thin tip, but if I am going to carry and use this knife, I needed to know it wouldn't fail in the woods. About half way through, I noticed the tip was bent:
Then it broke:
I'm not sure if this falls under what Andy refers to stupidity in his warranty section, but I've done it with several knives without fail.
I even did a little light chopping just to see how it would fair. Obviously this knife is not a chopper and you can't swing it very hard, but as you can see in this pic, it bit into the 2x4 rather well.
Really, the only downfall of this knife is the swedge IMO. Without it, the knife would be much more comfortable when making push cuts, and given the small size of the handle, controlled push cuts will be used a lot with this knife in the woods. Also, as you can see, the tip is just too delicate. Removing the swedge would beef up the tip.
I leaned on this little knife pretty hard and the edge held up great! I'm not sure what more I can ask for from O1. It performed great. You can see some hair on it in the pic below despite me using it roughly (the breeze blew most of it off, but trust me, it was there).
This knife is really something to behold. I'm not a wordsmith by any stretch, so it's hard for me to describe how cool this little knife is. You could make the handle longer, but then it wouldn't be in the pocket/compact class any more. It's the most capable knife I've ever used in this small pocket class. I absolutely love how much knife there is in such a little package. I think this knife is the absolute perfect companion to a larger blade (I hate to keep harping on this, but, if it didn't have the swedge). This knife is far more capable that similar knives I've used (the ESEE Izula and Bark River Bravo Necker come immediately to mind). It's so close to being the ultimate compact blade.
I'm bummed that I broke the tip and will definitely buy another one, IF I can get one without the swedge. I know they look cool, but I want to use this little guy and for what I use a knife for, the swedge is the only limiting factor this knife has. If you tend to use your tip to penetrate and not much else, then you'll love the swedge, but I think the tip would penetrate fine even without it.
Here is a shot comparing it in size to a Runt and a HB:
If you guys have any questions or comments, feel free to share. I've tried to be as honest as I can and give this young knife maker a review for others to learn more about him.
PS, while I didn't skin anything with it, I have a feeling this would make a quite capable skinner as well. Compact and has a good bit of belly to work with.
PPS, I want to get my hands on a Valkyrie Companion to test out as well. The tip breaking was a function of it being so thin, not any fault of the heat treat. I feel confident in saying this because the edge performed so well. Basically, I'm so happy with every other aspect of this blade that I want to try out other designs he offers…mainly the swedgeless ones
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I already PM'd Adam about a Companion, that's how much I like his work. (Beware fellow sharks, I'm hunting a Companion).