Valle del Litoral Facon fighting knife

[W.T. Beck]

Awhile back I came across a knife advertised on the World Knives website which intrigued me. It was a fighting knife with an 8 1/2 inch blade made in Argentina. The blade steel is 440C.

I ordered the knife last week and received it yesterday. I can't decide if I like it or not.

While I don't anticipate ever actually using a fighting knife, it fills a nitche in my collection. The Valle del Litoral Facon is well-made and finished, and comes with a sturdy leather sheath. However, I don't know what to make of the thin blade stock used for this knife.

The blade stock is the thinnest of any large fixed blade tactical or utility knife I have ever bought. It is about the same thickness as the large butcher knives in my kitchen.

Since the knife was designed as purely a fighter, I don't know if the thin blade is a deliberate part of the design, or just a cost saving measure. I have a few daggers and a couple of other knives designed for fighting, but none of those are made from such thin stock.

I am wondering if any other Bladeforum members have encountered fighting knives with rather thin blades? Could this be a design feature of the Facon?

 

[orthogonal1]

440C, made in Argentina, and what looks like a solid utitarian design.

The thinner than current U.S. standard fair blade is, I suspect, a design feature. Thick blades have their uses, but some individuals prefer the cutting ability a thinner blade can offer.

But, I neglected to ask: How thin is it?

Too thin (think ECCO pairing knife) is a problem. Lacks stiffness.

 

[Franciscomv]

There have been lots of new maker popping up in the last years down here in Argentina. Some of them are excellent, they use very good steels and their knives are superbly finished, but others tend to do more "tourist oriented" things.

I wasn't able to find a Valle del Litoral knife in Argentina, I guess they are only offered for export. I can't comment on their quality, since I've only seen photos.

What I've noticed in some of these new makers is that the blades they use all look alike, with different tang stamps. There are a number of "standard" designs and the blades are quite thin. It seems like someone is stapping out blades like crazy and these "makers" just put their stamp on them.

Valle del Litoral might not be one of those knives, but the thin blade and other things about them got me thinking. In fact from the pictures I've seen they seem to be better finished.

For what it's worth, thin blades are NOT traditional in Argentina. Country people and gauchos before them really like thick blades. If you look at Böker's Argentine catalog, they offer their carbon steel criollo knife blades in regular thickness and "extra thick spine".

 

[W.T. Beck]

But, I neglected to ask: How thin is it?

I don't have a means of measuring the blade thickness. I can only compare it to the large butcher knives I have in the kitchen. The blade is thinner than that of any other large tactical or utility knife I have ever bought, but not as thin as a paring knife or filet knife.

I can't complain about the fit and finish. It is quite good. The sheath is well-made, also.

 

[W.T. Beck]

Actually, I think you can see the thickness for yourself. I just had another look at the World Knives website. They sell another Argentinian brand called J. Rossi. These are quite a bit more expensive than the Valle del Litoral brand, but if you look closely at the blades, they look very similar, as though they come from the same maker.

If you look at the pictures of the J. Rossi Special Sub-Hilt Bowie here:

http://www.worldknives.com/product.asp?produid=732&manuid=45

there is a picture of the handle on the lower right. You can see the exposed tang, and that it is rather thin stock. It looks to be the same thickness as the tang on my Valle del Litoral Facon.

As far as I can tell from the pictures, all of the the Valle del Litoral and J. Rossi knives appear to have blades of the same thickness. If this is indeed the case, I wouldn't buy any of the larger ones. Several models are large bowies and ought to have thick blades.

 

[Jeff Clark]

A knife that is as thick, wide and long as an 8-inch chef's knife would have some utility as a fighting knife, but only if the alloy was tough and the point was thicker than usual on a chef's knife. The problem would be point breakage if the 440C is hard and point bending if the 440C is soft. You really want a blade that is at least 1/10-inch thick if it is made from carbon steel or 1/8-inch for stainless. Even these limits would be questionable for most people. Generally 3/16-inch is more what I would look for in a fixed blade fighting knife, particularly with a stainless blade.

PS. Just hold the blade up next to a ruler and you can figure out approximately how thick it is. If you want to be precise take it to a hardware store and ask them if they'd let you use a micrometer or caliper.

 

[Ebbtide]

From the link supplied I'd say it's plenty thick.
It is a fighting knife* not a survival knife, right?
Consider most of the stabbing murders are comitted with kitchen knives and those are much thinner.
Now if you had to stab cars, trucks, cinder blocks and split 8' trees in a Real Life Survival Situation, it would be way too wimpy.
For a RLSS you need at least 1/4" of proprietary steel.

*For the record, my knives don't fight. They get along just fine in the display case.