Fällkniven S1

I saw an intresting review of Fallknivens S1 knife,at "SurvivALL" blog,and as i happen to be owner of the same knife,i thought i´d throw in a few words about this knife too.This aint nothing more than my humble opinion of that knife. Be sure to check out SurvivALL´s review of the knife too,its based on real field testing,done by person who knows what he speaks of clearly.

Im not big fan of some reviews seen in youtube where guys read the catalogues,order expensive knives,dont use em in real enviroment,and just show off their gear in front of camera and tell some stories,and just disgrace or hype the item. I understand that someone is collector,someone is user,and theres still enough space for the folks on the other sides.BUT,telling about that rare,hi end,expensive,never used dusty knife,kept in safe or drawer, made from un-identified material dropped from the space,without actual use of it,still aint based on real-life experiment,hands-on,no matter how well the steel cleared the labratory tests,as the life,the knives element is somewhere,in the woods and thats where you see how it actually works. Many exotic handmade knives with pricetag over thousands of bucks,get beaten by factory made 10 buck Mora knives,as funtionality still rules over coolness factor :).Once again,in my opinion,and i respect yours,what ever that might be.

In my opinion this particular knife is about one of the best factory made knives ive used this far,and this aint ass-kissing.This is based on about 6 month perioid of use of it,without shame or particular mercy to the knife,although i use knives for jobs intended for knives. So im not used to bash em into steel surfaces,onto concrete walls or similar stuff,which ive seen done to many hi-end knives too,beaten till breaking up in these odd youtube videos where they intentionally try to break knives in any method they can to achieve snapped blades and similar harsh damage.

I have been batoning this into branches and small logs,in size of about 3 to even 4 inches in diameter,without any real damage,visible that is,to blade.It hasnt made difference,has the tree been frozen,fresh or dry,it has been pretty easy to split by batoning it with aid of other wrist thick branch or other part of some tree.And it does-surprise-survive all the other stuff too,easily,from carving up spoons,to making lean-to´s,and as its made very hygienic,its good for any hunting related tasks too,from skinning to guttin,a sits can also be cleaned easily and also sterilised in boiling water. This is one fine detail in any fallkniven fixed blades,as the thermorun handle material is somehow cast permanantly to the blade itself,so there aint any cuts or seams for germs to get in, to pollute meat of any type.

The handle hasnt showed any marks of real wear and it has been used after night in freezing temperatures,so the quality of this rubber is ok in my books. It is called Thermorun,if i recall right. Its nice and grippy in any enviroment ive used it in,no matter the temperature,even when wet,it offers good firm grip without getting slippery. But when ive used it to gut some fish,the slime from fish scales has mede it pretty slick,so you better be careful while doing this (as always when handling sharp tools,that is). The open end of the handle show the tang of the knife,so you can use the end of handle as small tool to pound in nails or something,or if you have to,you can use the steel surface to batoning too,to get that blade through some tough material in some emergeancy,or just to get a hole thru frozen stream,to get water under the ice,as ive used it.
And as always,i found the hole in the handle,left there to attach a loop thru it,is just great,and in my own knife ive attached a 8 inch long piece of multicolour 3mm climbing rated cord with small carabiner,which i use to sequre the knife into its sheath.

My knife came with leather sheath,that i like,its sturdy,not fancy or posh. Durable stitching,sandwhich construct to prevent blade to cut through the seams,and what i like...big enough belt loop,so you can use this also in duty belts. I´d like to get my new sheath done,it will come out with loop for firesteel and a flap with snap closure,to cover the knife more,but this factory one is great too as the knife sit quite deep in the sheath,and the sheath itself rides low,compared to belt so it wont snag your stomach or anything when you sit. The dangler is attached to well formed steel ring that stops the unnecessary swinging.

I have modified the blade,but just to get the spine more sharp edged,as many do to their knives,to make it more handy to scrape out sparks from firesteels and in my case,it works now better for scaling fish. Other than that,i have nothing i might gesture to be done to the blade,cause to this date,ive sharpened it only few times,just because it wont get dull easily. To sharpening i have used fallknivens own DC3 sharpening stone that has two side,the diamond coated,and the stone on the other side,and also piece of fine grit wet sanding paper,glued lightly over piece of mouse-pad,as the pad is soft and contours the shape of the blade well.

So i think this might be money well spent to other outdoors enthusiasts too.


Edit: well ive learned a bit more,and what ive been told is that you can actually use just a drop of autosol polishing stuff,and leather strop together for good edge,so i went and tried and id did work well.

to see more about S1 user opinions,check out this one:

http://survivall.blogspot.com/2009/09/fallkniven-s1-serious-survival-knife.html