Fällkniven S1 Fail Video

Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Messages
323
So this survival chick used it for 6 weeks on a Tropical Island, she came away disliking it and it was pretty messed up with the blade chipping alot. Some of the damage was her fault but the blade chipping when she didn't use it on anything one would expect to do that amount of damage is alarming. Wondering what other peoples thoughts are and do most people consider a survival knife as a consumeable item that you replace or that it should survive in working order unless seriously abused?

PS-I personaly find the chipping alarming because by hand its such a problem to fix.
 
most people will never abuse a knife that much. vg-10 is a steel that chips in my experience. the pro versions are much thicker especially at the tip and will provide better geometry from chipping as much.

in any case, 3 other channels did the same tests, all 3 broke the tip from tip testing and none of them had nearly as much damage as Lilly had... but she really beat the hell out of it and never sharpened or stroped it either.

its not a bad knife in the least, its not a bad steel in the least, but when used/abused outside of its params will react in the way it does.
 
Have to disagree that it was taken out of its intended environment.
I quote,
"The Fallkniven S1 Forest Knife is one of the best knife ever made for outdoor adventure and fishing. The sturdy blade of the S1 made of extremely strong laminated VG10 custom stainless steel. The edge of the S1 is a convex grind for extra strong cutting power. The modified clip point blade shape works extremely well for penetrating tough materials, and the long curved edge is ideal for skinning."

most people will never abuse a knife that much. vg-10 is a steel that chips in my experience. the pro versions are much thicker especially at the tip and will provide better geometry from chipping as much.

in any case, 3 other channels did the same tests, all 3 broke the tip from tip testing and none of them had nearly as much damage as Lilly had... but she really beat the hell out of it and never sharpened or stroped it either.

its not a bad knife in the least, its not a bad steel in the least, but when used/abused outside of its params will react in the way it does.
 
Have to disagree that it was taken out of its intended environment.

lol whatever
What about the part of the video where Lilly used the lanyard hole as a bow drill divet and melted the rubber handle. I saw that one coming. I especially liked how she smacked limpets ( or whatever they were) off the rocks with the pommel and then complained about the rubber being torn up. If it isn't a full metal pommel then you are going to tear up the handle.The knife didn't break and could be sharpened, not really a cut and dry failure.

LOL indeed, I didn't read anything in Mo2's post that would indicate an environment without reading more into it than was actually there. Lilly's criteria would favor the sharpened prybar concept, that however is inconsistent with historical knife use. In real life people don't like constantly repairing tools so they will use what works without breaking. By that I mean, I wouldn't use many of Lilly's methods because they damaged the tool unnecessarily.
 
Last edited:
Did Lilly survive?
If so, I guess the knife fulfilled it's purpose.

My sarcasm is only thinly veiled. If one batons a knife with a rock, what's the expected result?
Would VG10 (laminate or otherwise) be my first choice for hard use survival? Probably not.
Could one devise a way to trash a knife made of just about anything? Probably yes.

A side-by-side destruction test between several different blades would be a lot more helpful. The DBK guys recognized this at the end, and brought in a knife with superior steel (S-1 Pro, as I recall). SURPRISE! It faired better.
 
Did Lilly survive?
If so, I guess the knife fulfilled it's purpose.

My sarcasm is only thinly veiled. If one batons a knife with a rock, what's the expected result?
Would VG10 (laminate or otherwise) be my first choice for hard use survival? Probably not.
Could one devise a way to trash a knife made of just about anything? Probably yes.

A side-by-side destruction test between several different blades would be a lot more helpful. The DBK guys recognized this at the end, and brought in a knife with superior steel (S-1 Pro, as I recall). SURPRISE! It faired better.
the S1 has the same steel (Laminated CoS iirc, which is basically the same). but it has a much beefier blade geometry. They (as in Dutch bushcraft knives) also didnt know how Lilly destroyed that knife so bad. she really did abuse it.
 
Last edited:
I'm not surprised about the chipping or the tip damage considering what she did. It is no secret that these csn have such issues. Wouldn't be in my top ten choices for a survival knife. Not sharpening it was a mistake though. It is well known that you should get past the factory edge on a falkniven. Video sure looked like a bunch of fun though! Put a tip back on and sharpen that thing up! Good to go for more normal knife tasks.
 
I'm not surprised about the chipping or the tip damage considering what she did. It is no secret that these csn have such issues. Wouldn't be in my top ten choices for a survival knife. Not sharpening it was a mistake though. It is well known that you should get past the factory edge on a falkniven. Video sure looked like a bunch of fun though! Put a tip back on and sharpen that thing up! Good to go for more normal knife tasks.
Cedric Ada fixed his tip already
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUVwaXUF-Oc/

Edited:

Sorry don't do instascam.
18513564_1951914838417357_2929452881700454400_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
Been using my F1 for years. It performs flowlessly, including the ocasional batoning for fire making. No visible damage.

This 'survival chick' almost destroied her knife in 6 weeks....am I supposed to be inmpressed?

Truth is, my 4 year old can do more damage to my f1 in less than an hour. So she definetely failed at distroing her knife. It's obvious she doesn't care about proper knife use.

As far as youtube knife reviews goes, I learned to judge the user before I judge the quality of a product, beeing a knife or whatnot.
 
Last edited:
Using it as a bowdrill and the rock on the spine she admits was abuse and DIDN'T state that as a negative, the knife is designed for pommel striking and it did fail if you consider damage to the handle failure, I think everyone can agree the soft handle material is not really suited for striking yet the knife is designed to be used such. She actually has video of her using it for striking to knock limpets off rocks she isn't hitting very hard.(granted she could have just used a rock *shrug*)

Maybe if she had ground back the factory edge it would have faired better, I personally suspect the very hard shells of coconuts are to blame for alot of the cracking and chips and along with the latteral stress. 6 weeks of coconuts say 1-2 daily is alot of abuse for a hard/brittle steel VG-10 may just not be up to the task.

Maybe someone here with a s1 would like to open up 5-10 coconuts and see if a non factory edge has problems?
 
I stopped watching her vids a while ago but if I'm not mistaken, doesn't she use a hatchet too? I could be confusing her with wildsoul vee.

But if so, why isn't she using that for the rough work? If not, she is one of those people that I think is WAY better off with a mora or even a cheap machete. She needs a ford not a lambo.
 
I stopped watching her vids a while ago but if I'm not mistaken, doesn't she use a hatchet too? I could be confusing her with wildsoul vee.

But if so, why isn't she using that for the rough work? If not, she is one of those people that I think is WAY better off with a mora or even a cheap machete. She needs a ford not a lambo.

Well, after looking at the video posted in general of long term use of a Cold Steel knife, the answer is that she is testing knives to see how they hold up as a "one tool for everything" option.
She almost certainly has other tools with her for if the knife being tested out breaks.
She isn't going to die even if the knife breaks in half.

That seems to be what is happening.

She even says right at the beginning that she really mistreated this knife...she isn't saying "Hey guys, use your knife like this!"
 
Been using my F1 for years. It performs flowlessly, including the ocasional batoning for fire making. No visible damage.

This 'survival chick' almost destroied her knife in 6 weeks....am I supposed to be inmpressed?

Truth is, my 4 year old can do more damage to my f1 in less than an hour. So she definetely failed at distroing her knife. It's obvious she doesn't care about proper knife use.

As far as youtube knife reviews goes, I learned to judge the user before I judge the quality of a product, beeing a knife or whatnot.

I have successfully destroyed the edge on a Survive! 4.1 in 3V and a Bark River Bravo 1 when I intentionally set out to abuse them to failure. I'm sure that I could do the same with the Fallknivens. However, when using them as knives instead of chisels, hammers and shovels, they have performed flawlessly.

I have two S1's and three F1's that I've been pretty rough on, and all five of them are still going strong. I've batonned red oak - knotty red oak, and have also done so cross-grain, so I have not treated them with restraint - just with respect & a little common sense....
 
Well, after looking at the video posted in general of long term use of a Cold Steel knife, the answer is that she is testing knives to see how they hold up as a "one tool for everything" option.
She almost certainly has other tools with her for if the knife being tested out breaks.
She isn't going to die even if the knife breaks in half.

That seems to be what is happening.

She even says right at the beginning that she really mistreated this knife...she isn't saying "Hey guys, use your knife like this!"
That makes more sense i guess. I just don't see the mid size, mid price knives as being a good value for this type of use/abuse. For me it's a "why bother" issue. But then again I say that a lot about these survival vids. :) A lot of these vids are a primitive wood working video in the guise of survival training. Half the stuff they do is just a waste of calories but I guess watching someone sitting by a fire waiting for rescue doesn't make for good tv. LOL
 
I think everyone can agree the soft handle material is not really suited for striking yet the knife is designed to be used such.
It makes a better anvil than hammer. If you use a baton to strike the tang protrusion you can drive the tip in with force. Fallkniven even said on their forum that the pommel wasn't a great hammer and recommended using it only in the aforementioned way.

Knife pommels make crappy hammers for anything but light hammering tasks. If you miss you could potentially hit your hand. That said I used a knife pommel yesterday to crush some ramen for my niece. The tang protrusion on the fallknivens is very useful, but it isn't a real hammer.
 
That makes more sense i guess. I just don't see the mid size, mid price knives as being a good value for this type of use/abuse. For me it's a "why bother" issue. But then again I say that a lot about these survival vids. :) A lot of these vids are a primitive wood working video in the guise of survival training. Half the stuff they do is just a waste of calories but I guess watching someone sitting by a fire waiting for rescue doesn't make for good tv. LOL

Exactly. :D
If I was in a survival situation--a real one--including being hopelessly lost or too injured to make my way out of there, it would be a really boring video.
 
Back
Top