Review Fällkniven PXL Green Micarta - First Impressions

Pilsner

Pilsner

Joined
Oct 28, 2017
Messages
4,464
Wow. Just. Wow. I’ve had this knife for a couple of days and it is an absolute corker. The model has been around for years, and I already owned the PXL-WH, their ‘budget’ version, still pricy, and it has become my favoured knife when mountaineering or rock climbing. I hankered after the original version, and so I got one: from my perspective it is a very expensive knife - >$400 over here.

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I strongly suspect it has sat in the retailer’s stock for several years, and I had to oil the pivot when dialling it in. The action is sublime, now. No play, just perfect. It is a heavy folder, to be sure, but smooth as soft butter.

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Sharp as the proverbial razor, laminated 3G steel. Gorgeous blade design. However, the grind is uneven where the swedge begins in both my PXL models, and the laminate reaches down differently on either side! Not a problem for me, but the issue is pretty much identical in both folders - the same worker? ;)

The rest of the fit and finish is fantastic, it is a wonderful knife to be sure. Big thumbs up from me.

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Will give it some use and update this review.
 
A PXL was on my short list a while back but I never pulled the trigger because of price.
Glad you are pleased. Fallknivens are beautiful.
 
Pinemoon said:
A PXL was on my short list a while back but I never pulled the trigger because of price.
Glad you are pleased. Fallknivens are beautiful.
Click to expand...
Man, it’s a beautiful thing. The machining is fab. Very, very pricy, I know, but happily it shows!
 
Bringing back this review... thanks for it. I just placed an order for a green PXL. For over a year I’ve been eyeing this scale design with the steel and micarta, particularly favoring green micarta. There are plenty with this look (what is the style called?) and some very pricey. But only recently did I come across the PXL. Separately I had been considering a Fallkniven fixed blade. Combine the great reviews of this knife with some end-of-model-life somewhat reasonable pricing I had to pull the trigger. This knife just seems to bring it all together for me. I can’t wait for its arrival. Maybe I put it under the tree if it arrives in time.
 
Finally... at 6:30am, the day after Christmas the FedEx driver drops this off. Interestingly, like a video reviewer commented, despite being smooth out of the box, after a couple dozen openings things began to feel gritty, even screeching. I disassembled and found what I think may have been grease but now seemed brown, gummed up and glue-like. After cleaning things up and applying some PFPE grease it is now opening very smoothly. The blade is super-sharp out of the box and I LOVE the brown-green micarta. I had concerns the pocket clip might be troubling but I really like it. It is very secure and creates no hot spots for me. In fact, I find this knife very ergonomic with its girth.

If there was one disappointment is the edge of the liner lock in not chamfered, so the edge is a bit more sharp than comfortable when unlocking the blade. I'm debating whether at some point I take a file to the liner lock?

The functional blade length is about identical to my Shirogorov NeOn Zero and my CRK Umnumzaan and Large Sebenza. The full opened length is a hair longer than the Shirogorov and a bit shorter than the CRKs, but weighs more than twice that of the NeOn Zero. It is a nice change of pace to have this knife with such weight and girth.

Other than the liner-lock edge, fit and finish are very good. It has an early but very sold lock-up. There was slight lock-stick out of the box, but after my disassembly and cleaning of the knife that went away.

Considering this is now the least expensive of my 5 knifes (notwithstanding my Spyderco Dragonfly which was stolen a year ago)I would consider this knife a good value if you plan on keeping it now that it can be found in the sub-$300 range. Of course resale value will not treat you well with this knife.

I have a small Insingo Inkosi with micarta but those little slivers of micarta did not fulfill my hankering for micarta scales. These micarta scales are beautiful.


 
I regret to report that I will be returning this knife. The blade has been pretty far off-center towards the show-side knife, the pivot screw is not particularly good at staying tight and the pivot screw threads are not particularly fine so there is about a 1/16th of a turn between the blade being tight and un-openable and the blade being moveable but nearly touching the frame lock on one side. I've tried all the blade centering tricks and none seem to work with the liners being counter-sunk for the screw heads.

It really is beautiful and the blade slices amazingly so I'm really torn whether to order another in its place. If the blade was centered I'd probably be more inclined to experiment with Loctite or Teflon tape on the pivot screw. But for ~$300 and a blade that is seemingly not adjustable and well off to one side I'm bothered after several days of consideration. Worse, yesterday when I told myself I would just power through and spent some time opening and closing the knife as one will do with a new knife, at some point I started to hear the sound of the blade rubbing against the liner when closing. Since then, after re-tightening the pivot screw it has happened twice again. Barely more than a 1/8th of a turn of the screw between immovably locked and rubbing against the liner. I'm just disappointed. There is so much to like about this knife.
 
That's a shame and the first I've heard on this problem. I think I would send it back for replacement and see if that knife has the same issues.
 
T Tseg
Respectfully, is it possible that the blade centering and pivot screw issues are the result of your disassembly to clean and oil the pivot? If it is possible and you order another knife, wouldn't that one also have the old grease in the pivot area and require disassembly too (and possibly yield the same result)?
 
I got the economical version, the PXLx and I'm impressed with the fit and finish and the Laminated Cobalt Steel takes a killer edge.
I've only carried the knife a time or two but used it pretty hard and everything is good to go. A little bulkier and heavier than what I prefer in an EDC
but a solid knife overall.
 
The Lam CoS is highly underrated! I love it.. Holds IMG_20200214_052027.jpg a damn good edge and a few.passes on the strop and it's back to laser sharp!
 
Glad you got a version with good finish on the handles. My PXL and GP were unfortunately not on par with you'd expect for the price. I had them returned. Still awaiting replacements.
 
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