After a long discussion in this thread here http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/looking-for-a-good-bowie.1501310/ I decided to pick up the NL1 as my hiking/camping large knife.
Well I promised to review this knife and because I was unable to find any decent reviews online when I was purchasing and essentially had to piece together several reviews(which seems ridiculous for the cost of the blade), I will attempt to give you as complete of a review as possible, especially after being able to actually take it into the field.
This is just a beautiful blade, I think it was its look that originally drew me to it.
Here are the specs:
Fallkniven is well known for delivering sharp blades and this one did not disappoint. It is hands down the sharpest blade I've ever had straight out of the box. It's sharpness was immediately evident in its chopping ability.
So finally tonight I was able to go find some wood in a nearby forest, I brought along my Himalayan Imports M43 for a chopping comparison. I spent about 30 minutes on a diamond/ceramic stone with the M43 to try to get it to a comparable sharpness. I could get it close but not as sharp as the folks over at Fallkniven get their knives...
Found myself a dead pine log and decided to test the chopping ability of these two knives!
Just four chops in, despite the size difference and the obviously superior chopping shape of the khukuri the NL1 held its own easily.
This is after about 20 or so chops each and the shape of the cuts show the difference in the precision of each blade. The NL1 is much easier to control, its sharpness is clearly superior as well.
The khukuri was for the most part taking deeper bites but was also wild.
I took off a smaller branch with the khukuri like butter(not surprising), I believe this is where this blade excels. It would be great to work on the backyard with.
The Tor is so damn sharp it had no problem going through a small branch in one cut either. Have to say at this point the cutting ability was really beginning to surprise me.
I've seen other reviewers mention that they felt as if the blade wanted to jump out of their hands due to the slickness of the ox hide grip on the NL1. I didn't feel that it was unsafe once or even came close to leaving my grip. It also seems as if it would actually roughen up over time, not something that would concern me. I am unable to comment on how the grip would perform when extremely wet, I bought this knife with its stainless blade to be able to survive the jungle conditions of some of my favorite hiking/camping spots. When I'm able to get to this knife to work over the case of many days in the jungle I'll be able to give a better review on its ability to withstand the elements.
I know there is concern of the blade chipping on the VG10 triple lamented blade, I haven't hard used this knife yet but it performed like a champ with basic cutting tasks.
Now for things I don't like:
Upon opening the box it was immediately obvious that the sheath was not the same quality of the blade. Its general design is inferior and I will be certainly be having a custom sheath made for this blade eventually.
This flap of leather was like this upon coming out of the box and is a constant irritation when trying to sheath my knife.
This leather strap is design to keep the blade in the sheath while moving, is totally unnecessary (the blade stays in well enough without it) and is constantly in the way when trying to pull the blade out.
These buttons are supposed to make the blade easy to put on without removing your belt but this is simply a horrible design. These buttons are not secure at all and come loose even with minor movement (like bending over to pick something up) that being said the knife doesn't feel like it will come off even with major movement without the buttons snapped, but would I want to go Last of the Mohicans/Apocalypto sprinting through the forest without it snapped? No
The NL1 performing some more delicate tasks
The same for the M43
My Winkler showed them both how it was done
The ergonomics of the NL1 is great, the M43 did begin to give me a hot spot here at the point at the back of the handle here.
Conclusion:
The Fallkniven NL1 Tor is a fine blade, I am very happy with its design and performance. Its weigh to performance ratio is astonishing, the simple fact that it could keep up with the M43 in chopping tasks blows me away. Now of course I would still choose the M43 to do chopping work in my backyard, but it weighs at least twice as much as the NL1.
The con:
For $530 I expect a far superior sheath, they need to go back to the drawing board on this one and come out with a completely different product. Get rid of the buttons all together they are totally unnecessary. The ability to tie it to my leg on the bottom is a plus, but it also decreases the ability of the top buttons to remain snapped.
Final Score: as a complete product I give it an 8/10. The blade itself is a 10/10 but the sheath and the simple fact that I will need to buy another sheath does bother me. Other than that I see this blade outlasting me easily.
Cheers
Well I promised to review this knife and because I was unable to find any decent reviews online when I was purchasing and essentially had to piece together several reviews(which seems ridiculous for the cost of the blade), I will attempt to give you as complete of a review as possible, especially after being able to actually take it into the field.
This is just a beautiful blade, I think it was its look that originally drew me to it.
Here are the specs:
- Total length: 385 mm (15.15")
- Blade length: 254 mm (10")
- Blade width: 42 mm (1.65")
- Blade thickness: 7 mm (0.28")
- Weight (knife): 520 g (1.15 lbs)
- Steel: Lam.VG10
- Blade hardness: 59 HRC
- Butt cap: Alumina
- Guard: Stainless, specially anchored
- Handle in brown leather: 132 mm (5.2")
- Sheath: Black leather
Fallkniven is well known for delivering sharp blades and this one did not disappoint. It is hands down the sharpest blade I've ever had straight out of the box. It's sharpness was immediately evident in its chopping ability.
So finally tonight I was able to go find some wood in a nearby forest, I brought along my Himalayan Imports M43 for a chopping comparison. I spent about 30 minutes on a diamond/ceramic stone with the M43 to try to get it to a comparable sharpness. I could get it close but not as sharp as the folks over at Fallkniven get their knives...
Found myself a dead pine log and decided to test the chopping ability of these two knives!
Just four chops in, despite the size difference and the obviously superior chopping shape of the khukuri the NL1 held its own easily.
This is after about 20 or so chops each and the shape of the cuts show the difference in the precision of each blade. The NL1 is much easier to control, its sharpness is clearly superior as well.
The khukuri was for the most part taking deeper bites but was also wild.
I took off a smaller branch with the khukuri like butter(not surprising), I believe this is where this blade excels. It would be great to work on the backyard with.
The Tor is so damn sharp it had no problem going through a small branch in one cut either. Have to say at this point the cutting ability was really beginning to surprise me.
I've seen other reviewers mention that they felt as if the blade wanted to jump out of their hands due to the slickness of the ox hide grip on the NL1. I didn't feel that it was unsafe once or even came close to leaving my grip. It also seems as if it would actually roughen up over time, not something that would concern me. I am unable to comment on how the grip would perform when extremely wet, I bought this knife with its stainless blade to be able to survive the jungle conditions of some of my favorite hiking/camping spots. When I'm able to get to this knife to work over the case of many days in the jungle I'll be able to give a better review on its ability to withstand the elements.
I know there is concern of the blade chipping on the VG10 triple lamented blade, I haven't hard used this knife yet but it performed like a champ with basic cutting tasks.
Now for things I don't like:
Upon opening the box it was immediately obvious that the sheath was not the same quality of the blade. Its general design is inferior and I will be certainly be having a custom sheath made for this blade eventually.
This flap of leather was like this upon coming out of the box and is a constant irritation when trying to sheath my knife.
This leather strap is design to keep the blade in the sheath while moving, is totally unnecessary (the blade stays in well enough without it) and is constantly in the way when trying to pull the blade out.
These buttons are supposed to make the blade easy to put on without removing your belt but this is simply a horrible design. These buttons are not secure at all and come loose even with minor movement (like bending over to pick something up) that being said the knife doesn't feel like it will come off even with major movement without the buttons snapped, but would I want to go Last of the Mohicans/Apocalypto sprinting through the forest without it snapped? No
The NL1 performing some more delicate tasks
The same for the M43
My Winkler showed them both how it was done
The ergonomics of the NL1 is great, the M43 did begin to give me a hot spot here at the point at the back of the handle here.
Conclusion:
The Fallkniven NL1 Tor is a fine blade, I am very happy with its design and performance. Its weigh to performance ratio is astonishing, the simple fact that it could keep up with the M43 in chopping tasks blows me away. Now of course I would still choose the M43 to do chopping work in my backyard, but it weighs at least twice as much as the NL1.
The con:
For $530 I expect a far superior sheath, they need to go back to the drawing board on this one and come out with a completely different product. Get rid of the buttons all together they are totally unnecessary. The ability to tie it to my leg on the bottom is a plus, but it also decreases the ability of the top buttons to remain snapped.
Final Score: as a complete product I give it an 8/10. The blade itself is a 10/10 but the sheath and the simple fact that I will need to buy another sheath does bother me. Other than that I see this blade outlasting me easily.
Cheers
