- Joined
- Apr 15, 2014
- Messages
- 483
Alright boys, it's time for a knife review.
I am way overdue for this one, but that just means that I have even more experience to share.
Quickie review: the F1 is singularly responsible for my transition to EDC fixed blades and my shift away from folders entirely.
Just take a moment to admire the beauty of simplicity exemplified by that damn knife. It has such simple lines. All of the curves are so subtle, there is nothing dramatic at all about the design, and yet it completely evades descriptors like boring, or plain.
The F1 is a clean, classic knife with modern essence.
When sharpened properly the F1 is a pleasure to bushcraft with, for the most part. First, I am an edge snob, so I think basically all factory edges are inadequate, however, this one did shave hair out of the box. Hit the stones and put a real edge on it, though, and the F1 will perform noticeably better, particularly with a proper mirror edge.
The edge I threw on was a 220 bevel with a 6k apex and is not actually an ideal wood working edge and I could feel that as I feather-sticked it up, but nevertheless, I was takin' up curls effortlessly.
Notice how thin my edge is? That bevel is huge. It is a freehanded ~20 degrees inclusive edge and the steel is the notoriously chippy VG10. There was zero chipping as I pushed and twisted the edge through wood.
The 3/16th's bladestock handles batoning with no issue whatsoever, but the shorter blade leaves little tip exposed for the baton. This makes the F1 a great batoner in a pinch, but not a very great batoner overall as I found I had to be overly choosy with the logs I tried to split, as well as how I actually approached each individual split.
I do have to admit, the handle is a little small in overall size for heavy batoning jobs. It will begin to hurt your hand rather quickly, again reinforcing the "in a pinch" essence to the F1's heavy duty capacity. It would work much better as teamed with a larger 6" dedicated batoner.
That being said, when the knife is employed in the roles it is actually designed for, the handle is absolutely comfortable. It is grippy and has subtle contouring.
I did add this sharpening notch to assist with sharpening. I have several different techniques that I use depending on the knife, but I have a favorite technique (the traditional Japanese stroke) which was made difficult by the rubber finger guard thing. Because I needed a relatively large sharpening notch, I cut it at a slanted, straight angle, as opposed to a circle. This way, if stuff wants to fall into the notch, instead of hanging up and getting caught, it is naturally guided out of the notch and onto the cutting edge.
Here's a shot of the blade after another beat down session. This was just a little one, as you'll see below, but I have used this knife and this knife alone to process piles of wood ten times, twenty times, the size. It has been a faithful, reliable knife for quite some time now. Notice my thin edge has suffered literally zero damage? The white stuff on there is just flecks of wood.
Note to self: don't use a metal hammer to baton san mai blades...
I did that about 6 months ago when I was in the workshop and I needed to split some maple for some reason and the only batoning tool I had available was a big-ass 2lb metal hammer lol
Although, I do actually like the bit of character that added to the blade. I have really blasted this knife and it just takes all the abuse I throw at it without flinching.
So, I use this knife as an EDC blade, which is why I LOVE the sheath. I understand that it might not be the best bushcrafting sheath out there. Indeed, this knife is not actually a bushcrafting knife, necessarily. At the heart, it is a military knife for pilots when the need for a cutting tool arises. In that sense, it is a hard-use generalist, and it really excels in that role. The sheath allows for fast and easy drawing and sheathing of the blade from the pocket with zero cumbersome fidgeting. It just slides in and clicks and slides out smoothly without any issues of bringing the sheath with it, or any risk of cutting your pants or anything like that. On top of this, it is slim and does not draw the eye with dramatic design (which is good for EDC, because everyone thinks knives are weapons). It is virtually a flawless EDC sheath.
I love my Fallkniven F1. Is is absolutely a knife that will take any reasonable abuse you might ask of it. That being said, I'm not one of those guys that sees the need to bury the blade a car door and pry with my bodyweight, or chop cinderblocks and all that weird stuff. So if you are using this knife in any situation where a knife is actually a proper tool for the job, it will handle it with aplomb. My only real issue with the knife is the price. I don't think the san mai lamination adds anything to a blade of this size, save for cost, ergo, it is not a particularly competitive blade at its current price point. The Benchmade Puukko in 3V seems to be an exact competitor that is literally superior in every aspect, on paper. But nevertheless, that does not make my F1 any less awesome. I have built an extensive history with this high quality blade and look forward to many more years of beating down on this thing. And even though I will replace it with another product when it dies, it will still be worn proudly on my hip until that day comes.
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