D
dataphage
Guest
Got my Svord drop-point from Gary on Friday and before I go any further I must add my voice to those praising his service. Top class cheap kit delivered as described in good time. The Royal Mail played their usual trick of delaying things by a day but I couldn't have gone out to play with it until the weekend anyway so I'm not that fussed.
Gary has reviewed the knife here better than I probably can but I wanted to do a bit of my own on this as it is an unusual thing.
The stock the blade is made of is 2.5mm thick which makes it about 2mm thinner than both my Fallkniven F1 and EKA W11, both trusted companions. This makes the convex grind very shallow and feel extremely sharp. It shaved left forearm bare straight out of the package, and I mean bare, it really is a scarily sharp blade, well the postman ran away anyway. :yikes:
The blade at 4 and a bit inches I thought would be too long as I do not have very big hands but actually feels fine as the handle makes it easy enough to control. I was also worried about the strength of the blade as it is a lot thinner accross the spine than anything else I own. As the blade is so wide edge to spine this isn't really a problem. There is a little flex from side to side in the blade if you really try to bend it, not noticeable in normal use. I probably wouldn't put this knife through batoning or anything too strenuous but I'm pretty confident it could handle it if you were careful about the fine edge.
In handling the knife feels like a kitchen knife - probably because of the shape of the handle itself - it goes through spuds like they aren't there! The shape of the blade is a little odd but it works quite well, I may drop the point a little more over time as it feels like this should be a bit lower but the curve on the end of the knife is quite useful in slicing cuts. It is excellent for whittling as the sharp edge of the blade goes right to the handle and provides a lot of control. Finer woodwork might have to go to a shorter blade as the point is a bit too far from your hand to be truly useful and, well, not pointy enough, but the extra half inch or so allows you to use the blade like a draw knife or scraper far more effectively. You can make feathersticks thin or thick without any problem and the verticle cutting power is surprisingly high for a thin-ish blade. The square spine throws sparks comparable to the Fallkniven - really good. As the blade is carbon steel it has the added advantage of being able to strike sparks from it which it does nicely igniting charcloth after only a few strikes. A word of warning though, the heat treat on the blade is hard (see below) and whilst striking sparks from the knife I damn nearly shattered the flint.
The heat treatment on the (A2 high carbon tool steel) blade is outstanding. I spent an hour whittling slightly less than wrist thick bits of dry hazel with it and it shaved my right forearm bare - I now have to wear my sleeves down all the time at work. The blade cuts like the heat treat is really high, it feels harder than both the F1 and the W11, both of which come in at about 58 Rockwell. It gets a frightening edge and keeps it nicely. Whilst doing my spuds I managed to dink the edge on a plate and it took a little while to come out with a fine ceramic stone but not so long as to be really tricky. A quick strop straight off a dry stone and it shaved my right calf bare. I really have to stop doing that.
I do have some negatives on this knife. The wooden handle on mine is varnished and shiny, it can be pretty slippery at times, wet hands were quite hazardous. The shape of the handle deals with this quite well but it still doesn't feel totally secure. I will be removing the varnish as soon as I get a chance and will have to think about how I treat the wood.
The fit of the handle round the tang looks, at first glance, to have some gaps but it feels quite secure in your hand. On closer inspection this is because the wood for the handle has quite a rough grain and I guess this is a matter of just sticking some expoxy in where I think it needs filling. This is a bit of a hazard with the kind of tang this knife has. Like the EKA W11 the tang is full but is concealed on the underside. This can mean that the recess cut into the handle block for the tang has to be exactly the right size or you get small gaps. If the wood you used for the handle is prone to splintering you may not be able to avoid leaving small gaps, as mine has.
Another negative; I have to agree with Gary, the sheath is a pig. It is easy enough to use but it is enourmous, reaching right to the lanyard hole on the knife. I also have to agree that having the blade exposed to the belt when carrying seems a little frightening. I'm not in the habit of wearing my most expensive belt when I'm out in the woods and I strop the blade on the back of it so I'm not bothered by the odd nick, but I do like my trousers to stay up and it could easily slice straight through the damn thing.
To sum up I wanted a slightly thinner bladed knife that I could kick around the place and experiment with new bushcraft type things with without worrying about knackering an expensive blade. This knife fits the bill quite nicely and for the money you will be hard pushed to find such a well tempered blade.
I have waffled far more than I meant to here but never mind...
Gary has reviewed the knife here better than I probably can but I wanted to do a bit of my own on this as it is an unusual thing.
The stock the blade is made of is 2.5mm thick which makes it about 2mm thinner than both my Fallkniven F1 and EKA W11, both trusted companions. This makes the convex grind very shallow and feel extremely sharp. It shaved left forearm bare straight out of the package, and I mean bare, it really is a scarily sharp blade, well the postman ran away anyway. :yikes:
The blade at 4 and a bit inches I thought would be too long as I do not have very big hands but actually feels fine as the handle makes it easy enough to control. I was also worried about the strength of the blade as it is a lot thinner accross the spine than anything else I own. As the blade is so wide edge to spine this isn't really a problem. There is a little flex from side to side in the blade if you really try to bend it, not noticeable in normal use. I probably wouldn't put this knife through batoning or anything too strenuous but I'm pretty confident it could handle it if you were careful about the fine edge.
In handling the knife feels like a kitchen knife - probably because of the shape of the handle itself - it goes through spuds like they aren't there! The shape of the blade is a little odd but it works quite well, I may drop the point a little more over time as it feels like this should be a bit lower but the curve on the end of the knife is quite useful in slicing cuts. It is excellent for whittling as the sharp edge of the blade goes right to the handle and provides a lot of control. Finer woodwork might have to go to a shorter blade as the point is a bit too far from your hand to be truly useful and, well, not pointy enough, but the extra half inch or so allows you to use the blade like a draw knife or scraper far more effectively. You can make feathersticks thin or thick without any problem and the verticle cutting power is surprisingly high for a thin-ish blade. The square spine throws sparks comparable to the Fallkniven - really good. As the blade is carbon steel it has the added advantage of being able to strike sparks from it which it does nicely igniting charcloth after only a few strikes. A word of warning though, the heat treat on the blade is hard (see below) and whilst striking sparks from the knife I damn nearly shattered the flint.
The heat treatment on the (A2 high carbon tool steel) blade is outstanding. I spent an hour whittling slightly less than wrist thick bits of dry hazel with it and it shaved my right forearm bare - I now have to wear my sleeves down all the time at work. The blade cuts like the heat treat is really high, it feels harder than both the F1 and the W11, both of which come in at about 58 Rockwell. It gets a frightening edge and keeps it nicely. Whilst doing my spuds I managed to dink the edge on a plate and it took a little while to come out with a fine ceramic stone but not so long as to be really tricky. A quick strop straight off a dry stone and it shaved my right calf bare. I really have to stop doing that.
I do have some negatives on this knife. The wooden handle on mine is varnished and shiny, it can be pretty slippery at times, wet hands were quite hazardous. The shape of the handle deals with this quite well but it still doesn't feel totally secure. I will be removing the varnish as soon as I get a chance and will have to think about how I treat the wood.
The fit of the handle round the tang looks, at first glance, to have some gaps but it feels quite secure in your hand. On closer inspection this is because the wood for the handle has quite a rough grain and I guess this is a matter of just sticking some expoxy in where I think it needs filling. This is a bit of a hazard with the kind of tang this knife has. Like the EKA W11 the tang is full but is concealed on the underside. This can mean that the recess cut into the handle block for the tang has to be exactly the right size or you get small gaps. If the wood you used for the handle is prone to splintering you may not be able to avoid leaving small gaps, as mine has.
Another negative; I have to agree with Gary, the sheath is a pig. It is easy enough to use but it is enourmous, reaching right to the lanyard hole on the knife. I also have to agree that having the blade exposed to the belt when carrying seems a little frightening. I'm not in the habit of wearing my most expensive belt when I'm out in the woods and I strop the blade on the back of it so I'm not bothered by the odd nick, but I do like my trousers to stay up and it could easily slice straight through the damn thing.
To sum up I wanted a slightly thinner bladed knife that I could kick around the place and experiment with new bushcraft type things with without worrying about knackering an expensive blade. This knife fits the bill quite nicely and for the money you will be hard pushed to find such a well tempered blade.
I have waffled far more than I meant to here but never mind...
): I can also attest to the excellence of the Svord knife, took mine on my Woodlore Journeyman course last week, it did everything I asked of it, from making a bowdrill set, collecting cat tails, cutting and splitting firewood, gutting fish and cutting up Venison. When I got back it only needed a brief touch up on the starkie before it was shaving again. I like it very very much.
