British Red said:
An interesting point of view Paul,
As a guy who regularly defends the use of "survival" as a term and a concept, I'll stand by the term "rubbish". I used it consciously having heard so many good things about the knife and wanted to challenge the "F1 is great" perception.
I bought one and have been nothing but disappointed with it. I hear everything you say about the utility of the knife, but for every purpose you describe, I'll take a Frosts Clipper over the F1 - especially in a survival situation! For the money, I'll take a Clipper, Laplander and Wetterlings Large Hunter actually
. Being sadly stuck with it, I'd really like to see Ash make something different out of mine - a thinner full flat might be interesting!
I think my coats next to yours
Red
Red, I know you dont like the handle, and you dont like the thickness of the blade, and you dont like the grind, but apart from that whats wrong with it? <chuckle>
Seriously though, can you tell me specifically how it disappointed you (Im genuinely interested, and not looking for conflict)?
I have two F1s (And several other Fällkniven models), they are both shaving sharp, and to return the blade to shaving sharp it just takes a few strokes on the ceramic side of a DC3/DC4, the convex slices well, cuts deep into wood, it can take heavy whacks during various types of batoning tasks, it produces the best shower of sparks off a firesteel Ive seen. Itll do pretty much everything you would require from a knife.
Bear in mind that any knife that is built to a military specification, and even more importantly, approved for military use, is going to have a thick blade, and this is going to be a problem if you want to produce fine medallions of carrot <chuckle> but this isnt going to be an issue in a genuine survival situation or during a couple of days rough camping in the woods (Rough camping is bushcrafting in its simplest form I know for others it can mean anything from using nothing but Neolithic tools to an emphasis on the spiritual aspect of becoming more closely connected to nature and the natural environment).
And, lets not forget, that most of us are very unlikely to experience a genuine survival situation, other than some sort of doomsday event (At least in the UK, because the island is so small, and thus it takes considerable effort to get away from other people, who would be our rescuers should something go badly wrong on a jaunt, and because of its temperate climate, and thus, there is no wilderness as such. Although there are wild places that could be life threatening if one were poorly prepared for that environment, or got irretrievably separated from ones kit).
For the UK environment and for what most of us perceive as bushcraft a Mora would do you very well (As you and Jimbo have mentioned). I have several Frosts and Mora of Sweden knives (Formerly J K Eriksson) and I like them very much indeed, particularly the ones with a blade thickness of just under 3mm. Strong, sharp little blades.
I buy more blades than I could ever need because I like to learn. And one of the best ways of learning about the capabilities of a knife is to hold it in your hand. No photograph on a Web page, or personal recommendation, is a good substitute for holding a knife in the hand, and learning how to sharpening it on a simple hand held stone of some sort.
If Ash, you, or anyone else wants to modify the grind, I say, fine.
However, I voted to keep it convex, because this is what the highly experienced designer/knife user chose as what they considered as the best for its intended use, which is, as Ive already mentioned, for use after a member of an aircrafts crew egresses the aircraft during a life threatening, unexpected event. If a bushcrafter would like to use the same knife during a jaunt, all well and good. If you try it, and dont like it, OK, just leave it at home in the drawer.
The only thing I do to alter the grind on a new Fällkniven is to remove the almost invisible flat bevel at the cutting edge, and then hone it. This takes less than five minutes, removes a tiny amount of metal, and it shaves hair off my forearm, no problem at all. If I can sharpen a blade to shaving sharp this tells me its good steel, and the knife will do all of the tasks I will require of it.
Best regards,
Paul.
