Shings Field knife review

[Andy]

Right, I got this in the post today. Later then expected so I doubt I’ll be able to do that much with it before I have to send it on (grrrr). The guy that sent it too me sure did wrap it up well. It took me about 10minutes with a sak to get into this knife. So was it worth it. Of course it was. It’s a chance to try out a fully hand made knife and not be too worried if I put a scratch on the blade. All my other knives are production knives so have a different feel about them. Though this review I have compared the knife to the well known Fallkniven F -a very respectable bushcraft knife which has a RRP of £65 and a Mora knife. The Mora is the starting price for a bushcraft knife and what is recommended by most bushcrafty people to start with. (and in some cases stay with)

Just so that you know what it looks like here’s a side on view with the F1 and Mora for comparison

So on to first impressions. This one has a lot more soul then the production knives I use , helped by the wooden handle rather then the plastic of the F1 or the Mora knives. The quality of craftsmanship is of course what you’d expect from Shing, the scales fit very well to the tang of the knife and is very smooth, the pins which hold the scales on are perfectly flush and the wood is quite dark which I tend to like and the whole thing seems to have the right proportions. The blade shape from the start of the cutting edge is just what I like. The grind is a full flat with a relatively large secondary bevel. The blade itself is very thick even for a bush craft knife. I think it’s about 4.5mm or just a touch more. When I saw pictures of the knife I was concerned about using this knife with a baton, there really is no need to fear. There is a rather large ricasso on this knife. These always seem to be a sticking point with knives for bushcraft as it means you can’t get as much control when carving with the knife. (More on that point later) Like a number of knives there is a small semi circular cut out between the cutting edge and the choil of the blade, nobody seems to agree on what to call it (it‘s been referred to Spanish notch, sharpening notch, air choil, mini choil and no doubt a few I‘ve yet to hear). What ever it’s called this seems to be a thing some people like and some don’t, personally I like them. I find the make it easier to sharpen the cutting edge all the way along and means you don’t end up with a blunt section of blade that gets longer as the knife gets older (I’ve had a fair amount of work sorting out some kitchen knives with this problem) though of course if you pay attention and sharpen on stones it shouldn‘t be a problem. They do tend to catch on things at times. The handle has a single finger groove for the index finger, which is another thing that gets talked about in bushcraft knives. (I’ll come back to that later as well)
With a hand made knife also comes a sheath.

In this case it’s a simple looking affair with no bit for a fire steel. Some love the idea of keeping your fire steel with the knife but I don’t. Many who say they like a fire steel holder agree that is isn’t really the best way to carry one. I’m not that keen on the sheath. It seems a bit wide and I don’t like the colour of the stitching, others might like the contrast It reminds me of sheaths made for Bark River Knife Tool (BRKT) knives. The stitching could be neater but for me it does the job and I think maybe a bit too much glue was used when holding down the belt loop.
The sheath does do the job it’s meant to well though. There is a nice click as the knife goes into the sheath and it wont fall out if turned upside down. I waved it about a bit (carefully) and though the knife cam part way out it didn’t come out completely.

Time for a few more photos of the knife


Just to show how thick this beast is

With the sheaths

The handle is not square but nor is it too rounded so I did get a firm comfortable grip. Matt also found the grip to be good. He commented, as others have that the F1 handle is a bit too thin for long hard use. This knife isn’t much thicker but the little extra makes a big difference. I found the finger groove to be fine in most ways I could think of holding the knife. This was in part due to the handle been quite long. Too long for me. It was also too long for my Dad who does have chunky fingers. With his hands been a bit bigger he found the finger groove to be very uncomfortable. Handles are in my opinion the most difficult bit of a bushcraft knife to get right. The knife has a guard and although it’s small and during the small amount of use the knife got today didn’t really cause a problem there was no point when I felt it was better being there. The whole section of the knife between the end of the scales and the start of the cutting edge seems to be there for no practical reason that I can think of. It just adds weight to an heavy knife.

When I first got the knife it wasn’t really sharp. It’s wasn’t really bad along the straight bit of the edge but the curve running up to the point was very dull. This is due to use from the guys that had it before me. As We didn’t have too much time on the first day we used it as it was. I decided one aspect of a flat grind knife might be that it copes better when things have got a bit less sharp. It would still cut free hanging paper but not shave. I hope this gives some indication of the sharpness. Again I’ve used the F1 and the Mora for the same tasks for comparison

Batoning through wood.
This knife been thick didn’t have any problem with this. It was fine to hold (for me) whilst I hit it through one lump of wood using another bit. Very useful when all the wood you can get to is wet. The shape of the handle was alright but the shaping for the index finger might cause problems for some people if they grip the knife hard. I try not to do that and just let the knife follow the grain of the wood. The F1 did this just as well and the Mora stood up to it. The Mora been much thinner always gives less confidence. I haven’t split any large logs yet so I’ll try and do that in an update. I have no doubt that the knife would stand up as well as any other bushcraft knife to this sort of use.

Making feather sticks
I was surprised at how well this knife was at this. Flat grinds aren’t normally all that good as this but maybe the secondary edge been quite large gave it a bit more of a guide then most others. It did give very fine shaving though it was harder going. The Mora knife had a tendency to dig too far into the wood and thus give very thick shavings which wont catch fire quite so well. I think it’s due to the edge been a hollow sabre grind. The F1 has rather a thick edge but was easy to use and more controllable then this knife. It did have a tendency to go deeper but with care it was possible to get nice thin curls. I’ll repeat this test after I’ve played about with the final edge a bit and see what happens.

This is my go with the knife. Sorry about the blurred photo. It was cold outside and my hands were shaking
The top two bundles are with the Mora, third one down is the F1, next is Shings knife and just for another flat grind knife I tried with my spyderco calypso jr

Hammering a small stake into the ground
I haven’t used this myself when out doing bushcraft but some people use a handle of a knife to bang a stick into the ground with. The ground was soft and it was only a small stake. I thought it was about the right size for a guy line or similar. Well it did this without any problems My hand didn’t feel like they would slip off at any point and the weight of the knife did come in handy here. The Mora was pants at it while the F1 did shine at this bit it does have a lump of tang sticking out of the handle just for doing this sort of thing. I’d always use another stick if that was possible

OK so the stake was rather long but it’s wasn’t very thick

Striking a fire stick with the back of the knife
I coundn't get on with the knife for this task. The way it’s hardened meant I had to use the tip to get sparks. This reduced control and if I was doing it when I really had too I wouldn’t want to have to use this knife for it. When using the method of holding the knife still and pulling the fire steel the knife moved much more then it normally would due to the extra leverage. I don’t use my F1 for this either (seems to damage the soft outer metal) so stick to the bit of metal that came with the fire stick. Thus it wouldn’t normaly be a problem for me. However when your hands are really cold it’s much easier to hold a knife then the small bit of steel that comes with the rod. The Mora, once the spine has been filed is very good for using with a fire stick

Food preperation
This section is under construction


I did have a conclusion but decided that I’d leave it off for a while until I have got to play with the knife some more. It seemed a bad idea to post a conclusion only to have to change it and run the risk of giving people the wrong impression of the knife.

So any bits you think I’m missing let me know and I’ll try and sort it out.

Yours
Andy

 

[Raz]

Dont like the idea of having the cutting edge so far away from the handle...
How'd you find that?

 

[Andy]

been playing some more today. It is a bit odd, I think it would cause problems for fine carving but I haven't had time (nor skill) to do much of that sort of thing. I haven't really managed to put the sort of edge I expect on which doesn't help matters

 

[Neil1]

Andy,
I have been using F1s for five years now and can safely say you should have no problems striking a spark from a firesteel with the F1 (yours appears to be a straight VG10 model - not a laminate). I have one of the newer laminated versions and no problems with that either. In fact I would stick my neck out and say there are few other knives that can cast a similar shower of sparks.
Neil :biggthump

 

[Andy]

mines laminate f1 and very new. the fero rod didn't seem to like the 420 on the side. It also markes the 425m that victorinox make their knives from

 

[mmcniven]

In fact I would stick my neck out and say there are few other knives that can cast a similar shower of sparks.

Would have to agree with that very good for producing sparks from a fire steel, and i have never had any problems with it marking the blade....

Nice review.

 

[Andy]

right here's the next bit of the review


Hunting/meat work

As a lot of you know I don’t eat meat, neither do I deal with it. I wondered what this knife would be like for hunting use and the sort of jobs that need doing for this. So for this bit I handed the knife over to my Dad. He spent about seven years working in a butcher's doing everything that you would want a hunting knife to do. He’s also been into outdoors type life. This section has extracts from what he said. I wondered if the flat grind would be good for this sort of job but it seemed to him that the knife had major flaws for this sort of work
The finger groove for the index finger caused him problems, not because it was the wrong shape if he was holding it as it was designed to be held but because the balance was far to handle heavy. There was just about enough handle for the knife to be held behind the indent for the index finger. By holding the knife here the balance was brought back around the index finger rather than the middle finger. The handle is a touch shorter then ideal for this but it’s ok due to the nicely rounded end. The problem with holding it in such a way is that you know have a lot of gap between where your hand is and the start of the cutting edge. This is far from ideal. It would have the positive of this is being able to get deeper into an animal when your dealing with larger game. The knife is very heavy for this sort of work and this makes it very cumbersome for the more delicate tasks involved in butchering animals. For comparison the F1 had a similar issue of being very heavy for the work though it had the balance further forward so wasn’t so much of a problem. The Mora was a surprise as it felt nicely balanced for such tasks and was good in tight grips used for this sort of task. The thin blade wouldn’t be a problem as it’s relatively short compared to dedicated butcher's knives. The main problem was that the guard got in the way and like all single bevel knives there is concern about hitting bones. This is becasue single beveled knives have a more acute angle which isn't a strong as other blade formats. This would be less of a problem with the other two. The knife of choice for most butchers in England is a Victorinox boning knife. This would of course be lacking in other areas.


Food preperation
Like all Bushcraft knives this has a blade which is much thicker then you want for kitchen work. It behaves very similar to the F1 for this sort of task, both have a similar thickness blade so I expected that. The large choil didn’t cause any problems for kitchen work as I tend to use the blade up to about an inch away from the handle anyway when cutting up food on a chopping board. The balance of the knife did feel very odd though. I kept finding myself holding the knife with my index finger on the lump from the finger groove. I wondered if the guard would get in the way but t never seemed to. Since this doesn’t have a blade much deeper then the handle you need to rock it so that you don’t hit your knuckles on the chopping board anyway and this meant the guard didn’t hit the board either.
The spear point shape of the blade made the rocking action really easy. It also meant the point was in a nice place for when you need to pierce the sin of something if the blade won’t just slice through. I don’t let my knives get dull enough to need it on most things but it’s a handy attribute to have. The F1 is a bit harder to do this with despite having the point closer to the handle. The Mora once again was very good as it’s so much thinner but the guard was much bigger and made the rocking action a bit uncomfortable after a time.

thoughts after more use
I think the knife is very well made with a good blade shape. The choil was an issue and it seems pointless not to have a shape edge if there is metal there. The handle is for me just the right thickness and depth and the finger groove would be alright if I held the knife as it was designed to be held. The trouble was that the balance been so far back (the balance felt like a Fairbiarn Sykes knife) meant that I always found myself holding it with my index finger on the ridge of the groove it was meant to sit in. I didn’t find this a problem for the relatively short time I used the knife for but it would be an issue if I was using it a lot more.
The popular F1 is mostly flat with a pronounced change to the convex edge and I think this knife would work very well a convex edge. I also think the handle could be about 10mm shorter and use a hidden tang format. This would loose some weight from the handle and bring the balance back to the index finger. It would then be a great knife.


Yours
Andy

 

[Andy]

you can see Pagonwolfs review of the knife here

 

[dtalbot]

It's in my hands now and here are my thoughts pasted in from 3 messages on bb:

First impressions are that it is a beautifully made knife thats seen a lot of work in it's short and very hard life life (somthing that ain't about to change). Needs a bit of tlc on the sharpmaker to bring it back to tip top sharp but shouldn't be hard to do. The handle looks and feels wonderful and it is to me about perfect in weight, heavy enough to know its there light enough for long use. The sheath is a nicely made as the knife but a bit on the big side for my taste, even knives of this size often end up in my pockets this one wouldn't fit.
All in all it looks a very nice bit of kit that has stood up well to some serious hammer already and seems well suited to it's intended purpose. Tomorrows job is turning bunny into rabbit pie and next weekend it can come to play on the hedge laying course I'm doing.
More to follow though I think Andy pretty much said it all.


A few more thoughts after a bit of a play yesterday. Overall it is about 2/3" longer than my current main user for outdoor stuff, the Guycep I got from the Kith last spring. But the Guycep has the fractionally longer cutting edge, the difference made up from a about equally from a bit shorter handle and only about 5mm of ricasso on the Guycep as against about 15mm on the Shing. At the moment I haven't decided which ricasso I prefer but most bushcrafty knives tend to go small or do without, though I sometimes use a grip with one finger on the ricasso in front of the guard, easy with the Shing, not on with the Guycep, but then I just don't use that grip on that knife and it hasn't stopped me doing anything with it.
Overall the handle on the Guycep is a rather thinner, in fact I'd say the Guycep is the mid range of right for me and the Shing the upper, but Sarah (SWMBO) says the handle on the Shing is too wide and thick for comfort and she dosn't have especially small hands. I think for all but the biggest handed people a production model could have a slightly lighter duty handle all round. I quite like a finger groove or two on a handle but like Andy find myshelf holding this one with my first finger to the ridge rather than in the groove, I think it just needs the ridge shifting back a bit, on the Guycep the distance between guard and ridge is about 5mm more and that seems to make all the difference
I have had a quick go at making feather stick and the Shing performed perfectly, a mass of easy to light curls took next to no time to produce, and that is before I've got round to sharpening it to my liking. Mr rabbit is still defrosting so we will see how it does at that later.
The Shing has a very stout blade which would stand up to prying use if needed, it got a couple of staples out of a bit of timber no problem, certainly not somthing I'd try with many of the blades I own, the Guycep included. It isn't what a knife is intended for but every once in while it is somthing that needs doing, and the Shing is an ideal tool to meet that need.
Onto the sheath, as I said a bit on the big side for my taste but very well made, I like the contrasting stitching, though I'm not sure how long it would stay contrasting when used in anger. The belt loop is stich and glued but the glue has, for the most part, failed. No real problem as the stitching is good and strong but belt and braces is better than belt alone! The knife clicks firmly into place thanks to some clever shaping of the leatherwork which grips round the guard. I assume this may wear with time but at the moment it holds the blade nice and firm, holds an inversion no problem and takes quite some force (far more than everyday use should generate) to shake it loose.
The blade kicks some nice sparks of my fire steel all along its length but as Shing said it is better (real fireworks) near the tip.
Initial conclusion a nice knife, well up to it's intended use, that I'll be sorry to hand back. Out and about I'd be quite happy if this was my one and only knife. It wouldn't be hurt by slimming the handle down a bit in width, depth and length and if that brought the balance point a bit further forwards and the ridge of the finger groove moved back a bit forward it would be nigh on my perfect outdoors knife.
More to follow.

Part 3 of my findings now, far to disorganised to come up with one coherent piece like Andy did!
First thing tried today was splitting some firewood and that big heavy blade did the battoning through some rough inch thick timber almost as easily as my trusty staffy billhook does, certainly no worries on that front!
Then a quick trip to the sharpmaker which very easily brought the edge beck to tiptop condition.
Then time for some food prep. I thought the blade looked a bit thick to be good in the kitchen but it proved idea for turning rabbit carcass into diced rabbit to go in the pie. I found the finger grove to be still a bit short but I seem ot use a bit of an odd grip on kitchen knives with my index finger only holding very lightly so it was less of a problem than on some other tasks. The blade was a bit heavy for chopping veg but it did the job and on balance in a bushcraft knife I'd rarther compromise a bit on finesse than on durability.
No change in overall conclusions in part 2!