I bought this knife along with the no.14 sfk to use as a companion. It feels and looks like a really scaled down version of the lars falt knife. It’s light enough that it can be carried and you don’t notice it on you. I’ve taken this on hiking trips in the mountains along with a folding saw as the only other cutting tool and successfully split kindling and made fire with it.
It’s more fun to carve with than most other knives because of its small size and the handle is comfortable in any grip. The handle is interesting because it’s narrow and you would think it should be too small, but whatever way they’ve designed it, it sits very nicely in my fingers (rather than in my palm) and I get no hot spots even after hours of using it. It’s also easy to choke up on for fine carving tasks. It’s probably not ideal to really thrash on it with a baton because the front pin in the handle sits right at the narrowest point where the finger cut in is, so maybe could be a weak point, but I do use it to baton knot free pieces of kindling and it has worked well.
I usually reprofile my knives when I get them and prefer the edge to be very acute. I don’t know what the angle was straight from the factory because I’d lost my gauge at the time, but I made it into a very acute Scandi grind, optimised for carving. Once I got a new gauge I measured it at 21 degrees or 10.5 degrees per side with a tiny microconvex. I’ve had no edge problems even at such a fine angle but this is what I’ve come to expect from Casstrom steel. I’ve taken all my other Casstrom knives to 25 degrees and never had an edge problem with any of them. Safe to say that the heat treatment is very good.
If you like a smaller knife that still functions for the normal bushcraft tasks and particularly carving, then this is a solid choice.
I wanted a back up knife, which was affordable but not cheap & nasty.
This fits the bill perfectly. I've already carved a few spoons, got back in the swing of making feather sticks etc
It's a beautiful knife. I love the traditional sheath & the curly birch handle is a lovely grip.
The only thing I'd suggest improving, if possible, is replacing the fero rod with a slight longer one (yes, I have a little scar on my right index finger!)
All in all, a beautiful, practical knife & very well priced
