Review: Fiskars K40 Vs Gerber Crucial knife

 

I’m Pitting two very different knives against each other. One is a fixed blade with sheath. The other a folding knife/plier combo.

 

 

First, the Gerber Crucial. This is a folding knife and contains a blade with a blunted tip with scalloped serrations. There are two screwdriver heads, a mini crab style clip and a pair of pliers with several gripping surfaces including wire cutters.

The clip opening is reversed, which cleverly allows you to open your bottles with it.

I’ve had this knife for a good 6 months or so and it’s been walking, camping, used in the car and house. The knife has retained it’s edge and the tools have all worked well. They lock positively in place with a liner style lock, easily used one handed for the blade. The posi drive screwdriver is a little odd as it is narrowed, but works well, even on larger screws. The flat blade is large and feels indestructible but was difficult to open on my sample.

The pliers grip particularly well and the wire cutters have worked well, but did struggle slightly with multi-strand wires.

It feels substantial, heavy even. But put it on the scales and it tips in around 140g which is similar to other brand’s take on this style of knife.

 

 

The Fiskars K40 is a completely different beast. It’s a fixed blade, with No serrations, tools or gadgets. But this means that it can concentrate on being just one thing. Being sharp.

I have to say I was weary of this knife at first as the handle is the hollow type that Fiskars tend to favour. I’ve tried to wreck it (through use – I haven’t run over it or blown it up) and it faired well. It retained its edge well and the 10cm blade is still seated solidly

What is the K40’s coupe de grace to make you consider it for your pack?.. It weighs a surprisingly svelte 70g.

I already own a knife similar to this, a high carbon steel knife which is also excellent but requires more care, due to the type of steel it’s made from. The Fiskars knife uses Stainless steel, so it’s easier to look after, making this a better choice for beginners, infrequent users or anyone camping on the coast.

 

 

Which knife would I use?

For wild camping the K40 has the ‘edge’ (ho ho!) due to it’s light weight and a fixed blade can be used more confidently. Maybe you suddenly feel the need to carve a spoon, or make a pan stand. This knife can do this for you. The extra weight of the Crucial does give the advantage of pliers to grip a pan, but a decent pair of plastic pan grips weigh less, and grip more firmly. For wild camping, the driver heads and bottle opener/clip are essentially dead weight in your pack

If I was car camping, I’d simply take both.

If I owned a caravan or were simply walking I would take the crucial. The built in tools would come into their own and this would be a handy piece of kit that looks and is much less threatening than the K40.

Review: Gerber Bear Grylls Survival Series Ultimate Knife

Phew! What a title.. Bringing us to a a new piece of kit  I've been given to review, A knife made by Gerber.. The knife Mr Grylls thinks we need.

I’m very wary of kit that has a star’s name stamped on it. More often than not, It’s an excuse to ramp up the price and drop the quality. But bear with me on this piece of kit – it caught me by surprise.

 

First let’s get, what is for me, the biggest shortcoming out of the way.. Yes. It is serrated… I’m not normally keen on serrations, because they either can’t be sharpened, or are really difficult to sharpen. There is a good reason for them on this blade though. It makes the knife easier to use on a wider range of materials (If you’ve ever tried to slice bread with a fine edged kitchen knife, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

The knife is made from ‘High Carbon’ Stainless Steel, is 12.19 cm long (that’s 4.8 inches for those of us who use such things) and weighs 318g (417g with the sheath).

It feels right, in the hand. Balanced, with a full tang. In photos it does look a bit full on – a bit of a GI Joe, Rambo knife. In your hand it becomes the right size. Larger than a Mora perhaps, but still well proportioned. The grip is rubberised and very positive. This isn’t a knife that will slip out of your hand under hard use. It’s also drilled so you can more securely lash it to a stick and make a spear.

 

The Fire steel included in the sheath body works well and  is capable of starting fire in tinder (tested). In fact, It felt slightly more effective than my ‘light my fire’ fire steel, although that could be down to inconsistencies in the tinder I used. It also has a little rubber seal to keep out any sideways rain.

The sheath is well made, and has several features of it’s own. It can be threaded onto a belt or on a strap that runs vertically. The knife itself is held in place with a Velcro strap and a clip on the knife guard, which strengthens what I’m calling the ‘tactical’ feel of the knife. Yet again though, this is a useful feature, reducing the chance of losing the knife and making a more positive ‘home’ feeling when drawn or sheathed. When another Velcro strap further down is undone the blade guard flips over, revealing a sharpening stone on the back.

This brings me to a minor, but annoying niggle. The blade wasn’t that sharp when I got it, meaning I had to pull out the water stones to sort it out.. Happily for the purpose of the review this meant I could attack it with the stone on the sheath first to see if it is up to the job.

This is not a fine grit stone for getting a fine finish to the blade. It will however repair a damaged, blunted or nicked blade to a useable level out in the wild. It’s a steel plate with diamond finish, rather than a stone, meaning it’ll be pretty much impossible to break.. (After I’d used the stone in the sheath, I used my own water stones and the blade did sharpen enough to shave hairs off my arm, so another tick in another box).

 

I’m not keen on the whistle on the short lanyard on the handle. I know this is most likely to be the only piece of kit I may have to use here in the UK if things did go wrong, but it feels like an afterthought and always seemed to be in my way. The cord is also not long enough so that it could be slipped around the wrist to prevent the knife being dropped, which is one of the main reasons for a rear lanyard. Although this could easily be cut off (and reattached elsewhere), I’m not that comfortable bringing an unsheathed knife to my face when I’m in trouble.. If I’m dazed, hypothermic and shivering or panicking, this could cause an accident.

 

Finally, that leaves the ‘hammer’ in the pommel or butt of the knife.. There are disturbing reports on the net that this can be smashed off.. Gerber states this problem was limited to early runs of the knife and has now rectified this, but it’s worth being aware to stay clear of older stock, or only use this part of the knife if needed – you wouldn’t use your normal knife as a hammer.. Right?

 

 

I started to realise that I’d been looking at this knife all wrong. The clue is in the title. Although it may make you laugh at first with it’s pomposity, It’s a knife designed to save your life, to be used in extreme situations, but for a price a normal person can afford. If I really was stranded a ’la Bear in the Patagonian mountains, this would excel. I can’t think of anything else that covers so many situations or eventualities, but still performs each function in a useable way.

I like this knife. It snuck up on me and surprised me at my most cynical. It ticks every box for a remote wild camp and even looks good to boot.

Is the £62 price tag justified though? Well.. Yes.

Considering you get the fire steel and sharpener, then it may not be a bargain – but it is value for money.

 

Review: Fiskars X5 Hand Axe.

A few weeks ago I mentioned I had been given a couple of pieces of kit by Fiskars when I reviewed the retractable saw.

I held this back as I wanted to test it before talking about it. The Retractable saw was easy to test, but I don’t have a tree in the garden to hack down and test the axe with. Thankfully this weekend, my parents needed some judicious ‘pruning’ round the back of their house, so it was the perfect time to test.

As the axe is very small, (about 9-10 inches long and weighing a little less than 500g). It’s advantages and disadvantages are clear cut.

It’s easy to pack and good for carving with. It’s around 10-15% lighter than comparable makes.

The handle feels nice and grippy, has no flex and and is solid when used. Most of the weight is in the head, with a strike feeling positive. Mine came with a formed plastic case that can be screwed to a wall or tool rack.

BUT! A small, light axe is not an axe for a novice.

A common error when buying a first axe, is to buy as small, light one.. You aren’t likely  to hurt yourself as badly, Right?

Wrong. Any accident with an axe will most likely involve a visit to the hospital. A small, light axe is more easily twisted or deflected, increasing the chance of an accident.

 

This is no fault of the axe though.

If you are confident with an axe, this is very nice. It cuts very cleanly and comes sharp, but not sharpened if you know what I mean.

It didn’t stick at all when I was using it, landed where I was aiming every time and didn’t jump or twist in use. It never felt like the head was trying to overtake the bit.

I didn’t fatigue as fast as I expected either, though this might be down to balance and weight as a result of the materials used for the handle.

So. If you are confident using an axe, this is a great buy. If you are looking for a first axe, maybe look at a larger one, perhaps one that would allow 2 handed use and learn how to use it safely.

 

 

NB… Always consider if an axe is the safest tool for the job.

Review: Fiskars Retractable Hand Saw.

I have been lucky enough to be given my first pieces of kit by Fiskars UK.

The first piece I’m going to look at is a retractable hand saw. Often cited as a vital piece of kit for bushcraft, it allows you to work with medium size pieces of wood for a minimum pack size and weight. The main thing I’ll use this for will be cutting small logs down to size for fires and for getting the raw length of branch when I make spoons.

If you’ve not heard of Fiskars before, Here’s an excerpt of what they have to say about themselves:

 “Established in 1649, Fiskars is the oldest company in Finland. We have worked with tools, cutting and steel forging ever since we first started operating 360 years ago. Our roots are in the Fiskars village, an idyllic center of art & design, where modern aesthetics meet old crafting traditions. Fiskars launched the world’s first plastic-handled scissors in 1967. Since then, these orange scissors have sold more than 1 billion pieces worldwide and their iconic status has resulted in the Fiskars orange being synonymous with scissors across the world. Fiskars is the world’s number one scissor brand.”

 

The saw itself is well made and feels solid. The blade has an orange knob that twists to unlock the blade, which is then pushed out and locked in place by retightening the knob in a small depression at the other end, holding it securely in place.

The blade is 6 inches long (there is also a 10”version and a more traditional folding type as well). When retracted the blade is completely within the housing. The main body is made of plastic (I’m not sure what type, the range is listed as: ‘fibrecomp’. It looks and feels like high impact ABS).

The saw is a steel blade, designed to cut on the pull. With large wide teeth for cutting green, resinous or dead wood, it is (and I mean this) wickedly sharp.

On my kitchen scales it weighs in around 90 grams, so it’s light and is about the same size as the long grip found on some walking poles.

Would I buy one of these?.. Yes. I’ve considered getting a retractable or folding saw for some time, and would have been handy on last years wild camps, so I’m glad I got it. It is a welcome addition to my kit list, small and light enough to go on the ‘might need’ part of my kit lists.