My interest in knives are primarily the technical aspect with focus on functionality and mechanical properties as toughness and wear resistance. To achieve excellence in my knives I use the optimum materials for knives available today, and I have access to heat treatment practices unavailable for most knifemakers.



My background as a metallurgist gives me an understanding of materials beyond that of most. This is a great resource in most parts of knife making, especially in material selection and heat treatment. There is a vast number of steels on the marked, and those considered the best are in most cases not. To evaluate and choose materials you have to understand how the steel is affected by the composition and heat treatment.

Tomahawk, kukri and knives

All are in A8-mod. The compact and SERE can be seen on bottom right side.

Hassel knife

The Hassel knife is a hidden tang knife that was a collaboration with an "apprentice" I had some years ago. He made a knife inspired by my Survival, Helle Polar and Sissipuukko M07. The idea was to have a handle with less heat conduction in arctic climate. To keep the strength as close to that of a full tang, the tang on this is 14 mm wide and 5 mm thick over its whole length that goes through most of the handle. The blade is made of A8-mod hardened to 60 HRC, and is 11 cm long, 5 mm thick.

SERE

The SERE has a blade length of 11.5 cm and a total length of 23.5 cm. The blade is made of A8-mod hardened to 60 HRC and is approximately 5 mm thick. It is a slightly wider version of the Survival with a larger guard for better protection against slippage. The handle material is either black G-10, green canvas micarta or turbax. It can be supplied with a kydex sheath or a custom modular leather sheath from Wolf Wind Leatherworks.


Survivalknife


The purpose of this knife was to design a cutting tool for all-around use. It had to be small enough to be carried on the body with out ant hassle. It should also be powerful enough to do serious hard work, in the addition to the necessary ergonomics.
- The handle has a barrel shape, the ideal form for knives.
- The finger guard prevents the hand from slipping on to the blade, but without being too much in the way during use.
- The full tang construction protrude the handle scales to for pounding with the end of the handle. This enables the knife to be hammered into trees for chopping.
- The guard and choil is narrow to let the hand be close to the edge. This is necessary to do power cuts with a good grip.
- A large part of the edge is straight for wood working.
- A small radii at the belly for higher pressure during work.
With A8-mod heat treated to 60 HRC in a thickness of 5 mm it will withstand much more force than one man can inflict without serious tools to help him. This is also one of few steel used for knives that can withstand heavy blows with hard objects without breakage.
The knife can be supplied with both wood and composite handle, satin and beadblasted blade finish, and kydex, leather and nylon sheath.

Compact

This is a shorter version of the survival knife, but with a slightly larger guard. With a total length of 19 cm it is somewhat small compared to a full size knife. With a handle thickness of 11 mm it is also quite thin. It is intended as an alternative to a large folding knife in cases where you don’t want to compromise on the strength. On the standard model the steel is A8-mod. Thickness is approximately 5 mm, and handle is black textured G-10, giving a very secure grip. Pictured here with kydex sheath with nylon webbing.

Bushcraft

This knife is based on the knife-type made popular by Ray Mears, although a little slimmer. It has a hollow ground primary edge ground sharp, often referred to as “scandi grind”. With later honing the edge will in principle be flat ground with a hollow in the centre of the phase. This makes honing easier with very little effect on the usage. This kind of grinding is preferred on traditional Norwegian knives which were primary intended for wood work, thereby the name “scandi grind”.
The steel is A8-mod, which is a steel with superb properties for wood work and is relatively easy to hone. The length of the knife is in total 21 cm. The handle on the knife pictured is green canvas micarta, and tubing are titanium.

Scout

This knife has the same handle as the Bushcraft knife, but blade shape more similar to the Survival. It is a slender knife with total lengths approximately 20 cm.

Friction fire

There are several knives on the marked supplied with a recess for friction fire. Unfortunately the friction between the wood and the micarta or G-10 handle will lead to great wear of the handle. This friction fire recess made of stainless steel will reduce friction, and wear of the handle. The shape of it corresponds to a ball of 6 mm in radius.
This can be supplied an most knives on request. For smaller knives the diameter will be 10 mm and for larger knives it will be 13 mm. For the larger size the shape will correspond to a ball of 8 mm radius.

Video review

Thanks to Bushcraft Canada for sharing this video review, and to their customers' good feedback.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ6m7e3yFQU&feature=g-u-u

A8-mod

A8-mod is a modified version of AISI A8. It’s a conventional cold work tool steel, with a medium carbon content and alloyed with chromium, molybdenum and vanadium. It exceeds most knife steels in toughness. Toughness is a property often overlooked in knife steels, often on behalf of corrosion and wear resistance. The thing is that a sharp edge with a decent edge angle (<35° total angle) needs toughness to avoid breakage of the edge/chipping, especially when working with hard materials like wood. Because of this, edge retention of this steel will be better than higher alloyed steels and even powder steels for many purposes.
Many combat and survival knives are made today in brittle steels like S30V, D2, ATS-34 and 440C. These have very little safety margin and will break without warning when overloaded. A8-mod has, even on a hardness of over 60 HRC, ductility and will bend before fracture. (This doesn’t mean that it is soft.)
All knives can be broken, knives in A8-mod will just give you a much harder time doing so.
A little more on this.
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