Cold Steel Finn Wolf: your thoughts?

[awa54]

David, you're probably right. The good news is that if I know the knife's limits I'll still be able to use it. And at least it didn't cost me $100.

In your opinion, what would be the best steel for hard wood carving? Something like O-1 or 52100 or maybe CPM M4 or REX 45?

I won't pretend to know which are best, but I do know that various .8 to 1.5% *simple* carbon steel alloys are the most common in traditional woodworking tools.

Before the advent of high carbide tool steels being used in blades, the way to get better edge retention was higher hardness, so steels that gave up too much toughness when hardened above 59HRC didn't get used in higher quality carving tools.

Like I mentioned, my Eriksson/Frost/Mora carvers in HC laminate (61HRC) chip easily in anything from maple on up in hardness, the homogeneous versions at 59-60HRC seem to do better in the harder woods. The 12c27 Moras I have used don't roll or chip (usually 57-59HRC), but definitely lose their edge much faster than the HC blades and are slightly more effort to re-sharpen.

Most hand made Japanese woodworking tools are Hitachi White or Blue steel at 63-65HRC (not Blue Super like Spyderco used, it's a higher alloy content than the others), the white can achieve higher working hardness, the blue has better wear resistance (a bit of chromium and tungsten in the mix), so White is recommended for soft to moderately hard woods and Blue for very abrasive or hard wood. With all the hand made Japanese tools, it's expected that they'll chip if the blade isn't sharpened to remove a significant amount of the original edge. I have a few chisels and a set of single bevel carving knives (left and right cut), all in blue steel, the only chip I've ever gotten was when I was working inside a built-in cabinet and drove the chisel through a sheetrock screw (I thought it was just a knot)... it made a clean cut and the edge took surprisingly little damage, I've wrecked bi-metal saw blades on those before!

The bottom line with all of these traditional tools, is that the price you pay for using such finely tuned designs in traditional materials is that you have to use care and pick the right tool for the job, none of them are catch-all EDC type blades.

[ThePeacent]

found them!
Better late than never, I guess :o

[sonofwang]

Is it wrong of me to sit here laughing? You lowered the edge angle on a relatively soft steel and were surprised when the edge rolled on hard wood. I'd have been surprised if it hadn't rolled. The reason for that higher angle toward the tip is because that is the part that gets the most use in carving and it is also the part most prone to lateral loading.

The rolling happened along the whole edge, not just on the tip. I kept the factory angle, just extended it along the curve.

I guess my surprise mostly came from what I understood was the intent of the knife's design - kind of a folding Bushcraft knife. As such I assumed it would be strong enough to withstand wood carving tasks.

Live and learn I guess. :rolleyes:

I think the hitch is that in reality the knife is designed to *exploit a market niche, for the purpose of selling more units at an attractive price point*... the biggest problem with that strategy is that *looking like a duck* isn't enough, it has to quack like one too

I hate to say it, but I bet the Spyderco/Ray Mears iteration of this type falls victim to the same problem (though chips in S30V are probably more likely than rolling).
As far as why disappointing hybrids like this keep being made by respectable knife companies, two factors likely play in to the flawed design specs heavily... 1) having to go with a steel that has customer recognition *and* is stainless, 2) using materials that your factory has experience with.

I'll say it again; if you want a good Scandi pattern knife look to Finland, Norway or Sweden and expect to pay a lot more than $40 for one that folds!

The Enzo Birk 75 is an excellent scandi folder. I had one in d2 and i sorely regret selling it.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

C`mon folks. The Cold Steel Finn Wolf is a super folder. Don't you agree?

Look at these tests:

https://www.coldsteel.com/products/fold ... -1605.html

[The Meat man]

C`mon folks. The Cold Steel Finn Wolf is a super folder. Don't you agree?

Look at these tests:

https://www.coldsteel.com/products/fold ... -1605.html

I recently broke mine, actually. I was disappointed in the steel's performance as a Scandinavian grind, and hardy ever used it. Then a couple days ago I decided to put it through some savage testing. I hammered it through small branches, chopped wood, whittled, carved. I did tons of batoning with it, and that's what did it in. The handle cracked around the stop pin:

It held up pretty well considering the abuse I was putting it through. At no point up till the failure, did the blade develop any horizontal or vertical wiggle.
Incidentally, I sent Cold Steel that photo and explained how it happened, just in case they'd fix it under warranty, but nope. :)

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Wow thanks. That is good to know!

[SpyderEdgeForever]

They have a new one called the Bush Ranger and a cheaper one called the Bush Ranger Lite. The Bush Ranger Lite uses 8Cr13MoV steel and some form of fiberglass nylon handle. The blade is 3.8 mm thick and bowie-shaped. Since the above happened to the Finn Wolf, which uses AUS 8 stainless, how do you think the Bush Ranger Lite would hold up?

[The Meat man]

They have a new one called the Bush Ranger and a cheaper one called the Bush Ranger Lite. The Bush Ranger Lite uses 8Cr13MoV steel and some form of fiberglass nylon handle. The blade is 3.8 mm thick and bowie-shaped. Since the above happened to the Finn Wolf, which uses AUS 8 stainless, how do you think the Bush Ranger Lite would hold up?

As far as steel and edge strength goes, the Bush Ranger Lite should work fine. The issue with the AUS-8 was that it's too soft for hard use in a scandi grind. The Bush Ranger looks like it's a hollow grind with a secondary bevel so that won't be an issue, I think.

I'm not sure how well it would compare if abused like my Finn Wolf. It looks like it has a special locking system I'm not familiar with. If I had to guess I'd say it would be at least as resilient as the Finn Wolf, maybe more.

BTW all that batoning I did was with the lock engaged. I totally forgot you're supposed to disengage the lock when batoning. :rolleyes:

[ThePeacent]

I have that one, recent addition so not much testing yet,
the lock is a secondary locking mechanism, in case the lockback would fail :confused: , you engage it moving the tab forward,



the folder is inexpensive but seems well built, tough, and I am familiar with the steel so I know what to expect. I like it but mine didn't come as sharp as I'd expect from Cold Steel, and I don't like the lock tab, unfortunately that seems common with their cheaper Chinese folders these days. :mad:

I added the BM deep carry pocket clip and Snaggletooth for Wave Opening. Here with other "extra" clips I put on sharps :D