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Pros: Blade Material, Blade Sharpness, Finish, Handle Material, Materials, Overall Quality, Weight
Cons: Sheath/Scabbard
Another great Casstrom model.
I really like the Casstrom knives in general. I have six. Look great, made very well, and they have good steel choices. Scandinavian and Norwegian iron ore is very clean which makes for great blade steel. Their Curly Birch is beautiful on the higher price models but some of the lesser expensive models can be pretty plain. Go to their website to check the quality of a models Curly Birch figure. In my experience with Casstrom, their pics are honest. If it's note nice looking in the pic, it will not be any better when you get it home.
The only negative things I can mention is that, with all models, their handle girth sizes are on the small side of perfect for me and I only have Medium / Large size hands. Also, handle grip lengths are adequate but they could be just bit longer and fatter. Someone with fat fingers may be crowded. IMHO Casstrom must think all their users have thin fingers or will NOT be wearing gloves when in the field.
The above comments do not apply to the Lars Falt. The Lars Falt handle grip area is slightly longer and has slightly larger girth than the 10SFK and 14SFK. Not a lot more but just enough more to make it fit better for me. It also has a more Straight Back tang where the #10 and #14 knives are much more ergonomically curvy shaped. I really like their shape feel but they are still just a little under sized in girth and length. I'm referring to the gripping area of the handles, not the overall outside length of the handle.
The #8SKF is a pretty small knife. Shape is very similar to the #10 and #14 but the #8 doesn't have as much tang drop as the #10 and #14 do.
Grip girth on the #8 is quite small as I expected for this short knife, so a four finger grip has my fingertips touching my palm.
Of course the Safari is very small. It will be great for precise capping tasks.
The Ocean Blue #10SFK knife looks nice but it doesn't have the beautiful figure lines in the wood like the oiled, light curly birch models do, and it’s just as expensive as them. It's more of a Straight figure line pattern wood than curly. This model has Stabilized C.B. wood (like the Safari) so it's very glossy and pretty slick in the hand. The Casstrom website stated this when I checked it online so no surprise there. I really wanted one of their Flat Grind knives because all my others are Scandi grinds. All the above #10SFK handle size comments apply to the this one as well. The main reason I bought this, aside for the color difference, was the Full Flat grind blade. Very even grinds and a beautiful satin finish on the 14C28N. There is a short, acute secondary edge grind that establishes the edge. It's hair popping shape as was all the Scandies. Semi-crisp spine edges, Not too crisp but they will easily throw sparks. Blade point tip is on handle and blade centerline.
Just a note on Casstrom sheaths. In general, well made, very nice, thick leather sheaths but I still wish they had an inner polymer liner in them to protect the leather and stitches like other Scandinavian makers do. Their Kydex sheaths are well made, look and fit great but as their website states and as you might expect, if you buy a Kydex as a separate item it may not fit your pre-exsisting knife perfectly. But...... I bought my Ocean Blue #10SFK, WITH a Kydex sheath and it doesn’t fit as nice as my other Casstrom Kydex sheaths. They missed on this one. I have corrected the fit using a heat gun as much as I dare but it still isn’t perfect. Can you tell I’m a little particular about my knives?