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Lightweight Cutting Tools
Submitted by An Outdoor Idiots Team Member.
Frosts Clipper Review
Note
Unfortunately the shops that sell these knives seem to be few and far between, at least in the UK. The knife reviewed was purchased online and cost about £10. It comes in several different flavours, not only with a choice between stainless steel or carbon steel, but also in the colour of the handle.Anatomy and Usage
We are reviewing the stainless steel version. It comes in a plastic sheath. The sheath has a clip for belts / pockets / trousers / whatever:
The sheath also has a hole at the tip, presumably to let water out or to stop the knife suffocating or something:
The knife locks into place in the sheath with a positive click, so that's nice. The sheath holds the knife securely enough to be reliable when moving around, or even when holding the sheath upside down. The knife could, however, pop out if it catches on something or if you fall over onto a comically positioned obstacle.
The blade measures about 10 centimetres (or 4 inches). The total length of the knife, including the handle, is almost 22 centimetres (or about 8½ inches):
The blade tip just about qualifies as being a "drop-point" design. We don't want to cut the handle off to find out, but a magnetic compass suggests that it is virtually a full-tang knife, so the blade shouldn't break away from the handle at an inopportune moment and stab you clean through the eye, which is surely a bonus. The handle itself is largely plastic, but the black bit seems to be a thin layer of rubber (it certainly smells like it), and does a good job of allowing the hand to grip it securely.
The cutting edge appears at a glance to be a flat grind, however closer inspection reveals a tiny secondary bevel. Some people say that a flat grind is better for cutting wood, so you might want to spend some time reshaping the edge. As far as we're concerned, though, it's fine as it is.
The handle is surprisingly thick, allowing a very firm grip and therefore some very powerful cuts:
That picture also shows that the blade is quite thin, and so it isn't ideal for prying the lids off any cans of paint you find lying around in the woods. However, the tip is a fairly robust design, i.e. it thins rather abruptly...
...meaning you can use the tip for gouging into wood without much fear of bending or snapping it. Note however that the tip can roll slightly if you do a lot of gouging - you can see in that picture that this has happened. This might be less of a problem with the carbon steel version. Anyhow, the knife sharpens quickly and easily, so this sort of problem is easily put right.
The spine of the knife is rather rough and knobbly, as illustrated in the previous picture. If you are the sort that likes to use the back of a knife with a firesteel, then you might find you need to file the spine to get a solid 90° angle to scrape against the firesteel. As it comes, the back is not very good at all at creating sparks.
Comparison with Heavier Counterpart
Compared to the more substantial Fallkniven F1, here are some pros and cons:Pros
- It is about half the weight. The knife weighs 75 grams (or a little over 2½ ounces), or 110 grams (nearly 4 ounces) including the sheath. The Fallkniven F1 weighs 145 grams, or 230 grams including the full leather sheath.
- The handle is a bit thicker, allowing for very powerful cutting, for example when putting a point on a wooden stake.
- The thin blade means that less force is required to cut through things. This is quite noticeable for example when cutting straight through a matchstick - the Frosts Clipper goes through very easily. However, the Fallkniven F1, which is thicker and flares out quickly from the cutting edge, requires a bit more pressure to push through.
- The thin blade makes it quite useable for general-purpose cutting, for example when preparing food.
Cons
- The thinness of the blade means it is more likely to snap when it is being used to pry something that requires a lot of effort. In fact, it probably shouldn't be used to pry something that requires a lot of effort.
- The thinness of the spine means it is not particularly suitable to being hit with a baton. The spine has a tendency to cut into the baton, even if the baton is a fairly hard wood. Therefore the Frosts Clipper isn't at all ideal for splitting logs. Mind you, in the context of this article, we are suggesting that you will be carrying a lightweight axe, so that's not a big problem.
- It isn't quite a true full-tang knife like the Fallkniven F1, and so it isn't ideal for hammering point-first into wood.
Page 2 of 5 Previous Next [Top of Page]
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Frosts Clipper Knife
Page 3: Wilkinson Sword Retractable Saw
Page 4: Fiskars / Wilkinson Sword Handy Axe
Page 5: Lightweight Cutting Tools: Bench Test
Page 2: Frosts Clipper Knife
Page 3: Wilkinson Sword Retractable Saw
Page 4: Fiskars / Wilkinson Sword Handy Axe
Page 5: Lightweight Cutting Tools: Bench Test
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