Fallkniven Northern Lights 5 “Thor” Review
Jon Stokes 07.15.14
After the camping trip, I went ahead and left all the cruft on the blade for about a week, before finally removing it. VG10 is a cutlery grade stainless steel, so I expected it to handle the neglect without staining or rust. Sure enough, the blade cleaned up fairly easily. I did end up taking a bit of 3000-grit sandpaper to get some of the last brown spots from the wood out of the blade. So the blade no longer has a factory finish, but it’s close.
The sheath
My main complaint about the Thor is the sheath. The quality of the leather sheath is high, but in practice I’ve found that the design just doesn’t work. The problem is straightforward: there’s a pair of metal snaps that hold the knife’s belt loop together, but they don’t hold tightly enough.
In theory, the snaps are a nice idea in that they let you take the knife on and off of your belt without removing your belt first. But they just aren’t sturdy enough, and they kept coming undone. It got to the point where I started looking around for duct tape to try to keep the loop together. So yeah, I’m going to have a new sheath made for this blade.
Note that the dangler format of the sheath works really well for a blade this size. People have different preferences for carry methods for very large blades, but I can now count myself firmly in the dangler belt loop camp. Whether standing, walking, squatting, sitting on the ground, or sitting in my car seat, carrying the Thor in about the 10 o’clock position on my belt presented no issues. In fact, I often forgot I was even wearing it, until the unsnapped belt loop began sagging and the knife started falling down my leg.
So I don’t get the fuss about big knife carry. It just isn’t that much of a hassle if you have a sheath configuration that works for you.
Conclusions
If you’re looking at the Thor, and you just know that this is a knife for you, my recommendation is to pull the trigger. This is not a blade that you’re going to be disappointed in. It’s tough, well-balanced, and extremely beautiful. The leather handle is as comfortable as it is attractive, and thanks to Fallkniven’s laminated VG-10 the blade holds a good edge while giving you all the benefits of stainless. As I said above, it’s a piece of functional art.
The one caveat I can give about the NL1 Thor is that some hardcore knife testers have voiced misgivings about the use of VG10 in very large choppers like this knife. The issue is that this steel is hard and when the edge fails — maybe because you whacked a rock or hit a hard nail buried in some wood — it will chip instead of rolling. For this reason, many folks prefer softer, non-stainless steels for oversized choppers; when the edge on a softer-steeled knife rolls, you can often straighten it back out without having to grind the blade back and remove metal.
That said, this is a tough knife that will take a lot of abuse out in the woods. And I do plan to abuse this one plenty more. If I ever have a problem, I’ll post an update. But so far the entire NL line has been bulletproof.
I’ll admit that I’m still on the fence about the real-world practicality of a knife as large as the Thor, but I loved carrying this thing in the woods and using it. I can’t remember the last time I got a real thrill like that out of a piece of gear.
