A week or two ago I was bemoaning the fact my latest EDC, had suffered a broken spring and I had to retire it. At the time I was trying to decide what to try next and both Dave and Ryan encouraged me to try out one of the Fallknivens. It took me a while, but I finally decided to start carrying one of the Fallkniven U2 models and here’s a brief Fallkniven U2 Review.
SWEET little knife. Closed, it measures around 3.8″
with a 2.5″ laminated ‘powder steel’ drop point blade hardened to 62Rc. That’s a hard steel.
With the Zytel handle the weight comes in at a scant 1.5 oz.
When you drop it in your pocket, you don’t have a clue it’s in there. The U2 is definitely one of the lightest knives in this size class I’ve carried recently.
The light weight is a bit deceiving when you handle the knife. It’s another one of those knives that ‘uses’ a lot bigger than it actually is. In my hand, the fit is great.This past week I used it extensively cutting nylon strapping on boxes of flooring and opening boxes of pre-hung doors for the remodeling project. Performance is outstanding. After a week of nylon strapping and cutting down cardboard boxes that edge is every bit as sharp as the day it came out of the box.
I really like the mid-back lock. It falls in place when your closing the knife with just one hand so much more conveniently than the traditional ‘rear’ lock.
A minor feature that just makes a ton of sense are the two nail nicks. One on each side of the blade. Right hand or left hand, you’re in business without having to turn the knife over. While it might require a slightly thicker blade such as you find on the U2, the manufacturers could even slightly offset them so as not to compromise blade strength. (Even though I don’t think that should be a major issue with most knives.) Great idea at any rate.
Granted a week isn’t what I feel is an extensive field trial, but what I’ve seen so far is impressive. It’s pure pleasure to carry and the edge retention should be outstanding. They’ll be in the store for sale in another week or so and in the meantime, I’m going keep putting it through the paces. One of the things I want to watch for is any edge chipping with a steel that hard. The Carbon Steels at 56-58Rc might ‘bend’ in extreme situations, but my experience has been that when you get up over 60Rc, sometimes it chips instead. We shall see!!!
