Time for another knife review! This time it is a knife that is a lot more up my alley; the Temagami, designed by Les Stroud (known from Survivorman and Beyond Survival) and produced by Helle in Norway; http://helle.com/Default.aspx?tabid=8564&language=en-US
I actually bought this knife before I knew anything about Les Stroud. I bought it because I am quite fond of Helle's laminated carbon steel, of which only three models are available currently: The Viking (which I have had for some time), the Ny Fjording (which I have in order) and the Temagami.
I ordered the Temagami because I, from pictures and the price tag, expected it to be a somewhat nicer knife than the Viking and Ny Fjording, both which are nice, but fairly simple in design and finish.
The Temagami is available in both laminated stainless steel and laminated carbon steel. Though Helle's laminated stainless steel is very high quality, I find their laminated carbon steel to be even more so – actually; my Helle Viking is among the best blades I have ever used!
First impressions:
Packaging:
The knife comes in a nice cardboard tube, printed with the Helle logo, Les Stroud's signature, a classic shot of a Norwegian fjord with mountains in the background and a long text vividly explaining the qualities of Helle knives.
The idea of packing the knife in a tube is imho, very classy and innovative – and will certainly add to the collector's value of this knife.
My only gripe about the tube is the fact that the ends are not very sturdy and very loosely glued on. On my example both had gone loose during transport, a shame really.
Contents of package:
-Knife
-Leather sheath
-Maintenance-/storage cloth
-Small pamphlet containing guarantee and maintenance information
The knife:
Measurements (my own): Weight (knife); 147 g. Weight (knife + sheath); 205 g. Blade length; 11 cm. Blade width; 2,7 cm. Blade thickness; 3 mm, Overall length: 23 cm.
Appearance/aesthetics:
This knife is best described as a marriage between a classic Scandinavian knife and a British bushcraft knife. The grind and handle material is traditionally Scandinavian, while the shape of the blade, handle and the half enclosed full tang is more in the way of the classic Bushcraft knife.
The overall design is very nice and quite harmonic as is the finish – the proportions, especially the handle, is larger than most Scandinavian knives.
Personally I prefer traditional Scandinavian stick tang knives, but I suspect the half enclosed full tang of this knife will have a broader appal to bushcrafters Worldwide.
I will comment on the details below.
Blade:
Classic carbon steel drop point blade with no sharpened upper/back edge (making the handle less hard on your baton) and Scandinavian grind – a classic bushcraft blade, very similar to the Ray Mears Woodlore/Bushcraft Knife, Rod Garcia Skookum Bush Tool as well as numerous clones of these.
The back of the blade has three notches filed in at the middle, originally intended to have two functions: 1. As a place to put your index finger, and prevent it from slipping, when skinning and preparing game. 2. To work as a striker for firesteels. The first function has no use for me (yet) and the second, as discovered by many and confirmed by testing it on several of my firesteels, does not work as intended. The metal of the back of the blade is simply too soft to throw a spark. Helle is aware of this and has announced it on it's homepage; http://www.helle.no/Default.aspx?tab...language=en-US I was aware of this before I bought the knife, as I prefer to strike my firesteels with a striker, I really do not mind. The notches do not take anything away from the overall appearance of the knife – and once I get my hunting licence, I may even come to find the feature useful.
The blade, which is finished with Helle's near mirror polish, with some minor tool marks, is etched Helle Norway, Temagami and Carbon on the blade.
Some would maybe consider a blade thickness of 3 mm to be rather thin for a bushcraft knife like this, personally I find that a thicker blade would make the knife too heavy – and I have never had any problems with any of my other 3 mm thick blades.
Like all Helle knives I have ever handled this one comes hair popping sharp out of the box (I now have several bald spots on my left forearm to prove that) – it also cuts paper like it is nobody's business.
Handle:
Curly birch with a comfortable matte oiled finish. The tang is half embedded in the handle and secured with two brass pins and a brass lined lanyard hole. According to Sami tradition a traditional Scandinavian knife must contain at least one element of brass, or else it will loose its magic. Aside from that; brass goes well with curly birch
The handle is shaped with a finger guard. An unusual feature for a Scandinavian knife – and for a classic bushcraft knife even. But, never the less; a well thought of feature and one I am growing to like quite a lot.
The handle is rather substantial, more so than any of my other similar sized knives, but it is surprisingly comfortable as well. I suspect it to quite comfortable for prolonged use, more so actually than many of my knives with smaller handles.
The wood itself is, I must admit, a bit of a disappointment. It is nowhere as nice as the wood of the knife shown on the Helle homepage – and I have much cheaper knives with significantly nicer curly birch handles, like my Eräpu 202 and Helle Viking. The handle is by no means ugly, I had just expected a lot more from looking at pictures and considering the price. Either Helle has deliberately chosen an extra nice example for photographing – or I have been “unlucky” and gotten one of the “less nice” pieces of wood. Either way, I would be lying if I said that I was fully content with it.
If examined carefully the handle is not fully symmetrical and the handle and tang does not align completely everywhere. This is normal for a Helle knife however.
The sheath:
Traditional Scandinavian sheath in a rather old fashioned (even for a Scandinavian style sheath) back stitched “ambidextrous” design. The advantage of this particular design is that the knife can be worn on either the right or left side. The sheath being a traditional Scandinavian one, the knife sits deeply and firmly in the sheath, preventing loss – as there are no attachments to secure the knife further. Though, I have yet to loose a knife from a deep Scandinavian sheath like this.
The sheath is made in a fairly thick full grain leather which has been stained dark brown. The sheath has a simple decoration at the lower part and around the top of the sheath, I personally like simple decorations like this.
The belt loops is riveted in place and aligns with the top of the handle. Personally I prefer a dangler type belt loop and a knife that hangs lower than this. I may have to modify this later.
Inside the sheath is a plastic insert, which protects the sheath from being cut. A non traditional feature that I, over time, have come to prefer, from having seen a few too many sheaths, without such an insert, being cut open, by the point of the knife, in the hands of overly eager knife users.
The sheath came with some tool marks and some scratches/rough parts, but a good coat of leather grease took care of that.
I like this sheath, but I feel that maybe a more classic bushcraft type sheath, like the one that comes with the Ray Mears Bushcraft Knife, would suit this knife better.
So far the initial impressions: This is definitely one of the nicest knives I have ever handled, when it comes to design – and I fully suspect that field testing will prove it to be an excellent user. Especially because I know that the Helle laminated carbon steel is excellent.
The finish is what I have come to expect from a Helle knife, which is, considering the price of the Temagami, maybe a little less than I had expected form this particular knife. The quality of the curly birch of the handle does not live up to my expectations, I am very fond of curly birch – so this bothers me somewhat.
The Helle Temagami is about twice the price of the very similar Helle Eggen. I must admit that I am having somewhat of a hard time seeing why that is really – no doubt the Temagami is stronger than the Eggen, due to the full tang construction, and the Temagami is available in laminated carbon steel, but does that really justify paying twice the amount of money? I am not so sure.
I am a big fan of Les Stroud's work, both his survival shows and his music. I have a great deal of respect for the honesty in the way he produces his survival shows. Considering that, I am not really that content with the thought of having paid, what could be considered an overprice, for a knife, simply because it is designed by Les Stroud. It seems, at least in my point of view, to be less in the spirit of Les' work.
If the weather holds up, I will field test the knife tomorrow, putting it through it's paces. Otherwise I will get it done asap...
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- I guess i should give some credit to Metal Mug
