Terävä jääkäripuukko review

Hem / Hobby, Spel & Fritid / Terävä jääkäripuukko review

I won't beat around the bush -- Lex is very hard to impress when it comes to factory produced knives. We're now offering a free digital copy of the OffGrid Outbreak issue when you subscribe to the OffGrid email newsletter. The blade was so sharp, it was able to carve a spoon, the most essential of camping necessities, in less than thirty minutes.

The Terava's leather sheath definitely exudes a higher level of quality than the SRK's Secure-Ex sheath: 

FIELD TEST

To see if Varusteleka's Terava knife would live up to its description, I took it high up into the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, an unrelenting and harsh environment, to test its abilities. 


Batoning


To test the batoning capability of the Terava, I selected a piece of very twisted Cottonwood and split it into kindling.

No gaps, or slipping, yet changing grip was smooth without the tacky feeling that sometimes comes with rubber grips.

The full tang extends out to end of the handle in a loop configuration that allows a lanyard to be attached should you choose. Eventually, you start to learn that no two knives are created equal and begin to develop a taste for what features in a blade really matter at an individual level.

There is a shorter version of the knife from Varusteleka depending on what your personal needs are, but going forward, I will only be discussing the longer design.

Dimensions and Appearance

One first notices the straight back design, making it perfect as a tool used for chopping, slicing and carving. The gear I carry in the field, regardless of the situation, all have multiple functions.

The AUS8 version of the SRK is better (I've owned two of them) than the SK5 version, but it is no longer made. 

By comparison, the Terava has all of the features of the original Carbon V SRK, so I wanted to do a direct comparison before commencing field testing.


Terava 140 vs the Cold Steel SRK

Unfortunately, I no longer own any of my Carbon V SRK's, so I substituted one of them with a newer SRK in High Carbon SK5 steel for the comparison. 

Comparing the two, although the blade styles are different, they have a lot in common for their intended purpose of military use and survival tasks -- thick, rugged blades, beefy rubberized handles, and highly secure sheaths that are capable of safely retaining their blades in the event of a fall.

The Terava's blade is slightly shorter at 5.5" vs the SRK's 6" length.

Combined with the fairly unique differentially sharpened blade you pretty much get two knives in one, making it easy to both chop firewood and make kindling with it.

The blade comes in both carbon and stainless versions, which is fantastic. In face, the width of the blade is such that the lanyard loop could be reliably used to break glass, ice or even bone.

High carbon tool steel gives the blade edge strength to endure a wide variety of cutting tasks without being too brittle.

All attachments are made with numerous strong studs.

  • 6 cm wide belt loop
  • D-ring swivelled belt loop
  • Snug fitting press stud strap secured the knife properly in its place.
  • A grommet for a leg tie has been added to the tip.
  • Drainage hole at bottom.
  • Inside the leather sits the standard sturdy Skrama plastic sheath, a thumb knob on the side of the mouth makes unsheathing easy and controlled.

    • The design is based off of a historical, Nordic “broken-back” scramaseax design, most commonly used in the north of the British Isles, but also elsewhere.

    Just a little oil to ward the metal from rusting and quick run over something to keep it sharp.

    terävä jääkäripuukko review

    That's impressive.

    The Terava's tip is easily as stout as the original Carbon V if not even stronger. In the USA batoning firewood is a fairly common, although hotly debated, practice, while in most other parts of the world, that practice is fairly unusual, instead using an axe for splitting logs. I dropped him a question in the comments section and he revealed that it was a Terävä Jääkäripuukko 140, carbon (140 for short).

    I really liked the look of it, so I ordered one.

    It’s a solid knife that I believe will provide the user with years of quality service. This piece was extremely difficult to split and some of the pieces literally broke off rather then just splitting. Getting it out with one hand is a bit awkward, but as I keep it hanging from the chest it is not an issue for me personally.

    While the grip is a bit similar to that of the Skrama knife, with it’s slight belly, it is naturally shorter and quite comfortable regardless of whether you are holding it in regular, inverted or reversed grips.

    For such a stout knife, it carves almost as well as a Mora:

    I've owned 6 SRK's over the past 2 decades. It is important to have a stout tip on a survival knfe because you may have to dig with it or pry things in an emergency (i.e. these dreams turned into concrete ideas. Just thinking about the illustrious history and cultural significance of the blade are enough to give one goosebumps and having a knife with such versatility is a feature that cannot be overlooked.

    Utility is important to me because I am very much a minimalist.

    In one word: Awesome.

    So, being so excited about the Terävä Skrama, what is the Terävä Jääkäripuukko like? This is a simple but great feature that makes it a whole lot easier to pull the knife with one hand. The Terava's leather sheath is heavier but quieter and does not have slots in it for wrapping extra cordage.