The first thing I noticed about the EKA W11 is that the handle
looks pretty wide, but it turns out to be very comfortable and
it narrows nicely towards the end where you curl your fingers
around it. This, together with the edge and grind gave me a
good impression of a well made knife.
There are other models in the EKA Nordic series. The H8 is similar, but it has a full flat grind and is smaller (the number stands for the blade length in centimeters) and also has a different style sheath. I choose between these two and selected the Nordic W11 for its slightly longer handle.
The leather sheath is sturdy
and fits the knife well in that it's not likely to fall out
nor is it hard to pull it out when you need it.
The belt loop is on the small side, as it's a very tight
fit on a 50 mm wide (that's two inches) belt. Upside is of
course that on a narrower belt you don't yank the sheath
around as much when pulling out the knife.
I have one concern with the sheath design, and that is that
it's practically impossible to put the knife in or draw
it out without the edge cutting into the leather, even when
you're careful and look at what you're doing, much less when
the sheath is in your belt.
|
There are thumb grooves on the spine, at the right place and not too rough. The single cutout for the first finger is nicely rounded so the knife works with different grips and together with the narrowing towards the butt it gives a good grip in both directions. (I haven't tried it out in really slippery conditions.)
I don't know what you call this kind of tang: It's full all along the spine, but the handle is made from a single piece of oiled bubinga, so you don't see the tang on the other side of the handle. The tang/blade fit and finish is very good.
It comes very sharp from the factory and the edge bevel is
close to the edge so the blade is thin there, which makes
for good cutting performance. And as it fits my hand very
well and isn't too large to be carried comfortably, I guess
I'll be using this one regularly.
Steel: 12C27
Hardness: RC 58-59
Blade length: 111 mm
Blade thickness: 3.5 mm
Total length: 225 mm
Mass, knife: 0.161 kg
sheath: 0.099 kg
EKA's web site.