Author Topic: Helle Knives (Read 928 times)

James B · « **on:** November 05, 2004, 04:43:32 PM »

Does anyone here use Helle Knives? I saw some nice looking Helle knives at a gun show the other day. Any opinions?

Naphtali · « **Reply #1 on:** November 09, 2004, 04:53:52 PM »

Norwegian manufacturer, or Swedish. I'm going with Norwegian. Atlanta Cutlery used to sell a ton of them in the 1980s.

I owned several of their laminated stainless steel blades many years ago. Quality is acceptable. Designs acceptable. I operate on a pass/fail system, so "acceptable" is good.

As I recall, the center of the three-ply laminated sandwich was the equivalent of AISI 440B.

The bottom line is the knives will function as knives as well as most factory cutlery steel. Laminated blades will have significantly improved ductility -- you will be able to bend the blades in a vise farther than most steel blades before it will not spring back. But why you would want to do this escapes me.

Hope this helps.

James B · « **Reply #2 on:** November 12, 2004, 03:21:32 PM »

Thanks. I think when I hit the next gun show I might pick one up to try.

Neanderthal · « **Reply #3 on:** November 13, 2004, 01:43:16 PM »

www.ragweedforge.com carries Helle as well as other Scandi knives. Ragnar is excellent to deal with.

James B · « **Reply #4 on:** December 30, 2004, 07:28:11 AM »

Thank you. I will check it out. :grin:

pastorp · « **Reply #5 on:** March 01, 2005, 11:21:07 AM »

James, I have one, but while I have carried it in my pack for years as a spare I have never used it. As a result I can't comment on the edge holding quality. I will say that when I was younger I worked in meat markets for over 20 years. This experience I believe qualifies me to say I like the blade design. A straight, thin, narrow blade will do a lot of work without tiring the worker. Thicker blades have much more drag, not noticeable for gutting a single animal, but very noticeable after a 8 hour day of using a knife. I don't really like the handle or sheath though. Regards, Byron

Joel · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2005, 06:05:41 AM »

I made a knife years ago with one of the laminated blades from Atlanta Cutlery, in fact it was my last "kit" knife before I started making my own. Used it as a small game/carry knife for one fall season, and found it to be an acceptable steel. My son-in-law absconded with it, and he's used it and really likes it. The edge holding was quite good, but not great...as in D-2, 52100, 154CM great...but still good. My favorite Knifemaker of all time, Morseth, used Scandinavian laminated steel exclusively and made great knives with it. A writer once described his blades as "thin, almost delicate..but able to do any job reasonably expected of them". That's a philosophy I've adopted; I rarely use steel thicker than 1/8",and often use 3/32".

Thebear_78 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 02, 2005, 07:01:01 AM »

I have got the blades from helleknife.com and made up handles and sheaths for them. Probably made 15-20 of them. Excellent blades, stay sharp, easy to sharpen, and have good designs. My favorite two are the polar and the harding. I use the polar for skinning most of my predators and general cutting and gutting work, the harding gets pulled out for the bigger jobs, IE moose. Very nice blades and a very reasonalbe price.
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JeffG · « **Reply #8 on:** March 06, 2005, 11:02:26 AM »

As far as a source, I will second the good comments about Ragnar, great guy!