Just received my Nord in the mail after waffling on ordering on for almost 2 months. I have a few larger knives I use for outdoors from some other well known manufacturers in crazy steels like CPM-3V and M390. With how well those work I was hesitant to spend the money on the Nord, since upon first glance it looks like it's a bit short on the spec end. I've always love Helle knives though and wanted to see if they could fix the few small annoyances I had with my other larger knives.
Turns out, they did. As soon as I pulled this thing out of the sleeve I knew it was a keeper. The handle is gorgeous and fits my hand extremely well (medium sized hands). Big enough to feel meaty but thin enough in cross section that my hand wraps around it well. Balance is right where the index finger sits, which is perfect for my typical use case. Definitely a big knife, but handles smaller than its size.
One of the big reasons for this is the blade thickness. This is why I know it's a keeper in my book. The blade width is 3.7mm, which is thinner than many knives this size. My biggest gripe with some of my other large knives is that the blade is so thick it's very difficult to use as a slicing knife effectively. One of my other knives this size has a blade that's almost 6mm thick. Sturdy, but not very effective as a knife-of-all-trades. Don't get me wrong, this thing is a beast and I have no qualms about beating the snot out of it. Seems like they got the thickness just right.
Everything else that you'd expect in a higher priced knife like this seems to be here. Sharp spine for starting fires, lanyard hole for grip, big leather sheath, all here.
Overall it's a great package, and I'm really excited to put this thing through its paces. I could see handing this one down to my kids some day.
Thanks Ragweed Forge!
