Casstrom No. 10 Swwedish Forest Knife

I have recently been trying out Casstrom’s No 10 Swedish Forest Knife with Combo Sheath and Fire Starter and have been very impressed with its suitability for bushcraft and other activities – and its good looks!

Although the Swedish Forest Knives are available in a couple of sizes, with various handle materials and plain or ‘combo’ sheaths; I really liked the look of the Curly Birch handle on the knife and fire steel. It just said ‘right’ to me, with the carbon steel blade option appealing to my taste as well. The drop point, satin finished blade has a Scandi grind and comes very sharp, while the handle scales have black liners, held onto the full tang by three brass rivets and a brass lanyard tube and have a very good finish with smoothly finished corners.

The sturdy ‘combo’ sheath has a Cognac colour, is well finished and incorporates a 9.5mm thick, 6cm long, fire steel with a Curly Birch handle to match the knife’s scales. The sheath is welt constructed and strongly sewn, but with a riveted belt loop, a rivet at the top of the stitching and an eyelet at the lower point of the sheath. The fire steel has an elastic safety loop that will hold it securely as it wears too thin to be held by friction alone, and the colour of the loop matches the leather.

In use, this knife proved very practical and functional, as well as good-looking, and while the handle looks a bit different to the average, the shape and contours made it very comfortable in a range of grip types. The back of the blade is sharp enough to throw showers of sparks off the fire steel, or easily scrape bark off sticks of wood etc. and, while I did manage to slightly roll the edge of the blade while batoning the knife through seasoned wood, the blade generally holds its edge very well and is straight forward to sharpen, mostly only needing stropping after a day’s hard use.

Overall, I have found the Casstrom No 10 Swedish Forest knife with Combo Sheath and Fire Steel a joy to use, considering it a great ‘all rounder’ in the woods, beautiful to look at and comfortable in the hand!