Does anyone have any opinions on the Fällkniven A1 knife?

I have never handled one, but the folks on a couple of UK survival oriented forums swear by them. For whatever that is worth...

for what purpose? It's a bit thick and heavy for general use.

An interesting coincidence that you posted this thread....

Just Thursday, we were executing a search warrant and encountered a door with a hasp and padlock on it. One of the guys I'm with, before anyone can do anything, pulls out this large blade, jams it down between the hasp and door, and pulls. Bling, off goes the hasp and were into that room.

What was that knife you ask (just as I did)? A Fallkniven A-1 !!!!! I never even saw him carrying it until he pulls it out to use it. OK, enough rambling about "coincidence"......

Fallkniven makes nice knives as far as I can tell. Another friend of mine has the F-1, which has a much shorter blade than the A-1 (3-1/2" versus 6-1/2"), but they both have VG-10 steel, which I suppose is good steel. If I ever buy a Fallkniven, I'd probably get the F-1 or similar, the A-1 is just too big for my tastes. Plus, it's about $160 to $190 (guessing/remembering here) at internet prices.

The Fallknivens all use VG-10 steel. The A1 is roughly equivalent to a Ka-Bar (6") size wise. I personally consider 6" blades a little bit too big for general survival use. My personal preferance is for a blade of about 4". I would emphasise that that is a matter of personal preferance, not a 4" is good 6" is bad statement. The laminated VG-10 steel is very, very good. Easily comparable to D2 or S30V. The knives themselves are very easy to sharpen with good edge retention. Which is a major consideration. I would, however, very strongly recommend that you purchase Fallknivens own sharpener. The D4 would be my personal recommendation. All the knives in their range have squared spines which makes them ideal for use with a ferronium rod. Ideally the full sized swedish fire steel. The Doan magnesium block also gives excellent results. All the above is based on personal experiance. The only other thing that I can suggest is that you consider, very carefully, what you want to do with the knife. If possible handle all the knives in the range. If the A1 feels right in your hand, buy it.

thanks for the advice!!

The fällkniven A1 looks very similar to my Cold Steel SRK that I bought back in '95. I have been very happy with my SRK and it still gets used fairly often around the homestead here.