I recently went ahead and purchased two fixed blade knives from Ragweed Forge. Both are manufactured by Helle in Norway. I bought a Fjelkniven for myself and a Speider for my son. I bought them both as gifts (my wife to me on Fathers Day), so I haven't used them yet. But here are a few first thoughts just on initiol inspection.<br><br>First of all, the craftsmanship and quality are very good. There's nothing extraordinarily fancy about them, which appeals to me as I prefer to keep it simple. <br><br>The Speider, which means "Scout" in Norwegian, is definately smaller. The blade is about 3.5" and the handle is ment for smaller hands. I have relatively small hands as an adult (size 8-9) and the Speider is not comfortable in my grip. The bottom of the handle rests on the heel of my palm instead of extending past it. So it's sized for a small hand, but an older boy's hand may be already too big for it. I'll have to watch my son's growth and upgrade him to a larger handle as his hand size increases.<br><br>The handle is a plain grained, darkly stained birch. Nothin fancy, which keeps down the cost $29, and will be less obtrusive when he wears it on campouts. That appeals to me as I don't want him to draw attention to himself because of the potental conflict with scout leaders who haven't don't know the BSA policy. (Thanks, Tom, for finding the manual reference. I've copied onto my Palm in case we're ever questioned about it.). The dark green leather shealth also has an embosed Norwegian scout emblem, which is a universal symbol of scouting. This also will lend an air of being an official knife to it. The sheath also has a snap to hold the knife secure. I like that as it will help prevent him from losing it accidentally. Kids have a knack for not paying attention to their belongings as well as adults do, even if it's strapped to their bodies. :-) The Speider blade is made from non-laminted stainlees steel, which keeps the price down. It also has a metal fingergaurd that will help protect young, eager hands.<br><br>The Fjelkniven is an attractive, but not fancy looking knife. The lightly stained curly birch handle has a distinctive grain. The handle shape is comfortable and is shaped to provide a slight finger gaurd to help prevent your hand from sliding up onto the bad. It's not a true finger guard, but it will help one's grip from slipping. I like that as I have never owned a fixed blade before, so the shape helps provide me with some piece of mind. Plus it fits comfortably in my hand. It comes with a leather sheath and the knife is secure only by friction. That worries me a bit, but it is a tight fit and actually takes a slight effort to remove. Perhaps it will slip out with less effort as the leather is worn. But for now I don't think I'll loss it. The 4" blade is triple laminated steel, as quoted from the Ragweed Forge website, "The center portion is of high carbon stainless steel, hardened to 58-59 HRC. This is the harder part of the blade that holds the edge. The outside layers are tough 18/8 stainless. This makes a blade that can be sharpened to a very fine razor edge, and yet is not brittle."<br><br>I will report back once we "receive" the knives as gifts and actually use them in the field.