Svord Peasant mini review (pic heavy)
Howdy folks!
These have had quite a bit of publicity over on BB, with (IIRC) over 300 bought by group buys 
Figured, though, that for the benefit of members who are not on BB, that I would post this here 
Firstly, a little background.
Svord is a New Zealand knife brand, and the Svord Peasant is sorta like their Opinel - their cheap, functional knife, designed to cut things! No corkscrews, no toenail clippers, no flash drives and no flash lights, thank god! It is a friction folder, a timeless and worthy design, available in wood or plastic handles, the plastic being offered in a variety of colours. I got the wood version, predictably! The wood scales were rather rough (whadaya expect for under £15 delivered from the GB? ) but a bit of a sand and some oil brought them up lovely!
The nice pics:
As you can see, the scales are held together by screws rather than pins - and, as you can see, the only thing stopping the blade going through the back of the handle is a pin that hits the tang. I wouldn't worry about that though 
I've seen nothing yet that would indicate that this pin will give.
The use of screws rather than pins is an excellent idea for friction folders, in my opinion! The tightness of the pivot screw is what dictates how freely the blade moves when neither the tang or blade is being held by the handle (when opening or closing, in other words) and the other screw makes the gap between the scales slightly smaller than the thickness of the blade and tang - which provides the friction that keeps the blade open or closed. A very clever, exceptionally functional and very adjustable design, I love it! The blade is always as snug or as slack as you want it to be. The only thing I would change here is screws with a slot wide enough to fit a penny/2p coin in.
Now for cutting!
For the record, this was paper-slicing sharp new, but I convexed the edge slightly with sandpaper and gave a strop earlier today. This is the sorta shavings it takes off:
A mighty whittler and no mistake! It positively glides through the wood.
One more cut took them off with ease.
Small curls are certainly not beyond this knife either! These took a spark from a firesteel:
A spark which the tang of the Svord can throw happily by the way 
Meaning that the knife can be safely folded and sparks still easy to throw. It would do better if I'd bothered to square the spine a bit, but I haven't done so.
Quite a large knife! It's quite bulky and the blade is just a hair over 3", so it's not quite EDC, but taking off a quarter of an inch would do it just fine - if you drop the point by grinding down from the spine, you won't even have to resharpen. I intend to get a plastic one and do this.
The tang does stick out from the handle a bit, but in the hollow of the palm - I personally don't notice this at all in use, and I can be quite a fuss pot.
And it still slices paper mighty fine! Including shaving writing off paper
In conclusion? Brilliant knife! If you're into living history, I think this would be great just because it's a quality knife, historically it won't look out of place and it's cheap - who can complain? But really, it's much more than a historically accurate gimmick. This is a knife that has learned from all the high-tech mistakes from knives that can do everything but cut well, and it has adopted a tried and tested design that has been used for centuries - then Svord improved it with the screws. Not only that, but it has employed very high quality steel and outstanding heat treatment to come up with a knife that is simply amazing, more so than I even considered hoping for. While a fixed blade will always surpass a folder in strength, sturdiness et cetera, this is the very first time I've seen a folder with HT and steel quality matching my fixed blades. While it's a bit large for Office EDC, this is ideal for a discreet outdoors knife IMO. And, it can be taken apart completely in a matter of seconds do clean out any blood, dirt, water etc to prolong the life of the blade, handle and for hygiene.
Since I'm gobsmacked at the value for money this knife provides, and I don't think I've ever delivered such a glowing review, I feel I should say that I am in no way connected to Svord or anyone who sells 'em! I am just a very happy camper, no pun intended!
Pete
All will rise again for a better day; earth, green, with waterfalls where eagles hunt their prey
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Originally Posted by welshwhit
