EKA W12

Disclosure of material connection: I was provided with a free sample from the manufacturer for testing and evaluation purposes. The comments in this post are 100% my own opinion.

Picture from eka-knivar.se

First impression

Wow, it's heavy! When I pull the sheathed knife out of the box, the weight hits me. But when I hold it as supposed to, it's not that bad. The balance is good, some 1½-2 centimetres behind the stopper, and it feels rock solid. The 4 millimetre thick blade gives a sturdy impression and I just want to go out in the woods, grab a log and start carving. Some heavy carving. Or maybe splitting wood :)

The kydex sheath is nice as well. I have been looking at kydex for some time, planning on making my own sheath of it. Now, I don't know. My curiosity has been stilled for the moment, but I still like the material. I might very well get going on my own sheath for a knife soon, but the urge isn't as strong any more.

Design

The scales are a nice orange colour without being intrusive. The option with G10 is a really good choice from EKA. It feels nice in my hand and the grip is good. The size of the handle is about the same as for the older W11, but quite a different feel to it given the different materials. I really love my W11 Nordic with the curly birch handle, but there’s something special about this orange colour that I cannot put away. I like the differences in the two, the nature with all its beauty and the man-made orange plastic with its absolute ignorance of what everyone else thinks. Great!

I'm not sure about the finger stop though... As a general rule, I don't like the stopper, on any knife, but this one hasn't bothered me at all. And as a safety feature it's a good one. 

The sheath is a classic kydex sheath. It is rather wide and of course hard and stiff. It has the standard hole in the bottom to let any water out if it comes in for some reason. The small kydex bit holding the sharpener and fire starter is removable if you don't like it. It's fastened with two slotted screws and comes off really easy. 

A first test

I took the knife out in the field for a first test, and I gave it a good round of hard use. It was my go-to tool for splitting wood for the fire, chopping of branches and cutting line. And it performed very well.
I've also used it at home for some carving and splitting wood for the fire place. No complaints. When it comes to the harder use in the forest, it's great! But for the smaller, finer, works I would prefer a smaller knife. 

Further testing

After that, I dissembled the knife for cleaning (see below) and then put it back together again. I would recommend to tighten the screws quite hard, not to have it fall apart... It would be quite un-practical if it did during a trip. Even though the screws are ordinary slotted screws, and thereby rather easy to fasten in the bush, it is still much easier to do it at home, and do it right from the start.

I more often than not like the thick blade, but sometimes it's just too thick. But that's the thing, isn't it. You can't have the cake and eat it. Sometimes you want a thin fancy blade for some carving or cooking, and sometimes you want a thicker, more durable one for that wood splitting.

But this isn't your everyday carry knife, it’s more for your weekend trip to the wilderness. It's not something you take out down town to split an apple in two, that could get you in some trouble with the law (at least in Sweden), this is more of the knife you take out to split a log in splinters. And for the later things, it performs really well.

Cleaning

The screws could be your nemesis in the woods, but when back home they do the trick. Unscrewing them helps a lot when it comes to cleaning the knife. Just undo two screws and the full tang is ready to be cleaned and cared for. Once done, just put the three pieces together again and you're done. Simple enough and you don't have to worry about any moisture sticking around in the edges of the handle. On the other hand, as everyone is able to undo the screws and clean the blade. I guess a lot of people will do so, but not fasten the screws enough afterwards. But once again, this is a give and take, you can’t get it all.

A good thing with the kydex sheath, except for the durability, is the easy to clean ability. Just rinse it off in the sink and leave it to dry. A tip is to either blow dry it, with either compressed or hot air, to get all the water out. Or, of course, to use some sort of anti corrosive spray to keep the both the sheath and blade clean.

Comparison

Compared to the W11 it's 72 grams heavier, 234 vs 162, and it's of course very noticeable.
The back of the blade is also a little bit different, the thumb grip is a bit more rounded and not as sharp. I prefer the new design of the grip. One thing that does bother me, though, is the small ricasso the W12 has got. I cannot understand why anyone would want a ricasso on a knife. Even if the W11 also has a small portion of space between the start of the edge and the end of the handle, it's still smaller than the W12 version. It's not much, but to me it's kind of a thing... I always look at the ricasso. I've seen a lot worse, but I don't understand why not fully remove it. 

Conclusion

So, what's my conclusion of the knife? Would I buy it or recommend it? If you have the W11, I can't recommend you buying the W12, not that it's a bad knife, it just don't fill a hole.

But if you are on the market for a sturdy knife, that will take bashing and carving as well as being used as a chefs knife, you'll be happy with this knife for many years to come. There's only one problem ahead of you, you have to choose a colour for the handle... 

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Fredrik