Earlier this autumn, I brought your attention to a new knife designed by Varusteleka, a Finnish outdoor/military surplus supplier. The Skrama, which is made in Finland and available only from Varusteleka, is designed to be an all-around wilderness blade for campers, bushcrafters, woodsmen etc. After reading my short blog post, the company offered to send me a free sample of the knife in exchange for a review here at the blog. I accepted their offer and told them that I’d give the knife a good shakedown and a fair and honest review.
The Skrama came with a rugged plastic blade guard, but the company is also working on a leather sheath available separately.
Considering the interesting handle shape of this knife, I was curious to see how it felt in different grips. It felt very natural and comfortable however I held it. Incidentally, I think hard, non-sticky rubber was a good choice for the handle material. I also think the long handle will contribute to this knife’s versatility in use.
While I was trying out different grips, I noticed that the balance point lies right where the handle starts. This makes it easier to do finer cutting tasks, despite the large overall size of the knife.
Since one of the tasks I use a camp knife for is food preparation, I took the Skrama to the kitchen and tried it out on a tomato. After just a few cuts, I felt I had seen enough. 🙂
After cutting the tomato, I “decimated” a piece of printer paper with ease.
One popular, and practical, use of a good camp knife is throwing sparks off a ferrocerium rod for fire lighting. I found the best way to do this with the Skrama was to scrape the rod with the spine of the blade near the tip, since the section of spine near the handle would not throw sparks (this is easily remedied with a file). I used the ferro rod as a pointer in the picture below to show the part of the blade I used to scrape it.
So far, I’m impressed by the very rugged construction, good balance and out-of-the-box sharpness of the Skrama. Next weekend I’ll take the knife out to the forest to do some real testing. Stay tuned!
The Weekend Woodsman 
amazing bush knife what grind is it Skandi grind? like a mora knife?
Nope, it’s got a main bevel and secondary bevel. A Scandi grind wouldn’t hold up as well on this kind of knife when chopping and doing other rough work. I personally think Scandi is best on smaller blades used for wood carving.
Paper thin sliced tomato? From the factory? Incredible. Looking forward to more. I’m always a skeptic and give honest opinion. Also a licensed hunting guide in Montana that spends a lot of time in the backcountry.
I know, it seems hard to believe. I was VERY surprised when I started shaving off those slices! Looks like they’re doing something right there. 🙂
It looks kind of like a Leuku without the upswept tip. How heavy (thick) is the blade? If there is enough weight, it could be useful for hacking brush. I’m not of the opinion that one knife should do everything well. If you look at these things as tools, it’s like the difference between a hack saw blade and a buck saw blade.
The blade is 4 mm (0.16″) at the spine, but the edge is not clunky and thick (obviously). I’m sure there’s some leuku in that design, too. 🙂 There’s definitely enough weight for hacking brush. I’ll be trying it out for that soon.
Very good point about things like this being tools, which of course they are. I don’t plan on using “one tool for everything” anytime soon (been there), but I will test this blade in a range of tasks to see what it’s capable of. I generally prefer to use more specialized tools in the woods, but I do think there are plenty of cases where a knife like the Skrama, leuku etc. would be a desirable tool to have!
mmmm… why that kind of offer does not come to me…. I envy you:)
anyway. it looks like all the not nice thing about the Hukari has been removed and put in to steroid. especially that long handle is something many people have been talking about as would be nice if Hukari had it.
hope to see some chopping and batoning comming.
🙂
I agree. The hukari never really appealed to me, though I know it does work. The Skrama’s handle will definitely be a great asset and aid in its versatility. Stay tuned for chopping and batoning. 🙂
I had no second thought when I ordered this. This tool is to replace the Taiter Hukari taht they don’t sell anymore (out of stock ?) and it works out just fine. Two little things : You should say that the handle loop is part of the same piece as the blade (metal). And Varusteleka also provides the PLCE frog to transport the Skrama until the leather sheath is ready.
Thanks for the comments! Glad to hear you like yours. I’ll be testing mine out in the forest very soon.
I’ll be sure to mention the points you listed (re: the handle ring and PLCE frog) in my next post about the Skrama!
[…] few posts ago, I gave you my initial impressions of the Skrama knife from Varusteleka. Cutting tomatoes and paper is all well and good, but it’s not a useful indicator of what an […]