Järvenpää Med Scout/Hunting Knife #3447

Finnish Ka-Bar

Well, more like a scaled-down Ka-Bar. The grip is more suitable for a medium or small hand; it's a bit demure for a large hand. However, the front guard and bird's beak pommel provide a very secure grip to keep your hand, no matter its size, from slipping forward or back. The quality of the leather disk grip is excellent and matches every other detail of manufacture. As noted in another review, the sheath is a bit minimalist. There is not internal liner as with e.g. Ahti sheaths, but there is a metal reinforcement riveted on. Since the blade is of carbon steel, give it a wipe down with Ballistol after use. Ballistol is safe to use on leather and is actually an effective preservative.

new knife finally

Knife finally arrived today. It has had a lot of positive comments. USPS was a little slow on this shipment.

Jarvenpaa Scout Knife

I was nostalgic for the type of midsize hunting knife from my youth, All the old line American knife companies made a version exemplified by the Marbles Woodcraft and the Western L66. Today they are only available on the used vintage market. The Jarvenpaa Scout is very close and is probably of equal or higher quality than the old L66. I've had it for a couple of weeks and can find no faults. It is just what I was looking for. I took off a star because, although the sheath design is good, the leather is very thin and flimsy. I reinforced it by adding another layer of leather to the back so it's good to go now. Definitely recommend this for a general purpose woods knife that will skin a deer, peel potatoes and turn wood into shavings.