Fallkniven A1 Pro: Polishing CoS to a Mirror Finish

Check out Big Brown's channel!
/ @fearnosteel
I sharpened on each stone after polishing. Note that what I show is my method for polishing the whole bevel, not sharpening.
New and improved Pro series specification
Pro series of F1, S1 and A1 differs from its predecessors in the following important details:
1. The laminated VG10 steel is replaced with a laminate cobalt steel (lam. CoS) which, amongst other things, ensures a durable edge and improved edge retention.
2. The blades are consistently thicker causing an increased torsional rigidity - they will withstand even greater external forces than before.
3. The tapered tang is wider and thicker and thus significantly stronger.
4. The crossguard is made of stainless steel and permanently mounted to the tang.
5. The convex edge has been refined to improve the cutting properties.
6. The zytel sheaths are redesigned meaning they are more durable and are better suited to the Molle attachment system.
7. The knives are supplied with our most valued combination whetstone, the DC4. It offers both a diamond whetstone and a ceramic stone for field sharpening.
8. The knives are packed in shock-resistant, waterproof boxes that can be used for storage of smart phones, GPS, documents, survival gear and much more.
Understandably these knives fall into a higher price category. However, considering the unparalleled quality they are by no means over priced. A professional survival knife should be able to be relied upon in the all-weather and we really mean all weather. It should also be pleasant, safe and comfortable to handle whether it’s fine or rough work, summer heat or winter cold. We have considered everything in the design of this quite superb knife and we, therefore, offer a lifetime warranty on materials and workmanship.
PRODUCT DETAILS A1pro
Total length (mm) 283
Blade length (mm) 160
Blade thickness (mm) 7
Blade profile Convex
Tang Broad, protruding
Weight (knife) 363g
Steel Lam.CoS
Hardness (HRC) 60
Handle material Thermorun
Sheath Zytel
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Please watch: "Battle of the Ultimate Chopping Knives! Which is the Best!??"
• EXTREME Battle of the ...
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[@tphvictims5101]

MAN, I've got to hand it to you, you have an impressive knowledge of cutlery! I love these videos.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

thanks a lot mate! the words are appreciated!

[@Mrplacedcookie]

Thank's for the sharpening vid of the A1 Pro! It turned out very nice. I have sent mine back for the same issue . 2 weeks wait until they get them back in stock. As you said the warranty is stellar and great customer service. Enjoy your A1 Pro an awesome knife! Greetings from Sweden! :)

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+Jörgen Sandström thanks mate! hope you will get yours back soon!

[@REDARO11]

and by the way... no matter how hard I tried I could not get rid of that spot from the belly of the knife...the factory glitch that you also mentioned. I wish you a superb day!

[@REDARO11]

Maarten you really motivated me to make a mirror polish on my S1 Fällkniven only with a double KING STONE (1000 and 6000) ....my fingers are totally black hahahha but I am considering to buy also the Naniwa.... when the salary comes .... 400 1000 3000 5000 8000 .... I salute you both !!

[@adamandrew292]

Sick Vid... Just ordered all of the stones to treat my A1 to a mirror finish =]

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

good luck andrew! don't forget the compound. it really makes a big difference. It also takes some practise to get used to using water stones.

[@ThirteenKidsLater]

Can you make a video showing how to make the paracord lanyard you have?

[@cosimfre2651]

From start to finish( without having to make a video of course) how long does it take you to do this? Specifically how long do you spend on the 400?

[@user-wy1jk4hh1y]

Great vid!I'm working on the mirror polish on my A1 pro. Done exactly the same steps with exactly the same stones and stropping. However, I find that the bark river white still creates micro scrates. Is there a way to get the blade totally shiny or the tiny 12k grit is something to expect? Looking at your f1 sharpening vid. That blade looks completely mirrored in the video. Is the an additional thing I have to do or the micro will always come?ThanksAnda

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

if you can make the scratch pattern completely uniform it should become a mirror. in the right light its normal to be able to see tiny scratches still. but they shouldn't be perfectly clear to the eye. have you tried decreasing the pressure on the strop?

[@user-wy1jk4hh1y]

Dutch Bushcraft Knives Hi Thanks for the reply. I realised that the scratch marks are actually coming from the Snow White and that I'm not able to remove the scratches with the black and white compound. Perhaps I've been pressing to hard on the stone. When you come up to the shapton 5k and Snow White, do you apply pressure like on the 3k or is it just very light pressure?

[@stgeorge6947]

E buffer wheel and polish ?

[@paulwhat322]

Little scared to try this on my new a1x. I think I'll practice on the mora bushcraft black first.

[@sifusasdo2314]

Cool Video 👍 Thank U for the Info and the Links 👍

[@drivingmuffin]

Beautiful results :)

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+Andris Kompelien thanks a lot mate!

[@williamdabill]

I like the satin

[@roughroosterknifesharpenin5531]

awesome vid. I do have a question I mostly use diamond plates and Arkansas stones. (not with oil) in a very different way. but I do have a king icebear 800 grit. I would like to get a snow white stone what would you recommend I use in between?

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

Rough Rooster Knife Sharpening hey mate, i would suggest a chosera or professional 3k from naniwa And ideally also a 5k Stone from shapton (Pro series or ha No kuromaku)

[@mehulmehta7981]

Can you give a mirror polish by only using bark river black and white compund? Even if it takes hours of polishing ?

[@nils-ph3zs]

depends on the factory grind...if its quite smooth out of the box it might be possible. (i mean its always possible but it will take alot (ALOT) of hours)

[@JimmyDevere]

Hey brother I just bought a LT Wright GNS Saber. Do you think I can do the same approach to polish with a saber grind as you de here? Thanks man!

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

you could certainly mirror polish it like this. It should look great!

[@JimmyDevere]

Awesome! Thanks man!

[@Levidanielz]

Great job, I'll have to give my s1 some love.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

thanks a lot mate! cheers!

[@tindra98765]

great video....if people just knew how easy it is to sharpening. (RULE NUMBER 1 OF 1) = use the GRITS FULLY before U go DOWN to smaller Grits. ¤ (when ALL (incorrect)small scratches is gone...THEN go down one step on Grits....Thats it :)) (i sharpening ALL my Knifes on my DC4 (diamond/ceramic plate ~ $25).

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

The DC4 is an amazing small stone. It can basically sharpen any kind of steel and it does make the knives very sharp. We learned sharpening in the dc4

[@tindra98765]

True /)@@DutchBushcraftKnives

[@royalhclub881]

i dont know much about polishing or sharpening but dont you lose alot of material by doing this ?

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

not that much actually. I could sharpen this knife probably a 100 times like this. Of course you'll loose a little but a sharpening job like this you dont give that often

[@royalhclub881]

thanks for the quick answer :) keep up the good work

[@rickydowning2194]

What’s better for splitting, the a1 pro or big dbk by dulo

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

for pure splitting the a1 pro. However, dulo can also make the a1 pro clone with a wooden handle as

[@rickydowning2194]

Dutch Bushcraft Knives would you say it’s better in the vanadis 4e than cos?

[@ysato6585]

you put your fingers on the tip(or the belly) side all the time. i think you should put your fingers just right above the place you want to sharpen. i mean, put power straight down to the place where the blade contacts with the surface of the stone. if you could put power exactly evenly between right and left hand, the blade contacted horizontal. but it's almost impossible, so the blade will be tilted a bit. additionally, the blade can flex a bit even if the stock thickness is 7 mm. because of these factors, the both of the choil side and tip side are well sharpened/polished while the middle section is left not so much sharpened/ polished. i always move my fingers along with change of the sharpening position and have no problem. and i can know the condition of the sharpened surface more directly from the feeling of fingers. just in my opinion, sorry...

[@AG.Floats]

Rofl. Seems like he is doing it fine and has good results the way he is doing it so why try and change his method Mr. Commenter.

[@royalhclub881]

i did a mirror polish on my old standart a1 now its ruined ..... thx god i didnt test it on my s1 pro or a1 pro

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

hahah it might take some practise

[@FearNoSteel]

Thanks for the shout out Martin! Much appreciated. I love that mirror finish man. Very very uniform. I don't think people appreciate the skill ,time and work involved here. I need to work on my polishing game Haha Stay sharp bro

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+Big Brown no problemo mate! love your vids! Thanks for the compliment mate. It's hard to explain exactly what we are doing when polishing as it is so much based on feel and experience. I was already very impressed by your polishing work!

[@FearNoSteel]

haha thanks

[@rando27enco]

Man, this is so weird to watch 7 years later. Oh how y’all have grown.

[@GoldKillers85]

Greetings from Spain, we are followers of your videos. We have a request to make, we would like very much, that when you can do a video test to a knife, specifically the EXTREME RATIO DOBERMAN 4, we will wait impatiently the video test, as some followers think it is as good or more than the FALLKNIVEN A1 PRO. Keep up the great videos, thank you.

[@lorisb1513]

I'm shit at polishing, but my knives are pretty sharp.

[@jbriselius1490]

Love your videos!! I got the old VG-10 S1 and tried to mirror polish it. 400-1000-3000-5000-8000 stones then when I got to the black and white compounds. The blade got a nice mirror but a lot of tiny scratches from the black compound. Is the outer lamination steel different on vg-10? Or do I just have to work the white compound longer?

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

The lamination steel on the CoS and VG-10 are the same. If the scratches are from the black compound you should spend more time on the white but it could also be that the white compound makes the stone scratches more clearly visible. In this case you'll have to spend more time on the 5k an 8k stone.

[@jbriselius1490]

Dutch Bushcraft Knives thanks a lot for the quick response, I'll try it out. Actually quite fun these sharpening jobs. Sharpened and stropped my Kitchen knife into finish where it made circles into paper.

[@ratdad48]

Why didn't you just remake the video dude. This is a great channel. Why make a sub par video

[@PTSDexplosion]

Does it scratch easily with use?

[@Shooter11B]

I really need to get a set of Japanese Water Stones!

[@thefeatheredfrontiersman8135]

Geez! What happened here martin?

[@mg42sd]

5:10 those birds are on fire!

[@labreezy2275]

Mmmm... shiny

[@Bluelightbandit]

Nice work! Love seeing these older vids. The hair!!!!

[@joshuasmith6319]

Excellent

[@torsten4757]

How long did you spent on one polishing process like this with all the different steps? Maybe you can guess it?! Thanks, Torsten

[@JimmyDevere]

I just but the DLT ultimate home kit. It comes with sandpaper and three strops with Bark River compound. I plan to polish my new Mora Garberg. Do you think I will be able to use the same technique with the sandpaper? Thank you.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

sandpaper makes a very even scratch pattern. If you can sand up to 1500-3000 grit you might be able to make a mirror polish after stropping.

[@lashazaridze813]

lamination does not mess up after polishing?

[@vladimirkovacevic1656]

awesome sharpening

[@LuisHuerta-oh5pm]

Hello! I wanted to ask you for some tips. So I started polishing a knife with a diamond stone , started 400, then 600 and you can start to see the mirrorish polish but then I go to the 1000 and 6000 grit whetstone and it starts to look satin (smokey) end instead of the mirror finish, do you know why?? Dankje! :]

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

Hey Luis, Some stones react different to different types of steel leaving different finishes. The foggy finish is actually very popular with some knife makers in japan. 1000 to 6000 is a giant step though. It would be normal to get a real mirror finish at around 5000 grit. It is possible the 6000 stone is a too big step up to polish out the foggy finish left by the 1000 stone

[@poiuytre11111]

Very nice ✌️

[@Stormcloakvictory]

The difference in sharpness with the F1 pro is probably because you didn't just polish it but also changed the edge geometry before polishing on the F1 pro.

[@svens.1917]

When you do something like this , such a long time on each stone youre always(really always) change the Angle and Geometry

[@707SonomaComa]

That is amazing! You did a fantastic job on that.

[@barrystarr22]

Outstanding video with great presentation.You guys are great with your knife knowledge and skillset. I will use some of this to shine up my scratched S1. Thanks again and keep up the great videos.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+Barry Starr thanks a lot Barry!

[@RSBot2jar]

how do you sharpen a convex edge knife then?

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+RSBot2jar we made a video about sharpening a few weeks ago!

[@RSBot2jar]

I noticed after i posted the comment :p

[@THEDRAGONBOOSTER8]

They look like good quality stones..

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+THEDRAGONBOOSTER8 they are! these are the Naniwa chosera stones (now naniwa professional). The one with the box is a shapton ha-no-kuromaku and the last one that I forgot to film is a naniwa snow white. They are kinda pricey but quality is very excellent! Thanks for the comment.

[@schlooonginator1227]

If I am honest, I don't see any real advantage over the originals except the steel. I see absolutely zero advantage in having the metal guard. The original thermorun was fone and eliminated what, in my opinion, is just a showpiece and one that only complicates and adds to the possibility of problems such as was experianced here and possibly a stress riser under extreme bending tasks. Perhaps this was the reason they chose an even thicker stock? Again, I thought the original stock was plenty thick for its design. Adding thickness may improve battoning and chopping but to the detriment of slicing and cutting. Ultimately its not like they replaced the original, and is just an option. Its just that its an option I don't find worth the premium in price. just my opinion which are like assholes, everyone has one.lol

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

hahaha it's good to have an opinion. The price of these knives asks for careful thinking for sure. I personally like the new finger guard. The old one damaged because of the friction it had with the wood when batonning. Nonetheless the vg-10 version is still excellent in my opinion and it will never leave my collection.

[@schlooonginator1227]

Dutch Bushcraft Knives You raise a good point about the guard, and they are aesthetically pleasing but I must still stick to my perspective, I think the original really is fine unless you are performing heavier tasks, then I could see the justification for the Pro. Lol, its just an option though which is all good. I just have to play Devil's advocate sometimes. I feel it makes for healthier channel when criticisms can be discussed maturely which is why I like your channel. You guys are keeping it real.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

thanks a lot mate! The perfect knife doesn't exist. there is something for everyone and we have to see that something we like or someone else likes isn't necessarily what's perfect for everyone. A lot of people tend to protect that what they have spent money on to justify the purchase even when it's plain bad. I can really enjoy a good discussion! It helps me to see the other side of things. Keep it coming!

[@schlooonginator1227]

Dutch Bushcraft Knives Totally agree. You guys are very open minded which is a bit rare in the knife world which is another reason I like your channel. I don't expect to agree with everything a reviewer says and would hope I don't. I like it when someone makes a point that I may not have thought of, thats what learning is all about. Too often people take offense to a different opinion, like I am telling them that their wrong when that is not the case. Very happy you understand.

[@wasbeer77]

Leuke vid weer, kerel! Onvoorstelbaar hoe scherp jij die messen krijgt. Moet ik nog wel een hoop voor oefenen... Ik zit intussen al zes weken op m'n A1 te wachten. KATO had 'm netjes naar de leverancier gestuurd en die heeft er schijnbaar zes weken op gezeten zonde actie te ondernemen, de prutser. En nu moet het nog een hele tijd gaan duren voor ik het ding weet terug heb en dan nog maar afwachten of ik überhaupt een nieuwe krijg of dat ze de ouwe gaan herprofileren. Mooie bende.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

Bedankt voor je comment! Ik denk dat je een nieuwe krijgt. De voorraad bij hun was op dus ik denk dat moeten wachten op een nieuwe batch uit Japan voor ze jou een mes terug kunnen sturen. Hopelijk heb je hem snel!

[@wasbeer77]

Oh? Kijk es an... Dat is een goeie reden, op = op.. Thnx voor de intell! :) Merk je trouwens veel van het dikte verschil tussen de normale A en de Pro? Maatje van me heeft de Pro en hij is erg blij mee maar hij zegt wel dat de normale wat makkelijker werk maakt van de fijnere taken.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

Dat klopt wel inderdaad. De dikte maakt hem iets minder goed voor snijwerk.

[@MONKEYCOPITO]

Hello, a query, you do not change the geometry of the edge with those stones?

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+Mingo Dominguez I made the geometry a bit less extreme convex. You can do almost anything type of grind on water stones

[@MONKEYCOPITO]

Dutch Bushcraft Knives 👍

[@zombiefighterof1987]

I find going up and down gives a nicer finish than the traditional back and forth

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

I have heard that before. I think this is because you are able to keep your knife more flat on the stone making a more even finish. Thanks for sharing mate!

[@zombiefighterof1987]

+Dutch Bushcraft Knives I believe it's also how the grain and factory polishing go in the factory

[@vaughnburrows]

Would you be willing to sell it?

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+vaughnburrows I'm sorry mate. I am deeply in love with my new Fallkniven pro knives. I could make a mirror on yours if you like but depending on where you live shipping will become an expensive issue. Thank you for watching. I take your comment as a compliment for sure hahaha.

[@joeking4389]

I wish I could sharpen a knife like that, enjoy seeing how you do it.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+Joe King thanks a lot Joe. Practice does wonders. Just start on some cheap knives.

[@joeking4389]

+Dutch Bushcraft Knives I don't have the stones to sharpen with.

[@ryanc5681]

+Dutch Bushcraft Knives what kind of stones should I buy? What are those stones there? Is there a kit or combo package? What website do you recommend

[@edthealpinedude8933]

I use only natural stones, you don't really need expensive japanese stuff...(and still get professional results if you master it) I sharpen swords with those too.

[@aidanwyman2115]

What is the point of the mirror edge because in an hour of being in the woods the mirror will probably disappear

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

+Aidan Wyman sand would make scratches but wood doesn't so the mirror polish will stay until it needs proper sharpening again.