Pakkafold Hand Forged Stainless Steel Folding Pocket Knife with Premium Pakka Wood Handle | Large Everyday Carry and Collector Gift | RK-673

The Pakkafold is a hand forged stainless steel folding pocket knife that opens to ten inches, with a five inch blade riding in a five inch premium pakka wood handle. It is a deliberately large folder. The blade fills the handle almost exactly, which is the sign of a folder laid out properly rather than a small blade dropped into an oversized frame to make the package look impressive. Before you put it in a pocket, check the state by state rules for your state.

Folding knives are far older than most people assume. Roman workshops in the first century were already producing friction folders with iron blades pinned into bronze or bone handles, and examples have been pulled out of sites across Britain and the Rhineland. Those early folders had no lock and no spring. The blade simply pivoted, and the user kept it open with thumb pressure on the tang. Everything that came afterwards, the backspring, the slip joint, the liner and the lock bar, is an answer to that one weakness. When you feel a folder open and seat cleanly, you are feeling two thousand years of people trying to solve the same problem.

This one is forged and finished in the Czech Republic, from raw bar stock through heat treat, grinding, handle fitting and final sharpening. It ships as a knife in protective packaging, with the edge already set. There is no sheath with this piece and none is needed, because it folds.

Specifications

What a five inch folding blade actually changes

Most pocket folders sit between two and three and a half inches of blade. Five inches is a different tool. The first thing it buys you is edge in contact: on a long pull through cardboard, rope or a length of hosepipe you finish the cut in one stroke instead of sawing. The second is leverage. With more blade ahead of the pivot you can bear down through dense material without rolling your wrist, because the force is travelling along the spine rather than twisting the joint.

The cost is carry. A ten inch open folder is a belt or a jacket knife rather than something that disappears into the front pocket of a pair of jeans. It is also a knife that asks for a deliberate opening and closing habit. Get in the practice of keeping fingers clear of the pivot arc and treating the closing motion as a separate action rather than a flick, and the extra size is simply extra capability. The pivot on this one is fitted by hand so the blade swings without side play, which matters more on a long blade than a short one, because any slack at the pivot is multiplied out at the tip.

Why stainless and not high carbon on this one

Most of what we carry is 1095 high carbon or forge welded Damascus. This piece is stainless, and that was a choice rather than a compromise. A folder lives in a pocket, against a body, gathering warmth and sweat, and it spends long stretches shut with moisture trapped in the pivot slot where nobody can reach it with an oiled rag. Carbon steel in that environment stains fast and eventually seizes. Stainless does not care.

The honest trade off is edge behaviour. A hard carbon or Damascus blade will take a slightly finer edge and hold it a little longer through abrasive work, and it will come back on a stone with less effort. Stainless gives up a small amount of that in exchange for a blade you can put away wet without consequence. If you want the full comparison, including how the two behave under a file and over years of storage, we set it out in Damascus versus stainless.

The pakka wood handle and how it sits

Pakka wood is hardwood veneer laminated and bonded with resin under pressure. It keeps the figure and warmth of timber but it is far more dimensionally stable than plain wood, so it does not swell in humidity or shrink back from the bolsters in a dry winter. That stability is exactly what you want on a folder, where the scales sit either side of a precisely spaced pivot and any movement in the material shows up as a gritty or tight action.

Each handle is cut and shaped from a different section of stock, so the grain lines and the depth of colour shift from one knife to the next. It is finished rather than lacquered, which means an occasional wipe with a light oil keeps it looking fed rather than dry. The method takes about two minutes and we cover it in wooden handle care. Do not soak it, do not put it near a radiator, and it will stay as it left the shop.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the handle. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us whether it goes on the blade or the handle. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. Everything is cut in the same Czech workshop that forged the blade, so nothing is shipped out to a third party and nothing is applied as a sticker or a transfer. Lettering examples, layout limits and what fits on a blade this size are all on the engraving page.

Care and sharpening

Stainless asks very little. Wipe the blade dry after use, especially if you have cut anything acidic, and let the pivot dry open rather than closing a wet knife. Once or twice a year put a single drop of light oil at the pivot and work the blade a few times to spread it. Do not run it through a dishwasher, where heat and detergent will attack the handle long before they trouble the steel. The general principles are in steel care.

Sharpening is straightforward. Hold the existing bevel angle, work one side until you raise a burr along the full length, turn it over and match it, then strip the burr with light alternating passes. A five inch blade takes more strokes than a small one, so use a longer stone if you have it and keep the pressure even from heel to tip. The full sequence is in sharpening with a whetstone.

Made in the Czech Republic

Every piece we sell is made by hand in the Czech Republic. The smiths there work the way the trade has been worked for a long time, heating and hammering the steel, taking the bevels down by eye, and fitting the handle and the leather one at a time. There is no automated line anywhere in it, so small differences from one piece to the next are normal and expected.

Ransack Viking is a United States company based in North Babylon, New York. We bring the pieces in ourselves, inspect them on arrival and ship them from our own warehouse. If you add engraving, that is carried out here in the United States before your order goes out.

A note on handmade variation

This knife is hand forged. It is not machine made and it is not bulk produced, so the one that arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. The grain in the pakka wood, the tone of the finish, the exact sweep of the grind line and the fine profile of the tip all vary a little, because every one is worked by hand from natural material. The dimensions, the steel and the build are the same every time. The character is not, and that is the part you cannot get from a production line.

Frequently asked questions

Is it sharp when it arrives?

Yes. The edge is set by hand on a stone before the knife is packed, and it will slice paper on arrival. It is a working edge rather than a razor polish, which is what you want on a knife this size, and it responds quickly to a strop or a fine stone if you like it keener.

How does it lock open?

It is a hand fitted folder that opens and seats positively, and the pivot is set so there is no side play at the tip. As with any folder, open and close it deliberately, keep your fingers clear of the arc, and do not treat it as a fixed blade for prying or batoning.

Will the pakka wood match the photograph?

Closely, but not exactly. Every handle is cut from a different piece of laminated stock, so the pattern of the grain and the depth of the colour move from knife to knife. The shape, the size and the fit are consistent.

What is the difference between this and a smaller Damascus folder?

Two things. Size, because five inches of blade cuts and levers in a way a three inch blade cannot, and steel, because a Damascus folder gives you a patterned high carbon blade that holds a fine edge but needs oiling. This one trades that for a blade you can neglect.

Can I have a name and a date put on it?

Yes. Use the rune converter above for Elder Futhark, or pick your own design in the engraving option and tell us whether it goes on the blade or the handle. A five inch blade gives plenty of room for a full name and a date on the flat.

Is it legal to carry?

That depends entirely on where you are. Blade length limits for carried folders vary by state and by city in the United States, and a five inch blade is over the limit in some places. Check your local rules before you carry it. Owning it and using it at home, at a campsite or in a workshop is not the same question as carrying it in public.

What is in the box

• One Pakkafold stainless steel folding pocket knife
• Protective packaging
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

If you are still comparing, look through Folding Pocket Knives, Viking Knives and Engraved and Personalized. The reasoning behind the steels, the handle materials and the sharpening advice all sits in the guides.

Others in the same line

Sitting beside it in the catalogue is the Steelfold folding pocket knife, pattern welded Damascus. Another in the same line is the Resincarry folding pocket knife, pattern welded Damascus. Next along the rack is the Bonefold folding pocket knife, pattern welded Damascus.

Fitting out further, the Scorpio hunting knife belongs with it. You can have this made your way instead on the custom hunting knife page.