Rokka Knives Korpisoturi First Impressions
As a company based in Karelia, we try to keep our ear to the ground regarding our neighbors and their fellow businesses. When we heard that there was a new knife company based in Karelia, called Rokka Knives, we knew we had to reach out to them. They were kind enough to send us some samples on the agreement that we would give them our honest opinion after a few months of hard use no matter if it was good or bad and we intend to provide an honest review.
Rokka entered the market with their first knife called the Korpisoturi. Now, something is sort of lost in the translation, but a Korpisoturi was the name given to the Finnish soldiers who repelled the Soviet invasion of 1939 in the wilderness forests nd swamps of Finland. Korpisoturi is essentially a “Deep-Woods Warrior”, a soldier trained to fight a hit and run war against a larger adversary. The Korpisoturi is a knife designed for the professional soldier who may fight in those same forests today.
When I had first looked at these knives, I have to be honest and say that I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. Were these going to be a more expensive Morakniv? Something more like a Fallkniven? Maybe a more traditional Puukko? After handling it a bit, I have to say that these knives are definitely something different entirely.
The blade is clearly a Puukko, it retains the traditional rhombic-scandi design that so many people are familiar with and is made with the well-known Bohler 80CrV2 carbon steel from Germany, the favorite steel of many well-known knife makers. However, this is where the traditions end and the well-engineered modern design of this knife begins.
The 105mm blade is sharpened to 19 degrees, has a slight clip point and is hardened to 63 HRC, which is considerably harder than the usual 58 or 59 HRC found on most Finnish Puukko. The 5mm thick stock is sharpened to 90 degrees for use with a firesteel and makes for a beast of a blade that you can be sure to count on. The tang runs through the handle and ends in a glass-breaker that proves that the rhombic profile is true throughout the entire knife, there are no round edges anywhere on this blade, just aggressive angles. This is a razor sharp pry-bar that would be an incredible choice for a SHTF knife. The Korpisoturi would be equally at home in combat or as a do-it-all camp tool. In fact, now that I think about it…this would probably be the knife that I grab and go with.
Rather than opting for a more traditional handle material like birch bark, wood or leather, Rokka Knives decided to implement a handle made from TPE Dryflex, a thermoplastic from Sweden that is soft to the touch and incredibly durable. It’s easy to clean, lightweight and feels like it is stuck to your hand no matter the conditions of use. Traditionalists may frown upon this choice of using a synthetic handle and as someone who loves the classic feel and look of a knife with a natural handle, I was skeptical. However after using it for a while, I am a convert. The handle feels incredibly comfortable to use. There are no hot-spots anywhere on the handle and you can easily use this for hours without developing a bad blister. There are portions that were textured for your fingers and thumb which feel very secure and the knife possesses a slight guard for your index finger to ensure you will never slide onto the blade. Actually, the handle might be my favorite part about this knife, it’s that good.
The sheath is made from Kareline Natural Composite, the same ingenious wood based cellulose fiber and thermoplastic material that was invented by Kupilka for their cups. In fact, we at Karu Survival designed a fire striker with this same material. It is waterproof, machine washable; you can do absolutely anything to it except throw it in the fire. The sheath is ambidextrous and comes with a malice clip that you can attach in order to fit the sheath to your belt or MOLLE system, the multiple attachment options are something that I really like, as someone who does use a fair bit of MOLLE gear. The sheath also has a lanyard hole, which I appreciate as I am sometimes inclined to neck-carry my knife like Mors Kochanski. It does feel like a big knife to carry around your neck, but not overly so. In addition, the sheath feels very secure and provides a nice “click” when you place the knife back. I see no reasonable way that this knife would ever fly out on you.
As far as performance goes, I have only had the knife for a short time so I am still building my opinion, but in the kitchen, it performs shockingly well for such a thick knife. The blade manages dicing onions and garlic very easily and the 19 degree angle on the blade allows for some very precise cuts on meat, something that I am sure to appreciate come hunting season. The blade carves feather sticks like an absolute dream, but of course any sharp knife in the right hands can do that. The thick stock allows for some pretty heavy battoning, I managed to split some irresponsibly thick pieces of hard, dry birch with it. I am not sure if I mentioned how comfortable the handle was, but it really lends itself to the overall performance of this knife. The contours practically melt into your hand and you feel very secure doing surprisingly fine work. After a few months of more use, I hope to have a stronger opinion on the knife’s performance but so far, I like what I see.
Overall, this is an excellent knife. It is hard to find any serious faults with it, but there are some things I would change. The sheath feels cheap, regardless of how clever it is. Does it feel as cheap or insecure as a Morakniv plastic sheath or as a Fallkniven Zytel sheath? No, it is considerably better than those. However it does not feel as nice as a custom Kydex option or a well-made leather sheath probably would. At this price point, a leather option may be nice. I may go ahead and seek out a custom Kydex maker to make me something nicer for it. In addition, the malice clip, while a very secure option to lash this knife to your kit, is an absolute pain to remove. Of course, the advantage of this is that you will never lose it. However it remains probably my least favorite aspect of this knife. In addition, the chosen color of “definitely-going-to-lose-me-brownish-green” is probably terrific for lovers of tactical gear, but some other color options would probably be nice. Rokka as plans to make these knives in black and perhaps some others, but until then I plan on tying a high visibility paracord lanyard to the glass breaker. While the steel is great and the knife is obviously strong, 5mm thick does seem a little overkill and they could probably have saved a little weight on that decision. However this is a knife designed for soldiers and I understand that overbuilding something like this would probably be better than underbuilding. Also, while I am a huge fan of 80CrV2 for a choice of steel, particularly with this impressive heat treat, I wonder if a stainless like CPM-3V or Bohler N690 would have been a potential option, simply for more care-free steel as opposed to carbon.
Despite these shortcomings, the Korpisoturi is a hell of a nice knife. The blade was probably the sharpest production knife I have ever had out of the box, the handle is wonderful and the effort that went into this knife’s design is impressive. At 127 grams, this is actually an amazingly lightweight knife at this size and the balance is just about as perfect as you could possibly ask for. The knife is being sold for around 160 euros, which isn’t cheap, but it does feel like a premium knife. This is a blade that is definitely closer to something high end like a Fallkniven than a budget-friendly Morakniv. Honestly, for me it feels like a lot of knife for the money, especially if they could iron out the sheath a bit. While it may not be for everyone (looking at you traditionalists), I do feel there are a lot of people out there that would love this knife and it should definitely be on more folks’ radar. Personally, I am pretty excited to see what else Rokka Knives comes up with in the future and I am looking forward to writing a follow up on this article after we have put this blade through its paces a bit more.
Written by Justin Lehmann (IG lehmann_outdoors)