It’s nice to enjoy the finer things in life. For drivers, it could be English cars. For foodies, French wine. For outdoorsmen, Italian knives.

The Fox Knives Njall is designed by Jesper Voxnaes and made in Maniago, Italy. It is a beautiful and uncompromising piece of equipment. The blade is 4.25 inches long and is made of Bohler N690Co stainless steel with a fine edge. This gives you great edge strength and rust resistance. The satin polish gives off a wonderful shine. The clip point is stout and has a deep belly, making it a good choice for a skinning knife. The steel is also .19 inches thick, allowing it to baton through wood easily. However, the cutting edge is only 3.5 inches, so this blade will only handle thinner pieces of wood.

The handle is olive drab micarta and is held in place with stainless steel tube pins, which can be seen in other Vox fixed blade designs. There is also an option for orange G10 scales for better visibility.

The knife weighs in at 8.07 ounces and does a fair job chopping for a knife of its size. This is because of the added heft towards the belly of the blade. However, the micarta handle scales are quite smooth and the Njall almost came out of my grip without a lanyard. Consider horizontal batoning if you really need to get through larger pieces of wood.

This knife is practically a light saber when it comes to processing tinder. The fine edge holds well and creates feather sticks without a problem. Because the handle is quite comfortable, I was able to make quite a tinder pile before needing to relax my grip.

The knife doesn’t penetrate as well as other clip or drop point blades that I’ve used because of how stout it is. This doesn’t bother me because there is a lot of strength in the blade and a lower risk of bending the tip when stabbing harder materials. The smoothness of the handle does pose another risk with this motion, since my gloved hand was sliding forward a bit when stabbing in a standard grip.

The sheath is high quality Italian leather and keeps solid retention on the blade. Beware, it does not have a snap or other closure to secure it upside down. The retention could also wear off over time and use. It’s also dedicated for righties (again, I am a left handed gear tester).

In short, the Njall is a beautiful and capable knife that is a companion to any outdoorsman.

For more high quality blade choices, check out foxcutlery.com

Music: bensound.com