Midgards-Messer Baby Valhalla Folding Knife

We live in a knife-making world, that increasingly pushes boring knives onto us; flat, plasticky G10 handle scales (G10 is predominantly used as electrical insulation) in nondescript colours, unimaginative blade shapes and stereotypical means of blade deployment and retrieval. How on earth YouTube reviewers can talk with any enthusiasms about those sorts of knives for more than 90 seconds without questioning their life choices and wishing they’d worked harder at school, is beyond me! Midgards Messer is not in that category. They appear to be ‘a higher intelligence’ that make exceptional and innovative art knives. Their knives are not always practical and I’d suggest they aren’t designed to be. Instead, their knives are created to make you exclaim ‘wow’! followed by a couple of adulatory expletives. Thus for me , as a collector of MM products, the blade steel type is of little consequence, as I’d never stoop to use it for cutting cardboard, timber or open tins of paint with the tip <shudder>. In my opinion, it’s the build quality and any design innovations that are important and the Baby Valhalla is beautifully and yet ruggedly built with a blade hinge that is unique and a wonder to behold. The MM designers have done that thing that many knife makers claim to have done but seldom do; explored new perspectives, have thought unconventionally to challenge assumptions of how a knife should operate. This magnificent knife is the glorious result. It is beautifully built with titanium handles replete with a please decorative milling reflected i’m the pocket clip. This milling isn’t at all sharp as with the slider knife, but instead feels good against the palm and fingers. It doesn’t feel big in my hand but then I’m habituated to MM-sized knives and other brands feel small to me! To deploy the blade you have to pull the blade slightly toward the proximal end of the handle rather than arcing it outwards as you would with an ordinary folding knife; it’s a very satisfying mechanism that will have you mesmerized as you watch all the lever angles changing and then clicking into place. I really do love this knife and feel sure it awaits slain warriors as a reward in Valhalla, the majestic hall of Asgard, ruled over by Odin! If you want a practical knife to cut up cardboard <yikes> look elsewhere and not to Midgard Messer; there’s plenty of soporific choice out there.

Well I'll be damned, they managed to make that maniacal contraption of a hinge into an actual usable knife! It genuinely is as well, thin(ish) blade stock and that high flat grind, one of the sharpest factory edges I've ever encountered, absolute beast. It's a big knife, feels even bigger in the hand, pretty damn heavy but that doesn't put me off. It's an unusual grip seeing as the finger choil is kind of mandatory, you can choke back but you'll only get a three finger grip. Despite that it feels good to me. Fit and finish is absolutely flawless. I own the full size Valhalla, it feels amateurish in comparison to this. The jimping is the best I've ever felt. The only thing that bothers me is the blade steel. During pre-production they were promising magnacut, here we are and the final product is in N690? For that price? It's a good job I already collect MM knives. It'd be 5 stars otherwise.