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Bushcraft and utility knives
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23-11-2011 3:15pm#1Of all the tools used in bushcraft and survival, the knife is the fundamental building block, since you can use that to get everything else. It can be used to cut and produce cordage, skin and clean animals and fish, process wood for fire and shelter, even make fire, man's oldest tool and the most useful. So your bush knife isn't something to skimp on.
Its important as well to make sure that your knife is razor sharp, as in easily cut paper sharp. My rule of thumb is for every ten minutes of accumulated use, sharpen it again.
Myself I have two, a small folder I use for fishing and everyday tasks about the house, and a larger utility knife. The folder is the Caledonian edge from cold steel, the gentleman's folder, based on the Scottish Skean Dubh or black knife kept in the sporran. Pleasing lines, simple appearance, and I like the micarta handle as well.
If you're thinking about getting one of these, make sure you order direct from Cold Steel stockists, there are a LOT of fakes going around.
The second one is the Ka-Bar, reputed to have gained its name after a message from a grateful trapper was sent to the manufacturers in the 19th century, who was unfortunately barely literate, thanking them for its help in "killing a bear", which he abbreviated to Ka-Bar. The name stuck, and we have a solid, respected knife which has seen use all over the world for the last century and more.
I use this for heavier tasks like chopping wood and hammering in tent pegs. The tang is wide and contained inside the handle for strength, I will say this, if you're getting a leather handle and mean to go anywhere near salt water, you need to varnish or paint it or the handle will turn soft and sticky.
The only other thing of note is the modified sheath, which I've added a couple of clips to for side-carry on the front or back, one clip goes around the belt, the other snaps to a belt loop. It can be handy to secure it like this for climbing or other situations where you don't need it flapping around, and also hangs securely inverted from the shoulderslung molle bag I have.
For the purposes of this thread if people could share their preferred utility knives rather than katanas and such, that might be best.2
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I use an old mauser knife that I bought in the late 80's as my main knife. Its basically a swiss army knife on steroids as its slightly larger than your typical swiss army type knife.
I dont have a pic handy of the actual knife as I am traveling at the moment. By all accounts its quite valuable now but mine has had fairly heavy use since the late 80's and still going strong. I have mine attached to a para cord lanyard with about 25 meters of cord attached to my jacket. Two blades are useful, I can skin quite well with the pointed blade and the normal blade for most other tasks, even the saw works bests of all I have tried.
My utility knife is a ex Gurkha issue Kukri, its does everything I ask of it and more. Its heavy but worth the weight.0 -
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Of all the knives there are 2 that i use all the time. The first is a hunting knife i bought a few years ago, its similar to a buck knife just a bit cheaper. This does all my hard work, choping wood ect and has taken a fair few fox tails and the likes. still sharp enough to shave, i just checked on my arm
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By far the knife i use more than any other is an opinal No.7. this one is well over a year old, lives in my pocket and is used dozens of times a day, it has skinned and gutted literally hundreds of rabbits, cut the wings off countless pigeons and all it askes for is one or 2 rubs of a stone every week or so and its as sharp as the day i paid €8 for it:cool: if you dont have one get one!
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I have custom knives that cost hundreds and are spectacular to use and look at, but for everyday use and abuse I like to use a buck 110. I usually keep the Mora clipper carbon in my BOB but take it with me when I'm camping. You really can't underestimate this knife. Amazing quality.
I'm going to try my hand at putting a handle on either an enzo trapper, a falkniven f1, or a similar full tang blade in the near future. The new model condor bushlore looks like it could be a great knife with a bit of tidying up on the grind and nice burr wood re-handle and a better sheath. I'm considering ordering one of these and putting a bit of work into it too.
Here are some pics. The gransfors small forest axe and the buck are basically new in these pics: they look a little different now!
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An unbreakable, non corroding, extremely sharp piece of metal big enough to baton logs that you never need to maintain would do it for me.
So a stainless steel blade at least 100mm long and thick enough to baton logs so 4.5mm thickness or more ...........sounds good
What about a blade profile (shape) any other duties other than splitting logs ?
Would it need a handle ? if so .. What material in handle? Why?
What steel in blade? Stainless I know but anything more specific ?
Does it need a finger guard ? or a big pommel for hammering ?
I'm not trying to be a smart ass, but maybe if everyone put their heads together based on their own requirements and experiences the perfect knife might be designable or indeed already exist0 -
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It would be a carbon steel Loveless or Dozier first choiceWhat would the ideal survival knife be made of / look like / do and why ?
After that maybe something in an exotic steel, CPM Rex 121 or some new Carpenter CPM steel.
It would be about three inch in length with a full flat or full height convex grind, and be slicing sharp, not for batoning.
Maybe something like the small hunter Phil Wilson does, crazy hard thin "super steels".
For a proper woods and hunting knife I like the looks of the Mors Kochanski inspired Skookum Bush tool
http://www.skookumbushtool.com/
But why stop at just one
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Originally Posted by Deise Musashi
After that maybe something in an exotic steel, CPM Rex 121 or some new Carpenter CPM steel.
Farid Mehr made a a couple of cutting competition knives from CPM Rex 121 one time and I remember him saying that it took over 400 abrasive belts to grind one blade. At a fiver or so each it made for one expensive piece of kit. But then I also remember him saying something about chopping over a thousand cans before it lost its edge, so obviously pretty impressive stuff. He still has one for sale if anyone has the urge.0 -
What's your thinking on San Mai III steel?
I'm guessing this is on Cold Steel's offerings?
I'm not that impressed with the spec. I've been able to find on these. The old "Carbon V" knives were made by Camillus, and were good stuff. The newer offerings use different makers and the reviews haven't been as glowing.
I'm sure the knives are tough enough, I have a couple in the standard AUS8, and they do fine. I wouldn't be inclined to pay the premium for laminated VG-1, when there are much better knives for similar or less money.
A Cold Steel San Mai Trailmaster is $289.95 on Knifecenter.
Kniveshipfree will sell me an A2 Bark River Bravo 2 for $230, or the BRKT STS8 in 154cm for $230, or even a Blackjack 1-7 or halo attack for $210.
I like Cold Steel, but their premium steel isn't really compared to some stuff that is out there, and they should lower their prices accordingly.
For a beater though a standard Recon Scout is pretty sweet! 0 -
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Hahaha, I deliberately didn't link to the videos of the well provisioned gent in the short shorts (why?) kung-fuing his way through a side of ham to heavy metal background music. I have to say I'm very satisfied with everything I have from them so far though, and thats the skean dubh, a shillelagh, and one other item. I haven't managed to put them beyond their tolerances yet, and not for lack of trying.
Would I feel comfortable trusting my life to them? I'd have to say yes.
Well you probably could have linked a nutnfancy video if we had a spare 3 hours to watch it. been tempted by a shillelagh. partly because my knees aren't great anymore, at 27,
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Its a very solid piece, but you need to shoe it and maybe put rubber on the bottom as it has no grip at all. I wrapped a bit of brass round the bottom of mine, but some just use standard medical walking stick shoes.kieranfitz wrote: »been tempted by a shillelagh. partly because my knees aren't great anymore, at 27,0 -
I bought a few Cold Steel Kobun's a few years ago when they were on sale. I gave them to mates who I knew would abuse the ****e out of them.
We all grew up in the era when the Cold Steel Tanto was the be all and end all of knives :rolleyes:
So far none of the knives have broken, even after being used to cut open oil barrels or steel banding on bales of blocks. The boys have been well impressed by how their knives held up.
Their wives and GF's were less impressed with me handing out "combat knives" to the lads.
I prefer other knives these days, but I've owned my share of Cold Steel!0 -
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id be up for that. Could you make the blade longer than you usually do? Most of your knives iv seen have short blades 
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