Sld1959
Hellcat
Making the Sami knife in another thread got me to remembering the great bushcraft knife debate of 25 years ago.
It all started innocently enough , I was a moderator in a outdoors forum for several years prior. This was in the year building up to Y2K and survival sites were sprouting up like weeds. One slow week I asked, what is a bushcraft knife to everyone, and boy did it heat up. For about a week, maybe longer it was hot and heavy. There were members there from The Cabin our site, Hoods Woods Hoodlums, Frugal Squirrels and all over.
Opinions varied from length, from 3 -8 inches, and some longer, distinct patterns like Kepharts, Bowie, pukkos and Luekos to everything in between. People even argued that a bushcraft knife is different than a survival knife. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that if you look at a dozen so called knife information sites you might get as many opinion as varied.
In the end it kind of petered out like every thread, no real conclusions ever surfaced except that everyone in the end said a bushcraft knife is a survival knife but all survival knives are not bushcraft knives. We did settle on a vauge set of criteria for the majority. This is all going by memory so I might forget a thing or two.
The bushcraft knife should:
1. Help the user survive in the wilderness. This means being able to process game, assist in shelter building, and assist in fire building.
2. Can be of any pattern the user perfers
3. Should be easily resharpened using found materials.
4. A sharp defined spine is preferable to a rounded to assist in using ferro type rod and flints.
5. Should have at least a thru tang, or preferably a full tang, for strength because:
6. The knife should be strong and no prone to fail under hard use
7. The most useful length ranges from 3 to 8 inches depending upon user preferences.
I think that was the general list.
Thinking of that i grabbed my knife bag and wanted 5 examples that fit those rules.
1. Homemade knife I forged from a railroad spike I believe.
2. Marbles Bison.
3. Sami pattern I made from a pre-made blade.
4. Large Nessmuk pattern blade I made.
5. KABAR FUK (fighting utility knife)
Definitive, nope, just the result of an argument lol.
It all started innocently enough , I was a moderator in a outdoors forum for several years prior. This was in the year building up to Y2K and survival sites were sprouting up like weeds. One slow week I asked, what is a bushcraft knife to everyone, and boy did it heat up. For about a week, maybe longer it was hot and heavy. There were members there from The Cabin our site, Hoods Woods Hoodlums, Frugal Squirrels and all over.
Opinions varied from length, from 3 -8 inches, and some longer, distinct patterns like Kepharts, Bowie, pukkos and Luekos to everything in between. People even argued that a bushcraft knife is different than a survival knife. Part of the confusion stems from the fact that if you look at a dozen so called knife information sites you might get as many opinion as varied.
In the end it kind of petered out like every thread, no real conclusions ever surfaced except that everyone in the end said a bushcraft knife is a survival knife but all survival knives are not bushcraft knives. We did settle on a vauge set of criteria for the majority. This is all going by memory so I might forget a thing or two.
The bushcraft knife should:
1. Help the user survive in the wilderness. This means being able to process game, assist in shelter building, and assist in fire building.
2. Can be of any pattern the user perfers
3. Should be easily resharpened using found materials.
4. A sharp defined spine is preferable to a rounded to assist in using ferro type rod and flints.
5. Should have at least a thru tang, or preferably a full tang, for strength because:
6. The knife should be strong and no prone to fail under hard use
7. The most useful length ranges from 3 to 8 inches depending upon user preferences.
I think that was the general list.
Thinking of that i grabbed my knife bag and wanted 5 examples that fit those rules.
1. Homemade knife I forged from a railroad spike I believe.
2. Marbles Bison.
3. Sami pattern I made from a pre-made blade.
4. Large Nessmuk pattern blade I made.
5. KABAR FUK (fighting utility knife)
Definitive, nope, just the result of an argument lol.