1/8" thick blade,tough enough ?

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patrickjames

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Feb 11, 2006
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I just received a Gene Ingram knife 2nd hand called a Bushlite.Workmanship is second to none IMO.My question is the blade is 6" long of 1/8'' stock.The blade steel is A-2.It's going to be a great skinner,but is it thick enough for and all around survival style knife.Thank you
 
patrickjames said:
I just received a Gene Ingram knife 2nd hand called a Bushlite.Workmanship is second to none IMO.My question is the blade is 6" long of 1/8'' stock.The blade steel is A-2.It's going to be a great skinner,but is it thick enough for and all around survival style knife.Thank you
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if the steel and heat treat are good, then about the only thing you cannot do with it is pry. But you should be able to baton, chop and anything else for a knife that size. A2 is a very good steel with about 80% the toughness of cpm3V at the same hardness. I would want mine at about an Rc of 57.
 
Agree, that knife is fine for an all-around survival knife, provided you use a modicum of skill and common sense. As Cobalt mentioned, don't try to do heavy prying with it, and at 1/8" it won't be a great chopper. But batoning, use as a draw knife, etc.? No sweat. If you want to do effective chopping with one hand, you'd need something both thicker and longer ... or you can just pair the knife you have with a folding saw, which you can use one-handed for some of the jobs you'd use a chopper for.
 
I tend to think of 1/8" stock as about minimum for a field knife, and prefer more for a knife that long. But that doesn't mean it's not tough enough. The guys above are right, accept its limitations, use it with comon sense and add a folding saw or hatchet for heavier work. If you really like that knife, it's good and sharp and feels good in your hand, you're likely to take good care of it and enjoy doing so.

There is a perfect ratio for thickness/length, only problem is you will get different answers from each person you ask :)
 
Tramontina machetes are as tough as anything and run closer to .080". Most Moras top out at about .098". I personally am pretty skeptical of the need for a knife thicker than about 1/8". Serious prying is best done with something other than a knife.
 
I like to reserve 1/8" thick knives for more precision work like carving, food prep and big game work. This size is capable of handling batoning although I personally prefer something thicker.
Scott
 
A 1/8 inch knife if made properly can take a lot and if you have a choice of steel you can make one hell of a knife. I would use L6 or S7 for a hard use survival knife 1/8 inch thick. But A2 will work at the lower Rc's.

There is just no prying to be done with this as it has no lateral strength.
 
I tool a look at Gene Ingram's work and judging by his craftsmanship, if I were stuck in the woods and you handed me one of his knives, I wouldn't be crying about it-- time to get to work :)

It's a knife, not a hatchet or a machete, and I'm sure it will do a fine job of supporting you in the boonies. Like the others said, add a hatchet/machete/saw if you are worried about being able to chop up larger diameter stuff.
 
If we look back at history we will see that people who made a living in the wild used 1/8 and thinner. The averidge Green River knife was just a large butcher knife, and the long knives of the Kentucky riflemen era were 1/8 and some under. At 10 to 12 inches in length the long knives were used like small machetes, or after the one shot was fired, a defence tool if a hawk was unavailable.

With good steel and good heat treat, 1/8 should handle anything you will encounter in the real world. Of course under brain eating zombi attacks conditions may vary.:D
 
Last evening I sliced up some food in my kitchen with a 1/8" knife Doug Ritter MK3 fixed blade knife and it worked like a charm. I have also split 2 and 3 inch rounds of dried mulberry and hedgeapple then made up some fuzz sticks with that knife also. Here is the food prep pic and a pic of another kit that I have made up too.
I think we get into the mind set of we are only going to have that ONE knife sitution happen to us and what knife we are going to survive with. 1/8" is blade steel great thickness for evey day carry I think. If you had to choose just one knife to use for a sitution I would not like to use less that 1/8".
 
I made a error and for got to put in the pics. Here are the pics.
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Take care all,
Bryan
 
My standard Nessmuks are 0.090" thick. 1/8 = 0.125" thick. I put a zero bevel convex edge on them. I chopped a 2x4 with one, and the edge held, and had no damage. I've batonned with them too. Here is the kicker. They slice so much better than a thick bladed knife that it is insane.

Yes. IMO, .125 is WAY thick enough.

If you're prying with your knife, and I'm around, I'm going to laugh at you.
 
jackknife said:
If we look back at history we will see that people who made a living in the wild used 1/8 and thinner. The averidge Green River knife was just a large butcher knife, and the long knives of the Kentucky riflemen era were 1/8 and some under. At 10 to 12 inches in length the long knives were used like small machetes, or after the one shot was fired, a defence tool if a hawk was unavailable.
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I'd be curious to hear some documentation for this. It sounds like one of those things us modern folk just "know" since it's been repeated so often, but I have seen/read about plenty of thicker knives from that era too. And of course, this would change if they didn't have those 'hawks and axes and such along.

But yes, I agree with your basic stance that 1/8" should be plenty thick enough for most stuff.
 
the possum said:
I'd be curious to hear some documentation for this. It sounds like one of those things us modern folk just "know" since it's been repeated so often, but I have seen/read about plenty of thicker knives from that era too. And of course, this would change if they didn't have those 'hawks and axes and such along.

But yes, I agree with your basic stance that 1/8" should be plenty thick enough for most stuff.
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Also one would have to consider the advancements in metalurgy and ability to work steel from the 1800's through modern times.

I would wager that 150 years ago there were many more knives with tips missing and chipped cutting edges than what you find today.
 
I agree with Fiddleback.

I think that unless you are talking big chopper that the advantages of a thinner blade as far as sharpness and versatility of use outweigh any loss of utility.

1/8 is great IMO. I have a Scandi Swamp Oak on order from Charles May that is 1/8:thumbup:

Image_Knife.jpg
 
the possum said:
I'd be curious to hear some documentation for this. It sounds like one of those things us modern folk just "know" since it's been repeated so often, but I have seen/read about plenty of thicker knives from that era too. And of course, this would change if they didn't have those 'hawks and axes and such along.

But yes, I agree with your basic stance that 1/8" should be plenty thick enough for most stuff.
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My knowledge of this is from having the chance to examine the knives in question at the N.R.A. museum before it moved from the location at 1600 Rhode Island ave. Washington D.C.

Then curator was Mr. Elliot Minor, and he let me handle some of the knives from that era that were in a display of Kentucky rifles and assosiated gear. There was not one long knife greater than 1/8 thickness, and some were less. They seemed no thicker than the run of the mill machete.

In another display was a couple of original Russells Green River knives. Same story. In fact the Green River knives were no different than a very large common butcher knife.

On another ocassion I was at the Fur Trade Museum at Bents Old Fort outside La Junta Colorado and they had a very nice display of tools of the era, knives included.

So my statements stem from personal examination of the knives, and that being a machinist for almost 30 years I recognize 1/8 or 3/32 stock when I see it.
 
If prying is not a concern, and it's not for many knife users, the only real reason to have a thicker steel is adding weight for chopping and such. Some people just like having a bit of heft to their blades in general.
Personally I think 1/8'' is just about right for a fixed in the 3 to 6 inch blade range.
 
The trick with the old knives is that they were not made with stainless or high alloy steel. They would probably fall into the range of 1050 to 1080 carbon steel. They would be much less brittle than most of our modern fancy knives. With a stainless or tool steel blade you would want to go a bit thicker.
 
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