Bark River Grizzly Q

G

GrReaper

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Sep 22, 2014
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I got an email from dlttrading today about the Bark River Grizzly. (dlttrading is on bladeforums and I believe I've seen them posting, so hopefully I'm allowed to mention them.) It's got about a 9 inch blade and almost .28 of an inch thick of CPM3V steel. Has a big fuller.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think it's a nice knife and I like it overall, otherwise I wouldn't be posting about it. But one design aspect I don't get is the combination of thickness of the knife plus the huge fuller. Presumably, the fuller is there to reduce weight. If the fuller wasn't there, couldn't they have done a 1/4 or 3/16 inch thickness instead? That would have reduced weight. Why make a thicker blade, only to add a fuller? What do you think?

I would have preferred a little more substantial half guard also, to keep fingers off blade on a strong thrust into the ground or ice in an emergency. Meh, I think I'll pass on it.
 
It looks a tad light chopper-ish to me. I don't trust it to be the correct steel, and even if it is 3v, it won't be near 3v as done by NTM.

It's a good looking knife but for the reasons above it is a no go.
 
shinyedges said:
It looks a tad light chopper-ish to me. I don't trust it to be the correct steel, and even if it is 3v, it won't be near 3v as done by NTM.

It's a good looking knife but for the reasons above it is a no go.
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Sorry, the old brain is not firing too rapidly right now.:D What does "NTM" stand for?
 
GrReaper said:
Sorry, the old brain is not firing too rapidly right now.:D What does "NTM" stand for?
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Nathan The Machinist, makes a very similar profiled blade in 3v. He has a custom heat treat that is top notch. As such his 3v is exceptional.
 
Per the price, with the sheath you get with it, I honestly think the production Grizzly is among the best values you can get in a fixed blade. Just my opinion.

And yes, the fuller is aesthetic. Peter Kohler (DTK designer/maker) said that the fuller on the production model Grizzly was implemented to make up for the fact that there wasn't a brut de forge finish at the spine like the custom Grizzlies had.
 
Apocryphiliac said:
Per the price, with the sheath you get with it, I honestly think the production Grizzly is among the best values you can get in a fixed blade. Just my opinion.

And yes, the fuller is aesthetic. Peter Kohler (DTK designer/maker) said that the fuller on the production model Grizzly was implemented to make up for the fact that there wasn't a brut de forge finish at the spine like the custom Grizzlies had.
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Yeah, I think part of the problem is that I have too many knives already and therefore I get more and more discriminating about each new potential purchase. If I didn't already have a Bark River Bravo 2 and an American Knife Company Denali (also made by Bark River), I'd probably pull the trigger on the Grizzly. The sheath does look great, I agree. The two Bark Rivers I have came with very high quality leather sheaths with great fit.
 
GrReaper said:
Yeah, I think part of the problem is that I have too many knives already and therefore I get more and more discriminating about each new potential purchase. If I didn't already have a Bark River Bravo 2 and an American Knife Company Denali (also made by Bark River), I'd probably pull the trigger on the Grizzly. The sheath does look great, I agree. The two Bark Rivers I have came with very high quality leather sheaths with great fit.
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Understandable. I have about 15 or so Barkies and the Griz is the best thing I’ve seen come from them. The fit and finish on it was noticeably better than any other blade I got from them. Maybe I got lucky, but I think there are some models that they put a little more into, and the Griz seems to be one of them.
 
GrReaper said:
I got an email from dlttrading today about the Bark River Grizzly. (dlttrading is on bladeforums and I believe I've seen them posting, so hopefully I'm allowed to mention them.) It's got about a 9 inch blade and almost .28 of an inch thick of CPM3V steel. Has a big fuller.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think it's a nice knife and I like it overall, otherwise I wouldn't be posting about it. But one design aspect I don't get is the combination of thickness of the knife plus the huge fuller. Presumably, the fuller is there to reduce weight. If the fuller wasn't there, couldn't they have done a 1/4 or 3/16 inch thickness instead? That would have reduced weight. Why make a thicker blade, only to add a fuller? What do you think?

I would have preferred a little more substantial half guard also, to keep fingers off blade on a strong thrust into the ground or ice in an emergency. Meh, I think I'll pass on it.
Click to expand...

I got one of the first run. It is very thick at the spine. Very nice balance. Very sharp. I like the feel in hand and the appearance. Little risk of the handle sliding, self guard I think its called. If they had done more interesting handles on this run I might have gotten one more.
 
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