Disclaimer:
I am from Michigan. I love the state and wish to move back there soon. My first REAL bushcrafting knife of good quality was a BRKT Aurora that I ordered from Crystal Falls Michigan (With matching custom Firesteel thank you very much) and I loved that damned knife. I have a soft spot in my heart for BRKT - they are 'local business' to me in a way.
With that said - I have owned quite a few Bark Rivers in my time and I have no issue with selling one that does not fit me - or calling BRKT to get something fixed or adjusted if I don't think it is perfect.
I have owned:
Aurora
3 Gunny's
Kephart
Kephart Companion
Ultra Light Bushcrafter
Liten Bror
Mikro Canadian II
Mikro Tusk
and a few others I am sure I am forgetting right now.
Packaging:
Bark River ships their knives in small rectagonal boxes, sheathes the blade in a cardboard cover, wraps the knife in tissue paper and plastic and sends the accompanying sheath in a separate plastic pouch. I have yet to receive a BRKT with any trouble in shipping. I bought this knife 'used' (very lightly - honestly - I couldn't even tell) and it came wrapped very similarly to the factory. No damage - the blade looks great.
Fit and Finish:
I talked to Jackie at BRKT a while back (I had sent a Gunny in to get the thumb ramp taken off) and I asked them not to touch the blade grind in any other way. It came back with the grind touched up and the etching put back on. When I asked why - she said they had changed policies lately on how they were sending out their blades and all blades that come in for spa treatment get this upgrade.
I didn't really think about it too much at the time - but now that I recall all the Bark River's I have owned - I think BRKT has made some improvements to their Quality Control in the last steps in blade finish, polish, and consistency.
This Bushcrafter, I can say without hesitation, has the best fit and finish of all the Bark River's I have owner from the factory. On of the things that bothered me about BRKT's is that they came from the factory with a low grit finish on the blades. They were 'okay' but just a little more time on the grinder with a higher grit belt would have made them perfect. I think they have altered this recently. Not only did the blade come with a VERY consistent high grit matte finish - but extra time has been spend on the scales. The polish is very good on this knife and the handle really shines.
There are a few nits to pick. A slight misstep on one of the butt bevel's and the pins are a little proud of the wood - but they are VERY small nits indeed.
The Lignam Vitae is top notch and the figuring on this wood is excellent - as mentioned above - the polishing is perfect and the handle, if you like this kind of wood, really looks great. Overall this knife is a great looking knife - but for the price - it better look damned good. BRKT seems to have stepped up their game in the fit and finish department - which was really good to begin with.
Original Sharpening:
I was anxious to give the CPM 3V a go. It is a steel known for its toughness and I wanted to sharpen this knife to see how easily (or not) I could maintain it. The knife came VERY sharp out of the box- but I always sharpen and hone a knife before using it. I just like to make the knife 'mine' before I use it. I started with 600 grit Wet Dry sand paper and sharpened along the whole bevel, taking out any deep grinding marks. This was a simple process and although the 3V definitely was not as easy to sharpen as A2 - it was not difficult by any means. I quickly moved up to 1500 grit and finished with 2000 grit and then worn 2000 grit. I moved to the strop and stropped from Black compound, to green, to white, to bare leather.
The knife simply wipes away hair. I went out in the garage and grabbed a chunk of Mexican Sycamore (seasoned) and started to carve huge chunks off it. I want to know RIGHT AWAY if an edge is going to roll on me. If so - I send the knife back and I am done with it. I have too many good knives in my stable to mess around with a knife with the wrong heat treat or edge geometry. This knife took the abuse and I felt no difference in the blade edge with my thumb nail - a GREAT sign.
I have found that I can tell within minutes if a blade steel is going to be good - or just trouble. I don't need to baton it through rock to determine if a knife edge has what it takes to work for me. The rest is about comfort and geometry. This steel was treated right, took and held and edge, and remained VERY sharp throughout my use - VERY sharp.
One last thing - the plunge lines and grind lines are EXTREMELY accurate - as in - a set of calipers were used to test them - and I was very satisfied.
Blade Geometry - the "Scandi-vex"
This is where I was VERY skeptical. I have owned many convex knives, many scandi knives, and many double bevel knives - but only one Scandivex knife. The Scandivex knife I owned was by Koyote (on these boards) and I loved it. However - it was 1/8th steel and the scandivex seems to make more sense in a thinner knife (the shoulder of the convex is not too thick). In case you are new to this word (as it is recently made up) the Scandivex is simple a low sabre grind convex edge. Or - a convex edge put on a knife at the height that a normal scandi grind would be ground to.
I am not a fan of the concept of a Scandivex. Either have a Scandi - or have a convex. It is like putting a secondary bevel on a Scandi knife - it is just bad ju ju. Like training wheels on a Harley. However, I did like the Koyote blade so i gave it a shot.
The Scandivex edge on the Bushcrafter does not bite as deep or carve as well as a Scandi Knife of the same blade width (I used a Adventure Sworn Woodlore style knife to test against). It also does not slice as easily as a full convex knife of the same width (I used a Gunny to test against). With that said - it DID cut almost exactly the same as my double bevel (25 degree inclusive) knives - which is to say - damned fine.
The Scandivex seems to be a compromise grind. If you were in a soft woods - you would be better off with a Scandi. If you were primarily in a hard woods - you would be better off with a good Convex - but if you wanted one knife that did well in both woods - a Scandivex is very nice.
As you can see from the picture above - it looks like nearly an identical bevel (25 degrees inclusive) like the Woodlore.
I found I could slice just fine - and I could carve fine. Again, not as well as the more specialized knives - but this was to be expected. I have no doubt this knife edge would perform VERY well in the bush over the long haul.
With this said - I think this knife needs to be sharpened along the entire length of the grind when sharpening. If you convex JUST the edge of a scandivex I think you will end up with a convex edge that is too steep to use comfortably. When sharpening - draw the blade over the paper or stone and rock the blade slightly as to take material off the entire height of the grind. When I did this on my first sharpening - and thinned the shoulder out a bit on the convex edge and came to like the grind a little more.
Blade Design:
BRKT and DT decided to go with a drop point for this knife with a slight hump back to it. These are odd decisions to me. I prefer a flat backed knife with a spear point for bushcrafting. I am not sure why they did this. Was the drop point to aid in skinning? Was thehump back to provide more room for the thumb when you choke up? I don't know. It doesn't seem to take away from performance - but it also doesn't seem to add to it either. I prefer a spear point because Bushcraft knives are primarily used for wood - the spear point excels in drilling. I don't see either of these decisions as a big deal - but again - and odd decision for a bushcraft knife.
The edge is flat, with no belly. You would think if they had skinning in mind - they would have added a little belly to assist with this process - but they did not. Perhaps this is another compromise in the design of this knife. It seems to work just fine either way.
One of the really cool touches that BRKT put into this design is that they made the tip grind slightly more steep than the flat of the blade. This makes for a more stout tip and thus a more durable tip. I have been doing this on my scandi's for some time - and have come to see it as a GREAT idea for a scandi style knife.
Balance:
The balance of the Bushcrafter is 1/8th inch behind the front pin. This is where your first finger rest naturally on this handle due to its size and design. I would say, then that the balance point of this knife is right at the first finger. Normally the balance point of a BRKT is at the front pin - but due to the slightly longer handle design - BRKT did well to move back the balance point some. The knife moves easily in the hand because of this.
Handle Design:
I am a HUGE fan of the Ray Mears / Alan Wood handle style. However - it does favor the hammer grip / reverse grip and can be too meaty for some hands. I was interested to see if BRKT made the scales too thin on this knife to be of use in the long run. I have owned a custom made Ray Laconico Bushcrafter for some time - and I worried about the scales being too thin when I first received the knife. However, Ray designed the knife to be wider from top to bottom and thus the slightly thinner scales are no big deal - and are very comfortable. The BRKT Gunny is not as wide from top to bottom as the Bushcrafter and thus has slightly thicker scales to make up the difference and is very comfortable. The Koster Buscrafter is much the same - thicker scales - not as wide from top to bottom - however - Koster does not bevel his knives toward the ricossa and it makes for a knife that is tough to choke up on.
The BRKT Bushcrafter, again, seems to have compromised by having slightly thinner scales - but a wider handle from top to bottom. I find the BRKT Bushcrafter to be as comfortable as my Koster Bushcrafter and my Laconico. With that said - if you have meat hands and like the feel of a Mears Woodlore - this knife will feel a bit thin for you. If you like a BRKT Gunny - you will like this handle.
Picture by Varg Lobos
With that said - BRKT did something really cool with this handle design. They made it more neutral than the Gunny (it is more nimble and more comfortable in more positions) but not as Neutral as the Kephart. They also give AMPLE handle on this which makes the knife VERY nice to use in multiple positions. The do thin the handle toward the handle but they also dimple it somewhat which makes a choked up position VERY comfortable as well as a chest lever hold that foes not require the thumb to leave the handle.
As you can see here in Varg Lobo's pictures - the thumb naturally rests on the front of the scales - imagine flipping the blade to the chest lever - and this position is VERY comfortable.
I like this touch and think it is a cool design element.
The butt is more neutral than the Mears / Wood design but gives you something to hold on to when times get wet. They could have added a but more width from top to bottom in the butt for my tastes - but that is just me.
The lanyard tube is HUGE and makes paracord use very easy. It is about time.
Sheath:
The sheath that came with this knife was the KSF Forrest sheath. Whew - this is what a sheath should be like. 8-10 ounce leather - very thick - deep pouch, removable firesteel loop , well stitched and well finished. I am DEEPLY impressed by the bang for the buck for this sheath - and would HIGHLY advise ordering this sheath over the Bushcrafter B that can come with the knife.
One of the touches that I think makes this sheath really cool is how they did the belt loop. They not only added a piece of leather that allowed for the belt to slide in perfectly - but they skived the edges where the belt slides in to make it more comfortable to the end user.
The ONLY draw back is that you cannot attach a dangler to this sheath easily - but with as low as it rides - you likely would not need to. This was the first sheath I took out of the box from BRKT and actually removed it from the plastic as opposed to simply making one of my own. Add a few coats of Montana Pitch Blend and I think you have a great sheath. For the price - you can't beat it.
Overall Feelings:
I like this knife. The Gunny has a special place in my heart - as well as the Kepart by BRKT - I am not sure this knife will be that special to me - but it is a VERY capable knife - with great steel - a great sheath - great fit and finish - and good edge geometry. I think this will find its way into my rotation, and for those looking and may not have a stable of knives - this knife would be an awesome knife to have.
Id be interested in a more thorough review when you have the time. Ergos is one thing Id like to hear about!
