Bark River Knives

I've got two a Mini and a Mikro Canadian. Awesome little knives. Scary sharp and nice to carry in the sheath on the belt.
 
Proof that if you complain enough, ye shall receive! :D My package from England arrived. I was thinking I traded for an orange/black Northstar, but I have a 1st production run sort of green and black G-10 thing (maybe green, black pistachio?) with three mosaic pins. Anyway, very exciting and a review will be forthcoming. Just in the ten seconds I'm holding the knife, it's "burlier" and heavier with thicker scales than I expected. Fis my hand perfectly. Feels extremely sharp. Grind on the balde is beautiful.. the little tab on the end of the blade is kind of cheesy to me right off the bat, but maybe function will win over form on that one. We'll see. I will say unless it breaks in half while I'm looking at it right now that this won't be my last BRKT!
 
You are done for now. You will likely never again want another factory bush craft knife from any other maker. I have dumped almost every other factory fixed blade knife I own since getting my first BRKTs.

I am a proponent of the full tang Gameskeeper. The A2 cryo treated blades with the convex grind at 4.5 inches of blade length are simultaneously the toughest, sharpest, and easiest to sharpen field knives I have ever owned. Big and tough enough to baton through just about anything organic and still handy enough for "small knife" tasks. I have even filleted fish with one.

All of my sharpening with these knives is done through various stropping techniques. When backpacking or hunting, just five sheets (400, 600, 800, 1500 and 2000 grit) of wet/dry "metal" sandpaper stored in my map case, set up for stropping on one of my thighs, is all I need to restore the edge to the desired level of razor sharpness. The paper is lighter than any rod or stone, easier to use with the shape of the blade than anything firmer would be, and is an inexpensive and next to indestructible sharpening system in the field. My father was so envious of my fancy olivewood Gameskeeper last fall, he offered to buy my curly maple one off me when we got home. "No dice, Dad, put in for the next build." :D (Actually, I did buy him one for his birthday, but he wasn't getting one of mine.)

At our hunting cabin last summer during a camping trip I batoned one of my Gameskeepers through a deadfall oak branch we had soaked in water in order to whittle some hot dog skewers out of it for the kiddies. I don't think I will ever need to buy any other field knives, (and I now leave my Roselli axe at home most trips too.) Unless I have a need for a machete, I have mostly turned my knife buying interests to custom puukkos.
 
baton through just about anything organic
Click to expand...

Don't let Cliffy hear you say this! :D Actually, since steel contains carbon, technically it is organic, too. How do your BRKT's hold up batoning through steel!? Just busting chops! I cut up an apple quite nicely with the Northstar and it seemed to do a good job. A little staining on the blade, but that's to be expected with A2.
 
". . .just about anything organic. . . ." The bold part is the Cliff Stamp qualifier. :D

Of course I meant only those materials that a sane end user would apply a knife blade to. ;)
 
Dr. Thor said:
Where did you get the Golok? Looks way cool, but I have never seen them before. More info is needed... :D
Click to expand...


If you go over to the Bark River forum at knifeforums.com, you can find someone to sell you one. I am a dealer (www.bladefoolish.net), and I have one left with a the blue G-10 handle (which is not up on the site). Sagecreek, which as been mentioned, is a good company to do business with also, as is Jeff McKnight (another great guy) at McKnight Cutlery. DTL Trading also has a big, big selection.
The blade on the standard model is aprox. 11.5" long; I recently had Mike make me a special order with a 8" blade that I really like, and am going to be doing a comparision test between 'em.

P.S. They only made 100 of the Goloks.

I am a big Barkie fan, obviously.
 
Here are some quick pics of my new Northstar. Against the Military it looks downright wimpy, but it feels much bigger in hand. So far I have just applied it to kitchen duty, but I am quite surprised. I don't know how thick the steel is, but I'd guess 5/32" thick, and with the convex edge I didn't expect it to perform that great with what I did yesterday, but I was EXTREMELY surprised. Sliced apples very thin with no problem (although cutting like 1/8 sections it sort of "popped" the apple apart a bit toward the core as opposed to truly slicing like my Spyderco Santoku would). What really surprised me was that I was able to chop a big red onion in half without any "popping" apart (sliced cleanly), then cut thin slices from half the onion. I expected it's thickness and grind wouldn't do so well, and I was dead wrong. Is this knife intended for the kitchen? Nope, but I suspect food prep is part of bushcraft, so it did more than adequately. Light staining on the blade from the apple, but you can't even see it in the pics. I didn't realize that the pics came out that dark. Sorry! You'll see more when I do a full review...

northstar1.jpg


northstar2.jpg


northstar3.jpg
 
I have a Woodland Special with a green micarta handle and a Mountaineer with an amboynia wood handle. I love them both but I can't bring myself to take them to the woods with me. Too pretty. The only knife in my collection that my brother (who is not into knives) lusts after is my Bark River Mountaineer.
 
Just thought I'd chime in here. All of the Bark River dealers can get any of the B.R knives you see on DLT, since DLT is our Distributor.

Mike is always adding new knives, and he offers over a hundred different handle options on every production run. So I have knives that I haven't had time to put on the Website yet, and that goes for Davids sheaths as well. So if you are looking for a certain knife or sheath, and you dont see it on our website be sure to call and see if we have it on hand or can get it for you. B.R has alot of great dealers and I think Bladefoolish would agree, we would all be happy to earn your business. Thanks, Scott

www.sagecreekoutfitters.com
 
What is DLT? Bark River brings the old standby "collect 'em all" to a whole new level! :D
 
Thought I would chime in as I own 2 Barkies and just yesterday took possesion of two Kydex sheaths from Dave Brown through sagecreek. Nice sheaths Dave! I'm going to get another in the next 2 days! Scott is great to deal with as well.

I have fallen for the knives. They cut like lasers and the customer service is exceptional. I have been impressed with Mike Stewart and the Bark River forum is amazingly informative and highly active. I would encourage anyone to check them out.
 
If anyone out there is thinking about buying their first Barkie, let me give this serious warning . . . almost NOBODY is able to stop at just one. Really. They're addictive.
 
Most of the Bark River models are produced in runs of from 300-500, and it may be several months before there is another run of that particular model. The run is always sold out to the dealers through advance orders. However, as Sagecreek mentioned, there are over 100 different handle options usually available, so if you want a particular set-up, e.g. a North Star with Yellow Linen Mircarta handles with mosiac pins -- you can order that exact knife through a dealer. The blanks are lazer cut, but everything else is done by hand on most models. Their standard steel is A2 hardened to about 60 RC, but they are coming out with some stainless models in the 12C27. Full convex blade.
 
bladefoolish said:
If anyone out there is thinking about buying their first Barkie, let me give this serious warning . . . almost NOBODY is able to stop at just one. Really. They're addictive.
Click to expand...

No kidding!..I got a Highland on Monday...bought a mikro-canadian on tuesday.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top