Bark River North Star

muzzleup

muzzleup

Joined
Jul 2, 2000
Messages
1,667
INITIAL IMPRESSION
OF
BARKRIVER NORTHSTAR
I received my new knife yesterday and although I have not had a chance to go out and use it in the rough, I do have some initial impressions:

1. Blade; Made of a very good steel (A2) and it came sharp as a razor the full length of the blade.
2. Handle: Very highly polished orange G-10. It would be hard to loose this knife in the bushes. I suspect that the handle will be a little short for most people, however, I have small hands and it just fits in the palm without much room for any movement except forward.
3. Guard: Virtually none to speak of. I would fear that if the handle became slippery with water or blood that is would be very easy for your hand to slide down the small handle onto the extremely sharp edge.
4. Sheath: The sheath is made in Serbia of approx. 5oz. leather which is not very stout and has a single nylon type sewn thread closing the “fold over” slip in sheath. A ferrociam rod or even a EZ-LAP holder is sewn to the edge of the sheath.
5. Overall: The knife is striking with the blaze orange handle and I think that it might make a fine “camp knife”, however, I don’t think it is built to take a lot of heavy use as in batoning to split up wood for your fire. This knife almost occurs to me as an American style puukko with the lack of guard and the small handle.

Would I buy another Bark River knife based on what I have seen of the North Star?
I don’t think so. It a pretty knife, has good steel, striking orange handle, and came as sharp as anyone would ever want but it just does not “speak to me” like some of my other brands of knives.

Northstar.jpg


Ciao
Ron
 
Ron,

I'm with you on most of this. I have small hands also, and some BRKTs do have small handles which just fit me.

I think the big question is the question regarding the guard. Like you, I tend to like at least a small guard as well. But you're right, the North Star is more meant to be a do-all outdoors knife, like a puukko. The lack of a guard means the knife is more versatile as far as grips. You need to be less sloppy in how you use the knife, since it's essentially guardless.

The big thing I disagree with is the theory that the North Star is not meant for batoning -- I believe that batoning is specifically part of the design criteria! The North Star blade will easily stand up to hard batoning, if my Fox River's blade is any indication. Again, the lack of a guard means you can't be sloppy with your hand, but really this shouldn't be an issue for batoning (IMO). The knife will stand up to some heavy woodworking, as well as excel at more fine woodworking...

Joe
 
You very well might be right about the batoning since you speak from having used your's. My comments were ONLY from a first impression as just holding it in my hand. It just so happens that just on Monday I got a new Trident Oberland 03, and I fear that some of my judgements were based on comparing the difference between the two knives.

Glad you added your information about battoning as I have yet to even start testing the Nort Star on my cardboard let alone any wood splitting.

Thanks Joe
Ciao
Ron
 
Just to clarify, I have a Fox River, not a North Star, but I believe the blades are substantially similar except for the fact that one is a spearpoint and one is a drop point.

I imagine that if you try batoning both your Oberland 3 and North Star, you'll see what I mean by the North Star being designed with batoning as part of the criteria ... no big guard to get in the way, efficient convex grind with woodworking-type geometry versus sabre grind, neutral handle shape that doesn't raise hot spots on your hand, etc. That Oberland looks awesome, but highly textured handles on a woodworking knife aren't a good match for me.
 
Handle Issues: I find the handle just long enough for my medium hands. I try to stick to slicing with draw cuts as with guardless "Scandi" knives. I also reprofiled the handle on the Blaze orange model I got first to reduce the taper from the butt towards the blade, and this seemed to make the knife feel more secure. Then I got a "Stag Bone" model, and the handle felt just fine right out of the box. As they are hand-ground, I think they vary from knife to knife.

Batoning: While I didn't go out of my way to torture test the knife, it works just fine on batoning hardwood.

Sheath: The original sheath cut through very quickly. BRKT replaced it free-of-charge with the newer model made in Serbia. The replacement has held up fine thus far. The knife goes in quite snug without any edge reaching stiching. We'll see over the course of years if that remains so. I did restitch and wet-form and shim (self-stick felt) the orginal sheath that cut through, and it now works fine as well.
 
Joe,
Point well taken, I can see where the "shape" of the blade would make a smoother pass through wood.

As far as the Oberland or any of the Trident knives handles are concerned, it's not something I can explain very well but no matter what kind of a hold you have the knife in there just seems to be a natural place for your hand and fingers to fit. The Trident blades are ground in a kind of scandi style at the edge with no other relief angles but the rest of the blade is hollow ground so I would guess that it will baton almost as well as the shape on the Nort Star.

As I said before, the North Star is a very nice knife. Excellent F&F but It just does not "speak to me" like some others do.

Ciao Joe
Ron:cool:
 
Hey Ron.....

Thanks for the review..
If you ever want to swap that knife out for some sheathing,, drop me a note..:)
It speaks to me..:)

ttyle

Eric
O/ST
 
I suggest you take both the Northstar and the Oberland or Trident out into the woods and work them as hard as you can on wood--do a lot of batoning and wood-splitting. See which is most efficient, and which holds its edge better. Then report back here.

I predict that you will be surprised to learn how much better the convex grind and A2 work to both split wood and maintain a razor edge. The other knives will bind, and their edges likely dull first because of the blade geometry. Then strop them to see which one is easiest to get back to scary sharp.

Good luck--Barkies may seem small, but they are capable of outworking much larger knives.

Cheers,
Daniel
 
Speaking of the Sheaths, the reason they somewhat lack in quality is to help keep costs down. With the ability to have almost any handle type, as well as so many models (current and up coming). The Sheaths are as great as i would like, granted, but the knives themselves are awsome. A2 will hold an edge quite well and strops back to razor sharp with ease. As you said before about batoning, I was at first skeptial, but was provien wrong when I was working on some firecraft.

RandomPictures170.jpg
 
I thank you all for your experienced comments and I must say that maybe you have started turning my first impression around. I will have to take it out and put it through some paces of my own but I don't doubt that what you all have said will be the case.
There is one think for sure, after 1 buff on each side and a couple of swipes on the charged leather strop, This is the SHARPEST KNIFE I have in my house and shop! When I said that to my wife of 39yrs. she said "now that's saying something comeing from you" since she know how much I hate a dull knife.
I still think that instead of North Star, that it could be called the Bark River American Puukko.
The more I handle it the more it's giving my the feel that it is a "working knife"

Thanks again for all comments,
Ciao
:)
 
My same sentiments exactly on the guard/no guard issue. For an entirely woodcrafting knife to be maximized, it should be, ideally, guardless. Yet an extra measure of safety is also compromised when slickness affects the handles. To their credit though, the "guards" on BRKT's models aren't so much guards in the traditional sense, they're more like "finger stops" so to speak, just enough length to let your hand know it shouldn't move forward anymore. The SNOWY RIVER looks to me about right for an all-around woods knife, so is the Horace Kephart inspired SPERATI POINT. Check "em out too!

The "cutely functional" OMF knife is superb too!
 
I am down to a mini north star. I have owned several bark river's but ended up selling them after receiving them. For me I feel they use way too thick stock for the size of the knife. They will use the same size stock on a 3" as a 6". Compared to many knives I own, they are more like a wedge than a blade. I guess it is good, it saves me from buying everything.
 
Edge geometry does not, of course, depend solely on the thickness of the blade at the spine. Measure the edge on the North Star. It is quite acute since the bevel begins at the spine.
 
Good thread here and I think my experiences may be helpful. I had VERY similar impressions of my North Star. Handle was too small, I did not like the tiny lanyard loop, some uneven grind markings and it just didn't speak to me...same as you muzzleup.

So I returned it for a Fox River and I can say that I LOVE the Fox River. Just about EVERYTHING that I did not like about the North Star was to my liking on the Fox River. The blade shape gave more belly and a bit more finger protection from sliding forward. The lanyard loop is FAR more beefy because the tang was not tapered (although you may have a NS that is not tapered). The handle was larger (slightly accroding to Bark River, but it made a huge difference for my hand). Also, I splurged for a very classy handle material with mosaic pins which I love. If you are not "feeling it", don't let somebody else talk you into it - return it and try again. Get the right knife. I would not give up on Bark River yet. I have 2 other blades which I also like from them...the Mikro is just fantastic for a fixed blade EDC. Also, the warranty is unconditional AND the NS and Fox River are designed for heavy use. Baton away, just keep it level.
 
I agree with Kbog,I like Fox river much better than the north star.I mainly like the blade shape on the Fox river.If I like something alot I usually buy 2.I ordered my 2nd one today.
PJ
 
omaha-beenglockin said:
That's my only complaint about my Bark River's-----the knives are excellent----the sheaths SUCK.
Click to expand...

I have seen a lot of knives that were excellent in design and build with a $5 sheath.

This is not necessarily a bad idea on the company's part since I see their perspective. They are trying to give you a great knife for the price, which means they have to skemp somewhere.

I wish many companies would keep the $5 to $10 the spend on the sheath and drop the price a few bucks. I am going to have a sheath made anyway.

However, you cannot please every single person in your customer base so you just have to make a decision and then stick with it.

I would guess more knife buyers/collectors would prefer a knife to come with a sheath than w/o.
 
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