Best blade thickness for bushcraft?

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Mar 25, 2010
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.145, .156, .17, .215 in. etc.? Which stouter blade thickness would be ideal for most bushcraft use with a blade length of 3.5 to 5 in.? Will the thickest .215 blades, while adding strength, make them harder to work with for batoning, shaving wood strips, etc.?
 
Considering your first 3 numbers, realistically, are really less than 2 hundredth of an inch apart...how big a difference can it possibly make?

Basically, if the only bushcraft you'll do is split wood and make fires, you won't go wrong with the thickest blade you can get. Becker makes the thickest bushcraft knife I know of, the BK2...that's .25" and will do all the work a bushcraft knife should do and then some.

If you foresee more delicate work, a slightly thinner--around .17 or .156 will do fine. Alternatively, consider buying 2 knives: just a mean brute of a beating knife and a smaller thinner cheapo knife (maybe a folder) for the fine work.

A combo I'd go with would be the BK2 and a CS pocket bushman. These two knives are both quite cheap compared to the big names people like to kick around, and together will handle everything a forest can throw at you.
 
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