Bruce Culberson EDC Review

kgd

kgd

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
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I received 'my last new knife' for 2010 today :D I ordered this one back in Nov. from Bruce Culberson a Custom Maker in British Columbia, Canada. Bruce sort of fell under my radar until he placed a camp knife entry in the now infamous W&SS camp knife challenge and did very well. Then I saw an elk EDC of his and just really wanted one like it, but in walnut scales.

So here is the result. Blade is 3" in length, 1/8" thick and I believe it is O1 but I have to double check the original post. Walnut scales, copper pins and copper lanyard hole (can't wait for the copper to turn green!).

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The shape of the handle is reminiscent of a Grohman without the canted blade. It is very comfortable to hold and the bit of drop down blade acts as an effect guard. The walnut has a lot of depth to it.

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Next to the S-curve.

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Sheath is a heavy duty, waxed sheath with some cool stamping on it. This thing is like armor and tough as wood. I love fully waxed sheaths for their toughness and resilience. It holds the knife solidly and no amount of shaking it will unloose the knife. Nice little touches like a drain hole at the bottom and burnashing the edges. Bruce put a lot of effort into this sheath and it shows.

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So I decided to test it out in my little prairie.

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The spring peepers were at it full force. Jeepers, some peepers in a little menage a trois action! I did my best Barry Manilow impression to help them along.

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You can never pass up good tinder when it offers itself!

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more coming....
 
Okay, so with a little help from my sak, I gathered some wood for a little bow drill action. Making a bowdril kit with your knife is one of the best tests I can think of. It involves a little bit of batoning, lots of carving of the drill, drilling with the point etc.

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There is a little stand of white pine. I think its white pine.

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So I tried this standing, but dead tree that was leaning on one of the live ones.

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The white pine was giving me grief. Got smoke right off the bat, but not good dust. It was really soft wood. Almost too soft!

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My oak bearing black from last week was starting to give me grief though. So I found a beeswax candle in my kit to lube the top portion of the drill (where are those sexy peepers when you need them!).

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This helped a great deal!

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More coming....
 
By lubing the bearing block, I was able to get a lot more speed and then I started producing black powder. Unfortuntaely, I snapped my spindle. So I started over with a piece of cottonwood I harvested (first shot above). That worked right off the bat. I'm going to keep trying on the white pine though. I think I can get it.

Ember in the tinder basked to milkweed seed surrounded by some jute.

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I also modded my hobo stove, found a couple of thin bars of steel and cut them with my dremel so that they would fit on top of one another and slide onto the lid of the stove. This lets you shove in little sticks and twigs between the pot and stove.

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Mmm tea time!

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The hobo stove does burn nice and clean.

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The S-curve and Culberson combo...A fine combo they make!

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The knife came shaving sharp, but I don't like how a V-grind does feather sticks. I will be doing a convex conversion on it this weekend so that it behaves the way I'm used to. I didn't specify a convex grind on ordering so this isn't a complaint, I'm just stating my preference. It will take me about 40 minutes to convert this puppy using sandpaper/mouspad. Of course I have done that with all my v-grind blades (well the ones I like anyhow).

Paper wasp nest high up in a tree.

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Well, I'm reaching here trying to come up with novel pictures of Bruce's knife. I thought this was a cool little nest for my fledgling knife (yuk, yuk, yuk).

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Beta romping...

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More coming...
 
A bluejay just hanging around.

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Final thoughts - Culberson Knife. Bruce makes a fine knife with a lot of attention to fit and finish. His sheath work is amazing and not only functional but beautiful as well. Handle ergonomics are nice. Its a plaine handle (which I prefer) that works in a multitude of grip configurations. It isn't too short or too long for me making the handle functional yet compact. I had Bruce and Rick's knife with me. As I was working the bowdrill kit, I kept using Bruce's knife and not really thinking about it. I know if the ergo's weren't there I would have been grabbing Rick's knife during the process. So, I'm pretty happy with the comfort of this little blade. I really like the blade profile of the knife. Good tapering to a sharp point, full flat grind and drop down blade to act as a finger guard. I'm quite sure this blade is going to get a lot of belt action.

Anyhow, Bruce makes a fine knife. Mneedham already posted his Golok earlier so this makes a nice little matching review to his. He definitely has earned his place as an outstanding knife maker that fits well with the W&SS crowd. I wouldn't hesitate in the least to recommend him to others for a custom outdoor knife. Great job Bruce!
 
Ken - I agree with you and Klammer's assessment of Bruce's ability, he's special.....
 
Nice Blade!

I just keep myself on permanent rotation on Bruce's list :) Gives me time to come up with my next idea!
 
Ken,

Wow, thats a sweet little EDC. Bruce really seems to do great work. He just got added to my growing list!

Brandon
 
Good looking knife.

Maybe it is living in CA, or maybe it is just me, but it sure looks like there is an awful lot of dry tinder under and around your fire. It looks to me like a big fire waiting to happen, especially with how tall the hobo stove is and how high the flames were licking out of the top of it.
 
hlee said:
Good looking knife.

Maybe it is living in CA, or maybe it is just me, but it sure looks like there is an awful lot of dry tinder under and around your fire. It looks to me like a big fire waiting to happen, especially with how tall the hobo stove is and how high the flames were licking out of the top of it.
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I think it is you living in CA. Its wet around here, my knees were soggy from kneeling onto the wet soil/leaf litter. The hobo stove is small (1.5 lb coffee can) and sitting on a metal plate to keep it from scarring the earth and to collect ash falling out of the bottom. If the stove were kicked over, the embers and coals could easily be kicked out. Stepping on them would have sunk them into waterlogged soil. We are also talking thumb sized pieces of wood. I would never leave the stove lit unattended. I appreciate your concern, but a twig stove is not the same kind of fire hazard as starting an open fire on the ground. Plus, this is an area that is managed by routinely setting fires in it to keep the forest at bay. Now, I'm not going to intentionally set a fire, but MNR will set one here in the next couple of years. Hopefully, this won't turn into another one of those threads about wilderness ethics.
 
hlee said:
Good looking knife.

Maybe it is living in CA, or maybe it is just me, but it sure looks like there is an awful lot of dry tinder under and around your fire. It looks to me like a big fire waiting to happen, especially with how tall the hobo stove is and how high the flames were licking out of the top of it.
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It is definitely being from CA. Where I live (not to far from Ken) fires don't spread that easily, as the ground is nearly always saturated. And when it isn't, the leaves usually never catch fire anyway.

Nice review, Ken. :thumbup:
 
Soggy soil doesn't show up in pictures. KGD, I've read a lot of your posts so I was surprised to see the amount of- what looked to me to be- dry tinder about. I think that the rainy season is over around here, and things will be drying up pretty fast.

They say that when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I guess when you are sensitized to fire hazards, everything looks like a fire hazard.:o
 
hlee said:
Soggy soil doesn't show up in pictures. KGD, I've read a lot of your posts so I was surprised to see the amount of- what looked to me to be- dry tinder about. I think that the rainy season is over around here, and things will be drying up pretty fast.

They say that when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I guess when you are sensitized to fire hazards, everything looks like a fire hazard.:o
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No problem Hlee, I know CA has had a tough one last year! At least you guys have amazing scenery. If I couldn't be playing with my cookers and bowdrill all the time around these parts, I probably wouldn't be out there as much as I am. Despite my review of a new knife, I've been endeavoring to spend less on new knives, and more time doing things with them...so lots of fire and carving :)
 
Great pics Ken, love the one of the Blue Jay !

That knife looks great. Seeing Bruces entry in the camp knife challenge really made me sit up and take notice.He is definitely one of the best makers on the forum and that EDC knife is just another fine example of that.
Is that blade really only 3" ? It appears longer in the pics !
 
candlelight001 said:
Hey KGD, what was OAL and length/width of scales? Thx!
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Overall Length just a hair under: 7 6/16"
Cutting edge length (tip to plunge line): 3 3/16"
Ricasso Area: 5/16"
Handle scales: 3 14/16"
Handle width: back of handle = 3/4" tapers to about 1/2" at the front of the slabs.

Final Correction. Steel is 1084, not O1.
 
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