Bushcraft showdown SS4 vs Skookum

[Unsub]

The contenders ,

The ScrapYard SS4
steel- infi
weight-148 grams ,with sheath-39 ,together 187 grams
total length 9 inches
blade length 4 1/8th inches
blade width 1 and 1/8th inches
blade thickness 4mm(I will find it in 1/100ths soon)
Type of edge -modded, thin zero edge coating removed
Handle material Res-C "mudder" handle ,a proprietary and excellent type of rubber

The Skookum Bush Tool by Rod Garcia designed by BushCraft author Mors Kochanski
Steel A2
Weight 182 and 1/2 grams, sheath 88 grams together 270 grams
Total length 8 and 1/2 inches
Blade length 4 inches
Blade width 3mm
type of edge -Skandi
Handle material -natural canvas micarta

The SS4 has been my bushcraft knife ever since it was released. It was one of the first very good knives I ever owned and I have bought dozens since then trying to find one better. It is not at all pretty and it has a rough 80 grit satin finish and very thin zero edge i have done myself.


The sheath is by Leatherface who kindly donated it. The sheath is a perfect match to the knife. Ugly but it works very very well and is quite light and secure enough for upside down wear but can be removed with a thumb flick.
It has no loop or clip as I usually wear it strapped to a pack with zip ties or just stuffed in a front pocket with a cord tied to the sheath from my belt so I can get it with a simple yank.

The SS4 is fabled INFI steel and before i owned this knife I was totally skeptical about it's claims. I am a true believer now though and I run the edge VERY thin and so far no damage even chopping hard dry wood. Hell after all of todays chopping it did not even need a touch up. INFI is also one of the nicest steels to sharpen and polish.

The handle is excellent as far as ergonomics. I could chop hard wood much better because I could hold on farther back than the SBT and use my wrist.

The SS4 also has Scrapyards famous lifetime unlimited warranty.

It is not all good though. The fit and finish on the SS4 was awful. Their was a gap between the handle and blade I sort of fixed by melting it. The black coating it came with got scarred up when I batoned it through some hard maple so i removed it and the edge need work which is quite common on many Busse kin(Scrapyard ,SwampRat and Busse Combat refer to themselves as Busse Kin) knives.

They are also quite hard to come by although the very similar and under rated Mud puppy in the excellent albeit hard to sharpen CPM 154 is easily found.

Now for the Skookum Bush Tool.

These blades are very similar with the length from point to plunge line being identical. Their profile is very close with the SBT having a bit pointier and more useful point.They are both excellent tool steel and first rate synthetic handles. They even have silly 3 word names.

The Skookum has beautiful fit and finish. No choil whatsoever which i like especially in a small bushcrafter because it gives you more usable edge.
I tiny little bump to let your finger know where the edge starts would be nice but is not a major issue. The blade came with a hair shaving skandi edge.
There is usually an 18 month wait for a Skookum but I got lucky
and had a friend who ordered one and changed his mind. Mine is A2 but they are also available in O1 and now CPM 3V with different colors of handles.

One of the most noteworthy features about the Skookum is the piece of steel welded to the pommel for use as a hammer or place to hit it on. Some Skookums also have 2 or even 3 lanyard holes. Mine has just 1 but it is in the wrong damn place It is way to far forward to actually use it for a lanyard. Even the one on the SS4 is to far forward. The one on the HCLE in an earlier photo with the Mora is perfect as far as lanyard hole placement.

The Skookum is quirky and it's included sheath even more so.
It is a nice leather deep pouch style sheath that suits the skandi style of this knife perfectly. It is the sheath on top above the Mora Clipper.

However instead of a belt loop it has a weird little tongue with 2 holes for a cord so it can be worn around the neck. I find it MUCH to heavy
for neck carry so I simply added the cool little green velcro belt loop for attaching army bayonets with a piece of paracord(as seen in outdoor photos)
so I have a belt loop and I can detach the sheath with a hard yank.
Another weird thing is the sheath is soaked in melted beeswax making it very hard but water proof.

I am terrible at fuzz sticks but they both were excellent carvers. It took a little more force for the SBT but it also seemed to have more control.

I took these 2 knives out into the real bush north of Prince Albert Saskatchewan in an area where the fur trade has a very rich history.

After having some fun on the quad and finding a nice quit clearing I found a old dry pine log to really give these 2 blades a work out.

With this test I would see how well these little guys could chop but more importantly i could get a good idea of the edge retention and ergonomics.

The great handle design on the SS4 made all the difference here as these knives are very similar. The welded on pommel dug into my hand while chopping so the SS4was easier to work with. You could choke back on the mudder handle and let your wrist do the work. However chopping is not what these knives were meant to do and for detail work they are both excellent.
Also I never tried hammering with or on the pommel where the Skookum would obviously excell.

THE VERDICT

Performance
If we are talking about how they perform as bushcrafters then I would give the win to the SS4 on the basis of a bit better handle ,lighter weight
and better edge retention. The Skookum needed a tiny bit of a touch up to shave after all the abuse while the SS4 did not.

Fit and finish
No question this goes to the Skookum. It is a custom or semi custom knife with a waiting list and 200$+ price tag. Still I have seen SS4's go for what i paid for the Skookum on the secondary market. The Skookum also comes with a excellent albeit quirky sheath.

Overall
Boy this is really tough. I am leaning towards the Skookum because it is very very close performance wise and has a much nicer fit and finish as well as an included sheath. It did not need any modding to perform either.

However I fear I may be biased because the Skookum is so new and pretty while i have had the SS4 for a long time.

Both of these knives are much much better than 99% of the knives on the market and you can't go wrong with either. For pure performance the SS4 and for the overall package the Skookum fantastic blades. They also are both quite special and give their owners a feeling of having something special.


Unsub

 

[fishface5]

Nice review! I like the no-choil of the Skookum, but the straight line between handle and blade makes me nervous. The SS4 handle does look extremely comfortable.

 

[North61]

The Skookum was not designed to be a primary chopper...use it as a carver, try making some implements or long curled feather sticks and the scandi-edge of the Skookum will leave the SS4 in the dust!

I have watched Kochanski use his and it's simply ridiculous what he can do with the Skookum.

 

[hollowdweller]

That's amazing that the SS4 had a better edge!

I always liked the handles on those, always wanted to try one but the big choil always put me off, because it would put of contact with the wood on power cutting farther out.

I'd be interested to see a comparison as far as whittling thru like 1 to 2" limbs rather than chopping. That gives me more of an idea of the comfort on extended use, which is one of the things I look for in a blade.

 

[Stickman]

The review was well written and organized, good job and thanks for sharing. I think the emphasis on chopping is a little misplaced for these knives (and many others for that matter) but I realize that it is the "go to" test these days. I would also like to see more about how they compare with other typical bush tasks. It might be fair to give the SBT a little personal edge treatment as was the case with the SS4 and then try them again. I would love to see a follow-up.

 

[baldtaco-II]

I couldn't buy a Busse now because of my allergy to the marketing, but that SS4 ticks many of the boxes for what I think makes a good working field knife for me. Similarly, I liked the look of its ancestor, the Bogdog, in the back when.

I'm not a Bushcrafter but same as hollowdweller I'd like to know more about how well it wedges and push cuts through stuff. I'm not dug in to either the pro or anti choil camps. For me choils are great provided the natural downward pressure with thumb on the top is right over the heel of the blade. I was unsure of the Bogdog, a very similar knife, for exactly that reason. Otherwise, it and that SS4 would suit me rather well.

 

[Horn Dog]

I enjoyed your review, Unsub. My SS4 has been my favorite fixed blade EDC and general light duty knife for some time, and I have some nice Bark Rivers. The ugly mudder handle just works for me, and as you say, INFI will take and hold a very fine edge well.

 

[tonym]

Good review! But I think if your gonna review a knife it should be as recieved from the maker/factory.

It is unfair to regrind the edge to better suit your needs and say it did better at anything when comparing it to an out of box knife.

My problem with getting a knife over $200 is having to rework the blade to make it a good cutter. I already coughed up alot of money already and now I have to spend more to regrind it or thin the edge:grumpy: not for me. I do not have the equipment nor the skill to do this, so if I invest alot of money in a knife it should do it allready.

This is just my oppinion, I do not mean to offend anybody with it.

 

[Unsub]

Sorry guys I should have explained more about the push cuts I did through wood.
They both handled about the same but remember the SS4 has a much thinner than stock edge with no secondary bevel so it really has a less obtuse skandi edge than the Skookum.
They both worked really well for this I just did not want you guys to see how truly awful my fuzz sticks were
Now if this had been a test with the stock edges it would be no contest but one of the SS4's and INFI's strong pints is it can be very easily sharpened and run at a thinner edge than most steel.


Chopping is not what these knives are meant for but the reason I did a chopping test was to find out more about the ergonomics of the handles and the edge retention of the steel. Both knives are so good that simply whittling with them until the edge started to go would have taken hours. I did some tests with the SS4 when i first got it and cut cardboard and old cardboard for so long my arm gave out before the edge went so I wanted to speed up the process.

The hard dry pine log was perfect for checking how well the edges held up.
It would have killed the edge on many lesser knives. Both the SS4 and the Skookum did very well as far as edge retention with the SS4 having the "edge" over the Skookum. The Skookum was not rolled or even visibly damaged and came back with a couple passes of the EZ-LAP.

This test also told me some more about how the handle would work for a lot of carving. I was really surprised at how that metal pommel digs into your hand when getting different grips. However it does work very well for cracking nuts and other hammer type jobs which can not be done by the SS4.

One thing that surprised me was how similar they felt when push cutting through wood. Here they both excelled. I to was very surprised that the SS4 did as well as the skookum here. The Skookums point is much better for detail work ,removing splinters etc.

There is no getting around the SS4 did do slightly better performance wise but it was very close. If the SS4 was a 10 the Skookum would have been a 9 and a 1/2. The difference in fit and finish ,the included sheath ,the better point is what put the Skookum over the top.

Thanks for all the kind words guys. BaldTaco ,it is easy to get the exact right hand position with the choil on the SS4 for pushcuts by choking up and having your index finger in the choil. It does give excellent edge control but you do lose some edge length and on a short knife.

I am going to try making some trap triggers with both these knives and will give an update on how well they do on the fine wood type work the Skookum is designed for. You need nice sharp 90 degree angles for a good trigger so it should be a good test without having to show my awful fuzz sticks.

Honestly when starting fires I learned the standard Saskatchewan redneck method that starts by siphoning a bit of gas from the quad

 

[hollowdweller]

That's interesting about your observations re the pommel.

The one thing I have noticed about the Skookum is that it works well in a variety of hand holds.

Is the metal on your pommel sharp edged? Maybe you have way bigger hands than me but on mine I'd have to hold way back on the handle to even have the butt cap anywhere near where it would even make contact with my hand.

Any chance of a pic showing what you are talking about?

That's also interesting about the edge deforming. I'd expect the SS4 to be way better there than the A2.

 

[baldtaco-II]

“BaldTaco ,it is easy to get the exact right hand position with the choil on the SS4 for pushcuts by choking up and having your index finger in the choil. It does give excellent edge control but you do lose some edge length and on a short knife.”

Unsub, hey

That would be the deal breaker for me. Not wanting to digress down the choil vs no choil route too much here, but the ideal incorporation of a choil in a design allows me more. Choking up as you described is very desirable for fine work. I like that as it pulls more of the blade into my hand and under my control. Ideal for tip work. But it also must be designed in such a way as when gripping just the handle with the thumb on top, and I'm not making use of the choil, the choil effectively disappears allowing me the kind of power stroke under my thumb one would use for the classic point on a stake or craft knife through carpet force.

 

[hollowdweller]

I just can't imagine a knife with a choil would be good for pushcuts

I can see the use on a big knife but on a small knife I'd rather have the edge come up to the blade and "Choke up" on the actual handle for fine work

To me the choil puts the part of the edge that contacts the blade too far out. I know when I try to cut something really tough with a choil knife I almost always end up accidentally trying to cut with the choil because it is my natural tendency to want to use the part of the (non exsistent) edge that I can get the most leverage with.

 

[baldtaco-II]

For the most part I agree with you, but I believe they exist. They are just few and far between. I think it has much to do with the rest of the handle and the position at which ones hand naturally addresses the blade. I'd take a couple of pics of one that works for me now, but it's gone dark and I'm waiting for a herbal preparation. Probably for the best 'cos I don't want to hijack, but I will work a pair of photos into this forum some when soon, somewhere.

 

[Unsub]

Feel free to put your choil photos here Baldtaco2 ,it is one of the major differences between these 2 knives. I will grab a couple photos to illustrate what I mean.
As both knives are well designed it is easy to use the very last cm of edge for push cuts.

 

[quietmike]

Not to stir up more controversy, but how do you guys think the 3V version of the Skookum would have done? I have mine on order and its supposed to be here in a couple more months.

 

[Unsub]

I would have LOVED a 3V version and I bet it would have certainly not lost it's edge as fast
as the A2 and if so it would have been a lot harder to give the SS4 the win as far as pure
performance. It would still have been lighter weight but you can balance the ergonomic
negatives of the pommel with it's advantage for hammering.

I don't think they even offered the 3V version when my friend ordered his. I totally lucked out getting an A2/1 hole/natural micarta version although i would have ordered a
3V/2 hole/blaze orange one myself. Maybe i should put in an order now?

How would you spec your Skookum?

Another thing I really liked about the Skookum is the point. It is very attractive and useful. I don't know why a no drop point like this is not used more often.

Here is a photo with another of my favourite Bushcrafters the under rated Pilots survival knife.

I like the usual spear point used on most Bushcrafters but prefer this one as it is very handy.

Great post Momaw ,I have some pics it is just taking forever to upload.
I made sure to get some good ones of the sheath ,back and front for Jeff as well.

One thing I love about the Skookum is the point. It is the same style of no drop point as the Taliwhacker and is very useful and looks great.

Here I took a photo to show how the Skookums pommel can dig into your hand.

Here are some different views of the knives to try and give you an idea about the grips.

This photo edge up shows how thin these edges are,

Here I try to show how the choil affects the grip of the SS4 vs the Skookum.

Skookum grip.

SS4

Here is how I attached the belt loop.
I attached the 550 cord through the holes so that I could just get the velcro part through it both in front of and behind the tongue. The knot is covered by the velcro.

I also really like this type of sheath to hang down and move freely.

These little belt hanger pieces are great I wish I had more.

 

[Horn Dog]

Good review! But I think if your gonna review a knife it should be as recieved from the maker/factory.

It is unfair to regrind the edge to better suit your needs and say it did better at anything when comparing it to an out of box knife.

My problem with getting a knife over $200 is having to rework the blade to make it a good cutter. I already coughed up alot of money already and now I have to spend more to regrind it or thin the edge:grumpy: not for me. I do not have the equipment nor the skill to do this, so if I invest alot of money in a knife it should do it allready.

This is just my oppinion, I do not mean to offend anybody with it.

I think you are right. I have done quite a few comparisons myself, and to make things even, I often would reprofile the edge on a knife. But I should not have to do that, and in future comparisons, I will not. They should be compared as sold. In one comparison I compared the Busse Meaner Street to the BRKT Bravo-1 with factory edges. Of course, the Bravo cut much better. Once I put a good sharp edge on the Busse, it cut about as well. Like Unsub, I have put a full convex edge on my Street Scrapper 4, and it cuts very well now. But on an expensive knife, the edge should come sharp from the factory. If Bucks I buy at Wal-mart come sharp, so should the more expensive brands. Just my opinion.

 

[SpookyPistolero]

If a knife can't cut when I receive it, what the hell am I paying for?

 

[pitdog]

I think you are right. I have done quite a few comparisons myself, and to make things even, I often would reprofile the edge on a knife. But I should not have to do that, and in future comparisons, I will not. They should be compared as sold. In one comparison I compared the Busse Meaner Street to the BRKT Bravo-1 with factory edges. Of course, the Bravo cut much better. Once I put a good sharp edge on the Busse, it cut about as well. Like Unsub, I have put a full convex edge on my Street Scrapper 4, and it cuts very well now. But on an expensive knife, the edge should come sharp from the factory. If Bucks I buy at Wal-mart come sharp, so should the more expensive brands. Just my opinion.

I'm no expert Vic but I think it may be due to Busse kin knives being more heavy/general duty type blades. Having a slightly thicker edge still enables them to cut well enough to please most people but also allows them to be abused without edge damage.
To me a Scandi ground edge is the ultimate for bushcraft but having such an acute edge also means the edge will deform more easily than the thicker Sabre edged Busse kin knives. I believe TOPS knives also takes this approach with their edges.
I think the ultimate compromise is a convexed edge but these are more time consuming to produce than sabre ground edges so most companies stick with what they can churn out the quickest !

 

[kdstrick]

I'm no expert Vic but I think it may be due to Busse kin knives being more heavy/general duty type blades. Having a slightly thicker edge still enables them to cut well enough to please most people but also allows them to be abused without edge damage.
To me a Scandi ground edge is the ultimate for bushcraft but having such an acute edge also means the edge will deform more easily than the thicker Sabre edged Busse kin knives. I believe TOPS knives also takes this approach with their edges.
I think the ultimate compromise is a convexed edge but these are more time consuming to produce than sabre ground edges so most companies stick with what they can churn out the quickest !

I think you are right about the Busse edges. They are built to withstand severe abuse, at the expense of slicing ability. I re-profile almost all of my edges to meet my needs and personal preferences, and prefer convex on most of my knives. That being said, I can see why some folks don't want to mess with doing it.

BTW.. great review. Given similar edge profiles as other knives, I've had great luck with INFI and SR101 (swamprat's modified 52100). It is tough as hell, cuts great, holds a fantastic edge, easy to sharpen, and the INFI is relatively stainless. The downsides are that it is relatively expensive, and generally not the best fit/finish. I don't mind paying for top-quality performance. The fit/finish part doesn't bother me much either, as I really enjoy tinkering with my knives and doing necessary (and sometimes unnecessary mods).

Thanks again for the review. :thumbup: