Camp knife thickness?

B

Bordo

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May 9, 2012
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So when looking at the projects on my bench the other day I saw I have an untouched bar of 1095 that's 1 1/2 x 1/8 sitting in the corner. I thought it would be fun to make a camp knife out of it. Currently I have only worked on smaller hunter/utility knives. I would ideally like to make this one with a 6-8" blade and ~5" handle. Would this steel thickness work for a project like this or am I setting this blade up for failure in the field? If I can use this steel would there be a grind that's more beneficial to this thickness (Saber, 3/4, ffg, etc...). Also in my initial designs I included a slight recurve. Is a recurve more "tactical" or can it be useful on this type of knife.
 
I just finished a camper with a 4 inch blade in 1/8 in 1095. Full flat grind. I prepared 3 blanks, as I tend to screw up at least one, and rightly so, as one develop a hairline crack near the tip during quenching (I'm quenching in brine)
I took the opportunity to stress test that one after a rough sharpening on the machine, and excluding the pre-existing crack, I couldn't damage it while batoning some pieces of oak I had lying around. Eventually I moved to more destructive tests and succeed :)

If I were you, I would try. If you always err on the cautious side, you'll never know how far from the limit you are.
 
It depends on what you want it to do. Do you consider the ESEE Junglas a "camp knife?" The Junglas is 1/8" 1095 with a 10" blade.
 
my camp knife is .200 thick but then again it also has a 13 inch long blade. its full flat ground and then conved edge
 
I just made one from Aldo's 1/4" O1 , so far so good , I haven't really had the time to put it through it's paces. Maybe next time we go scouting for wolves.
 
If you're sensible with it and your HT is good it should work fine. For a camp knife that may be used for food prep I'd stay away from a recurved edge, just because they can be a pain in the butt on a cutting board.
I think a 6 or 6-1/2" camp knife with a dropped edge would be nice in 1/8". Plenty of 1/8" bushcraft knives get batonned heavily and don't let go-1-1/2" of width will only make it stronger.
 
I have a 6" camp knife I made a while back out of 440c and its 1/8". I have beat on it and had no problems. It's more of a prototype and I just had the steel laying around so I used it. The next one will be carbon steel and 5/32". The only reason I want it a little thicker is for some added weight.
 
It really depends on what you mean by camp knife. My best camp knife is a boning pattern at 0.10". 0.125" should be fine,
 
Perhaps the definitions of a so called 'camp knife' have morphed over the years meaning different things to different people. I am leaning towards Darrin's take that camp knives of today seem to be akin to tanks. The 'sensible' use of such blades as proffered by Bensinger would be a lovely idea, but the great majority of knife videos I've seen tend to flow with this somewhat bizarre/quixotic trend of overusing and abusing knives for jobs which they were not intended. My typical camp blade is closer to the boning pattern and features a very keen, flexible blade that can easily slice fish or other meat.

1095 at 1/8 should be plenty if you can grasp the fortitude to be sensible.
 
To me a camp knife is a usable version of a "survival " knife. Thick blade but still good cutting geometry which is where many survival ones fail at. Others see a camp knife as say a kitchen knife sorta. Food prep and whittling and feathering which is normally a thinner blade.


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Thanks for the input so far. Right now it doesn't seem like there would be any major reason not to attempt this build. So I think I'll move forward with the project.

This is my initial sketch. If you guys have any critiques you'd like to share.
 
Blade looks perfect!, handle needs work. Keep top of handle straight or slight curve. No concavity like you have on the back end.
 
The sharp edges on your notch will catch on a lot of things. Smooth it out on the blade and guard. Maybe a pin in the middle of the handle. Make a mock up of the handle to make sure it is comfortable in your hand.
 
The notch what a bit over exaggerated. Should be more of a sharpening choil. I did a handle mock up and was not pleased. I think I'll end up doing something closer to this.
 
wildernessknife&tool said:
It depends on what you want it to do. Do you consider the ESEE Junglas a "camp knife?" The Junglas is 1/8" 1095 with a 10" blade.
Click to expand...

The Junglas is 3/16 (.188) thick. I think that is the minimum I would go for a camp knife and prefer 1/4 thick for all my camp knives with a 7+ inch blade.
 
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Bordo,

As you can probably tell, it doesn't matter too much what thickness you make the blade; someone will think its great, and someone else won't, whatever you choose, so go with what you have and see how it works for you :cool:. That's what matters most. ;)

On the handle, I think you have made it too skinny / not deep enough, and particularly not enough to balance the depth of blade. Could be wrong and it might just be the photo, but it looks like the handle up at the front end is less than 1" deep while the blade is pushing 2". That front part of the handle is what you are going to be hanging on to to resist blade torsion whether you are chopping or just carving feather sticks. Its going to be hard to make it comfortable for medium to large hands with less than 1" depth. You don't really need finger clearance space between blade edge and handle like you do on a kitchen knife, just tip the blade forward and cut a little more on the belly when working on a board.

At the butt end, if it was me, I would have kept that convex area since they can work well to improve grip and resist the knife trying to leave your hand when chopping or snap cutting. A knife like you have drawn is great for de-limbing saplings with a snap cut.

I hope you don't mind me posting photos to illustrate what I mean...I will take them off if you want.

IMG_4556.jpg

IMG_4554.jpg


If you want to chop, you can drop your hand back and that necked area can be great for giving a secure grip.
IMG_4571.jpg



Best of luck!

Chris
 
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