Define "Bushcraft" knife for me please

Oh, what the heck, I'll throw in my 2 cents worth. . . I don't know where the notion came from that a bushcraft knife has to be a pretty little custom piece that costs hundreds of dollars. There are plenty of decent blades in this catagory for well under a hundred bucks, and of course a Mora will only set you back around 10.

I agree with those who've commented that a bushcraft knife is best as part of a set of tools, not a stand alone blade. If it came down to it and all I lost everything except one blade, I would hope it would be a khukri, but in an emergency you don't usually get to make such choices.
 
shipwreck said:
When I was a kid 11, 12, I used to build these huts all the time and sleep out, it used to drive my parents crazy because I would be gone in the woods overnight with no tent and they just couldnt fathom how I could do that. The hatchet allows you to do all kinds of things in terms of shelter but its most primary function is to provide wood for your fire.
The four inch blade covers a multitude of utility tasks while you are camping or surviving. The big "survival" knife is a bad compromise between a proper bushcraft knife and a hatchet.
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you sound alot like me shipwreck
I still prefer big blades
but I think a 7 inch recurve with a thicke blade is perfect
 
mr.trooper said:
Batoning is not only a waist of your time its an answer to a question that was never asked. there are a dozen other ways to get tinder.

Building shealter? believe it or not you dont need to chop down the forrest to build a lean-to. Some peoples yards have enough dead fall for that. All you need to do is is cut pine boughs for thatching and vines or bark for lashing. a sharp rock can do that.

All said and done, a stout 4-6" blade is far superrior for survival use. Choppers have their uses, but IMO they are secondary to a true bushcraft knife.
Click to expand...


Where I live batoning is the only way sometimes to get dry wood after 2 weeks of rain. A properly constructed shelter takes at least an hr or 2 (built one last night in a snowstorm ) to construct with natural materials and that is by using a small hatchet or chopper knife. A bushcraft knife is near useless or at least painfuly slow at limbing trees for materials. Being able to make a shelter without tools is an important skill but having a tool that expedites the operation is invaluable and saves energy.

A larger blade does more its that simple. It doesnt have to be 9 inches but something forward balanced in the 6-8 inch range speeds things up and that maybe the difference in waking up the next day. Ray Mears carries a large blade for general bushwork and only uses his small knife for carving tools. The other option is a saw but it has but one use unlike a utilitarian blade.

My 2 cents

Skam
 
witchhunter said:
fwiw ron hood of hoods woods likes a big knife and a sak for his needs.

i think you are talking survival knives instead of bushcraft.
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True, Ron likes a big blade and the Rucksack size SAK for its saw-- that saw can be very handy in bushcraft. The knife tastes of those at the Hoods Woods forum run the gamut; as a regular there I'd have to say you (macgregor22) don't know what you're talking about (at least regarding Hoods Woods).

As for me, I'm with DOC-CANADA, I carry two knives and a Leatherman before I get to the woods. When I'm out back I can have anything from a Ferhman FJ to a recently acquired Bushcraft blade by the Bill Siegle who posted above -- this one has the mass to chop -- and I'll have a Dozier just left of my belt buckle and a Ritter RSK playing the role of locking folder in my front right pocket.

Anybody who thinks that one knife or another is inherently better in all situations is either an idiot or naive. But that's just a personal opinion from someone who may be biased toward the concept of choosing the right tool. $.02
 
shipwreck said:
Oh, I noticed bkultra is viewing this thread, here's another chance for me! ........Hey Bkultra can I have your hatchet? You know that cool strider? Just for a year or two?
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lol, there is one on ebay for $350 atm, full retail is $475.00
 
I love big choppers like khuks and bowies and stuff but unless I'm in the woods at home I almost never carry them.

I like the Bushcraft models and Nessmuks because they are great efficient cutters. Also when camping and stuff (I don't do much basketmaking or other bushcrafty stuff like that) a bigger blade just feels clumsy for most of the stuff I do.

I've split enough wood with a small fixed blade to get a nice fire going.

I like the Bushcraft knives. I think they are more suited to 99% of what most of us do out in the woods than most big choppers or oversized blades with steep bevels:thumbdn:
 
Woof! Well, I think a part of the confusion here is the definition of "Bushcraft" itself. As wiki-wanderers know, the term is of British/Aussie/Kiwi/South African origin and is connected to a "Bushman". Here in North America the term has historically been "Woodcraft" and connected to a "Woodsman". Not a lot of difference in my opinion, aside from geographical language differences.

One must take WIKI with a grain of salt. Anyone and his sister can write and submit there, but that doesn't mean the definition is gospel. I.e. the term "Woodcraft". Sure, Seton popularized the term somewhat in the early 1900's. But shall we forget Sears? DeWeese?

All in all, the historic patterns I think of as woodcraft (bushcraft) knives are illustrated by the Nessmuk, DeWeese, Ideal, and Woodcraft patterns. These knives are as different as patterns can be, albeit with a few common features and common size for a common use. They also were designed to rely on skillful and appropriate use rather than brute force. Lightness and portability were important. Ease of maintaining an edge. Durability of the steel and handle materials, and economical construction.

When you stop to think about it, the designers and makers spent much, much more time "outing" than most of us today. And had few of the technology based safety net items we take for granted. They depended highly upon learned skills instead.

Survival knives and combat knives are, to me, an entirely different genre. As are knives whose designs were derived from traditional patterns from India, Nepal, Sweden, etc. This is not to say that they cannot be substituted today for the more historic Woodcraft/Bushcraft patterns. They can. Just as the United States Marines were provided with bone handled flat ground Sportsman pattern knives from Camillus at the beginning of WWII.

But to me, the true woodcraft/Bushcraft knives are those earlier pattern which, though for the most part out of favor with modern users, still work as well today as they did from the 1870's thru the 1930's.

Codger
 
OKAY... so I'll weigh in already! Geez... you write one opinion article, and everyone gets their panties in a twist. That's why I hardly ever come in here anymore. One of my readers pointed out that everyone's in a big argument over this, so I'll weigh in and hopefully dispel some of the silly misinformed commentary that's popped up.

First, I never said that a 4 or 6 inch knife had NO uses. I own a few small blades like this, but they are for very specific functions like skinning, gutting and picking junk from under my fingernails.

By the way, the guy who said you can't skin or gut with a larger blade... I beg to differ, and I'll stand behind my supposition that, "A big blade can do anything a little blade can, but the reverse is DEFINITELY not the case". I can whittle, notch, drill, skin, gut, shave tinder, and pick gunk from my fingernails with a large blade as well.

Now try being lost, and having to hack through a half mile of thick brush to get to a water source with a 4" pocket blade.

And to the guy who claimed that you do more notching and whittling to build a shelter than chopping... you're obviously spending a lot of time carefully fitting every limb in it's place?

More likely, you've never been hunting 10 miles from the nearest road, only to watch as a blizzard blew in. My first reaction is limbing the crap out of all the evergreen saplings I can find to lay down a thick, springy bed, followed by a lot of larger poles to frame up a shelter. I'm then laying a lot more LIVE... yes LIVE material on top of it.

I know the green crowd out there is horrified that I may harm some trees to save my own skin, and so be it. It's a simple fact... a big pile of dead wood and dry leaves is not something I'm going to build a fire in front of before I lay down to sleep! Yup... the LIVE stuff makes the shelter, the DEAD stuff is called "tinder" and "firewood", and you DON'T build your shelter out of it. Common sense rules!

Hacking the black "knots" out of the side of a birch tree for tinder is a lot easier if you have a real blade, as is lopping hunks of sapwood. I also want my blade to be big enough for effective digging, and to chop apart rotten logs to rustle up some grub... or grubs... yum.

I can make a fire drill just as effectively with my big blades... but I don't need to... I carry a Bic. No spark makers, no ploughs, no ice lenses, no boat matches, no fire drills, no 9V batteries and steel wool... I don't carry ANY of the stupid junk that the supposed survival gurus advocate. Why would someone carry a few matches when the same size and weight could be a lighter? Oooops... more common sense. Yet again, I seem to have brought the right tool for the job.

Trust me on this fact... go visit the USAF Survival School, and check out the dozens of instructors. These guys pretty much live in the mountains of Washington state, and you won't find a one of them with some little skinner. They also don't use the 5" Air Force survival knife they were issued. You'll find a large variety of blades, but they'll all have something in common. They're all 9-12" blades of heavy (1/4" +/-) steel. You won't see any of the "Rambo" style blades either... just big choppers. It's not about "macho", it's about common sense bringing the right tool for the job at hand.

Anyhow, this is my opinion, but it's based on 30 years experience using blades in actual wilderness settings (and yes... actual survival settings), not sitting in front of the computer trying to justify why I spent hundreds of dollars on a skinny little pocket blade.

Nuff Said?
 
skammer said:
Where I live batoning is the only way sometimes to get dry wood after 2 weeks of rain. A properly constructed shelter takes at least an hr or 2 (built one last night in a snowstorm ) to construct with natural materials and that is by using a small hatchet or chopper knife. A bushcraft knife is near useless or at least painfuly slow at limbing trees for materials. Being able to make a shelter without tools is an important skill but having a tool that expedites the operation is invaluable and saves energy.

A larger blade does more its that simple. It doesnt have to be 9 inches but something forward balanced in the 6-8 inch range speeds things up and that maybe the difference in waking up the next day. Ray Mears carries a large blade for general bushwork and only uses his small knife for carving tools. The other option is a saw but it has but one use unlike a utilitarian blade.

My 2 cents

Skam
Click to expand...

i realize that splitting larger logs may be your only way to reach dry wood, but you are mistaken if you think batoning is the only way to accomplish that.
 
I'm still deciding what I'll carry with my Bushcraft knife, a mini-hatchet for chopping or an axe.

Maybe I'll just bring another big knife.

It's not like the rules say you can only have one.
 
m40 said:
OKAY... so I'll weigh in already! Geez... you write one opinion article, and everyone gets their panties in a twist. That's why I hardly ever come in here anymore. One of my readers pointed out that everyone's in a big argument over this, so I'll weigh in and hopefully dispel some of the silly misinformed commentary that's popped up.

First, I never said that a 4 or 6 inch knife had NO uses. I own a few small blades like this, but they are for very specific functions like skinning, gutting and picking junk from under my fingernails.

By the way, the guy who said you can't skin or gut with a larger blade... I beg to differ, and I'll stand behind my supposition that, "A big blade can do anything a little blade can, but the reverse is DEFINITELY not the case". I can whittle, notch, drill, skin, gut, shave tinder, and pick gunk from my fingernails with a large blade as well.

Now try being lost, and having to hack through a half mile of thick brush to get to a water source with a 4" pocket blade.

And to the guy who claimed that you do more notching and whittling to build a shelter than chopping... you're obviously spending a lot of time carefully fitting every limb in it's place?

More likely, you've never been hunting 10 miles from the nearest road, only to watch as a blizzard blew in. My first reaction is limbing the crap out of all the evergreen saplings I can find to lay down a thick, springy bed, followed by a lot of larger poles to frame up a shelter. I'm then laying a lot more LIVE... yes LIVE material on top of it.

I know the green crowd out there is horrified that I may harm some trees to save my own skin, and so be it. It's a simple fact... a big pile of dead wood and dry leaves is not something I'm going to build a fire in front of before I lay down to sleep! Yup... the LIVE stuff makes the shelter, the DEAD stuff is called "tinder" and "firewood", and you DON'T build your shelter out of it. Common sense rules!

Hacking the black "knots" out of the side of a birch tree for tinder is a lot easier if you have a real blade, as is lopping hunks of sapwood. I also want my blade to be big enough for effective digging, and to chop apart rotten logs to rustle up some grub... or grubs... yum.

I can make a fire drill just as effectively with my big blades... but I don't need to... I carry a Bic. No spark makers, no ploughs, no ice lenses, no boat matches, no fire drills, no 9V batteries and steel wool... I don't carry ANY of the stupid junk that the supposed survival gurus advocate. Why would someone carry a few matches when the same size and weight could be a lighter? Oooops... more common sense. Yet again, I seem to have brought the right tool for the job.

Trust me on this fact... go visit the USAF Survival School, and check out the dozens of instructors. These guys pretty much live in the mountains of Washington state, and you won't find a one of them with some little skinner. They also don't use the 5" Air Force survival knife they were issued. You'll find a large variety of blades, but they'll all have something in common. They're all 9-12" blades of heavy (1/4" +/-) steel. You won't see any of the "Rambo" style blades either... just big choppers. It's not about "macho", it's about common sense bringing the right tool for the job at hand.

Anyhow, this is my opinion, but it's based on 30 years experience using blades in actual wilderness settings (and yes... actual survival settings), not sitting in front of the computer trying to justify why I spent hundreds of dollars on a skinny little pocket blade.

Nuff Said?
Click to expand...

Ahhchh! :eek: Ohhh! :D Should I? :D Or shouldn't I? :o Nah, I shouldn't. :p

Everyone has opinions and just because they don't agree with our own doesn't mean they stink. It just means they are different. However a huge-mongeous chopper is neither a bushcraft knife not essential to remaining 98.6, IMHO.

The original question was "Define "Bushcraft" knife for me please".

Codger
 
I have seen many peopel who knopw waht they are doing in the woods, and they all had both a large blade and a smaller blade...in some cases it was like a large RAT and a small BRKT...so why do you have to pick just one? why not have the best of both worlds...You would think if it was a real survival situation you might have a choice anyway, having any knife would be nice, but in most cases you get to choose your gear before you go into the wild...
 
Quotes from m40:
"By the way, the guy who said you can't skin or gut with a larger blade" - a bushcraft knife does it better.


"More likely, you've never been hunting 10 miles from the nearest road, only to watch as a blizzard blew in. My first reaction is limbing the crap out of all the evergreen saplings I can find to lay down a thick, springy bed, followed by a lot of larger poles to frame up a shelter. I'm then laying a lot more LIVE... yes LIVE material on top of it.

I know the green crowd out there is horrified that I may harm some trees to save my own skin, and so be it. It's a simple fact... a big pile of dead wood and dry leaves is not something I'm going to build a fire in front of before I lay down to sleep! Yup... the LIVE stuff makes the shelter, the DEAD stuff is called "tinder" and "firewood", and you DON'T build your shelter out of it. Common sense rules! " -hatchet does it better.

"I also want my blade to be big enough for effective digging, and to chop apart rotten logs to rustle up some grub... or grubs... yum." - digging stick does it better and saves your blade edge from being ruined on rocks.


"I can make a fire drill just as effectively with my big blades" -bushcraft knife does it better. It also does the 100 other common camp chores not appearing on this list better.

The bushcraft performs a far greater vareity of utility chores far better than a large chopping bowie. No one if given the choice would use a large bowie knife when a smaller more dexterous bushcraft was at hand for most tasks. The hatchet does a better job at chopping than a large survival knife.

But let's face it, a humongus bowie on the belt looks KEWL!
 
m40 said:
OKAY... so I'll weigh in already! Geez... you write one opinion article, and everyone gets their panties in a twist. That's why I hardly ever come in here anymore. One of my readers pointed out that everyone's in a big argument over this, so I'll weigh in and hopefully dispel some of the silly misinformed commentary that's popped up.

First, I never said that a 4 or 6 inch knife had NO uses. I own a few small blades like this, but they are for very specific functions like skinning, gutting and picking junk from under my fingernails.

By the way, the guy who said you can't skin or gut with a larger blade... I beg to differ, and I'll stand behind my supposition that, "A big blade can do anything a little blade can, but the reverse is DEFINITELY not the case". I can whittle, notch, drill, skin, gut, shave tinder, and pick gunk from my fingernails with a large blade as well.

Now try being lost, and having to hack through a half mile of thick brush to get to a water source with a 4" pocket blade.

And to the guy who claimed that you do more notching and whittling to build a shelter than chopping... you're obviously spending a lot of time carefully fitting every limb in it's place?

More likely, you've never been hunting 10 miles from the nearest road, only to watch as a blizzard blew in. My first reaction is limbing the crap out of all the evergreen saplings I can find to lay down a thick, springy bed, followed by a lot of larger poles to frame up a shelter. I'm then laying a lot more LIVE... yes LIVE material on top of it.

I know the green crowd out there is horrified that I may harm some trees to save my own skin, and so be it. It's a simple fact... a big pile of dead wood and dry leaves is not something I'm going to build a fire in front of before I lay down to sleep! Yup... the LIVE stuff makes the shelter, the DEAD stuff is called "tinder" and "firewood", and you DON'T build your shelter out of it. Common sense rules!

Hacking the black "knots" out of the side of a birch tree for tinder is a lot easier if you have a real blade, as is lopping hunks of sapwood. I also want my blade to be big enough for effective digging, and to chop apart rotten logs to rustle up some grub... or grubs... yum.

I can make a fire drill just as effectively with my big blades... but I don't need to... I carry a Bic. No spark makers, no ploughs, no ice lenses, no boat matches, no fire drills, no 9V batteries and steel wool... I don't carry ANY of the stupid junk that the supposed survival gurus advocate. Why would someone carry a few matches when the same size and weight could be a lighter? Oooops... more common sense. Yet again, I seem to have brought the right tool for the job.

Trust me on this fact... go visit the USAF Survival School, and check out the dozens of instructors. These guys pretty much live in the mountains of Washington state, and you won't find a one of them with some little skinner. They also don't use the 5" Air Force survival knife they were issued. You'll find a large variety of blades, but they'll all have something in common. They're all 9-12" blades of heavy (1/4" +/-) steel. You won't see any of the "Rambo" style blades either... just big choppers. It's not about "macho", it's about common sense bringing the right tool for the job at hand.

Anyhow, this is my opinion, but it's based on 30 years experience using blades in actual wilderness settings (and yes... actual survival settings), not sitting in front of the computer trying to justify why I spent hundreds of dollars on a skinny little pocket blade.

Nuff Said?
Click to expand...

OK...first of all, I prefer to carry both blade styles..so I don't wanna make a stand for either side. BUT...I am kinda outta the loop here, who are you, and who are your readers? What kinda survival gurru are you? Just asking, not trying to stir the coals here, but it seems that someone thinks that your opinion matters more than most, and I want to understand why.
 
"bushcraft" lovers justify themselves buy saying there blades can do finer work that large ones cant, even if that was true almost everone carries a pocketknife that has a blade about the size of bushcraft knives
me and m40 carry ours on pouches on our sheaths
 
That Fern blade is pretty nice. I've owned more than my share of big blades, and that one looks like it would make quick work of most field tasks. It reminds me of the Ontario RTAK except for the tanto style chisel point.

After some thought as to how I could get a lot of chopper in a relatively short profile, I came up with a cross between a bowie and a khukri: http://www.m4040.com/Knifemaking/M40Bowkri.htm

It has a decent "belly" for additional weight up front where I want it, and it'll even open your beer... would you really want to survive in the wild if you couldn't open your beer? As I said... bringing the right tool for the job.

It's a work in progress, and I plan on beating the ever-loving $%@# out of it before I haul it into the woods. So far in my testing, it sends big chunks of maple flying, but I'm holding off until I can handle and sheath it out before I continue.
 
gunknifenut said:
OK...first of all, I prefer to carry both blade styles..so I don't wanna make a stand for either side. BUT...I am kinda outta the loop here, who are you, and who are your readers? What kinda survival gurru are you? Just asking, not trying to stir the coals here, but it seems that someone thinks that your opinion matters more than most, and I want to understand why.
Click to expand...

I am one of his readers, and I think his opinion matters the most because they are the same as mine, even before I found his site
its what works
maybe your a doug ritter(:barf:) or les stroud(:jerkit:) "survivalist"
 
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