Dozier Wilderness Knife?

Razor

Razor

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 8, 1999
Messages
3,975
Anyone ever used one of these? I always wanted to try one, but dreaded the price.
 
I dont think they would be bad, the price and Hollow grind turn some off, but I dont think their would be much of a problem.
 
I somehow managed to lose a very lengthy reply. Probably a good thing. Here's the shorter(?) version:

I have a Dozier Wilderness knife. It is atypical in that it is convex ground. The other convex ground knife I have is also a Dozier, made to my specs with a 3.5" blade. The second knife is my "always" woods knife (this is more relevant later, sort of.)

In my extensive experience everything you have heard about the edge-holding quality of Dozier's D2 steel is true. To illustrate, it is not uncommon for me to go through 5 - 6 whitetails (gutting, skinning, quartering) before even thinking about sharpening my Dozier K2. I believe processing game animals is the truest real-world test of cutting and edge-holding ability. Doziers handle it as well or better than any other knives I have used for that task. I have been gutting, skinning and quartering game animals for a long, long time, and I have been through a lot of knives.

The point on MY Wilderness Knife is not to my liking; perhaps because the convex grind required more free-handing, the sweep from the belly to the point is a little too steep for my taste. This makes using the point a little awkward at times, but the knife is still serviceable as is. I have not noticed the same issue with the point on hollow-ground Wilderness Knives I have seen in pictures.

The handle is long for the blade length. I do not mean this to be read as "too long", because it is well thought-out. My wife's relatively small hands have no trouble with it and my larger hands find it comfortable with or without gloves. I have never found the handle to be uncomfortable.

If you have handled Dozier's Pro Guide Knife you may benefit from a comparison: the Wilderness Knife is a Pro Guide knife on steroids, with a slightly longer handle. I had both the Pro Guide and the Wilderness. I kept the Wilderness (My wife would have kept the Pro Guide.)

I think the price point of the knife is a good one.

The knife's balance is neutral: you either like that balance point or you don't.

The sheath is easily manipulated with one hand. It holds the knife securely and releases it easily when you ask for it. The sheath carries the knife so that the handle falls away from the body; this makes it easy to grab, it also makes it more likely to hang up on something.

As described by Bob Dozier, the Wilderness Knife is meant to be the "one knife" used by a skilled woodsman. While the thicker blade stock does lead to a less acute edge, I have not found it to adversly effect real-world cutting chores. Dozier's web site specifically says the knife is meant to handle "chopping situations." I question this for two reasons: 1) Bob Dozier makes no bones about his knives not being designed as choppers, and he gets a little hesitant when pressed on what the Wilderness Knife will handle (that post is somewhere in the BFC archives; I know it's there because I asked him the question.) 2) The balance and heft of the 5" bladed Wilderness Knife does NOT lend itself to chopping - it's too neutral and too lightweight. My knife has handled being batonned just fine and the thicker edge came through it with flying colors. However, when the man who makes it says "be careful," I think chopping with wild abandon would be a mistake.

I do a lot of woods-walking in Kansas, and I do a lot of mountain-walking in Colorado. My smaller custom Dozier always goes with me. I take both the Wilderness Knife and my smaller custom Dozier when I'm in the mountains, and that means I usually leave my Fehrman and Busse behind. I think I could get by just fine with the Wilderness Knife: it will handle food prep just fine, it will handle any cutting chores just fine, and - with a baton and a little patience - I could split wood for a fire and build a shelter with it. A larger knife would handle the chopping and shelter work much better, and I think a novice woodsman would be better off with a larger blade for those two purposes.

You will not want to use the Wilderness Knife to fight off a cougar or a bear. You will not want to cut concrete with it or use it to dismantle an Abrams tank. It will cut forever, it is easily managed, and - if you know what you're doing - it's enough knife in a relatively small package to get you by in a tough spot. I think that's probably what Bob Dozier had in mind for it. Whether it's what you want in your knife is up to you, but hopefully the dissertation above will give you an idea.
 
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Two words for u: BUY ONE. I have a few and just got a custom wilderness with a 4in blade. You just cant go wrong. They stay sharp forever.
 
I have a professional guide ans it is very nice. Asked once what it was able to withstand since has a thin profile and hard D2. In the end we had B.Dozier confirming that stuff like battoning wasn't convered by guaranty.

Since then I haven't used it much. Not that I am anal about getting my money back in case it is damaged, but the fact it isn't covered by guaranty means the knife isn't meant for that and I would be annoyed to trash a nice knife for no reason.
 
Rainmaker870 said:
I somehow managed to lose a very lengthy reply. Probably a good thing. Here's the shorter(?) version:

<Snipped to save space>

You will not want to use the Wilderness Knife to fight off a cougar or a bear. You will not want to cut concrete with it or use it to dismantle an Abrams tank. It will cut forever, it is easily managed, and - if you know what you're doing - it's enough knife in a relatively small package to get you by in a tough spot. I think that's probably what Bob Dozier had in mind for it. Whether it's what you want in your knife is up to you, but hopefully the dissertation above will give you an idea.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this excellent review. I've saved it for later reference.

This is precisely the sort of authoritative, unsolicited information that makes BF the place to be.

FWIW, I also have great respect for Dozier's knives. I also believe they are worth the asking price.
 
I have a Pro Guide, and it is extremely well made. While it is hollow ground, it is also pretty robust. I wouldn't put it through the same paces as some of my other knives, but I think with care, you would do fine in the wilderness if it were your only knife. The steel and heat treat are a fantastic combination.
 
ks7wk080639c1r1vu1.jpg


I’m a big fan of Bob Dozier’s work, he builds awesome knives.


I think his D2 has the best edge retention of any steel I have used, and have been using his blades exclusively for hunting since I first tried it, no knife stays sharper longer.



The Wilderness is one big tough piece of D2, and its ground thicker then most of Bob’s knives, and will obviously take more abuse then most of his woodsmans tools.



But I would not abuse it the way I do some of my convex ground A2 camp knives, :eek:

...Bob builds his knives for cutting, they are not designed to be pry bars or splitting wedges.




"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
How thick are the handles? They look like relatively thin micarta slabs?
Has anyone got a spine down shot - I'd be interested to see the contours.
 
Daniel L said:
How thick are the handles? They look like relatively thin micarta slabs?
Has anyone got a spine down shot - I'd be interested to see the contours.
Click to expand...

These are the best I can do.

ks7wk080625kl4.jpg


ks7wk080629gw5.jpg


ks7wk080621zj7.jpg





"If you're not living on the edge, …you're taking up too much space."

Big Mike
 
For comparison, a spine shot of my ProGuide with an IJ Aito for scale.
proguidespine.jpg

The boxes on the table are 1/2"
 
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Thanks guys - yes it was sort of what I was expecting. Nice contouring on the Wildernerness and solid blade.

I generally prefer much thicker handles, so this is probably out for me.
 
Rainmaker870 said:
I somehow managed to lose a very lengthy reply. Probably a good thing. Here's the shorter(?) version:

I have a Dozier Wilderness knife. It is atypical in that it is convex ground. The other convex ground knife I have is also a Dozier, made to my specs with a 3.5" blade. The second knife is my "always" woods knife (this is more relevant later, sort of.)

In my extensive experience everything you have heard about the edge-holding quality of Dozier's D2 steel is true. To illustrate, it is not uncommon for me to go through 5 - 6 whitetails (gutting, skinning, quartering) before even thinking about sharpening my Dozier K2. I believe processing game animals is the truest real-world test of cutting and edge-holding ability. Doziers handle it as well or better than any other knives I have used for that task. I have been gutting, skinning and quartering game animals for a long, long time, and I have been through a lot of knives.

The point on MY Wilderness Knife is not to my liking; perhaps because the convex grind required more free-handing, the sweep from the belly to the point is a little too steep for my taste. This makes using the point a little awkward at times, but the knife is still serviceable as is. I have not noticed the same issue with the point on hollow-ground Wilderness Knives I have seen in pictures.

The handle is long for the blade length. I do not mean this to be read as "too long", because it is well thought-out. My wife's relatively small hands have no trouble with it and my larger hands find it comfortable with or without gloves. I have never found the handle to be uncomfortable.

If you have handled Dozier's Pro Guide Knife you may benefit from a comparison: the Wilderness Knife is a Pro Guide knife on steroids, with a slightly longer handle. I had both the Pro Guide and the Wilderness. I kept the Wilderness (My wife would have kept the Pro Guide.)

I think the price point of the knife is a good one.

The knife's balance is neutral: you either like that balance point or you don't.

The sheath is easily manipulated with one hand. It holds the knife securely and releases it easily when you ask for it. The sheath carries the knife so that the handle falls away from the body; this makes it easy to grab, it also makes it more likely to hang up on something.

As described by Bob Dozier, the Wilderness Knife is meant to be the "one knife" used by a skilled woodsman. While the thicker blade stock does lead to a less acute edge, I have not found it to adversly effect real-world cutting chores. Dozier's web site specifically says the knife is meant to handle "chopping situations." I question this for two reasons: 1) Bob Dozier makes no bones about his knives not being designed as choppers, and he gets a little hesitant when pressed on what the Wilderness Knife will handle (that post is somewhere in the BFC archives; I know it's there because I asked him the question.) 2) The balance and heft of the 5" bladed Wilderness Knife does NOT lend itself to chopping - it's too neutral and too lightweight. My knife has handled being batonned just fine and the thicker edge came through it with flying colors. However, when the man who makes it says "be careful," I think chopping with wild abandon would be a mistake.

I do a lot of woods-walking in Kansas, and I do a lot of mountain-walking in Colorado. My smaller custom Dozier always goes with me. I take both the Wilderness Knife and my smaller custom Dozier when I'm in the mountains, and that means I usually leave my Fehrman and Busse behind. I think I could get by just fine with the Wilderness Knife: it will handle food prep just fine, it will handle any cutting chores just fine, and - with a baton and a little patience - I could split wood for a fire and build a shelter with it. A larger knife would handle the chopping and shelter work much better, and I think a novice woodsman would be better off with a larger blade for those two purposes.

You will not want to use the Wilderness Knife to fight off a cougar or a bear. You will not want to cut concrete with it or use it to dismantle an Abrams tank. It will cut forever, it is easily managed, and - if you know what you're doing - it's enough knife in a relatively small package to get you by in a tough spot. I think that's probably what Bob Dozier had in mind for it. Whether it's what you want in your knife is up to you, but hopefully the dissertation above will give you an idea.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to compliment you on what a great and well thought out review you posted here. In my opinion you covered all the positive and negative points from your experience. Very excellent!
 
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