Exploring the Nessmuk "Trio"

I am stilll hoping the OP shows us his trio. As much as I like the original idea of an ax, I also like other people's ideas of what their trio would be and why. I like a big knIfe like a Hudson Bay, a saw, and a smaller fixed blade with about a 4 inch blade, maybe a Mora, or a SA army type knife. Secondly, how do people carry or transport their trio they are accessed easily. Just my two cents. Let's keep this going.
 
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Some day I'd like to ask Daniel Day Lewis if he ever found a way to stick a tomahawk in his belt that didn't endanger one organ or another.
I think OP showed us his trio up front and he's working on his ruminations and illustrations.
 
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Modoc ED said:
My wood splitting days are over. I'm too old and decrepit for that kind of work. So, should I need to restock my woodshed, I'll buy it by the cord for $120.00 - split.
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You can get a full cord, split (or not) for $120?!?
Cheap.
In the late '70's in So Cal I was getting $750 a split cord, (mixed wood) delivered.
I hear you can't burn anything in your fireplace in SoCal now, because of CARB emissions standards.
I had a tree trimming/removal/yard care business at the time. If the customer wanted the wood (not cut to length or split) they paid at least $500 more than if they didn't want the wood.

My family in coastal small town northern Maine, is currently paying $350 a split cord, delivered but not stacked.

At $120 a cord, even un-split, I'd probably leave it lay.
With the cost of fuel for the truck and saws, $120 may not be enough to cover expenses, let alone your and any helper's wages, even if you get it "free" by trimming or felling the tree(s) for a homeowners association after a wind storm, or for a homeowner.
I would still have to haul it off, cut to length, split, stack, and pay myself and the helper(s).
 
afishhunter said:
You can get a full cord, split (or not) for $120?!?
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Yes, a delivered full cord, split for $120.00. That's not stacked. I have to stack it myself.

Yep, there are CARB (California Air Resource Board) restrictions in SOCAL - even MIDCAL I think but none here in NORCAL where I live. Some homes here are only heated by wood stoves and some small dwellings with a fire place only.

Don't worry too much about the price of gas up in this area. Gotta love the Indian Reservation gas stations. Filled up my truck last Tuesday for $2.79 a gallon while out in town the same gas was selling for $4.59 a gallon.
 
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screened porch said:
Some day I'd like to ask Daniel Day Lewis if he ever found a way to stick a tomahawk in his belt that didn't endanger one organ or another.
I think OP showed us his trio up front and he's working on his ruminations and illustrations.
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Perhaps Mel Gibson can hep and tell us how he carried his claymore in Braveheart without endangering his chances of having children 🤣
 
I am still forming thoughts on a number of factors. Due to my trip not presenting me with as much opportunity as I would have liked, certainly not enough for me to flesh out any sort of concrete opinion, I've been trying to create more opportunities at home - i.e. using the knives in the kitchen, using the axe in my outdoor chores, etc.

Since I have been hosting "Merle" lately, the Bullmoose has been set aside until I send Merle onto the next recipient. More thoughts on that later.

The Erickson-made Nessmuk, however, I have been trying to use every day in some respect or another - mostly food prep. This is a more challenging exercise than I had anticipated. First, I have to separate the general design and blade shape from the maker's interpretation - then I have to evaluate the knife in use based on Nessmuk's philosophy (sparse as it appears to be) and try not to let anything else factor in. (I hope that makes sense)

Today, I made myself a tuna salad wrap for my lunch - with a side of carrot sticks. I used the knife to chop up the celery (I like my tuna salad with a little crunch) and pare the carrots into more manageable sticks. Light duties but food prep is certainly one of the tasks that Nessmuk mentions as fitting for a belt knife. I found the sweep of the blade to be a bit disconcerting, especially when I have become more accustomed to kitchen cutlery. I found that I wasn't utilizing the full cutting edge and that I had to alter my technique some in order to be more efficient - I think more practice is in order.

My experiences as a hunter tell me that this knife is an excellent skinner. For kitchen use, it is hard and thin but the perceived shortness of blade and generous curve is going to take some getting used to.

81cvWfM.jpg


xZokM8m.jpg
 
I thought the -octet knife w
Pàdruig said:
I am still forming thoughts on a number of factors. Due to my trip not presenting me with as much opportunity as I would have liked, certainly not enough for me to flesh out any sort of concrete opinion, I've been trying to create more opportunities at home - i.e. using the knives in the kitchen, using the axe in my outdoor chores, etc.

Since I have been hosting "Merle" lately, the Bullmoose has been set aside until I send Merle onto the next recipient. More thoughts on that later.

The Erickson-made Nessmuk, however, I have been trying to use every day in some respect or another - mostly food prep. This is a more challenging exercise than I had anticipated. First, I have to separate the general design and blade shape from the maker's interpretation - then I have to evaluate the knife in use based on Nessmuk's philosophy (sparse as it appears to be) and try not to let anything else factor in. (I hope that makes sense)

Today, I made myself a tuna salad wrap for my lunch - with a side of carrot sticks. I used the knife to chop up the celery (I like my tuna salad with a little crunch) and pare the carrots into more manageable sticks. Light duties but food prep is certainly one of the tasks that Nessmuk mentions as fitting for a belt knife. I found the sweep of the blade to be a bit disconcerting, especially when I have become more accustomed to kitchen cutlery. I found that I wasn't utilizing the full cutting edge and that I had to alter my technique some in order to be more efficient - I think more practice is in order.

My experiences as a hunter tell me that this knife is an excellent skinner. For kitchen use, it is hard and thin but the perceived shortness of blade and generous curve is going to take some getting used to.

81cvWfM.jpg


xZokM8m.jpg
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I thought the pocket knife was for this job?
 
Johnnythefox said:
I thought the -octet knife w

I thought the pocket knife was for this job?
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I don't believe so - at least not exclusively.

Nessmuk expressly says about the belt knife, "...thin in the blade, and handy for skinning, cutting meat, or eating with". Elsewhere in the book, he also describes prepping various food dishes and though he doesn't necessarily mention using a specific knife for cutting, he does say, "cut this here" or "cut this off", etc.

He says this about the pocket knife, "...in connection with the sheath knife, is all sufficient for camp use".

I suspect that that he used both knives for just about any purpose that required fine cutting but as he writes that he had easy access to his sheath knife (via a sheath sewn to the back of his hunting pouch), that may have been more of his go-to.
 
screened porch said:
I'd forgotten that.
The pouch might have held powder and shot. He never went in for metallic cartridges, but stuck with a percussion rifle he'd ordered from Germany, if memory serves.
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It was according to his writings
a neat, hair-triggered Billinghurst, carrying sixty round balls to the pound, a muzzleloader, of course, and a nail-driver
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Possibly a .42 Mule Ear Target Rifle with 32" barrel made by William Billinghurst in Brockport, N.Y.
 
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I sat down to read my book which I bought after this thread got me interested.
First chose a good quality book mark,there was only going to be one winner with those inspirational words.
Coffee in a thermal mug so I could sip it slowly and read more and this old frontier knife seemed appropriate to be by my side.










I had to look up the meaning of some Americanisms,sand flys are always sand flys over here.
By hemlock I guess he means a tree and not the plant?


This paragraph reminded me of when I went on one exercise with the bare minimum.
My sergeant said to me "any fool can rough it" we where in a truck together he had kitted it out like a palace.
So I contributed to the funds and we lived like kings (in between the rough stuff).





This hatchet was a surprise I have one in my shed, I thought it was for a fence builder or something like that.
Its extremely light you wouldn't chop a tree down with it.




North Woods is this a specific place or a generic name for the north of any woods,like you say the north face of a mountain?

 
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Johnnythefox said:
This hatchet was a surprise I have one in my shed, I thought it was for a fence builder or something like that.
Its extremely light you wouldn't chop a tree down with it.

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I appreciate you highlighting this snippet. He mentions a 2-pound clumsy hand-axe - which is an indication that the pocket-axe of his own design likely weighed considerably less. He doesn't talk about the dimensions or weight really of his chosen axe but I think it is widely thought that due to his stature and remarks like the one above, his design was likely quite small.
 
Pàdruig said:
I appreciate you highlighting this snippet. He mentions a 2-pound clumsy hand-axe - which is an indication that the pocket-axe of his own design likely weighed considerably less. He doesn't talk about the dimensions or weight really of his chosen axe but I think it is widely thought that due to his stature and remarks like the one above, his design was likely quite small.
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My hatchet is very small/light I will try to get a photo.
 
screened porch said:
I'd forgotten that.
The pouch might have held powder and shot. He never went in for metallic cartridges, but stuck with a percussion rifle he'd ordered from Germany, if memory serves.
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I neglected to mention that he does refer to his pouch as a "buckskin bullet pouch" and that it contained his ditty bag (with its own contents), among a smattering of other items - many of them being fishing and first aid related.

Speaking of rifles, I was doing some digging into Billinghurst antique pieces - some beautiful surviving examples out there!
 
Johnnythefox said:




I had to look up the meaning of some Americanisms,sand flys are always sand flys over here.
By hemlock I guess he means a tree and not the plant?
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Yes, a hemlock tree, in this case the Eastern Hemlock, common in the area where George W Sears lived. Its a large, thick evergreen. I believe those are hemlocks on the cover of the book.

Johnnythefox said:
North Woods is this a specific place or a generic name for the north of any woods,like you say the north face of a mountain?
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In the book what Nessmuk calls the North Woods is pretty much the Adirondacks in upstate New York.
 
I like that Nessmuk's good old Mt Vernon pattern must be pretty close to Kephart's sort sold in hardware stores, with broad beveled blades, generally made of poor, brittle stuff.
 
I've been following this thread with interest. I've gone camping many times with essentially a belt knife, a hatchet and a SAK, and the one thing I've always noticed is that I hardly use the SAK except for the additional tools it provides. I would have to go camping much longer than 3 days before I think I'd make good use of the blades of the pocket knife.
 
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