How do you rate yourself????????? From Dr.Bill

[Brad "the butcher"]

I grew up as a slave of the family woodstove. From age 9 to 19. Lots of camping and trail clearing in the past 30 years and with 10 acres up north in the Cariboo the past 3 years I have been using axe, chainsaw and big knives a lot again.
Give myself an 8 for chopping.

5 yrs of trapping experience with Dad and a love of knives from 5 yrs old. Was always whittlin' and making fires and practicing shelter building as a kid and teen.
Got into scandi's and carving the past 4 yrs or so, 2 yrs with a mora crook knife. I like to make a fire almost every dayhike for a couple decades now so I stay in practice.Being honest as I do not craft too many things or make traps often(almost never)

Bushcraft a 4.5

Processing meat and cutting game etc is where I shine. From 5 yrs of following Dad on trapline cleaning and skinning from 8 yrs old, many hunts for almost everything in Saskatchewan and helping with all the chores. Then from grade 10 to 12 working full time as a meat cutter at every single damn school holiday for my exacting German father/foreman. After that full time slaughterhouse work from 1988 to 1997 working the kill floor and pork and beef cutting on the line.
For 9 yrs I was the holiday/sick relief for the line as I could do 48 of the 55 or so jobs in pork/beef cutting and 3/4 of the jobs on the kill floor. Anytime we hired new guys for labour or knife work they would stick them with me to show them the ropes. It would be comical sometimes deflating attitudes of guys that finished their gov't approved 6 month meat cutting course where they had all the time in the world to debone something. Put them on a line that processes 200 hogs an hour and reality sets in fast, having to do 100 to 200 pieces an hour plus somehow finding the time to sharpen your knife takes stamina, muscle memory and real skill.
I know for a fact that the foreman/father did this to humble many men who complained the work was hard. Dad would tell me the night before I was training and would bring my down vest so I could only wear 1 smock and would roll up my sleeves to show off my skinny/wiry 13.5in arms at 5'8 and 128lb to slowly moving to 5'11 and 175 pounds from 18 to 27. Guys in their prime and 30 to 100 pounds heavier would break down, lose their attitude and let themselves get trained by the "Kid". I was ID'd until my early thirties and at 24 looked maybe 18.
In all that cutting my whole life I have never given myself a cut that needed stitches and have not suffered from repetitive motion injury, tendonitis, bursitis or back injuries. I credit this to my Dad being adamant about proper technique and ergonomics in everything. Due to my size when 15 to 18 he had me trained by an elderly Korean and a Japanese man that were tiny and incredible with a knife. They would be half the size of the European men and would do the same job, never calling in sick or being injured. Like the Mr Miyagi's of meat cutting, all moves fluid with economy of motion. Thank you to Tony and "the general" for being so patient and kind.

For the "butcher" a solid "modest" 9 in meat cuttting skills as you can always learn more. Would like to be more proficient at smoking fish/meat and sausage making.

Regards

 

[Insipid Moniker]

What number represents "A bare step above curling into the fetal position and sobbing?"...not that I'd do that or anything...

 

[WILLIAM.M]

I grew up as a slave of the family woodstove. From age 9 to 19. Lots of camping and trail clearing in the past 30 years and with 10 acres up north in the Cariboo the past 3 years I have been using axe, chainsaw and big knives a lot again.
Give myself an 8 for chopping.

5 yrs of trapping experience with Dad and a love of knives from 5 yrs old. Was always whittlin' and making fires and practicing shelter building as a kid and teen.
Got into scandi's and carving the past 4 yrs or so, 2 yrs with a mora crook knife. I like to make a fire almost every dayhike for a couple decades now so I stay in practice.Being honest as I do not craft too many things or make traps often(almost never)

Bushcraft a 4.5

Processing meat and cutting game etc is where I shine. From 5 yrs of following Dad on trapline cleaning and skinning from 8 yrs old, many hunts for almost everything in Saskatchewan and helping with all the chores. Then from grade 10 to 12 working full time as a meat cutter at every single damn school holiday for my exacting German father/foreman. After that full time slaughterhouse work from 1988 to 1997 working the kill floor and pork and beef cutting on the line.
For 9 yrs I was the holiday/sick relief for the line as I could do 48 of the 55 or so jobs in pork/beef cutting and 3/4 of the jobs on the kill floor. Anytime we hired new guys for labour or knife work they would stick them with me to show them the ropes. It would be comical sometimes deflating attitudes of guys that finished their gov't approved 6 month meat cutting course where they had all the time in the world to debone something. Put them on a line that processes 200 hogs an hour and reality sets in fast, having to do 100 to 200 pieces an hour plus somehow finding the time to sharpen your knife takes stamina, muscle memory and real skill.
I know for a fact that the foreman/father did this to humble many men who complained the work was hard. Dad would tell me the night before I was training and would bring my down vest so I could only wear 1 smock and would roll up my sleeves to show off my skinny/wiry 13.5in arms at 5'8 and 128lb to slowly moving to 5'11 and 175 pounds from 18 to 27. Guys in their prime and 30 to 100 pounds heavier would break down, lose their attitude and let themselves get trained by the "Kid". I was ID'd until my early thirties and at 24 looked maybe 18.
In all that cutting my whole life I have never given myself a cut that needed stitches and have not suffered from repetitive motion injury, tendonitis, bursitis or back injuries. I credit this to my Dad being adamant about proper technique and ergonomics in everything. Due to my size when 15 to 18 he had me trained by an elderly Korean and a Japanese man that were tiny and incredible with a knife. They would be half the size of the European men and would do the same job, never calling in sick or being injured. Like the Mr Miyagi's of meat cutting, all moves fluid with economy of motion. Thank you to Tony and "the general" for being so patient and kind.

For the "butcher" a solid "modest" 9 in meat cuttting skills as you can always learn more. Would like to be more proficient at smoking fish/meat and sausage making.

Regards

That is an EXCELLENT answer

Very well written!!!!

 

[Huntsman Knife Co. LLC.]

5 in chopping- I love it but probably not very good at it

3 in bushcraft- I can build a fire, make tent stakes, build a shelter etc... but it takes me a long time and Im not very skilled. Plus after seeing some of the things people on this forum do I am continually humbled with regards to my skill.

Not sure what to rate in the hunting category. I think Im a decent hunter and have fully processed deer, fish, small game etc before but I am not proficient at it. It took me and my brother 4 hours to process a full grown buck, I bet someone who really know's what they are doing could do it in an hour. Also Im not good at tanning hides or using other materials on the animal for tools. Ill say Im a 4.

 

[Codger_64]

5 in chopping- I love it but probably not very good at it

3 in bushcraft- I can build a fire, make tent stakes, build a shelter etc... but it takes me a long time and Im not very skilled. Plus after seeing some of the things people on this forum do I am continually humbled with regards to my skill.

Not sure what to rate in the hunting category. I think Im a decent hunter and have fully processed deer, fish, small game etc before but I am not proficient at it. It took me and my brother 4 hours to process a full grown buck, I bet someone who really know's what they are doing could do it in an hour. Also Im not good at tanning hides or using other materials on the animal for tools. Ill say Im a 4.

What's the rush? Unless it is horribly hot out, there is usually no great rush to process a deer. If there were for some reason, I would cut out the large muscle groups (hams, neck meat, backstraps), pack 'em and run! Yes, I can do most of it quicker that a novice, but I take the processing much further, so, all told, it does take time to not waste meat and prepare it for cooking/jerking/storage. Perhaps this may be a good subject for a thread in the "Hunting and fishing" forum though. But again I say, if you have done it and can do it, you are well on your way to being skilled at it.

 

[pitdog]

I think a good knowledge of wild edibles and other wilderness resources should be included in the list.

And is the ability to make and use wedges etc included in the chopping part ? Where possible I always try to use brain power over arm power to reduce wood down.

I'd say with chopping I'm an 8, Bushcraft skills I'm a 6 and game prep I'm probably a 3...not done any in quite some time.

 

[Myal]

chopping .. probaly about a 5 .. I lop branches and bamboos daily for the goat to eat , as for the slicing thru water bottles and stuff I never tried , never seen the point , but when it comes to cutting stuff for a reason I understand i can do it , and usualy do it ok

bush craft ... Im going to take a 4 here , I can make a good enough spear and woomera , fishing spear even faster ( soo much easier to make ) I can improvise a knife easily enough usualy , get a fire going , find a useable water source , set up a shelter etc ... but carving cups and spoons I suck at . bush craft seems to be about carving traps and cups and spoons so Im not going to claim to be good at it

game prep .. Im say a 7 . I learned to kill skin clean and part up a animal from my grand dad as a kid , I remember when was 12 I taught our new neighbours how to do it . ( they wrote about it in grass roots magazine and got hate mail for a year or more from dedicated vegans ) He worked in the meat works for years , I was the one in the family tasked with raising and preparing the sheep and goats pretty much , killed one every fourtnight for years . When the drought hit and the rabbits were in plagues we ate rabbits and were doing dam well thanks tho I did develop allergy to rabbit fur then that I still have now ...

I havent done it regularly for a good few years now but a couple months ago I shot a roo , and the skinning and preparing was as natural to do as if I had been doing it regularly ... but I havent had any formal training so I guess I have a lot I can learn about doing it properly still .

 

[Erasmus]

#1. Chopping: I rate myself a very strong and solid 3. We've been on wood heat since the 20th Century, and I've been the sole source for almost all the wood we use. I'm a "6" w/ a chainsaw and hand splitting wedges + 8lb mauls! I haven't been smushed cutting down trees in Sequoi NF, so I must know something.

#2 Woodcraft: My rating is near non-existent, due to near non-use. In hunting, fishing and backpacking, I never really ever built wooden structures, traps or carvings. Guilt lead me to try a fuzz stick a month back. A differentially abled kindergartener would have done a better job . When my "unbreakable" lexan spoon broke on a backpacking trip, my whitled spoon replacement was disgracefully bad. Nearly unuseable.:thumbdn: OK, I'm an idiot. That's no secret around here.

#3 Animal processing: Here's where I shine. After 6 lustrums consumed in hunting, fishing and backpacking, I used to rate myself a solid and dependable 3 at cutting stuff up. After last week's upland bird hunt, I promoted myself to a 4. This promotion has been great for my ego, and I find myself strutting about intolerably as a consequence.



Still got all my fingers and toes.

 

[Bufford]

Chopping gets my top score for having lived with wood heat all my life. I have no use for using woodsplitters, I can do it faster with an axe and picaroon than struggling to lift up big rounds to feed splitters.

Bushcraft, I have the basic skills, but I could not start a fire from scratch using primative methods.

Game prep, again alot of experience here, worked on farms slaughtering hogs and chickens much of my life and those skills lend well with processing game, as animal annatomy is quite similar in all creatures.

 

[Big Mike]

How do you rate your Knife Shills on a scale of 1-10

First let me say that my answer to this question has changed through the years.

Though skills generally improve as time goes by, skills can also get rusty if not practiced.


Chopping - I rate myself a solid 8 - Ten years ago most of chopping was done with axes. Getting involved maintaining the local hiking trail system has me carrying and using big blades to clear all matter of vegetation and fallen debris from trails old and new. I do pack in an axe or saw when needed, but I am amazed how far I've come with my chopping skills using a knife.

Bushcraft - I give myself a 6 - Even though I spend time in the woods most days, and use my knives for all manor of tasks, I won't claim to be a talented bushcrafter. As a general woodsman I spend my time exploring and observing more then i do practicing my Bushcraft skill set.

Game Prep. - Again, I give myself a 6 - Here my skills are not what they once where. In my youth I spent much of my time hunting and fishing, processing lots of game over many years. In recent years my priorities and opportunities have changed, my skills in this area are not what they once where.




Big Mike

 

[Rockywolf]

Chopping: a 5. Used to do a lot but I don't need to anymore so skills are rusty.

Bushcraft: this is where I want the most practice. I give myself a 3. I have a ton of knowledge, but not the time to practice. Shelter building, fire prep are my two most practiced skills. I suck at knots and am bewildered by edibles. I need to get off my butt and study more!

Game prep: 1. Ive never been a hunter, much more interested in fishing. I'd love to learn though!

 

[Core Knife Co.]

#1:Chopping------I'd rate myself as a solid 3 in chopping. I was going to rate myself higher then I reread it and realized it wasn't what I originally thought. I'm the man with an axe however I don't usually go chopping things with a knife if I don't have to. I've never attacked a defenseless rope or water bottle so I don't know how I'd do. If you want a cord slit up in record time, buy me a beer and invite me over. I enjoy it more than I should.

#2:Bushcraft----- I'll give myself a 4. I was going to go 5, but going right in the middle seems noncommittal so I bumped it down. I do all of this with my 13 year old son. Every summer we spend just about every free day out in the woods. We've made debris shelters, traps, fire bows, harvested fat wood, primitive tools, etc. I just don't do as religiously as many I know and I know if I were in a difficult situation where I had to depend on a fire bow I'd be in trouble.

#3:Game Prep----I'd give myself a 7. I can skin just about anything. I've deboned and processed many a white tail. Taking it in the context of the list I think a solid 7 is justified however if I put it in the context of my skills versus my butcher buddy I'd more than likely be pumped down to a 3 or 4.

 

[Shotgun]

The 3 Tasks/Skills

#1:Chopping------Wood,Cardbiard,Water Bottles,ETC I would rate myself as a #8 if you keep in mind that I am "old school" and my chopping (of wood) has been 99% with an axe or a hatchet. I never felt the need to chop cardboard or water bottles though, so that would be out of my skillset for chopping.

#2:Bushcraft----- Traps,Firesticks,Carving,ETC I would also rate my bushcraft skills at #8. I am comfortable in the woods and can make most anything that I need or desire. I don't regularly practice ten ways to build traps though. And I doubt that the indiginous originators of the trap styles did either. I don't feel the need to build chairs, beds, tables etc. when in the woods. I did all that when I was young including ladders and elevated walkways in the trees. IMHO, "bushcraft" includes more skills than making things like reading weather, time, distance, direction as well as being familiar with plants, animals and minerals in my environment.

#3:Game Prep----(Rabbit,Deer,Bear,Elk,Fish,ETC) I would rate myself as a solid #8 here as well. I've never skinned and elk or a moose, but they are put together like a deer and I have many years experience with deer, fish, small game, hogs, snakes etc. I read about people splitting a deer (or other game's) pelvis and I wounder why. If you study the anatomy, they come apart at the joints just like a car. When finished, I have a pile of meat, a hide with head and four lower legs, and a spinal column including pelvis. I know quite a few ways to cook game and fish as well.


OK, I understand that many (if not most) do things differently than I do and that is good. If they enjoy chopping with a knife, building things, cleaning game differently than I do, I have no problem with that at all and it in no way means that my way is right and their way is wrong. I would never give myself a #9 or #10 in any of these catagories because I am always learning and probably wouldn't be a good teacher. I butchered two nice bucks in the last three days and I did them each a little differently. I cleaned and cooked a lot of fish this year and probably didn't do it exactly the same way twice, though I have learned a few "always" and a few "never" tricks. I am always open to learning more though.

Loved your post. Water, cardboard, and pelvises are something I've wondered about too. Cool if that's your thing but I don't get it.

1) I'd say I'm a 5. I started really getting into learning this skill and then realised that it's something I don't need so that's about where my skill level stopped. I still get out and do it from time to time but it's just to split kindling which anyone with a 3 in experience can get a 10 in results.

2) I dunno. For what I need and the tasks I do it's an 8 but in the grand skeem of "Bushcraft" it's probably a 4. A lot of the knife tasks a "bushcrafter" does is IMO woodworking and I have no interest in woodworking. I'm also with Codger in that Bushcraft is more than just woodworking and also includes the other 2 subjects. Seeing as this question is only about blade skills(with Codger on the axe too ) that a name other than Bushcraft should have been given to this area so as not to distract from the intent of the question. Woodcarving maybe?

3) I don't hunt or fish but I know my way around an animal in the kitchen so maybe a 2 here. Let's face it though, if you're hungry you're going to get that animal in your gut even if you have 0 skill so it's just something I don't practice or intend on practicing.