How to Buy an Outdoor Knife

[WolfTracker]

How to Buy an Outdoor Knife
by George Leonard Herter

An outdoor knife must be made for service--not show. Your life may depend on it. Real outdoor people realize that so-called sportsmen or outdoor knives have long been made for sale, not for use. The movies and television show their characters wearing fancy sheath knives. Knife makers advertised them and drugstore outdoorsmen bought them. Nothing marks a man to be a tenderfoot more than these showy useless knives.

Here are some of the duties a true woodsman knife must perform:

1. The knife must stay sharp for long periods of time without sharpening. The steel should combine the best characteristics of electric furnace quality high carbon 1095 steel and high carbon 440 B stainless steel. The blade hardness, known among steel experts as 56 Rockwell C, should not be affected by atmospheric moisture, salt spray, fruit acids or blood. It should withstand extreme temperatures without becoming brittle, no matter how cold it may be. A good steel knife blade will "blue" or darken itself with use, making it pratically rustproof. If knife blade steel is really good, it will cut through nails without bending over the edge.

2. The knife must be shaped so it is ideal for cleaning and skinning game of all kinds, from rabbits to moose. The best shape for this is the improved Bowie.

3. The knife must have a handle long enough so that it fits a man's hand so pressure can be put on the blade when desired. On nearly all outdoor knives the handles are emuch too short. The handle of the knife must be made to last a lifetime. Leather handles rot and mildew, stag handles crack, plastic handles crack and are highly inflammable. African mineral-type woods are best, and they will stand all kinds of weather for a lifetime and more.

4. The blade of the knife must not be hollow ground. Hollow grinding weakens a blade so that the edge will bend or break under heavy usage. A wedge edge is the strongest and most durable ever designed.

5. The blade of the knife must be hand forged in order to give the steel maximum strength and hardness.

6. The blade of the knife must not have a blood groove. A blood groove is strictly advertising and badly weakens the blade. Professional butchers do not use them.

7. The knife must be easy to carry and light in weight. The blade length must be 4 inches long. Four inches is the length established for a woodsman knife by over 200 years of experience. Blades shorter are all right for Boy Scouts, but not for serious woodsmen, Longer than 4 inches is unnecessary and adds weight.

8. The knife should have no hilt as it only adds weight. If the knife blade is properly designed, that is slightly indented, you cannot cut your finger no matter how hard you thrust. You need only thrust in a hand to hand combat with a man or a wounded animal.

9. The knife must be capable of slicing bacon and cutting bread. It must be a comfortable knife for eating and cutting cooked meat.

"I dislike seeming prejudiced but the George L. Herter knife made by Herter's is and has been the choice of real outdoor people."

 

[Masteroffajitas]

Hmmm, most of those aren't my views when buying a knife but intresting. What's an example of one of your knives that fit these requirements?

 

[myright]

This list seems to be very old.

 

[Marcelo Cantu]

Wasn't he selling his own knives?

 

[raylaconico]

This is full of one man's opinion. What's good for him may not be for all.

 

[udtjim]

I don't think Micarta takes a back seat to anything for knife handles. I could go along with some of their opinions but not all for sure. Certainly a Bravo one with Micarta grips would fill almost everyone's needs as would most all of the offering of our custom makers.

There is nothing wrong with fancy handles although they are way at the bottom of my list. Out in the woods, nobody see's them anyway.

 

[Rotte]

Not bad advice overall though. 4" High Carbon Scandi blade with a quality wood handle of good size sounds like a good bushcrafter to me.

It's not the only knife for the job, but this description isn't far off a nice Kephart either.

 

[WolfTracker]

I put that up for fun. It was written by G.L. Herter of the Herter's Catalog fame in "The Professional Guide's Manual. I believe that it was written in the early sixties. His way was pretty much the only way (In his opinion )

I had a copy when I was a kid.

 

[Mentor]

Hmm.

13 uses of the word 'must', by my count. Sounds restrictive and narrow, geared towards one person's idea of the ideal 'outdoor knife' rather than a review of the task requirements and characteristics of a user. There are definitely some good points in there, but it's a bit too straightforward for my taste.

You have to admire the strength of the author's convictions, though!

All the best,

- Mike

 

[Quirt]

In his day he was "the man" in the hunting/camping world at the time. What he described was probably state of the art circa 1950's-early 60's. He was also a guide and hunted extensively world-wide. I have one of his guide books that is ancient and now worth a lot. Got it when I was a kid.

He was the owner of Herter's which was the Cabelas in its day. I still have some of his catologs from the late 50's-early 60's.

 

[WolfTracker]

The 'must' had me chuckling, as well.

After all, he was a salesman.

 

[WolfTracker]

I heard that Cabela's bought some of the bankrupt Herter's co.

The catalog was a trip. The prices were ridiculously cheap. I still have the Guide's Manual.

 

[saxon]

Here is a Herter's knife. This is the one that he sold loads of.

 

[Dannyboy Leather]

Post expired.

 

[koyote]

How to Buy an Outdoor Knife
by George Leonard Herter

An outdoor knife must be made for service--not show. Your life may depend on it. Real outdoor people realize that so-called sportsmen or outdoor knives have long been made for sale, not for use. The movies and television show their characters wearing fancy sheath knives. Knife makers advertised them and drugstore outdoorsmen bought them. Nothing marks a man to be a tenderfoot more than these showy useless knives.

Maybe so, maybe not. I realize my eye isn't exactly uneducated, but to my eye, some very attractive real working knives are out there. Knives I'd describe as fancy. OTOH, I can spot mall ninja bling at a fair distance.

Here are some of the duties a true woodsman knife must perform:

1. The knife must stay sharp for long periods of time without sharpening. The steel should combine the best characteristics of electric furnace quality high carbon 1095 steel and high carbon 440 B stainless steel. The blade hardness, known among steel experts as 56 Rockwell C, should not be affected by atmospheric moisture, salt spray, fruit acids or blood. It should withstand extreme temperatures without becoming brittle, no matter how cold it may be. A good steel knife blade will "blue" or darken itself with use, making it pratically rustproof. If knife blade steel is really good, it will cut through nails without bending over the edge.

If you are aiming for a 56RC, I have no idea why you'd bother with insisting on 1095, when so many other carbon steels will serve just fine. Given what I know about 440B, I have no idea at all why it's even being mentioned. Not a clue. 440C I would use with a good heat treat if someone wanted stainless- it's got a bad rep due to improper labelling (often of 440B as 440C!!!!) and bad heat treats. It's not going to patinize much, though........

2. The knife must be shaped so it is ideal for cleaning and skinning game of all kinds, from rabbits to moose. The best shape for this is the improved Bowie.

Improved Bowie is a pretty loose term, but seems to be associated with Herter pretty strongly. He believed in his design, I guess. Not to my taste, I'd rather a broad spearpoint for that kind of do everything, or (of course) a leuku

3. The knife must have a handle long enough so that it fits a man's hand so pressure can be put on the blade when desired. On nearly all outdoor knives the handles are emuch too short. The handle of the knife must be made to last a lifetime. Leather handles rot and mildew, stag handles crack, plastic handles crack and are highly inflammable. African mineral-type woods are best, and they will stand all kinds of weather for a lifetime and more.

Not getting into wood, micarta, or other selection choices (the comment is obviously dated and completely ignores things like ironwood and osage orange) - there are plenty of advantages to a relatively short and fat handle on a working knife.

4. The blade of the knife must not be hollow ground. Hollow grinding weakens a blade so that the edge will bend or break under heavy usage. A wedge edge is the strongest and most durable ever designed.

I agree about the hollow grinds in general, but I'm not sure I agree with the wedge comment....

5. The blade of the knife must be hand forged in order to give the steel maximum strength and hardness.

Because in forging we mess up the grain of the steel more! that must be it! Seriously, I like forging when I do it, but I am not going to fool myself that putting a knife blade in a fire and hitting it with a hammer makes it better than putting it in the fire and not hammering it.

6. The blade of the knife must not have a blood groove. A blood groove is strictly advertising and badly weakens the blade. Professional butchers do not use them.

It's called a fuller and is used to add stiffness to light weight blades.

7. The knife must be easy to carry and light in weight. The blade length must be 4 inches long. Four inches is the length established for a woodsman knife by over 200 years of experience. Blades shorter are all right for Boy Scouts, but not for serious woodsmen, Longer than 4 inches is unnecessary and adds weight.

Yeah, and there's people out skinning deer as we speak with 2 inch bladed convex ground neckers. I'd like to hear what a Lapp would have to say about that. Or one of the sudamerican machete wizards.

As it happens, I think 3.75-5.5 inches is ideal for an all around knife, but I'm not an absolutist.

8. The knife should have no hilt as it only adds weight. If the knife blade is properly designed, that is slightly indented, you cannot cut your finger no matter how hard you thrust. You need only thrust in a hand to hand combat with a man or a wounded animal.

No comment. I fancy dropped edges myself, but I wouldn't argue with a guard on the right knife.

9. The knife must be capable of slicing bacon and cutting bread. It must be a comfortable knife for eating and cutting cooked meat.

I agree.

 

[Dannyboy Leather]

You can still purchase the Herter's (Murphy) preferred knives here. Names have changed but they are basically the same knives. Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed.
http://www.bensbackwoods.com/servlet/Categories?category=Knives%3AR+Murphy
http://www.rmurphyknives.com/store/hunting-knives.html#

 

[DutchV]

I like the look of that Herter's knife. Not bad for $16, and the design looks useful enough. It'd be a little better with real pins instead of cutlery rivets, but that's a modern observation. Lots of utility blades have used them without trouble.

 

[m. wohlwend]

Wow, take away the hump on the back and you almost have the profile of current buscraft knife. The grind looks flat or slightly convex.

 

[PhotonSD]

Now this is a timely thread. I just picked up a Herters like the one in Saxon's photo. Not pristine but good condition, once I got the blade cleaned. I am wondering at the handle material. Red Stained Hardwood? My blade also has thin fullers cut under the hump. Have to make a sheath for it but for 50 cents from the Salvation Army Clearance sale I am not complaining. Thanks to WolfTracker and all who contributed for the info.

 

[baldtaco-II]

A classic example of why one should develop one's own critical faculties. The guy is way out of his depth now, he may never have been in it.