Is it just me, or is the nessmuk just a plain knife with a funny humpback on it?

Sears definitely knew what he was doing in the woods. But based strictly on his writings, I think he'd be somewhat of an a-hole to share a camp with. This is off topic from his knife design, but what the heck!
 
Fiddleback said:
It suffers no choil. And has value just for that.
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Well said :D

tknife said:
Sears definitely knew what he was doing in the woods. But based strictly on his writings, I think he'd be somewhat of an a-hole to share a camp with. This is off topic from his knife design, but what the heck!
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So what, in particular, did he write that makes you feel that way?
 
He comes across as pretentious in some of his stories. Could come from too much time in the woods, away from people.

I'm not doubting his abilities, just his personality.
 
He does tend to rag on and judge and poke at the common 1800's woods tourists. Its pretty funny, from his descriptions, they were kinda asshatish. I think he'd be fun to get drunk with.
 
Fiddleback said:
He does tend to rag on and judge and poke at the common 1800's woods tourists. Its pretty funny, from his descriptions, they were kinda asshatish. I think he'd be fun to get drunk with.
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That could be it. Maybe he was just sarcastic (Like I am :D) And it comes across prickish in his writing.

I just re-read Woodcraft and Camping a couple months ago and remember thinking, man he seems like kind of a jerk!
 
People who contemplate an outing in the woods are pretty apt to commence preparations a long way ahead, and to pick up many trifling articles that suggest themselves as useful and handy in camp; all well enough in their way, but making at least a too heavy load. It is better to commence by studying to ascertain just how light one can go through without especial discomfort. A good plan is to think over the trip during leisure hours, and make out a list of indispensable articles, securing them beforehand, and have them stowed in handy fashion, so that nothing needful may be missing just when and where it cannot be procured. The list will be longer than one would think, but need not be cumbersome or heavy.
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I like this quote.
 
And of course my all time favorite:

WITH a large majority of prospective tourists and outers, "camping out" is a leading factor in the summer vacation. And during the long winter months they are prone to collect in little knots (ON INTERNET FORUMS-HD)and talk much of camps, fishing, hunting, and “roughing it." The last phrase is very popular and always cropping out in the talks on matters pertaining to a vacation in the woods. I dislike the phrase. We do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it rough enough at home; in towns and cities; in shops, offices, stores, banks anywhere that we may be placed—with the necessity always present of being on time and up to our work; of providing for the dependent ones; of keeping up, catching up, or getting left..
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And of course this one that always makes me a little sad but is so true:

And it is no myth; but a literal resume of a five days’ outing at Poplar Spring, on Marsh Creek, in Pennsylvania. Alas, for the beautiful valley, that once afforded the finest camping grounds I have ever known.


Neyer any more
Can it be
Unto me (or anybody else)
As before.

A huge tannery, six miles above Poplar Spring, poisons and blackens the stream with chemicals, bark and ooze, The land has been brought into market, and every acre eagerly bought up by actual settlers. The once fine covers and thickets are convened into fields thickly dotted with blackened stumps. And, to crown the desolation, coal’’ laden trains of "The Pine Creek and Jersey Shore R. R." go thundering almost hourly over the very spot where stood our camp by Poplar Spring.

Of course, this is progress; ’but, whether backward or forward, had better be decided sixty years hence. And, just what has happened to the obscure valley of Marsh Creek, is happening today, on a larger scale, all over the land. It is the same old story of grab and greed. Let us go’ ’on the "make" today, and "whack up" tomorrow; cheating each other as villainously as we may, and posterity be damned. "What’s all the w-u-u-rld to a man when his wife is a widdy?"

This is the moral: From Maine to Montana; from the Adironbacks to Alaska; from the Yosemite to the Yellowstone, the trout-hog, the deer-wolf, the netter, the skin-hunter, each and all have it their own way; and the law is a farce-only to be enforced where the game has vanished forever.

Perhaps the man-child is born who will live to write the moral of all this-when it is too late
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Here come the humps.....

Monster Nessie (HD says its really a Hudson Bay)

mike122.jpg


Grim Fiddle (complete with lightning warranty):

mike174.jpg
 
Not to rough it, but to smooth it....

exactly.


Three interpretations: a Kismet cobbled carbon steel kitchen blade, re-handled; a Greg Sikes reduction file with axis antler, and a SteelyGunz Old Hickory mod.

Maybe it is not the literal acceptance of Sear's words, but the spirit of his intent that carries on. Each of us accepting and interpreting it as we see it and are able to interpret it. That spirit can be part of our nature, and allow us to feel relaxation and comfort in an environment that is the antithesis of "civilization."

Stuff don't make you happy.

threenessiesroughkismetnicegregs-1.jpg
 
Kismet - You are correct, stuff (nor technology) doesn't make people happy, but I'm pretty sure that having those beauties you posted wouldn't hurt my status within Maslow's Hierarchy of needs.... Nice looking blades bro!
 
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My understanding is that the shape of the blade is very good for skinning and the hump or extra width is to aid in slicing straight. Also the width of the blade gives it chopping strength without going to a thicker blade. A true Nessie has a blade usually no more than 1/8 inch thick for good slicing qualities. Thats my .02 worth. I love the design myself.
 
udtjim, been meanin' to tell ya, pard, I LOVE your signature line! I get a kick out of it every time I read it!

Ron
 
Greg Sikes made a helluva Nessmuk! It was from his posts that I first learned of the Nessmuk, and after that HD did a great job of educating me.
 
Thanks for the kind words. I am not sure where I first heard it. Another that caught my ear is one I use on some gun sites. It says, " I carry a 45 because they don't make a 46."
 
The Nessmuk-style knife is a great blade for hunting; IMHO it's a poor bushcraft knife.

Kephart's knife is a much better woods knife.
 
Grampa said:
The Nessmuk-style knife is a great blade for hunting; IMHO it's a poor bushcraft knife.

Kephart's knife is a much better woods knife.
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True.

However I'd give Nessmuks blade in it's thin form the edge over a bushcraft knife for actual camp cooking. And of course I'd give the scandi style bushcraft knife the edge any day over a flat ground Kephart for actual bushcraft.
 
I've never understood the attraction of the nessmuk,to me it's an ugly, awkward looking piece of cutlery. I guess it must work well to attain such a cult following however.
 
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