Just Asking. What’s Up With Everything “Bushcraft” Nowadays?

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Gene

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I don’t get on knife forums much anymore but was an original member of BF back in the day when it first started. All I see now is bushcraft this and bushcraft that. I know what a bushcraft knife is, (for use in the bush, camping, hard use or otherwise), but wondering why it’s such a big deal to use the term bushcraft nowadays?

I remember here where everything turned “tactical” years ago. It was like if a knife didn’t use the term tactical in it’s description, it wasn’t worthy of being a knife. I also remember when handle scales were mostly black. I screamed “why don’t handle scales have colors like red, orange, green or other bright colors instead of black?” Folks mocked me and said who would want that? A few years later, colors were all the rage and even “toxic” colors!

No big deal but it’s just the term “bushcraft” is everywhere nowadays.
 
Bushcraft is a set of skills that straddles survival and living off the land. My theory on why it is so popular, as you put it, is that there is a generation of people who have been unplugged from the outdoors, and they want to reconnect.

Edited to add: since this generation can't rely on their grandpa to teach them these skills, they learn the way people do in 2023, on the internet.
 
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dogstar said:
Bushcraft is a set of skills that straddles survival and living off the land. My theory on why it is so popular, as you put it, is that there is a generation of people who have been unplugged from the outdoors, and they want to reconnect.

Edited to add: since this generation can't rely on their grandpa to teach them these skills, they learn the way people do in 2023, on the internet.
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And IMO, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. It’s always cool to learn new things and to get to know the skills our ancestors relied on.

What’s not cool: sharing bad practices and selling/promoting less than reliable gear. There are some great and some scummy YouTube channels out there.
 
We think that knives are better in some sort of straight line. And so the more a knife is needed or the more extreme conditions it can handle. The better the design is.

Bushcraft seems to be the ultimate use of a knife. And bushcrafters seem to be the most knowledgeable knife guys. And so becomes the gold standard for knifing.

It isn’t always the case. But I think that is just how we think.
 
From one who has been around a while, old school survival used to be buying military surplus stuff (that used to be cheap and plentiful) and going out in the woods with waterproof matches, a hollow handle survival knife, and a new at the time space (mylar) blanket and feeling like you were prepared for the inevitable end of the world because we were in the height of the cold war. I feel like the survivalists of the 70's and 80's kind of split into two camps, one being the preppers, and the other being those who wanted to focus on wilderness survival. Over time everyone adopted the term bushcraft, but I can't really say what the origins are. I'm curious to see how it will all evolve going forward. In the end, it is just a bunch of people enjoying a hobby and trying to learn some useful skills in the meantime.
 
"Bushcraft" is a made-up marketing term for doing things with knives that man has already been doing for thousands of years.

It's meaningless, over-used and redundant, just like "tactical" was in the '90's.

Any knife I have with me in the woods is a "bushcraft" knife. :rolleyes:
 
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As somebody who does some bushcrafting for fun I have zero expectations of ever having to use any of it in a real survival situation. I got started messing with it mostly because I was involved in the mountain man rendevous thing and whipping out a bic lighter was frowned upon. I can make a fire with shavings and flint and steel but if it was -2 degrees outside I sure in the heck would be using my lighter. There might be some super hardcore bushcraft guys living that life 100% out there somewhere but let me just say there are some pretty nice vehicles in the parking lots at every rendevous I ever went to, and by nice I don't mean apocalypse pickup trucks decked out with a roll cage, I mean brand new trucks and cars of every make, including luxury ones.
 
I think it's been a fad for the last 10 years or so. At least it's an easy way to describe a group of activities that folks enjoy. I just usually call it camping, but to each his own.
 
I think many find solace in negating the realities of their contemporary lives by fantasizing that they are hearty pioneers capable of sustaining themselves indefinitely via batonning and starting campfires with sparks from their fancy fixed-blade knives.
 
shane45-1911 said:
"Bushcraft" is a made-up marketing term for doing things with knives that man has already been doing for thousands of years.

It's meaningless and redundant.

Any knife I have with me in the woods is a "bushcraft" knife. :rolleyes:
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Bushcraft is originally an Australian term for skills required to live in the bush like an Aborigine. Coincidentally it has been similarly used in South Africa for decades. The word bush there was likely derived from the Dutch word bosch. As both Australian and South African English languages are derivative of the King’s English originally, US usage adopted it today.

Both Merriam Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary list bushcraft with the same meaning.
 
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It seems to be a fad thing recently kinda like tactical or survival.

It was originally a term used for a craft in Australia out in the “bush”. But it can depend on the locality and what environment and how the craft tools are used. It’s not only knives, other tools can be used in the craft like hatchet or axe, saw and cutting tools. And it also includes techniques.

Some people have taken it to the extreme and impose certain criteria on a knife to be called a bushcraft knife just like the tactical fad where if it was all black it was tactical. Lol or like a survival knife had to have a hollow handle lol.

There are many people over time who have been using their knives and tools in bushcraft for hundreds of years with whatever knife or tool they had. You would think this is some new discovery or invention that just came about lol.
 
I think bushcraft is a fairly benign branch of knife use/collecting. I see it as the younger brother of the Prepper movement that saw how bat-spit his sibling was and least stayed in school. It's at least maybe useful in some regard.

Let's face it: in the second decade of the 21st century a cutting tool is rarely NEEDED. Yes, we all have stories of our knives "saving" the day via delicious irony when we open a package for a coworker who had asked us why we needed to carry a knife. Still, handy as they are, most of us have a hundred more than we probably NEED to use ;)

Bushcraft is a way to actually use the knives we buy with a specific goal. I mean you can buy a SD sticker or TEOTWAWKI tank of a blade for zombie survival, but they aren't going to get much real use. A bushcraft knife will do what you set out to do, survive in your backyard using old knowledge and primitive tricks. It's a good excuse to practice something that while mostly impractical is at least harmless.

Now where I take issue is when people lean so heavily on Bushcraft uses that everything else is garbage. Those folks are just as insufferable as the tactical guys feeling the need to carry 8 magazines and 8 knives that are designed to inflict maximum damage on the gang of rabid meth ninjas they are surely stalking the streets of suburbia. Bushcrafters who can't see how ANY knife put in a survival situation would at least perform SOME function and would most likely outlast the person trying to survive are eye-rollingly irritating. That goes double for the ding dongs who feel that any folder worth it's salt should be able to handle batonning and spine whacking lest they be eaten by a grizzly bear or something. The become zealots of the cult of the tool itself and not the knowledge that wields it.

In short, Bushcraft is a great excuse to do something primitive for the sake of doing it. Knowing how to think your way out of a tight spot isn't a bad thing. Knowing how to at least stay alive when turned around on a trail is not useless knowledge. At the end of the day though, it's mostly an excuse to use the tools we buy when there is a 98.999% chance we will never NEED to use them in such a way.
 
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