my field knives and selection criteria (close eyes, grab one, go)

[CapitalizedLiving]

Attached are pics of my field knives. From top to bottom, they are:

Three Sisters Forge Traditional Japanese Hunter in 1095 with amboyna burl
Bark River Knives Aurora in 3V with birdeye maple
Fiddleback Forge Terrasaur in O1 with Shadetree burlap micarta
Bark River Knives Bushcrafter in 3V with maroon linen micarta
Adam Gray (AA Forge) Scandi Bushcrafter in O1 with black linen micarta
Bark River Knives Bravo Necker 2 in 3V with white G10

And the awards go to...

The Three Sisters Forge Traditional Japanese Hunter wins in the looks category. I normally enjoy scratching and tarnishing the hell out of my stuff but it brings me no joy to do that to this one. I normally sell knives I deem too pretty to use but this one isn't going anywhere, and will by default just have to ugly up a bit.

The Bark River Aurora wins the award for most aggressive cutter. This thing bites deep and hard and makes short work of anything I feed it. Its very pointy tip makes it a poor skinning knife but it is top shelf for making fire, shelter, tools, and for fishing (a bit thick for the latter but the blade geometry makes up for it).

The Fiddleback Terrasaur wins for being the easiest to control. I could sum up all my feelings for this knife in one word: Easy. I feel like I could carve the Venus de Milo out of a pine tree with it.

The Bark River Bushcrafter wins a gold medal for being both the ugliest knife I've ever owned (my Douk Douk is prettier) and for being the knife that nails the concept of how to do compromises correctly. It isn't big or small, it isn't heavy or light, it is neither a hunter nor a bushcrafter - it is some mutant breed of knife that manages to be all things at once. I would have never bought this knife had I not read Kevin Estela's review of it on knifeforums, as I clearly was not sold on its looks nor on its semi-premium price. It's a great knife and if I ever was pressed to name a knife that was best-suited to be called a "survival knife" this would be the one.

The Adam Gray Bushcrafter wins the award for being the most comfortable to use. The flat scandi edge bevel is also the easiest to sharpen, but that's pretty much a given.

The Bravo Necker 2 currently gets the most use as it is the thinnest, lightest, and shortest of the bunch, with the best edge profile and no issues with ergonomics or performance. It goes everywhere and, while I normally bring one of the others along, it gets pretty much all the use time.

There you have it. In-depth reviews of two of these knives can be found via the links below...

Bravo Necker
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/970917-Bravo-Necker-2-in-3V-review

Adam Gray Bushcrafter
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...dam-Gray-(AA-Forge)-Scandi-Bushcrafter-review

 

[KiljoyKutlery]

Thanks for the pics and info. Nice knives for sure.
I have to agree, that BRKT Bushcrafter just doesn't look that great to me.

 

[daizee]

Nice.
Do you have a scandi/non-scandi/convex preference? Obviously you have a variety in the grab bag.


-Daizee

 

[CapitalizedLiving]

Here are my edge preferences, in order:

Full height flat grind with blended convex edge (Ban Tang knives, of which I own none)
Full height convex with no secondary bevel (Three Sisters Forge and Bravo Necker 2)
Saber convex with no secondary bevel (Aurora)
Convex scandi (BRK Bushcrafter)
Flat scandi (Adam Gray Bushcrafter)
Convex with secondary bevel (Terrasaur)

I tossed in that first option despite not having an example of it, as I pretty much had to. Just try one of his knives sometime and you'll see what I mean.

 

[KiljoyKutlery]

Here are my edge preferences, in order:

Full height flat grind with blended convex edge (Ban Tang knives, of which I own none)
Full height convex with no secondary bevel (Three Sisters Forge and Bravo Necker 2)
Saber convex with no secondary bevel (Aurora)
Scandi convex (BRK Bushcrafter)
Flat convex (Adam Gray Bushcrafter)
Convex with secondary bevel (Terrasaur)

I tossed in that first option despite not having an example of it, as I pretty much had to. Just try one of his knives sometime and you'll see what I mean.

Its funny, I still love scandi, but the older I get, the more I am leaning to the full flat grind with a convex edge. I don't strop my edges until they are super round, I usually just use a steel to get a slight convex going and then strop off the burr. Seems to work best for me.

 

[CapitalizedLiving]

I just noticed that I accidentally wrote "flat convex" for the Adam Gray knife, which obviously makes little sense. I edited it (it is flat scandi).

I noticed a maker on the Knifemakers' For Sale forum (user name Big Chris) who appears to use full flat with blended convex edge. I might have to snag one of his knives - this really is the best bevel on all fronts - it minimizes the friction between the blade and the cutting substrate so nicely and is very easy to maintain.

The Busse CABSLE has this type of edge as well - it was a fantastic knife but was not my preference in design.