Nessmuk advantage

My guess it that G.W. Sears, a practical and frugal sort of guy, got his Nessmuk knife simply by cutting down an up-swept skinner; sort of like people do when they make a Nessmuk out of an Old Hickory skinner.

If he were alive today, I bet he'd keep the hatchet and have Nessmuk or a similar knife with plenty of bellly for game. It would not surprise me if he would pick a SAK for his folder because it's cheap, good, and provides a lot of utility.
 
Not that there's anything wrong with the Old Hickory skinner as it is, but I'll bet you're right: the hatchet, a skinner and a SAK (or perhaps a Multi tool). He was a pretty practical, no nonsense kind of guy from what I've read.
 
I always thought that the nessmuck was made just by the way it was forged, the way that the edge curves back when the belly is forged in.
 
Foilist said:
My guess it that G.W. Sears, a practical and frugal sort of guy, got his Nessmuk knife simply by cutting down an up-swept skinner; sort of like people do when they make a Nessmuk out of an Old Hickory skinner.

If he were alive today, I bet he'd keep the hatchet and have Nessmuk or a similar knife with plenty of bellly for game. It would not surprise me if he would pick a SAK for his folder because it's cheap, good, and provides a lot of utility.
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yup.

or grinding down one on which the tip had broken. :)
 
He would probably be amazed at what is available now. I have wondered many times what gear early explorers would choose if they had todays choices. Modern rifles and shotguns would probably delight him no end.
 
Not to divert the topic.. but by the copyright in my Nessmuk book it say it was published as the result of magazine articles printed in 1920.. Was this the time of Nessmuk? I always thought it was a bit earlier 1800's maybe.. if it was in the 20's why the cap and ball gun?
 
That must be a reprint date or a re-registration of the copyright, because I believe you are correct that the book was originally published in the 1800s (~1884 I think), which would partially explain the gun.
 
Yeah, Nessmuk was active in the mid 1800's. In addition to his Woodcraft book, I have another one about ultralight canoeing that he did in the Adirondacks, which is good reading.
 
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