Not your typical bushcraft knife

Storm Crow

Storm Crow

Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
2,506
I was contacted by a fellow who runs a school focusing on preparedness/bushcraft/survival. He wanted a knife to carry in general and to use in his classes. He liked a previous knife I had done, and I took that as the starting point for his. He sent me a sketch for the sheath setup he wanted, which I handed over to my sheathmaker. It had several new aspects for my sheathmaker, but the customer was well pleased with the outcome and commented that it looked like the sheathmaker had made hundreds of 'em. :)

The blade is around 6" long, forged from 3/4" 5160 round bar, and given my typical triple normalized, triple hardened, triple tempered heat treatment. The handle is wrapped in paracord impregnated with Minwax Wood Hardener, with a grayish green cord for the underlay and black for the overlay and two-strand Turk's head knot. The edge shaves hair, of course. :)

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The sheath features a retention strap with a snap, brass D-ring dangler belt loop, and brass flared tube rivet attachment points, as well as a fire rod loop.

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And some texturing to go with the forge finish.

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It seems like most bushcraft knives are around 4" and scandi ground with fairly gentle spear points. This is a full flat bevel with a sharper point.

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It's light in spite of its stout spine. The spine is around 1/4" with a distal taper. The balance point is just in front of the Turk's head knot.

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Very nice. I like the way the spine is shaped/formed. Looks like a serious outdoor knife!
 
Awesome knife.

Just out of curiosity, were you at Blade 2012, I seem to remember your table but might be wrong.

Thanks + Regards
 
Thank y'all!

Joe - Yep, I was there last summer and I'll be there again this summer. And this time I'll have some blades that *aren't* cord wrapped. :D
 
Looks like a fine knife for Bushcraft to me. The slight blade heaviness will come in handy in light chopping.
 
I like the design. Looks like a great knife for bushcrafting to me. :thumbup:
 
The customer, Dave Carlson of Blackthorn-USA (Blackthorn-USA.com) gave the knife its first testing. The words and pics are his:

"It was about 28 degrees when we hit camp this morning. Needed a fire so the new knife got its first taste of the outdoors. And liked it.

It preformed very well. From delicate cutting required for feather sticks to batoning through a very knotty piece of oak it excelled at the task. And of course remained very sharp. Only one thing comes to mind that I'd ask to have done differently in the future. I’d have the makers mark stamped on the other side of the blade so people in front of me could see it when I’m using it in my right hand. Of course I didn't think of that until I had it in hand. Absolutey great knife in every regard.

The sheath is also excellent, in quality as well as use. I wore it on my left side today so as not to interfere with my handgun. Cross draw for right handed use was easily accessible. The D ring made it nice in that the sheath could pivot up when sitting in a vehicle.

Great knife and sheath! Everyone should have two or three of these. Ok, more pics :

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I asked Dave about the handle thickness and if there was anything he'd change. He said the handle fit his hand "very well". It felt good in my gorilla paws, too. :)

The only thing he said he'd change was the side the touchmark is stamped on so other folks could see it while he was using it. :)

Neeman - It's not heavy enough for that. With something closer to a 12" blade, maybe.

TedPalmer - I'll PM you.
 
Man that thing is awesome:thumbup: Its got a bit of a Rick Marchand look to it. So what do you charge for something like that cuz I might have to get one for myself in the near future.
 
brewcitymike said:
Man that thing is awesome:thumbup: Its got a bit of a Rick Marchand look to it. So what do you charge for something like that cuz I might have to get one for myself in the near future.
Click to expand...

Rick just wishes he could be this cool. :D

Just kidding, of course. Rick and I have similar influences on our knifemaking, though we approach things a bit differently. I always look forward to what his next bit of niftiness will be.

I'll send you a PM.
 
Storm Crow said:
I asked Dave about the handle thickness and if there was anything he'd change. He said the handle fit his hand "very well". It felt good in my gorilla paws, too. :)

The only thing he said he'd change was the side the touchmark is stamped on so other folks could see it while he was using it. :)
Click to expand...

Well, thanks for asking your customers opinion. I stand corrected.


The action shots are very nice. Thanks for sharing. Well done Mr Helm! :)
 
Stormcrow has the second best lookin' knives I've ever seen on BladeForums... Ha!

Sweet user, brother. We can't help it if the perfect blade happens to sport a similar look.... it just makes sense.:p
 
Schmittie - No prob. :) It's hard to get a complete impression of a knife just from pictures. Handle comfort is very important. It felt good to me, but not everyone has the same taste in handle size and shape. It was a good opportunity to get some customer feedback.

Rick - Yep, that Nick Wheeler is something else, ain't he? :D

If form follows function, it follows that fellow forgers will follow familiar paths and leave others fallow. Follow me? :D Yep, I need to get to sleep.
 
Sweet knife. The only thing I would change would be to put some nice osage scales on it. Very cool. PM me with info as well if you wouldn't mind.
 
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