Hi,
My name is Joe... and I'm a knife nut...
...well an outdoors nut, also.
I just picked up a Becker BK9 a week ago and had been dying to test it out as a camp knife. Lucky for me, the rain finally let up and I packed up the car and headed out for a one night'er(would have be longer, under different circumstances).
Disclaimer
I apologize if this seems boring, but living in 'OK'(Alaska, previously, as a kid), I have yet to find any 'wilderness' and I'm stuck going to designated camp grounds.
Disclaimer
I arrived rather late(30 minutes till sundown), but just in time to catch a sight of an armadillo, a wild turkey, and some deer.
Once the shelter(tent) was up, hunger and a chill was starting to set in and it was time to make a fire. Luckily I found a rather thin(4" in Dia.) dead tree to use for wood and my knife made short work of it.
Oh, using some terminology used by a certain individual on youtube, I attempted to get some "purchase" on a small log I was going to split. BAD MOVE! It only took a very small tap on the finger and I was instantly wounded. lol For future reference, if you wish to split a log, start it just as you would start a nail... Put the blade exactly where you want it and give the spine few small taps with your baton to start the cut.
It took 3 attempts to start it, using pjcb as a starter(my first try at this). Pretty quickly I realized what I had done wrong by not splitting the small twigs to catch on fire quicker. Before (too)long I had a fire up and running and food in the belly.
Here was my urban camp site and my tent(which I will be downsizing from in the very near future)
Some friends were suppose to meet up later in the day at the site, so I decided to go looking for a fair amount of firewood. Again, I found another dead tree to chop down with my BK9. This time it was in the range of 5-6" in diameter. While the knife did just fine for cutting it down, I realize the amount of time and energy spent doing so was inefficient. Looks like I'll be looking for a pack saw.
I would say, this is not too shabby of a haul for using just a knife.
This is the setup I used for starting my fires. Originally I was going to take a hacksaw blade as a striker, but in my search I came across the paint scraper and gave the side edge a try. Spark FLEW from the flint(3-4 feet, easy).
The second fire I made was much easier than the first, using only one cotton ball. One note about using a chopper for processing trees... the chips left over make very good kindling and fuel for starting a fire.
Ah, yes... The sweet smell(and taste) of success.
Overall, I love the BK9. It was a very capable survival knife. Now all I need is another, smaller, fixed blade knife and a pack saw.
My name is Joe... and I'm a knife nut...
...well an outdoors nut, also.
I just picked up a Becker BK9 a week ago and had been dying to test it out as a camp knife. Lucky for me, the rain finally let up and I packed up the car and headed out for a one night'er(would have be longer, under different circumstances).
Disclaimer
I apologize if this seems boring, but living in 'OK'(Alaska, previously, as a kid), I have yet to find any 'wilderness' and I'm stuck going to designated camp grounds.
Disclaimer
I arrived rather late(30 minutes till sundown), but just in time to catch a sight of an armadillo, a wild turkey, and some deer.
Once the shelter(tent) was up, hunger and a chill was starting to set in and it was time to make a fire. Luckily I found a rather thin(4" in Dia.) dead tree to use for wood and my knife made short work of it.
Oh, using some terminology used by a certain individual on youtube, I attempted to get some "purchase" on a small log I was going to split. BAD MOVE! It only took a very small tap on the finger and I was instantly wounded. lol For future reference, if you wish to split a log, start it just as you would start a nail... Put the blade exactly where you want it and give the spine few small taps with your baton to start the cut.
It took 3 attempts to start it, using pjcb as a starter(my first try at this). Pretty quickly I realized what I had done wrong by not splitting the small twigs to catch on fire quicker. Before (too)long I had a fire up and running and food in the belly.
Here was my urban camp site and my tent(which I will be downsizing from in the very near future)
Some friends were suppose to meet up later in the day at the site, so I decided to go looking for a fair amount of firewood. Again, I found another dead tree to chop down with my BK9. This time it was in the range of 5-6" in diameter. While the knife did just fine for cutting it down, I realize the amount of time and energy spent doing so was inefficient. Looks like I'll be looking for a pack saw.
I would say, this is not too shabby of a haul for using just a knife.
This is the setup I used for starting my fires. Originally I was going to take a hacksaw blade as a striker, but in my search I came across the paint scraper and gave the side edge a try. Spark FLEW from the flint(3-4 feet, easy).
The second fire I made was much easier than the first, using only one cotton ball. One note about using a chopper for processing trees... the chips left over make very good kindling and fuel for starting a fire.
Ah, yes... The sweet smell(and taste) of success.
Overall, I love the BK9. It was a very capable survival knife. Now all I need is another, smaller, fixed blade knife and a pack saw.
I still don't lnow how I ended up with a $40 water bottle. 
Nice pics by the way 'Ol Bud .