PB & Snark, Quartered with No Crusts

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Takes A LOT of getting used to...lol Very thick slabs, bad contouring, and the tang is thick too. Evan as a 200 dollar knife if you gave me one as a gift I would sell it.
Depressing, because I really wanted to like it.
 
This unusual design has caused more than one Youtube reviewer to pan the handle, saying that people might get hot spots from it. I have not seen any of these reviewers spend an appreciable time in the field with the Bushcrafter to come up with this conclusion, so I decided to focus on this aspect in a long-term field test before posting this review.

The verdict? No hotspots on my hands during months of testing. True, the handle is not as comfortable as the handle on a Mora Clipper or Mora Black Carbon, but compared to many survival and heavy duty bushcraft blades I've tried, I found it very comfortable. In fact, I found the shape of the handle to be quite useful and innovative.

The swell at the end of the handle turns the Bushcrafter into an effective mini-hatchet for chopping, due to being able to securely hold the knife at the very end of the handle. In fact, I enjoyed chopping with the Bushcrafter, and it came in handy when needing to limb saplings for bedding material, or for chopping off pine knots to harvest pitchwood for fire-making
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http://rockymountainbushcraft.blogs...view-benchmade-bushcrafter-knife-has.html?m=1


I realize it's one reviews opinion. Also, I'd rather not own a knife I have to warm up to and get used to. But there it is.
 
The Warrior said:
Wife and I took a ride to the wildlife sanctuary, and I took a few shots:


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Dayum, Dubz! That's some awesome photography for a point and shoot.

Doc_Savage said:
You know, I have been thinking the same thing. There's a relatively famous island / resort down here called Sanibel Island. There is no freshwater on the island, so rather than pipe it over, they use a huge RO plant to convert the saltwater to fresh... Kinda cool. And it tastes pretty good as well.Doc
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Been there when I was a teenager several decades ago. Don't remember the water. Saw dolphins and collected a LOT of shells. My Grandfather used to live in Ft. Lauderdale.

Silverthorn said:
G ? Is it your birthday ?

So I handled a Benchmade Bushcrafter in S90v. Its a very nicely done blade. Sharp despite its thickness. Terribly uncomfortable in the hand.
The handle is blocky and to thick, with too much of both taper and swell, and the outer edges instead of having a steady, smooth thinning and rounding, they are rounded square edges.
Its funny how so often handling other knives that look very very nice in a picture, puts how comfy Beckers are into stark perspective.

Benchmade Bushcrafter: For the price ? Great steel, Nice sheath, Micarta handles, Its a lot of knife for the money.
I wouldnt keep one if you gave it to me though. Not without sending it to someone that I trust, to completely redo the handles.
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Funny, I've looked at that knife hundreds of times. Good to get a review from someone who's held it. OTOH, the Bravo 1 is as comfortable as it looks. Lucked out on that one.

On another note, this just happened:

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Actually managed to make a fire with my 12 and ONE spark from my firesteel (plus a little dryer lint).
I'm getting better at it, but I need to sharpen up part of the 12's spine....had to throw the spark off the blade....
SNBC Pale Ale is going down easy. 11.99/12 for cans (or bottles) at the local beer purveyor. This is why I don't brew anymore; I can't make (this kind of quality) beer for a $1 a bottle....

Got to try out my Sven Saw I picked up at KTP (Kittery Trading Post) a couple months ago (cost me $15 used....nice little saw). It's definitely going into the hiking pack. Good kit for that price.

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Kids are currently roasting marshmallows.

Good luck on recovering from your 10 year old's birthday party, Gunyon. I'm pretty sure you're drinking the recovery beverage of dads everywhere.
 
dynamicmoves said:
http://rockymountainbushcraft.blogs...view-benchmade-bushcrafter-knife-has.html?m=1


I realize it's one reviews opinion. Also, I'd rather not own a knife I have to warm up to and get used to. But there it is.
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Im with you DM. I dont think it would cause hot spots, but its very very blocky. I tend to prefer beefy handles on my knives and axes too, so for me to say its too thick and blocky, I think most people would HATE it ..lol
The shape is great as far as idea, but in execution, its not well done, imho.
 
Thorny, have you checked out the BOB? Thicker than the 16 and has a longer handle. I like the aesthetics of the BM, but haven't felt a burning desire to drop coin on one.
 
TBL said:
Sweet pictures Warrior

Interesting read Doc. The wife and I were actually looking to retrofit our water softener with a reverse osmosis water filtration system. Seems like a good excuse to get it done haha
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Got a well, water softener, and RO filter. VRY NCE.
 
granitestateofmind said:
Dayum, Dubz! That's some awesome photography for a point and shoot.
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Thanks man. That little Sony has been a hell of a good camera.

granitestateofmind said:
Thorny, have you checked out the BOB? Thicker than the 16 and has a longer handle. I like the aesthetics of the BM, but haven't felt a burning desire to drop coin on one.
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Thinking about selling mine. I have a list of stuff I'll be putting up within the next few weeks.
 
OutdoorsFamilyMan4 said:
I love the smell of burning maple but not as much as cherry.
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I've never burned cherry....but sugar maple is the bomb! We had a micro-burst here last year in June, and I ended up with most of my neighbor's sugar maple after parts of it landed on their cars. So far split about a half a cord, still a few oddly cut pieces I need to trim, square up and split. I just love the smell of it, dry with the sun on beating down on it, when it's raining....it makes me wonder how those first people decided that they would try the sap......thus discovering maple syrup. Human beans are an amazing species.....
 
Definitely amazing....what about herbs like tobacco and marijuana? Did natives just go around smoking whatever plant.they found?:D
 
OutdoorsFamilyMan4 said:
Definitely amazing....what about herbs like tobacco and marijuana? Did natives just go around smoking whatever plant.they found?:D
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Hmmm....now there's something to think about. Like peyote or mushrooms.....seriously, our forebears were experimenters in the "medicinal plant" realm, weren't they?
 
Cherry wood smells amazing when it's burning. We burned some on a camping trip last year and couldn't figure out what we kept smelling until I remembered some of it was cherry.
 
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Silverthorn said:
Takes A LOT of getting used to...lol Very thick slabs, bad contouring, and the tang is thick too. Evan as a 200 dollar knife if you gave me one as a gift I would sell it. Depressing, because I really wanted to like it.
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Silverthorn said:
Its funny how so often handling other knives that look very very nice in a picture, puts how comfy Beckers are into stark perspective.
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Yup... the human hand does not like sharp corners very much. Obviously, Ethan understands this :thumbup:

I often say that the way to make handles is simply to grind away everything that hurts, and people generally laugh... but it really is true.

My personal test is to cut/whittle through a 2x4 at least once, and dig all the way through it with the point. Not for speed or chopping power, simply to examine comfort and how well you can index it (and whether or not it cuts worth a hoot, of course). If you can do that without hot-spots, blisters or just getting angry and throwing the knife across the room, and if it's still sharp and in one piece when you're done, it's a good 'un.

It's a dang shame to take a really nice piece of steel with a good blade design and just slap some half-vast slabs (or perhaps even worse, overly contoured handle) on it. Some of the most popular competitors... some of which sell for custom prices... it's like they just gave up and quit halfway through. :grumpy: KISS, and finish the damn knife. (On the other hand, there is one particular company that I take serious issues with for other reasons, but I'll say this much... they do know how to shape a comfortable handle.)

granitestateofmind said:
...it makes me wonder how those first people decided that they would try the sap......thus discovering maple syrup. Human beans are an amazing species.....
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I don't know either, but I'm glad they did. :) Who's the first guy who dragged a giant hideous sea-bug (lobster or crab) off the bottom of the ocean and said, "Man, that looks delicious!" He must have been one hungry, hungry human... but he was right.

...tobacco and marijuana... peyote or mushrooms...
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Heck, even alcohol. "Dang dude, this fruit/grain is rotten..." "Cool, let's drink that!" You know there had to be a quite a few folks that just keeled over dead throughout the centuries, trying all that different stuff... :eek:
 
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Speaking of rotten grain, there's an interesting theory about the Salem Witch Trials of the 17th century... there a fungus called ergot that can grow on stuff like rye wheat and barely, and is chemically related to LSD... sometimes causing hallucinations among other bizarre symptoms. So, those "witches" may not have been "possessed", they might have just been tripping their brains out...


Now then... excuse me while I slap together a nice ham and rye sandwich and a tall glass of bourbon for breakfast :D
 
It's about 3:30am here. I'm normally up at night so I'm sitting outside checking my email and things until I get tired again.

After you cross the Oregon state line coming from Boise and make it through Ontario, OR you come down through these tall rolling hills and they stretch out for miles and miles. Too bad I can't take pics while driving because it's a heck of a view. You wind through some deep valleys for a ways before hitting Baker. Got to the reuinion at 8am Friday just as they were serving breakfast. Hung out and visited with everybody. Then yesterday my dad drove me around and showed me the ranch they lived on when he was a kid. 160 acres that was 12 miles. Of dirt road from anything. When he was 11 he tried to hop up onto a tractor that his brother was driving and got run over. They had to drive him down a bumpy dirt road 12 miles to get him to the hospital. He ended up getting flown to Boise to have surgery to repair the major internal damage and it took so long to recover that he had to repaet a year of school because he missed most of the year. This was all about '68 or '69.
 
Bighoss - it's always good to see where you parents grew up and see how things were for them. Kinda gives you some insight into how they got to be who they are.
 
Goin' fishin', see y'all later. The wife and I are using my Dad's old rods and reels... none of it is fancy high-end stuff, but it ain't junk either. Makes me happy to get out to the water and remember/honor him this way.

Life is good. Take care, you rascals. :)
 
ooh, have fun JT.
wishing for some sun here to favor a bike ride, but it's better fishing weather...
 
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