The reason why the Gaucho and Criollo knives were such great field tools is exactly the basic and universal design they had. Mostly because the south american cowboy - the Gaucho - could not afford more than one knife so this one knife he had should perform well in many different tasks, such as fighting, hunting, cooking, and all work you need to perform on a farm.
If you need THAT much versatility on a knife, you want a very basic design
The pattern is actually an evolution of the French trend knife or the Mediterranean dirk. In fact many of such knives were imported from Europe.
The innovation was the shape of the choil that prevented the fingers to slip to the edge keeping the users hand safe, pretty much what Jim Bowie did by adding a guard to a similar knife.
But, are they good for doinh yard work?
The person who only 'sees' practical use for a knife when it´s ergonomics are just about perfect ignores a wide - if not the vast content as a whole - range of knife use as tool through history. Education is strongly suggested as this piece of artwork, though not ergonomic by modern standards, has been capable of doing things you would not believe for over a 100 years.
I see this knive by VdS and David Seco as a fine tribute to the Gauchos of the past.
Jeff Velasco
PS.: on a side note, this is the kind of knife I guess Ed Fowler was discussing in his recent article at Blade. Ed, please correct me if I am mistaken.
