What do you think of the "Generic" bushcraft knife?

TheDandyLion

TheDandyLion

Joined
Mar 27, 2013
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It seems to me that in the last few years knife makers (both custom and production) have found a best-selling formula of the "bushcraft" knife to sell to us outdoorsy type. The formula can be subject to slight modification but typically comes down to:

- Full Tang

- Robust Scandinavian grind or

- 4-5" inches in blade length

- 1/8" thick

- Carbon Steel

- Well contoured handles

- Sheathes with extras like ferro rods, sharpeners, other blades, drop loops, or small kit pouches.

In no way am I trying to discredit makers that produce knives like this, they are quite popular for a reason and business is business. Anyway, my question to you all is; what do you out-doorsy folks think of these knives? Are they a gimmick, a well chosen trend, or what? Do you carry one of these textbook bush craft knives? For context what sort of activities do you you do outdoors? Hunting, primitive camping, car camping, backpacking, ect.

For example, I do a lot of primitive camping/bushcraft and the occasional hunt but rarely want the heft of a designed bushcraft knife and find myself going for something more narrow for finer chores, thinner behind the edge, stick tang, and with a very simple sheath. Most "bushcraft" knives are much too aimed at batoning for someone like myself that carries a larger knife and only uses my smaller one for very fine carving and food prep.
 
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Some top-of-my-head examples of what I mean would be:
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The Real Steel Bushcraft knife

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LT Wright Genesis

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TOPS BOB Feildcraft

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Enzo Trapper

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Spyderco Bushcraft

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Mora Bushcraft Black

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Jacklore Knife

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Bark River Bushcrafter

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Condor Bushlore
 
They are all modern takes on the old styled Pukko knife design. What happened is that the style became really popularized by peopel like Bear Grylls, Ray Mears, and the various cast members of Dual Survivor. As soon as they started selling like hot cakes a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon. If they made money, more power to them. :thumbup:
 
RevDevil said:
They are all modern takes on the old styled Pukko knife design. What happened is that the style became really popularized by peopel like Bear Grylls, Ray Mears, and the various cast members of Dual Survivor. As soon as they started selling like hot cakes a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon. If they made money, more power to them. :thumbup:
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It's for sure a western interpritation of a puukko. I actually carry a more traditional puukko and I adore it, much handier than the western design. I think it's funny how totally different the designs of 'Survival tv' hosts are than what they use.
 
TheDandyLion said:
It's for sure a western interpritation of a puukko. I actually carry a more traditional puukko and I adore it, much handier than the western design. I think it's funny how totally different the designs of 'Survival tv' hosts are than what they use.
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The Bayley Knife that BG used early on was awesome. I always thought it was a great size and the sheath looked solid. Mr. Bayley was seriously inundated with requests for that knife to the tune of a 6+ year backlog and $600 a pop. The Mora Black. Spyderco Bushcrafter (Chris Claycomb) are 2 that I've used, the Spydeco moreso. It fits comfortably in the hand and does not lead to fatigue as quickly as other knives have.
 
They're not my thing, but then again I'm not a big fan of Scandi grinds. Right now I'm finding that, in a similar size/role, I'm developing something of a fondness for the humble Kephart.
 
I think the specific style you mean was really popularized by Ray Mears and the Woodlore knife he commissioned. I think it's a good design in many ways - versatile, comfortable, practical. However, it is definitely a jack-of-all-trades design, so not the best at almost any given task. For many users, like hobbyists or hunters, a more delicate knife - narrower blade, flat grind, stick tang would probably be adequate, but the whole "full tang or it's broken" thing just won't go away. On the other hand I think the fashion of bushcraft knives has something going for it over the knives they arguably replace: the 80s survival knife. You know the one: hollow handle, huge blade, serrations on the back.

I think both the bushcraft knife and the survival knife attract some serious users, but since they're popular, a far larger audience of people that might not use them very much at all. In either case, I like that the bushcraft designs are at heart practical, rather than flashy.
 
It is a little unfortunate just how many of these knives look alike. It is funny how the blade shape for this traditional activity came out of nowhere, yet is now the defacto style.

I prefer the lines of the Enzo Trapper for a knife of this type. Otherwise, I like stick tang blades from Scandinavia with a handles strong enough to remove any full tang advantage.

The other factor in all this is that Americans seem to think that 1/8" blades are thin. This is partially because we just don't think about how much extra metal a Scandi grind leaves on a relatively thin blade vs. more familiar FFG or high hollow grinds.
 
RX-79G said:
It is a little unfortunate just how many of these knives look alike. It is funny how the blade shape for this traditional activity came out of nowhere, yet is now the defacto style.

I prefer the lines of the Enzo Trapper for a knife of this type. Otherwise, I like stick tang blades from Scandinavia with a handles strong enough to remove any full tang advantage.

The other factor in all this is that Americans seem to think that 1/8" blades are thin. This is partially because we just don't think about how much extra metal a Scandi grind leaves on a relatively thin blade vs. more familiar FFG or high hollow grinds.
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I refuse to use a small knife (4>) thicker than 1/8. That's a tough stocky blades especially with a sabre/Scandi grind.
 
Miao said:
I think the specific style you mean was really popularized by Ray Mears and the Woodlore knife he commissioned. I think it's a good design in many ways - versatile, comfortable, practical. However, it is definitely a jack-of-all-trades design, so not the best at almost any given task. For many users, like hobbyists or hunters, a more delicate knife - narrower blade, flat grind, stick tang would probably be adequate, but the whole "full tang or it's broken" thing just won't go away. On the other hand I think the fashion of bushcraft knives has something going for it over the knives they arguably replace: the 80s survival knife. You know the one: hollow handle, huge blade, serrations on the back.

I think both the bushcraft knife and the survival knife attract some serious users, but since they're popular, a far larger audience of people that might not use them very much at all. In either case, I like that the bushcraft designs are at heart practical, rather than flashy.
Click to expand...

I see the "Rambo" knives still in big fixed blades aimed at survival. I see the bushcraft knife more as the "refined gentleman". I also appreciate the utilitarian style of these, but I think they're almost too focused on gross wood processing which to be honest, is only about 30% of what I use my belt knife for.
 
I do a lot of bush-crafting. I take the family on survival outings. I personally love the "idea"behind these knives. Yet I do not carry one. I have my own ideas for a bush-craft blade and adhere to what works for me. I think the idea behind these knives is to have a purpose built knife that can do everything in camp/survival as a one tool last ditch effort.

My ideal bush-craft blade is the Cold Steel Bushman. It has a simple blade design, it is all one piece, 1095 and built like a tank. it has a lot of the things mentioned in the OP, yet is has a slightly longer blade that makes limbing branches easier.
 
The simple handle design and drop point blades of the standard "bushcraft" knives make them my favorite to use. If you drop a knife to its basic use of just cutting things, the simple design just works for me.
 
In general:
I love the aesthetics: the 'flow' of the design and the common use of natural materials.
Blade grind doesn't matter much to me.
Full tang is a preference for heavy use.
Carbon steel is nice for authenticity sake, but many tool steels and stainless steels are great choices too.
The "generic" bushcraft blade shape is a good design for multi-purpose or do-everything use.

But in the real world, I wouldn't actually carry anything so heavy when hiking or backpacking. But for car camping or cabin living, why not.
 
Bob W said:
But in the real world, I wouldn't actually carry anything so heavy when hiking or backpacking. But for car camping or cabin living, why not.
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Heavy? :confused:
Many of my folders that I carry daily weigh as much as those Bushcraft knives.

Of course, I walked around for a few months with an XL Espada in my backpack the whole time...I just forgot it was there.
Shows how much I care about weight! :D
(also shows that I have a bunch of knives...I really didn't notice it was in the backpack all that time)
 
stabman said:
Heavy? :confused:
Many of my folders that I carry daily weigh as much as those Bushcraft knives.

Of course, I walked around for a few months with an XL Espada in my backpack the whole time...I just forgot it was there.
Shows how much I care about weight! :D
(also shows that I have a bunch of knives...I really didn't notice it was in the backpack all that time)
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My hiking knife weighs 0.5 ounces. :D
 
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