what makes classifies a knife as a buschcraft or survival knife??

as far as i am concerned...a bushcraft/survival knife is a knife that you have with you when you need it that can do what you need it to do to survive/craft what you need to.

farther than that, it is difficult to get into designs and things becuase everyone has such individual tastes for blade shape/size etc...
 
A Bushcraft knife is quite specific.It should have a handle that allows different hand positions for different wood working applications.It should have a point very close to centre line with the handle...no up-swept blades here !!!
They often have a scandi grind.They are usually between a 4-5 inch blade.
They are usually average to thin thickness,although obviously the grind plays a big part.
The handle should also be comfortable for prolonged use and not have any ridges etc to cause hot spots.

A survival knife on the other hand would be dictated by the environment you are in to a large degree.For example a large machete type blade would be best for jungle survival and this clearly demonstrates the difference as a machete would be no good for bushcraft !!!
 
I tend to dissagree that a bushcraft knife is the one you have with you when an emergency rises. It's of course true that the knfie you have with you is the one you'll be using for that task, but the point of the exercise, to my mind, is the pursuit of a knife well suited to bushcraft tasks such that you are prepared with an excellent tool should the worst occur.

That said, I think what defines a good bush-knife will differ for every person. One individual may find that he is able to use a khukri to perform almost any imaginable task with ease and success. Another might find a traditional style 3" or 4" blade to work quite well for him.

I believe the question (or search) is still useful in that it leads an individual to decide what works best for him, and to hopefully prepare accordingly when entering a situation that might give rise to a 'survival' situation.

My personal tastes for a bushcraft knife are something close to the following:

- 4" blade (or less)
- scandi grind
- not too thick, but thick enough not to flex
- something that can sustain light prying and batoning
- full tang
- no dropped edges
- carbon, not stainless

I want the blade to be able to perform fine tasks such as notches for traps or shelter building, be able to prepare food or game and perform light batoning.

I'm also almost certainly going to have a Fiskars hatchet with me for other tasks, but can 'survive' just fine without it.

To each his own!
 
I think of a survival knife as the knife you have on you when you need it. Maybe that is a slipjoint or maybe a pilot's knife or a Bowie, or a scalpel blade. The first requirement is that you have one. Beyond that the environment will determine it features. At least it should.

I think of a bushcraft knife as sort of a craft tool. My wife is into scrapbooking and she uses various scissors and trimmers and corner rounders to ply her craft. Bushcrafting TO ME is sort of like making widgets. Little gadgets that make life in the woodlot comfortable. Bushcrafters are very talented men, make no mistake about that. If I was stuck in the woods I would want one along with me. And I carve spoons and the like and use some bushcrafting skills. I guess when I think of bushcrafting I think of a bunch of English guys with over priced simple knives, drink alot of good beer on 2 acres of land on the outskirts of some town. Most of the pics of bushcrafting I have seen have seem to me to be tailgate camping with picnic tables and huge tarp tents. All within a short walk of a road. I may be completly wrong. I kinda hope I am wrong. Having said that most knife work I do is with a folder or a 4" fixed blade about the size of a bushcrafting knife. I don't feel I need to have the exact knife some instructor carries or sells. Besides America is a hell of a big place with room to roam and sights to see. I just don't feel the need to sit and do crafts when there is all that beauty to be seen. Of course I have the attention span of a five year old.;)
 
I don't think a bushcrafting knife would have a necessary minimum length of four inches or so.

In fact, if I have an axe with me (and you bet I do) I find every other task I take on works pretty well with a two inch knife. Often better.

About the only demands I would make on a bushcrafting knife are that it must have a good bit of belly for scooping cuts, and that it have a comfortable grip that allows a lot of different holds.

Essentially a bushcrafting knife is just a carving knife to me.

EDIT: LOL at the previous definition/description of bushcrafting. I tend to agree - while it's cool and interesting stuff, I'm just not very crafty, in any sense of the word. I'm more of a wanderer in massive expanses than a sitter in two acres.
 
When I think of a "bushcraft" knife, I think more of a puuko, or other Scandi type knife. One that will perform intricate carving, fire starting, food prep, small animal processing etc. A "survival" knife should also perform the above, though maybe not as well because I'd want it to be more rugged and able to take batoning, prying, digging, hammering etc. I like to poke and prod stuff, scrape stuff, maybe stuff that's kinda gross even. So I don't want to pretty of a knife either.
For a one knife only scenario, I'd want something that incorporated both. Something light with a nice high grind, but one that can also take some abuse.
 
yeah, I see bushcraft as a planned thing, and the knife for bushcraft in my eyes, 4" blade, scandi, and the one I know of most would be a woodlore.
 
WHY does every thread about a woods/survival knife include someone saying "it's whatever knife you have on you"?!?! For pete's sake, I'm sick of hearing that. Obviously the idea of thinking ahead is to decide on a knife that best suits the work you think you'll need to do. Otherwise you may as well carry a broken beer bottle into the woods and whittle yourself a shelter with it :jerkit: OK, rant off :D

I'm a 3-blade guy. I like a big chopper or tomahawk, a 4" or so utility knife, and a pocket knife carried as a team. The utility knife seems to get used most. For the sake of this discussion, I'll add my $.02 about what I consider good utility, bush or camp knives... not sure what the "proper" definition of bushcraft is, but to me it's not about making wicker furniture, it's about real basic tasks.

full-tang or at least full-length narrow tang, less than 5" blade length, carbon steel for ease of sharpening and resistance to chipping/breaking

a thicker spine than many would choose (up to 3/16", for raw toughness) and a flat or convex grind for sharpness. On knives over 3" you start to lose the toughness with a hollow-grind, on a necker or pocket knife I don't think that's an issue. The spine should be smooth and nearly square for batoning, no sawteeth.

I tend towards mild drop-points, but I can see where you might want a swept-point like the Sharpfinger for delicate work. I don't think a bowie-style clip is needed on this small a knife, although some folks would like the "extra" sharp edge (if it's not sharpened, I see no point at all to a clip, my venerable Buck 110 being an example.) For me, serrations on the blade are a deal-breaker; sometimes I like to choke up and use that first inch of straight, sharp edge.

The handle should be comfortable of course; I would err on the side of more robust rather than slimmer, so it's easy to grab with gloves/wet/cold-numbed hands. Aesthetically I prefer wood scales, but my CS Master Hunter and Frost's Clipper both have synthetic handles that are very comfy and secure. A lanyard is standard equipment IMHO.

After the recent uproar about dropped edges and choils, I confess I must agree they serve no purpose on a short knife, other than to "waste" edge length. The guard should be small enough that you can choke up on the blade without having to wrap your finger around it. I like a small round notch at the plunge line, it makes scraping sparks easy and is a little easier to sharpen that last bit of edge.

While I've never had a problem with my leather sheaths, they don't spend more than a few days at a time in the boonies. So I would specify a kydex, or hard-plastic-lined cordura sheath. A typical "stone pocket" on the sheath should hold a diamond or ceramic sharpener (no need for oil) and a ferro-rod, at least. The sheath should be capable of absolute "jump-proof" security; if it can also be configured for very quick access, that's a big bonus. Tie-down eyelets around the sheath's perimeter would allow you to tie it onto your person or pack in a number of ways.

Such a knife's first purpose, in my mind, is whittling, slicing, cutting, skinning/gutting, food prep, etc... therefore comfort in-hand, not too much blade length and general sharpness come before anything else. This includes comfort-of-carry: not being too heavy and not slapping your thigh/pulling your drawers off with every step.

Also it shouldn't cost a month's salary! There are lots of production knives under $200 that fit these specs, it would take a lot to convince me to spend more than that on a knife I fully intend to beat the dickens out of. I wouldn't pay extra for a mirror finish, I'm going to scratch it.
 
GibsonFan said:
For the sake of this discussion, I'll add my $.02 about what I consider good
bush or camp knives; full-tang or at least full-length narrow tang, less than 5" blade length, carbon steel for ease of sharpening and resistance to chipping/breaking; a thicker spine than many would choose (up to 3/16", for raw toughness) and a flat or convex grind for sharpness. On knives over 3" you start to lose the toughness with a hollow-grind, on a necker or pocket knife I don't think that's an issue. The spine should be smooth and nearly square for batoning, no sawteeth. I tend towards mild drop-points, but I can see where you might want a swept-point like the Sharpfinger for delicate work. I don't think a bowie-style clip is needed on this small a knife, although some folks would like the "extra" sharp edge (if it's not sharpened, I see no point at all to a clip, my venerable Buck 110 being an example.) For me, serrations on the blade are a deal-breaker; sometimes I like to choke up and use that first inch of straight, sharp edge.
The handle should be comfortable of course; I would err on the side of more robust rather than slimmer, so it's easy to grab with gloves/wet/cold-numb hands. Aesthetically I prefer wood scales, but my CS Master Hunter and Frost's Clipper both have synthetic handles that are very comfy and secure. A lanyard is standard equipment IMHO.
After the recent uproar about dropped edges and choils, I confess I must agree they serve no purpose on a short knife, other than to "waste" edge length. The guard should be small enough that you can choke up on the blade without having to wrap your finger around it. I like a small round notch at the plunge line, it makes scraping sparks easy and is a little easier to sharpen that last bit of edge.
While I've never had a problem with my leather sheaths, they don't spend more than a few days at a time in the boonies. So I would specify a kydex, or hard-plastic-lined cordura sheath. A typical "stone pocket" on the sheath should hold a diamond or ceramic sharpener (no need for oil) and a ferro-rod, at least. The sheath should be capable of absolute "jump-proof" security; if it can also be configured for very quick access, that's a big bonus. Tie-down eyelets around the sheath's perimeter would allow you to tie it onto your person or pack in a number of ways.

Such a knife's first purpose, in my mind, is whittling, slicing, cutting, skinning/gutting, food prep, etc... therefore comfort in-hand, not too much blade length and general sharpness come before anything else. This includes comfort-of-carry: not being too heavy and not slapping your thigh/pulling your drawers off with every step.

Also it shouldn't cost a month's salary! There are lots of production knives under $200 that fit these specs, it would take a lot to convince me to spend more than that on a knife I fully intend to beat the dickens out of.
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$.02 :eek: theres $30 worth there! :D :D

No, I agree, there are great knives for great price's in that class. Mora, Helle, Issak all great knives.
 
GF, sounds like the knife you already started on! :D You have some similar ideas to mine, looking forward to seeing the finished knife.
 
LOL I'm busted! Yup, I've been thinking about this and yup, that's what I'm going for in my current project. Kind of a cross between my Master Hunter and my Clipper, basically.

$.02/$30... Sorry for giving a mile when an inch was asked for, I'm just like that :o
 
hey, I cant wait to see that knife though, And man, you make me feel bad for not gettin that MH when I had the chance. ooh maannnn
 
Fonly said:
hey, I cant wait to see that knife though, And man, you make me feel bad for not gettin that MH when I had the chance. ooh maannnn
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You should feel bad! It's a great knife and I would feel quite happy and confident if it was the only knife I owned. Sorry to rub it in! ;)
 
GF I guess you live in a fantasy world where you can plan your disaster. Good for you. For the rest of us here on planet Earth I can say that s**t happens. I don't carry an axe when I walk into a restaurant. My fixed blades stay at home when I visit the dentist. But if an earthquake hits while I am doing either one I'll have a pocket knife or a multitool on me. When I'm out chasing cows or fixing fence on the quad, again, just so it's clear, my survival knife will be the one I have on me. You can post with all the little insulting icons you wish but it doesn't change the fact that your plan for "survival" won't work unless you have your specific tools. You need to learn to adapt and improvise. My knife is very important to me but my skills or lack there of is much more important. My survival knife is the one I have with me.
 
To answer your question straight-away: 4"-ish blade, clean spine, full tang, good quality steel, thick flat-ground drop point, a handle that you can use for long periods of time, and a good secure sheath.

And to dance around GibsonFan's point, you do need to have a knife with you to be effective. If it's too heavy, too big, or illegal and you leave it behind, it won't do yo a bit of good ten miles up the mountain. Have an EDC that you really can have there all the time-- like pick a nice folder and make it part of your habit to carry it. In your disaster kits, you may want to use something effective, but maybe less expensive --- moras would be perfect. The knife you are going to put on your belt and go wandering around the woods with might be one like I described. You don't need some five pound Rambo-chopper, just a good tool you can rely on.
 
2dogs, I apologize for offending you. I do not mean to make light of your approach, or to insult you or anyone else. But I stand by what I said.

I wholeheartedly agree that being able to adapt is one of the most important survival skills, before gear even comes into play.

I don't carry a bowie to dinner either, but there's a tomahawk and a stout knife in the trunk of our car. Along with the usual water, blankets, etc. Not just "what I happen to have with me."

My point is, I DO live in the real world, and I DO plan and equip myself accordingly. I do not live full-time in the woods or harbor any Rambo fantasies. I've spent a heck of a lot of hours researching, and not a small amount of dollars, to be reasonably certain I'm never too far from serious knives and tools I may need. I rankle when folks say "the knife you have with you" because it's very often a cop-out and they have little to really add to the conversation. Not saying you're like that.

I think you and I feel more alike about this than we first realized; we just word it differently. Sorry if I was unclear, and again, I mean no offense. First beer's on me should our paths ever cross, friend.

Fonly said:
Yeah now if I want it, it comes in Aus-8 and san mai, ew. :D
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Well... that's not really the same knife, in my book. As you've already, obviously, decided... Keep your eyes peeled, you might find one on the 'bay or maybe someone here will start making a similar knife to fill its niche...
 
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