What specific knife features do you require on a Bush Craft Knife?

psy-ops

psy-ops

Joined
Sep 27, 1999
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When I am doing woodcraft work like, traps, fire making, carving stuff, and making a bow and drill, I prefer a knife with:

1. A deep finger grove and little bit of a guard.
2. Drop point
3. Convex or flat ground
4. Jimping on the thumb ramp
5. Comfortably grippy handle
6. Parrot beak handle
7. 3/16ths thick blade stock



What are some of yours?
 
1. The knife should have a fixed blade, non-folding.
2. The blade should be made of good quality carbon steel. Carbon, unlike stainless steel can be used as the striker in the flint and steel method of fire lighting.
3. Four to Four and a quarter inch blade with an overall length of eight and a half inches will perform intricate woodcraft duties, and is large enough to present a good target for batoning. Batoning will assist a blade in cutting down small trees, and splitting wood.
4. The knife should have a full tang; the metal of the knife blade should extend for the full length of the handle for strength.
5. The knife’s spine should be squared off to be able to spark a FireSteel/ferrocerium rod.
6. The knife needs a comfortable and easy to hold oval shaped handle, made of a water-resistant durable material, like micarta.
7. The handle should be a bright color so the knife can be easily found on the forest floor. I like to stay true to the Mora tradition, and prefer red.
8. My preferred grind is a wide flat bevel that runs to the edge of the blade with no significant secondary bevel, usually the edge bevels only goes 1/3 way up the side of the knife. The result is a very keen edge. This grind gives excellent control in woodcarving. If you carve wood, you will probably find that the flat bevels give you better control of the cut. The wide bevel face lies flat against the wood like a plain and slices wood into fine curls. Working with wood is a must when practicing wilderness living skills. Another advantage is ease of field sharpening. There is no special tool kit or other gadget required to get a razors edge. All that is required is to lay the bevel flat to the stone, and work the entire surface of the bevel. The wide bevel forms its own guide
 
I like a good, useable choil. They are great for delicate work and give the knife a lot more versatility. I'm surprised more blades don't have them.
 
psy-ops said:
When I am doing woodcraft work like, traps, fire making, carving stuff, and making a bow and drill, I prefer a knife with:

1. A deep finger grove and little bit of a guard.
2. Drop point
3. Convex or flat ground
4. Jimping on the thumb ramp
5. Comfortably grippy handle
6. Parrot beak handle
7. 3/16ths thick blade stock



What are some of yours?
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I agree with you except I like flat grind, no convex, no jimping, and a little narrower than 3/16. Other than that, you've got a pretty good list.

Having said that, I've never found woodcraft to be particularly difficult to do with lots of knives with less than optimal blade configurations. Most outdoor knives can handle these tasks pretty easily.
 
I thought that it would be neat to take a 1/4" wide square file and file a 1/4" long bevel on the back of the spine at about a 45 degree angle to use as a firesteel striker, what do you guys think?
 
I like a knife to have:

something like a four inch blade, but could go up to about an inch either way

1/8 stock or a little thicker...3/16 is a little thick for me

drop or spear point or MAYBE clip point

flat, scandi, or potentially convex grinds

good solid handle, no round handles, must be able to tell where the knife is pointing, must be a bit grippy

I like a bit of a guard but it's definitely not crucial

full tang is good (not that I've ever broken one from lack of a full tang)

sharpened on one edge ONLY! No sharpened clip edges, etc.

Something like a 20 degree edge is nice...non of this "flat grind, until the last 0.5 mm, and now it's a 45 degree secondary bevel," don't give me that crap! Put a proper edge on it please, not everyone is going to try to chop concrete!

And NO CHOILS FOR ME!!! I would put up with one on a chopper as I don't expect precision but on small knives they drive me up the wall, I find them at best useless but usually detrimental.

That's everything I can think of, I guess. Good thread!

Oh and interesting idea Keith, I would definitely be interested to give that a go.
 
Assuming there is no magic preventing me from carrying an axe or a large knife in addition to my smaller and more "bushcrafty" knife, these are some of the features I want from a knife dedicated to precision work in the woods:

1) Fixed blade - if it folds, it's not a knife, it's a pair of scissors.
2) A "short" blade of 2 to 4 inches.
3) Absolutely no choil of any kind, ever, never - they do nothing to improve the performance of the blade but are fantastic in lowering precision, screwing up ergonomics and making any material that you're cutting snag in the choil constantly if you do prolonged cuts with the blade.
4) No finger guards, or if there must be one by some twist of fate, then at least make it very small.
5) A handle that feels right in the hand, not too long and no sharp pommels or anything like that.
6) Scandi ground, but convex and full flat ground are tolerable, too.
7) Thickness between 0.08" and 0.16".

Or basically, most reasonably made Scandis would do extremely well for that.
 
Eddie White of Shadow Knives is making this for me:

OAL......................85/8"
Steel....................154CM
Blade length...........41/4"
Blade width............7/8"
Blade thickness.......1/8"
Blade grind.............Flat grind
Handle material.......Orange G-10
Handle length.........41/4"
Handle width..........3/4"
Handle thickness.....1/4" at edges
3/8" at palm swell
Pins and liner..........Stainless steel

I call it a Backpacking/Camping knife. It's my first attempt at designing a knife.
 
A good SAK does a lot of woodcraft duty pretty well, as long as it's got a saw, such as the farmer or huntsman. I'm amused by a lot of the replies, if a smaller knife didn't have a choil, I wouldn't even consider it. To me, they're extremely handy when I'm choking up on it, and I do that a lot. Interesting how so many people can have very different opinions about a simple thing!
 
- Fixed blade
- Full tang (preferred, but any good build will do)
- Quality steel (good SS is okay, but I prefer HC)
- 3.25" blade (preferred) but up to 4" is acceptable
- No guard
- Scandi or full flat grind, but convex will do
- 4.25-4.5" handle length
- oval handle shape
- 1/8" thickness max.
- Drop point or spear point or ‘straight’ back of blade/point, as is seen with a lot of scandi-type knives
- No choil
- Edge must be as close to top of handle as possible (4mm~ max.)
- Sharp knife spine for Firesteel
- Simple no-fuss practical K.I.S.S type design. No superfluous design attributes.

I like the Iisakki Aito and Roselli Carpenter as examples.

:D
 
absolutindian said:
penguin, you just described a Mora. :-)
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Well, thats probably because thats what I use for bushcraft - Honestly I think a great budget bushcraft kit is...

-Whatever Mora you like the grip on
-Small Hatchet or camp axe
-Small folding saw

With those three things I can do whatever cutting duties I need to do while I'm in the woods.

If you don't like carrying that stuff around, then just get a decent SAK/multi tool. I prefer having a nice fixed blade and hatchet though.

cheers
 
midnite-penguin said:
Well, thats probably because thats what I use for bushcraft - Honestly I think a great budget bushcraft kit is...

-Whatever Mora you like the grip on
-Small Hatchet or camp axe
-Small folding saw

With those three things I can do whatever cutting duties I need to do while I'm in the woods.

If you don't like carrying that stuff around, then just get a decent SAK/multi tool. I prefer having a nice fixed blade and hatchet though.

cheers
Click to expand...

The tin-foil didn't work! You can still read my mind!!! Ahhhhhhh!!1
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Carbon steel, W2 being my first choice
Blade 4-5 inches long with a flat grind and convex edge...and a choil
a GUARD!!!!!!!! and a finger notch does not count. I'm talking about a real guard, but it separate or integral that will keep you from riding up onto the blade.
Dense wood or micarta handle......hidden tang or possibly a through tang....if it works on a 3 foot long viking sword, it won't have any problem on a 4 inch knife...lol.
Basically an ABS 101 hunter.:D
 
I have a TAK in 1095 steel. Thats pretty much a perfect survival knife to me. Dont really know what a choil is.
 
Wildone39 said:
I have a TAK in 1095 steel. Thats pretty much a perfect survival knife to me. Dont really know what a choil is.
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Great choice. The finger groove at the bottom of the blade where most of the fine work is done.

For me it would be a Victorinox OHT and the RC-3 or RC-4
IMG_6214.jpg

Any of these.
IMG_6955.JPG
 
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