Who says you can't use barkies?

3

3wolves

Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
1,061
After using the Bark river bravo-1 for several days I am ready to give my expert opinion.:D

Initial impressions- It felt great in the hand and incredibly solid. It feels bigger than it is and is about 1/4" thick at the spine. I was at first worried about it not being a good slicer but I was very wrong.
some pics of it all new and shiny,

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more to come.
 
Fire making

Okay so we'll all agree that firemaking is one of the most important skills right? well The bravo-1 does a great job of it.

Chopping,

Altough with a blade of this size, batoning in usually preferable, you might need to chop a little to actually get the baton. Now amazingly, the bravo-1, though being a small (4.25") blade, is heavy enough for light chopping.
I chopped through this rougly 2.5" in diameter dead log (either buckthorn or cherry, can't say for sure) in 1:12 minutes. :eek:

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Batoning

Not much to say besides it does a great job, went through knots and all that without a hitch. Among the woods I battoned were cedar, hazel and the cherry/buckthorn. The cedar was pretty thick with alot of knots too.

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I now had a nice pile of wood for fuel

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Fuzzsticks/kindling

The bravo-1 was also good for fine work, I made some really nice fuzzsticks and split wood into toothpick sized pieces.

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Continued......


I cheated a little by using the saw on my swisstool to fuzz up the tissue so it would catch a spark easier,

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And the spine of the bravo-1 threw great sparks,

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Soon, I had a flame going,

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Which turned into a nice steady fire.

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.


Whittling/Carving

Once again, it performed really well for such a thick blade,

A nice notch,

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A trigger for a spring snare,

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Food prep

I didn't take many pictures because I used it over the course of a week and didn't feel like running to get the camera every time. (plus they would be pretty boring:o) It sliced almost as well as a dedicated kitchen knife, no complaints at all,

Cheese is a good test for edge geometry, hollow and saber grinds are the worst in my experience. The convex edge is great, just zips through it.

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Tomatoes are a classic test and I could get very thin slices with the bravo-1,


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Ergonomics

It fit my hand like a glove, the micarta was really shiny and smooth when it was new but after some use it became a bit rougher and dull. Im guessing its coated in some sort of wax but I could be wrong. I find that handles with grooves, checkering etc. like CS kraton creates hotspots and give blisters and the barkie handle is great for that, no blisters or sore hands but a great grip.

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Edge Retention

This is my first knife in A2 and I'm impressed.:thumbup: It holds an edge great but it only takes a few licks on a strop to restore it to hair popping sharpness.

Thumb Ramp

I don't really se a purpose to the thumb ramp, I never used it at all during a week of use but it doesn't get in the way and it looks nice so I don't mind it there.

Sheath

Yep it's the only part of the knife I don't like. It's made of OD green kydex and can be set for vertical or horizontal carry. The problem is that it rides way to high for vertical carry and sticks out too far for horizontal. I will have to replace it with the leather one.

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Overall

Yes I would definately buy it again and should I ever lose it I will buy another. I have nothing negative to say about the knife (the sheath on the other hand...). I can't find any way to improve it either which is rare for me.:D I definately see more bark river knives in the future. This one gets two thumbs up.:thumbup::thumbup:.

Great tools that go together,

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Random shots,

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As you can see I'v almost completely worn away the cool tang stamp,:(

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Really nice review! That is one sweet knife thats seen alot of good use. Thanks for posting that I really enjoyed it.
 
Dude, you rocked that review out of the park! Great job.

That in-hand shot is a big help, I didn't know it was so hand filling (always a big plus for me). I'd like to handle one of those some time.

That black Fiskars is still cool as heck!!
 
Excellent series of posts. I especially like this review b/c those are the things that I actually do with a knife.
 
Nice review and great pictures. I have a Bravo1 with black & green linen micarta, but everytime I see pictures of this green canvas I regret my choice.

As far as the sheath, two thoughts: first, the leather sheath BRKT makes for the Bravo1 is very nice, you'll probably want to get one; second, for the kydex sheath, you could remove the loop and thread it with paracord, in which case you could carry it horizontally and it wouldn't stick out nearly as far.
 
Great review, 3. You did a great job reworking the tip, BTW.

Buy the leather sheath - you'll like it.

Doc
 
XMP said:
Nice review and great pictures. I have a Bravo1 with black & green linen micarta, but everytime I see pictures of this green canvas I regret my choice.
Click to expand...

Hey XMP, what is it that you don't like about the green and black linen? I'm trying to decide what combination for my next one, and the green and black is in the running.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Hey XMP, what is it that you don't like about the green and black linen? I'm trying to decide what combination for my next one, and the green and black is in the running.

Doc
Click to expand...

You were serious about buying another one.:eek: If I were you I would wait for the bravo-2 to come out.:thumbup: I might have to get that one and the bravo-1 necker.:o
 
No question that but Mike Stewart is (still) making some of the finest blades you can buy. I treasure my Marble's Campcrafts and Fieldcraft from when he was in charge there, as well as my BRK first-run Woodland.
 
3wolves said:
You were serious about buying another one.:eek: If I were you I would wait for the bravo-2 to come out.:thumbup: I might have to get that one and the bravo-1 necker.:o
Click to expand...

I heard there were some new Bravos coming out but I haven't seen any information about them. What have you heard?

Yes, I am serious because the Bravo1 effectively ends any search of mine for a better knife and you know what they say: " 2 is 1, and......." From the moment I picked it up, I could hear the music :D. The only thing I haven't done is put it to the test (back still healing). And you answered most of the questions for me.

It's the perfect size, thickness, feel, and from what I can tell so far, cuts like the devil, and not to mention, one beautiful looking knife. What more could you ask?

Doc
 
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