- Joined
- Apr 25, 2010
- Messages
- 289
This is going to be a long one.
Lets talk about the 'survival' knife, the 'bushcraft' knife, and the 'camp knife'. I believe these three categories can be combined to form the 'general woods knife'.
Let me explain. The typical 'survival' knife is usually said to be 'the knife you have with you at all times'. The logic behind this is that a small knife you always have with you can help you more in the wilderness than no knife, because you left your bigger, more capable blade at home. The bushcraft knife, to the enlightened, is sometimes (correctly) seen as a knife which excells at, literally, bushcraft. That is, specializing in wilderness tasks, leaving other things (portability, tactical factor, etc.) as second thoughts, if even considered at all. A few tasks which a 'bushcraft' knife might excell at are making notches, preparing game, making fuzz sticks for kindling (not tinder), etc. The camp knife, though not nearly as popular a buzz word as the other two, shares many attributes of the 'bushcraft' knife, whilst being particularly distinct as well. The camp knife tends to be larger, thicker, maybe more 'robust' than than the bushcraft knife, with an emphasis placed on batonning, chopping, and other heavy duty tasks, yet still allowing compromise for the sake of being able to perform delicate work.
So, what kind of blade can fulfill all these roles effectively? Before I can answer that question, we need to examine a few glaring pieces of information. Firstly, our ancestors could make do with little more than flint. As we know, flint is hardly the most talked about thing on Bladeforums, yet, as humble as it is, flint is a blade. And it is all our ancestors needed. Their experience, knowledge, and understanding of the natural world around them made anything else unnecessary. For example, we can look now to the general population of the United States, and how many of the people you see day to day could survive in the wilderness with a knife, let alone thrive, reproduce, and grow with only a rock? The more skill you have, the less gear you need.
Secondly, we must take into consideration 'tricks'. This is in a way related to the aforementioned skill. When I first began learning wilderness 'survival', I felt a need to chop everything around me- need shelter? chop wood. Need firewood? chop and baton more wood. Essentially, my only skills were chopping and batonning. I was not using any intuition, I felt there was only one way to make a fire, only one way to make a snare, etc. This made it necessary for me to carry a very large blade, something too large for me to have at all times. After some time and practice, and lots of research, I began to learn 'tricks'. I learned that I dont need to chop 1inch saplings, I can simply bend the sapling down, creating pressure on the fibers of the wood, and cut directly in with a sharp knife, easily cutting down these saplings with a minimum of work. I also learned that I could 'notch' all the way around a piece of wood that is too thick to manually break by hand- thus reducing the diameter of the wood, and easily snapping it. If I need a very large diameter log, I can hammer my knife into it, then hammer the blade in a circular motion around the log, and easily push the tree over. I can even pick up the log and place it between a forked tree, and simply push it- breaking it without ever even needing to draw my knife. These 'tricks' eliminated my need to carry a large blade, I could do most things with only a tiny blade now (or at least, comparatively tiny).
This is not to say that a small knife is preferable to a large one- I would much rather have a big blade on me in the woods than a small one, BUT, there is no guarantee that I will get to have what I want- emergencies dont tend to be that way. However, although it is more difficult to build a shelter with the smaller blade, at least I have it- the large blade does me no good at home. This is the 'survival' element of the 'general woods knife'. It has to be portable.
The second element of the woods knife is how well it performs woodland tasks. For example, a razor blade isn't nearly as useful, in an outdoors scenario, as a Spyderco Ladybug. One reason for this is although they have similar blade lengths, the razor is FAR more delicate than the Ladybug. Also, the razor doesnt offer room for your hand- almost all positions are dangerous, while the Ladybug has had extensive research into handle design, to maximize the usability of that small blade. Yes, these are extreme examples, but I am trying to illustrate 'usefulness'. Of course, this, like everything in this post, varies wildly depending on the person- but the same general principles hold true. A useful knife is useful, a useless knife is useless. This is the 'bushcraft' element of the 'woods knife'.
Finally, we come to the 'camp knife' aspect. This tends to either be exaggerated, or unreasonably ignored. One thing we can all know for sure is that there is no guarantee for what tommorrow may bring- ESPECIALLY in a wilderness scenario. For this reason alone I discount knives like a Frosts Mora as fitting the role of the 'woods knife'- yes, this is a wonderful blade for MANY reasons, but, like it or not, its not the most durable thing out there, from the (relatively) weak tang construction to the plastic handles. Another blade I would discount as fitting this role is the 'tank knife'. Why? Tank knives, while certainly durable, make everything more difficult due to their inherent size, weight, and obtuse (generally) edge. These are exaggerated and ignored examples of a knife's 'camp' abilities- namely toughness. What we need is a good compromise- tough, yet useful.
The woods knife is special in that it varies from person to person. It varies due to an almost unlimited number of variables, from legal restrictions, to an individuals own 'style' of outdoors, bushcraft, survival techniques. The woods knife is what has consistently worked best for you, what you have learned to trust due to a remarkable track record of success through actual practice and experience, or, that you can extrapolate to successfully fit this role due to one's experience with similar knives.
With all this said, MY woods knife would be something like this:
Start with a Swamp Rat Ratmandu, then back up the edge bevel about 1/4 inch, then knock off the edge bevel corners- make them nice and round. This gives enough room from cutting edge to primary grind to sharpen using a flat ceramic stone, yet the rounded 'corners' allow for maximum benefit from a green chromo convexing strop. This also thins down the cutting edge to increase effectiveness in detail work, while also having 'convex' geometry a little further up to give increased support alone the length of the blade. The steel is 52100, a TOP steel, with a remarkable heat treat that has been shown to do simply amazing things. Handles are comfortable, and useful in a variety of grips. The blade is tough to last someone an entire lifetime of proper outdoors use. But, most importantly, it has a solid track record.
For me, this is the woods knife of my dreams (and reality). Whats yours, and why?
Thanks for reading.
Lets talk about the 'survival' knife, the 'bushcraft' knife, and the 'camp knife'. I believe these three categories can be combined to form the 'general woods knife'.
Let me explain. The typical 'survival' knife is usually said to be 'the knife you have with you at all times'. The logic behind this is that a small knife you always have with you can help you more in the wilderness than no knife, because you left your bigger, more capable blade at home. The bushcraft knife, to the enlightened, is sometimes (correctly) seen as a knife which excells at, literally, bushcraft. That is, specializing in wilderness tasks, leaving other things (portability, tactical factor, etc.) as second thoughts, if even considered at all. A few tasks which a 'bushcraft' knife might excell at are making notches, preparing game, making fuzz sticks for kindling (not tinder), etc. The camp knife, though not nearly as popular a buzz word as the other two, shares many attributes of the 'bushcraft' knife, whilst being particularly distinct as well. The camp knife tends to be larger, thicker, maybe more 'robust' than than the bushcraft knife, with an emphasis placed on batonning, chopping, and other heavy duty tasks, yet still allowing compromise for the sake of being able to perform delicate work.
So, what kind of blade can fulfill all these roles effectively? Before I can answer that question, we need to examine a few glaring pieces of information. Firstly, our ancestors could make do with little more than flint. As we know, flint is hardly the most talked about thing on Bladeforums, yet, as humble as it is, flint is a blade. And it is all our ancestors needed. Their experience, knowledge, and understanding of the natural world around them made anything else unnecessary. For example, we can look now to the general population of the United States, and how many of the people you see day to day could survive in the wilderness with a knife, let alone thrive, reproduce, and grow with only a rock? The more skill you have, the less gear you need.
Secondly, we must take into consideration 'tricks'. This is in a way related to the aforementioned skill. When I first began learning wilderness 'survival', I felt a need to chop everything around me- need shelter? chop wood. Need firewood? chop and baton more wood. Essentially, my only skills were chopping and batonning. I was not using any intuition, I felt there was only one way to make a fire, only one way to make a snare, etc. This made it necessary for me to carry a very large blade, something too large for me to have at all times. After some time and practice, and lots of research, I began to learn 'tricks'. I learned that I dont need to chop 1inch saplings, I can simply bend the sapling down, creating pressure on the fibers of the wood, and cut directly in with a sharp knife, easily cutting down these saplings with a minimum of work. I also learned that I could 'notch' all the way around a piece of wood that is too thick to manually break by hand- thus reducing the diameter of the wood, and easily snapping it. If I need a very large diameter log, I can hammer my knife into it, then hammer the blade in a circular motion around the log, and easily push the tree over. I can even pick up the log and place it between a forked tree, and simply push it- breaking it without ever even needing to draw my knife. These 'tricks' eliminated my need to carry a large blade, I could do most things with only a tiny blade now (or at least, comparatively tiny).
This is not to say that a small knife is preferable to a large one- I would much rather have a big blade on me in the woods than a small one, BUT, there is no guarantee that I will get to have what I want- emergencies dont tend to be that way. However, although it is more difficult to build a shelter with the smaller blade, at least I have it- the large blade does me no good at home. This is the 'survival' element of the 'general woods knife'. It has to be portable.
The second element of the woods knife is how well it performs woodland tasks. For example, a razor blade isn't nearly as useful, in an outdoors scenario, as a Spyderco Ladybug. One reason for this is although they have similar blade lengths, the razor is FAR more delicate than the Ladybug. Also, the razor doesnt offer room for your hand- almost all positions are dangerous, while the Ladybug has had extensive research into handle design, to maximize the usability of that small blade. Yes, these are extreme examples, but I am trying to illustrate 'usefulness'. Of course, this, like everything in this post, varies wildly depending on the person- but the same general principles hold true. A useful knife is useful, a useless knife is useless. This is the 'bushcraft' element of the 'woods knife'.
Finally, we come to the 'camp knife' aspect. This tends to either be exaggerated, or unreasonably ignored. One thing we can all know for sure is that there is no guarantee for what tommorrow may bring- ESPECIALLY in a wilderness scenario. For this reason alone I discount knives like a Frosts Mora as fitting the role of the 'woods knife'- yes, this is a wonderful blade for MANY reasons, but, like it or not, its not the most durable thing out there, from the (relatively) weak tang construction to the plastic handles. Another blade I would discount as fitting this role is the 'tank knife'. Why? Tank knives, while certainly durable, make everything more difficult due to their inherent size, weight, and obtuse (generally) edge. These are exaggerated and ignored examples of a knife's 'camp' abilities- namely toughness. What we need is a good compromise- tough, yet useful.
The woods knife is special in that it varies from person to person. It varies due to an almost unlimited number of variables, from legal restrictions, to an individuals own 'style' of outdoors, bushcraft, survival techniques. The woods knife is what has consistently worked best for you, what you have learned to trust due to a remarkable track record of success through actual practice and experience, or, that you can extrapolate to successfully fit this role due to one's experience with similar knives.
With all this said, MY woods knife would be something like this:
Start with a Swamp Rat Ratmandu, then back up the edge bevel about 1/4 inch, then knock off the edge bevel corners- make them nice and round. This gives enough room from cutting edge to primary grind to sharpen using a flat ceramic stone, yet the rounded 'corners' allow for maximum benefit from a green chromo convexing strop. This also thins down the cutting edge to increase effectiveness in detail work, while also having 'convex' geometry a little further up to give increased support alone the length of the blade. The steel is 52100, a TOP steel, with a remarkable heat treat that has been shown to do simply amazing things. Handles are comfortable, and useful in a variety of grips. The blade is tough to last someone an entire lifetime of proper outdoors use. But, most importantly, it has a solid track record.
For me, this is the woods knife of my dreams (and reality). Whats yours, and why?
Thanks for reading.
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Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I think that no one knife really fits the bill when outdoors. I tend to prefer something in the 4-5" blade range, usually a slight drop point, but I like a little beef to it; I like the Fallkniven F1 right now for a general utility outdoors knife. However, I think you need to carry something like a machete, big blade, small hatchet, or folding saw to go with the smaller knife, cause their are too many times when the small knife just won't cut it!
