what bushcraft knives 'actually' look like...

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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
For several centuries in the fur trading days of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada,
the best, serious, bushcraft knives, Mocotaugan included, were made from files bought
from the HBC (made in Sheffield, by the wooden barrel.)
The forge was a covered trench of charcoal in the ground.
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Beautiful knife.
Art.
But, to be honest, not a working knife, way to nice. So not a bushcrafting knife.
Knives made by the same were simple tools, the making of these exhibition grade knifes started in the 1960'.

Up until the early to mid 1970' most same knives were very simple, with blades made from scrap iron.
Most used knives made in Mora.
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Knives like that are "exhibition-grade" to me. I'd be thankful for a blade with a good edge.
It's the artisan's thoughts in design that I admire most.

Several coffee cans of top-quality rusty files, aged in the rain and snow for a couple of years.
Maybe this winter, I've found another blacksmith in hiding.
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Yep, like around 2 millennia.

The same people have been using three different types.
A large one, called 'huggare' in Swedish. Translated to English it would be a 'chopper'. To cut smaller branches, twigs for the fire and to sleep on.
Mid sized all round knife, to use in butchering, eating. Then a small blade to use in cutting the ownership mark into the reindeer's ears.
The women had also a smallish knife, size between the mid size and marking size.

That kind of knifes (sizes) are still made by people type Marttiini, plus some other manufacturers.

The main difference between the 'bushcraft knives' as advocated by RM and other modern personalities and those true working knifes is the thickness of the blade, plus they had a stick tang.

Design - check out Marttiini. 'Normal' birch handle, brass fittings. Reindeer leather sheath. Only sometimes a sheath of Antler
Full Antler knifes ( incl sheaths) are a modern invention, I think post WW2.
 
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