After reading the Elusive “One Knife” for Bushcraft thread it got me thinking how no single knife could ever really be good at all tasks big and small. However I do think that two well chosen paired knives could come close to being able to to everything to a very high level of competence. This has got me thinking what pair of knives do you think would work well together for bushcraft?
The perfect "Two Knife" bushcraft set
- Thread starter HorseGuy
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Casstrom #10 SFK and Brisa Necker 70 flat grind.
Small flat grind Brisa for food prep and scandi grind Casstrom for woodcraft and heavier duty work.
Also an axe and a saw!
Pics borrowed from Heinnie as I don't have pics of my own handy.
Small flat grind Brisa for food prep and scandi grind Casstrom for woodcraft and heavier duty work.
Also an axe and a saw!
Pics borrowed from Heinnie as I don't have pics of my own handy.
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I have great difficulty with these questions because I still haven't found an acceptable definition of 'bushcraft'.
I use 'bushcraft skills' when working in the wood, camping, trekking (vehicle, walking, canoeing, this country and far afield), hunting, fishing, or just campfire cooking - I never 'do bushcraft'. Pre-Mears, we called it 'backwoods skills' or 'wilderness skills'.
So I use, in a wide variety of scenarios: a large blade I can hack with, split with, for snedding, cutting a nice stick when I see it, carrying out rough carving (think tent pegs, points on staves etc.); a smaller blade if I'm planning any delicate work; specialist knives (crook/spoon etc.) for craft work; a rescue knife on the river; a thin bladed knife if I'm doing anything but basic cooking or skinning game and gutting fish (although I am happy 'making do' with my large knife); and always a SAK with scissors and saw blade.
I use 'bushcraft skills' when working in the wood, camping, trekking (vehicle, walking, canoeing, this country and far afield), hunting, fishing, or just campfire cooking - I never 'do bushcraft'. Pre-Mears, we called it 'backwoods skills' or 'wilderness skills'.
So I use, in a wide variety of scenarios: a large blade I can hack with, split with, for snedding, cutting a nice stick when I see it, carrying out rough carving (think tent pegs, points on staves etc.); a smaller blade if I'm planning any delicate work; specialist knives (crook/spoon etc.) for craft work; a rescue knife on the river; a thin bladed knife if I'm doing anything but basic cooking or skinning game and gutting fish (although I am happy 'making do' with my large knife); and always a SAK with scissors and saw blade.
I’m about to promote a mass rolling of eyes.
Like @Broch i do not have any definition of bushcraft other than some sense of independence. I only know that I don’t fit (…. my interpretation of….) the definitions that I’ve seen here.
So:
(Presuming that we are talking about outdoors.)
I would want a blade long enough to travers a lettuce/cabbage/loaf. If it were to be heavy enough to slice flakes from kindling and trim the twigs from a pole: that would be handy
I’d also want a smaller knife to cut string, guylines etc and work rope (very occasionally)
Over the years I’ve shaken down to two plastic handled Opinels. The Explore (12) and the Outdoor.(8)
Either on site or wild camping I rarely have the right to cut big stuff and have no need to.
(Edited to add:
I always have wooden handled 12 with me but that is sentiment)
I’m looking forward to a time when I can have a 12(B) with the longer blade for food prep (and eating) but that’s a way off at the moment.
Like @Broch i do not have any definition of bushcraft other than some sense of independence. I only know that I don’t fit (…. my interpretation of….) the definitions that I’ve seen here.
So:
(Presuming that we are talking about outdoors.)
I would want a blade long enough to travers a lettuce/cabbage/loaf. If it were to be heavy enough to slice flakes from kindling and trim the twigs from a pole: that would be handy
I’d also want a smaller knife to cut string, guylines etc and work rope (very occasionally)
Over the years I’ve shaken down to two plastic handled Opinels. The Explore (12) and the Outdoor.(8)
Either on site or wild camping I rarely have the right to cut big stuff and have no need to.
(Edited to add:
I always have wooden handled 12 with me but that is sentiment)
I’m looking forward to a time when I can have a 12(B) with the longer blade for food prep (and eating) but that’s a way off at the moment.
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Sissipuukko M23 (small)Nice.
What are we looking at here?
Varusteleka Skrama 200.
Just two, eh? That's almost harder than choosing one! Still, if pushed these would be my go-to two:
A Ben Orford Woodlander for the heavier tasks and the Victorinox (I can't remember which model!) for food prep. and the modest range of handy tools that comes with it.
A Ben Orford Woodlander for the heavier tasks and the Victorinox (I can't remember which model!) for food prep. and the modest range of handy tools that comes with it.
Trouble with me is that I have far too many knives, but basically if it came down to two, I would say something around 9 to 10 inches for heavy work and 3 to 5 inches for more intricate work, essentially a leuku pukko combination, but without the scandi grinds thank you.
I agree with the general concept of "big ol' chopper and a little fella" be that leuku & puuko or whatever. Ideally I'd add a third for cutting food but I'll wait for that thread to appear before ellaborating
I'm usually happy with a bit of spit, a rub, and a wipe on my trouser-leg to remove enough 'dirt' from a blade between a bit of woodwork and cutting my food if I'm cooking and eating outdoors TBH. If in doubt I might add a quick rub with hand sanitiser (Usually carried predominantly for it's fire-lighting properties) I figure I'm just as likely to pick up a tummy bug from just about everything else as I am from a blade with a bit of sap on it.
I stated in the 'One knife' thread that my Moot Iron is my "I can do whatever I need to do with it" knife, However I usually team it up with a locking folder. The folder will usually be a plain edged Spyderco that was a gift from a good friend, or a good ol' Buck 110. It's not that the big knife cannot do the smaller jobs but rather that the smaller knife is better suited to them.
As for having a SAK on me for the multi-blade/multi-use functionality ... I have one of those in my pocket whenever I'm dressed so I don't even count that as 'something I take out with me'.
I don't even think of a SAK as a knife. It's a compact, lightweight multi-tool which goes everywhere I go.
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I don't own either of these but i imagine the perfect two knife bushcraft set would be something like a Silky Nata for any big chopping, splitting and batoning tasks paired with a little TBS Lynx Compact knife for the smaller campfire tasks like fire starting stuff, any carving type of jobs and the food prep.
Just pondering
How did you guys find this forum? Random chance??
I don't think we need a hard and fast definition of a thing to know what it means to us do we??
Lots of things exist that we relate to and know what another is talking about without a prefaced debate game of ' define your terms and definition'
#EDIT - Unless its ACTUALLY a debate.
No I disagree. I really don't know what most people do with their knives. Look at them, carve spoons, eat, skin game, gut fish, make camp furniture, peel spuds, prepare firewood ... ?
To be honest, I see very little justifiable use of a knife in most group camps (especially 'bushcraft' camps) I have attended. Beer cans have ring pulls, freeze-dried meals you can open with your fingers and eat with a spoon, wine bottles are screw cap, stoves use gas or liquid fuel ... the list goes on.
OK, I'm purposefully being provocative but I really do not know what people mean by 'bushcraft' so cannot answer the question - "what are the perfect two knives for bushcraft?"
The question I can answer is "what two knives would I most be happy with If I find myself living unplanned in the wild?" - and that would be a big hacking knife and a thin bladed food prep/gutting knife.
To be honest, I see very little justifiable use of a knife in most group camps (especially 'bushcraft' camps) I have attended. Beer cans have ring pulls, freeze-dried meals you can open with your fingers and eat with a spoon, wine bottles are screw cap, stoves use gas or liquid fuel ... the list goes on.
OK, I'm purposefully being provocative but I really do not know what people mean by 'bushcraft' so cannot answer the question - "what are the perfect two knives for bushcraft?"
The question I can answer is "what two knives would I most be happy with If I find myself living unplanned in the wild?" - and that would be a big hacking knife and a thin bladed food prep/gutting knife.
"I don't think we need a hard and fast definition of a thing to know what it means to us do we??"
Anywhere where we have to find and prep our own food, make shelter, provide a fire for cooking and warmth and source water.
"I don't think we need a hard and fast definition of a thing to know what it means to us do we??"
Anywhere where we have to find and prep our own food, make shelter, provide a fire for cooking and warmth and source water.
My irony I assure you was intended.
I guess this comes back to the notion of Bushcraft is lots of things to lots of people ( a bit like religion ) - to some sitting in a woodland environment with a tin after a hard week in an office cubicle whilst trying to carve yet another wooden spoon sat in a camping chair IS to them Bushcraft. Or maybe just their version of , and isn't that enough?
