I recived the BHK Pathfinder knife recently and thought I would put it through a few simple bushcraft tests.
3/16" thick high carbon zero grind blade. (ferro-rod not included)
My first impressions of the knife and sheath were good only when I tryed to unsheath it I met with resistance, the kydex sheath is very well formed around the handle but the section between the handle and plunge cut is very square and took a lot of pulling the knife in and out to wear away the kydex enough for an easy withdraw, after this it was fine, It arrived shaving sharp with the 3mm of steel closest to the edge polished, I would have liked to have seen more of the bevel polished. The blade and micarta handle looked like they had been finnished to 120 or 240 grit then sandblasted, not my cup of tea (I like them finnished to 600 or 1000) but It was not that expensive for a custom at $300 posted and its no drawer queen .Tests include, chopping green and seasoned wood, splitting , feathering, ferrorod fire lighting, making a bowdrill set and carving a spoon.
I will give my opinion after the pictures.
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Chopping through green Ash for potstands was ok but chopping through seasoned Willow for a bowdrill set was not that good and a wrist thong was needed, steep Zero scandi grinds are great for carving but not wonderful for chopping as most of us know. Splitting dry sticks for the bushcooker was a breeze and splitting rounds of seasoned Spruce for the evening fire was also no problem. Feathering wood was very good for a knife of this size but the handle needs to be a bit wider at the narrowest point near the blade as my hand was getting cramps from gripping hard after about 3 feather sticks (but that could just be me!) . It lit an ok featherstick on the second scrape that's not to shabby in my book!
Making the components for a bowdrill set was easy, shaping the baseboard using the knife as a small axe was fine but I needed a wrist thong just in case! shaping the spindle was fine but cutting the notch in the drill hole was awkwand due to the thickness of the blade. The groves on the back of the blade are a good adition for fine work. Carving a spoon was ok but no work of art. (I have included a picture of a spoon I made afterwards with one of my 3mm thick bushtools which took half the time and is a lot better at the fine work, I could not do letterwork with the Pathfinder it was not worth the risk of injury).
On the whole I like this knife, It's still shaving hair after this test and thats good but I could have given it a lot more work to do butthats just silly stuff for the kids on youtube to watch. It dose not really excel at anything but if you want a 'do everything ok' knife this is a front runner in my opinion but cost would put most survivalists/bushcrafters off, I did use a folding saw with this knife to cut the Spruce into rounds and thats all it was used, I think it would be sensible to use a saw with this knife but not essential.
I hope you enjoy looking at this knife review as much as I enjoyed using it on my weekend in the woods. I also did a test on one of my bushtool clones at the same time but decided to omit that for today, I may do it again plus the other camping pix were not to bad, just a lot of them! any questions please ask. Thanks to my mate Scott for taking the pictures while I pose!!!
3/16" thick high carbon zero grind blade. (ferro-rod not included)
My first impressions of the knife and sheath were good only when I tryed to unsheath it I met with resistance, the kydex sheath is very well formed around the handle but the section between the handle and plunge cut is very square and took a lot of pulling the knife in and out to wear away the kydex enough for an easy withdraw, after this it was fine, It arrived shaving sharp with the 3mm of steel closest to the edge polished, I would have liked to have seen more of the bevel polished. The blade and micarta handle looked like they had been finnished to 120 or 240 grit then sandblasted, not my cup of tea (I like them finnished to 600 or 1000) but It was not that expensive for a custom at $300 posted and its no drawer queen .Tests include, chopping green and seasoned wood, splitting , feathering, ferrorod fire lighting, making a bowdrill set and carving a spoon.
I will give my opinion after the pictures.
Chopping through green Ash for potstands was ok but chopping through seasoned Willow for a bowdrill set was not that good and a wrist thong was needed, steep Zero scandi grinds are great for carving but not wonderful for chopping as most of us know. Splitting dry sticks for the bushcooker was a breeze and splitting rounds of seasoned Spruce for the evening fire was also no problem. Feathering wood was very good for a knife of this size but the handle needs to be a bit wider at the narrowest point near the blade as my hand was getting cramps from gripping hard after about 3 feather sticks (but that could just be me!) . It lit an ok featherstick on the second scrape that's not to shabby in my book!
Making the components for a bowdrill set was easy, shaping the baseboard using the knife as a small axe was fine but I needed a wrist thong just in case! shaping the spindle was fine but cutting the notch in the drill hole was awkwand due to the thickness of the blade. The groves on the back of the blade are a good adition for fine work. Carving a spoon was ok but no work of art. (I have included a picture of a spoon I made afterwards with one of my 3mm thick bushtools which took half the time and is a lot better at the fine work, I could not do letterwork with the Pathfinder it was not worth the risk of injury).
On the whole I like this knife, It's still shaving hair after this test and thats good but I could have given it a lot more work to do butthats just silly stuff for the kids on youtube to watch. It dose not really excel at anything but if you want a 'do everything ok' knife this is a front runner in my opinion but cost would put most survivalists/bushcrafters off, I did use a folding saw with this knife to cut the Spruce into rounds and thats all it was used, I think it would be sensible to use a saw with this knife but not essential.
I hope you enjoy looking at this knife review as much as I enjoyed using it on my weekend in the woods. I also did a test on one of my bushtool clones at the same time but decided to omit that for today, I may do it again plus the other camping pix were not to bad, just a lot of them! any questions please ask. Thanks to my mate Scott for taking the pictures while I pose!!!
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