Bushcraft knife_what's really mean?

[Alfredo]

Hi all,
probably there are no better place that here to ask this question: what really mean "bushcraft knife".
According to Mors Kochanski definitions:
"...The general-purpose bush knife should have a blade as long as the width of the palm, although blades half or twice this length are within acceptable limits. A blade five centimeters long would be an excellent survival knife except for being too small to fall and limb trees of wrist-thickness. A blade 10 to 15 centimeters long will do intricate work like carving a netting needle, yet be large enough to present a good target for a baton when cutting down small trees. A blade 20 centimeters long is a superior tool for heavy work, but awkward to use for fine work.
All general-use knives should have the blade tip close to the profile centerline of the handle. The back of the handle and the back of the blade should be on the same line. The back of the blade should not be thinned down or sharpened so that a baton can be used more effectively without being cut up. There is no advantage to a two-edged blade in bush living.
The blade should be of a good quality carbon steel, from two and a half to three millimeters thick and about two to two and a half centimeters wide. This size of blade is light in weight, yet difficult to break. The steel should be soft enough to be maintained at a shaving edge with common sharpening tools, without frequent sharpening. Such steel is found in Mora (Sweden), Solingen (Germany) or Sheffield (England) knives. Carbon, unlike stainless steel, can be used as the striker in the flint and steel method of fire-lighting. Inexpensive stainless steels have had a bad reputation with respect to producing a keen edge let alone holding it. The Mora stainless steels however, are every bit as good as their carbon steels.
The metal of the knife blade should extend for the full-length of the handle (a full tang) for strength.
The handle should be a durable, water-resistant material that can be shaped to the user’s hand if necessary.
The knife should have a strong pommel that will protect the handle if the knife is driven tip first deep into wood.
The curvature of the cutting edge should extend for the full-length of the blade. This cuts well and is one of the best shapes that quickly sharpens to a razor’s edge. The knife blade should have a sharp enough point to penetrate deep into wood with a minimum of effort.
The knife handle should be about as long as the width of your palm. A handle that is too thick or too thin fatigues the hand and causes blisters. The cross-section of the handle should be an oval instead of round or rectangular. An oval handle provides an adequate indication of the direction of the cutting edge and raises fewer blisters than handles with angular or rounded corners.
A guard on a bush knife is in the way and detracts from many operations. It prevents the use of a simple, secure deep sheath. Some people prefer a guard for fear of slipping forward onto the knife edge, but unless the knife is used for stabbing, the hand should never slip in this way. In all my years of instructing I do not recall an injury due to the lack of a guard."

For sure it's an accurate description of a good knife for general purpose and bushcraft skills, but this mean that i.e. a Fallkniven F1 it's not a bushcraft (no carbon steel), most of scandinavian knives are not bushcraft knives (no full-tang), a Nessmuk ora Green River style knife is not a bushcraft knife (the back of the handle and the back of the blade are not on the same line).

This make me a bit uncertain about this definition. What do you think about.

Cheers, Alfredo

 

[Robbi]

it's a knife that you take into the woods and use.

 

[Retired Member southey]

My feelings are that it is the knife you feel confident to use for the tasks you wish to complete while out and about, like food/game prep,carving,splitting, battoning,felling and limbingetc etc... I don't think there can be one knife for all as we are all different,body shape,size,weight and musclature.as for full tang,stick tang, stainless or carbon, it's again down to choice, take the mora, stick tang stainless or carbon i have no troubles maintaing either in the field with a small dc stone. and can accopmlish all the tasks that i would put to a knife that size, to the same standard as using my JP woody. it's just what feels right in your hand. I don't think you can apply the label bushcraft knife to a single knife.
Check out the waffle, it's almost a proper post.

 

[Hoodoo]

A bushcraft knife is a knife capable of doing bushcraft. I'm of the opinion that there is no one knife out there optimized to do all things "bushcrafty." A machete is a bushcraft knife. So is a fillet knife. What most people call a bushcraft knife (i.e., the Woodlore) I would tend to call a woodcraft knife, since that is what it is best suited for. And personally, I prefer a much thinner blade than the one on the Woodlore, because it is more versatile imo.

 

[SouthernCross]

G'day Alfredo

.....
This make me a bit uncertain about this definition. What do you think about.

There is only one acid test.

If it works for bushcraft, then it's a Bushcraft knife.



Kind regards
Mick

 

[BorderReiver]

I'll echo the other comments, it's a knife that I'm happy to use for bushcraft; it could be convex, scandi, flat ground etc. In my case never more than 4" bladed though.

 

[eraaij]

Don't fall for the dogma trap - regardless of the reputation of 'the guru on the stage'. There are established 'best practices' for what works well and what works not, but the scope is pretty wide. A knife is per definition a personal tool. Pick a knife that's comfortable for the tasks that you define as 'bushcraft'. If a knife allows you to do those tasks in comfort and safety - it's a bushcraft knife.

-Emile

 

[JonathanD]

Don't fall for the dogma trap - regardless of the reputation of 'the guru on the stage'. There are established 'best practices' for what works well and what works not, but the scope is pretty wide. A knife is per definition a personal tool. Pick a knife that's comfortable for the tasks that you define as 'bushcraft'. If a knife allows you to do those tasks in comfort and safety - it's a bushcraft knife.

-Emile

Sounds about spot on to me.

 

[FGYT]

well for the preceding decades befroe i staggered into the Light that is Bushcraft a SAK and a Large Kukri had served me well in all my outdoor exploits

now haveing tryed several "" Bushcraft Designs "" Ive had to design and make my own to suit me ( luckly British Red and Stu M had done a lot of the hard work on the shape just needed a little tweek and a different grind for me Oh and for most stuff shrinking to 3/4 scale .. so a fixed blade the size of a large SAK then)

ATB

Duncan

 

[Grey Owl]

On a personal level I would echo the statements of those that define a knife by its ability to do work required of it.

With this in mind I would like to add a little to this story from a Canadian small-town perspective, from an era before internet research and oogling shiny things from the other side of the world. If you look at the date that these statements were first developed (which precede the publication of Bushcraft by 10-15 years) there were very few options for knives available. Back in those days, the cheapest most reliable knife was a red wooden handled Mora. The sporting goods store in my home town sold them for $3.99, and everyone had one.

When Kochanski teaches courses, he still uses a cheap Mora, and will bring out his Skookum Bush Tool on one day, and tell the course participants that if they want to spend more money, this is available from somebody else.

In the end, he has recommended the Mora for 20+ years as his primary choice. Because it works, and noone cries if it is broken, stolen or lost. And many of us here, without considering what 'the guru says' have recommended the same knife, given a Mora to a beginner, and have several of them lying around because it works.

So don't get to hung up on the Mora not matching the description because it has a stick tang. It just happened to be a reliable knife that was readily available in Canada at the time, and it still works (as evidenced by many of us).

And just remember if it can cut a carrot, carve a pointy stick, access dry wood, harvest bark, (insert 101 tasks important to you), it is definitely a bushcraft knife.

But just for fun, take a look at your own collections, and a surprising number of our collective fixed blade knives will match that description. Why, because somewhere up in Scandiland, some clever fellow, somewhere in a smithy, had a conversation with an uneducated wood-carver/hunter/farmer/fisher/grumpy old man, and a hundred years later knifemakers are still following the pattern, and people are still using knives that work.

Perhaps that uneducated person was pretty clever after all.....

 

[ikesdad]

it's a knife that you take into the woods and use.

+1.......!

 

[Aussiepom]

Hi Alfredo,

On the one hand Mors merely putting forward his preferences in a knife. That's fine. The text could start off hours of discussion, preferably with a beer in hand.

But in the context of giving advice to an unknowledgable beginner the text is very eratic and I would adivise the person to ignore it.

It's vague in places, eg it gives a blade length of something less that 2 inches, up to 4 times that, at around 7 inches.

It's restrictive in others, eg whatever length this blade is, its thickness should only be within a 0.5mm band.

In other places it's simply contradictory; it says the spine and handle should be in line, a la Skookum bush tool, but it also says the point should be on the centreline, as per a spear point.

I'd say it's best just to try a knife. If you like it, use it, if not, ask yourself why and then try something else that's more in line with your new-found experience.