The best Bushcraft Knife UK vs US. Pictures please!

[Swallow]

Did you see the UK Preppers programme about a year or so ago? It featured several UK Preppers, one had an inflatable canoe and plans to move to a small island on a river in Hampshire, on the island he had a Tupperware box with a some essentials, an air rifle and a tarpaulin. Another was going to move to a caravan in a shed in Wales and another had moved his entire family to a small farm in Serbia

It followed on from the series of US Preppers where they had moved into disused nuclear silos, had 10,000,000 rounds of ammunition, bugged out to camouflaged, buried containers with 25 years of food and the bloke who had set up his flat in a city with more booby traps than the Viet Cong could even dream of!

You haven't seen the Homesteading section here yet?

 

[Swallow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4EXdAoIrDE Here you go, you'll be rushing out for a two way canoe pump and a .177 air rifle before you get half way through! Crikey, I hope no one on here is featured in the programme!

do you remember the scottish guy who made the deer traps........

 

[GordonM]

The knife I most often use in the outdoors is this: Victorinox One Hand Trekker German Army. It can accomplish many of the knife tasks I encounter camping.

For field dressing and processing deer, small game and furbearers I use these tools:

To fillet the fish I keep to eat, I like to use this fillet knife:

All of these are mass produced knives that have served me well over many years of solid use and I rate very good value for the money I spent. I enjoy seeing the beautiful handcrafted knives in this and many other threads but have allowed myself the luxury of purchasing only one custom knife that was patterned after a simple 1700s trade knife.

 

[tylerjwhite]

This thread makes me happy!

 

[Klenchblaize]

What makes a good knife in the US, is different from what makes a good knife in the UK. Having said this I'm asking you to post pictures of your favorite bushcraft knives and tell me why you like them.

Ty

One very noticeable difference is the apparent dislike on this side of the pond for the use of the guard/hilt. I’m not of that camp.


K

 

[homesicksteve]

One very noticeable difference is the apparent dislike on this side of the pond for the use of the guard/hilt. I’m not of that camp.


K

Guard for hunting, no guard for wood working ?

I'm in-between :

 

[Klenchblaize]

Guard for anything the Backwoods can cast my way:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...d-727b-4abc-8f91-7bb3d48a5b9d_zps21a570b6.jpg
K

 

[tylerjwhite]

One very noticeable difference is the apparent dislike on this side of the pond for the use of the guard/hilt. I’m not of that camp.


K

Is that just a trend, or is there validity to the argument?

 

[Toddy]

I think virtually every scout in the 40's to the early 90's had one of those leather stacked handled 'bowie' type knives.
Tbh a decent folding pocket knife was a lot more use.

It taught a heck of a lot of us though that the guard was an annoyance that gets in the way for an awful lot of tasks, and it did give folks a false sense of security that allowed them to use the knife as a pry bar....there are a lot of rather twisted knives out there as a result.

Trend ? no, I honestly think most of us who actually use a knife for any kind of carving other than the 'tentpeg' variety, and for any of the myriad of other tasks, genuinely prefer not to have the guard getting in the way.

The Bowie type doesn't look right without it though, but if you look around the net, the sheer variety of knives available, very few have guards.....or is that another USA vs UK, etc. ?

How many Bushcraft knives come with guards for instance ?

I have only one knife with a guard, and that's one of the 1970's leather stacked scout ones.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[tylerjwhite]

I think virtually every scout in the 40's to the early 90's had one of those leather stacked handled 'bowie' type knives.
Tbh a decent folding pocket knife was a lot more use.

It taught a heck of a lot of us though that the guard was an annoyance that gets in the way for an awful lot of tasks, and it did give folks a false sense of security that allowed them to use the knife as a pry bar....there are a lot of rather twisted knives out there as a result.

Trend ? no, I honestly think most of us who actually use a knife for any kind of carving other than the 'tentpeg' variety, and for any of the myriad of other tasks, genuinely prefer not to have the guard getting in the way.

The Bowie type doesn't look right without it though, but if you look around the net, the sheer variety of knives available, very few have guards.....or is that another USA vs UK, etc. ?

How many Bushcraft knives come with guards for instance ?

I have only one knife with a guard, and that's one of the 1970's leather stacked scout ones.

cheers,
Toddy

I think that the guard can be valuable when used as a fighting knife. But who realistically fights with knives these days. I've got some of both, but my bushcraft knives don't have a guard. I've just really never thought about it.

My newest editions.

 

[Klenchblaize]

http://forthenrycustomknives.com/product/bob-dozier-exclusive-nessmuk-skinner-2/

K

 

[tylerjwhite]

http://forthenrycustomknives.com/product/bob-dozier-exclusive-nessmuk-skinner-2/

K

That's a beautiful Nessemuk knife on the top. A great skinner.

 

[British Red]

It has other uses. Shaped properly it can form part of a grip when choking up on a knife and its a great comfort when using the tip to bore a hole.

I do think its a trend. There was a trend over here to look down on larger knives - now people are used to "camp knives", bill hooks, etc. so the trend is less pronounced. there was a trend that only scandy ground was any good and to look down on full flat grinds and secondary bevels.

There are huge amounts of knife snobbery around on both sides of the pond in my view - little of it justified.

This is Mors Kochanksi's hand holding his own Mora

Mors 2 by British Red, on Flickr

He seems to be coping okay with that guard

 

[tylerjwhite]

It has other uses. Shaped properly it can form part of a grip when choking up on a knife and its a great comfort when using the tip to bore a hole.

I do think its a trend. There was a trend over here to look down on larger knives - now people are used to "camp knives", bill hooks, etc. so the trend is less pronounced. there was a trend that only scandy ground was any good and to look down on full flat grinds and secondary bevels.

There are huge amounts of knife snobbery around on both sides of the pond in my view - little of it justified.

This is Mors Kochanksi's hand holding his own Mora

Mors 2 by British Red, on Flickr

He seems to be coping okay with that guard

Point taken!

 

[Toddy]

Truthfully that looks like the knife is being a awkwardness and he's holding it out of the way rather than using it.

And, how is a guard of use when choking up ?

Each to their own; I don't know many who actually prefer a knife with a guard; use what you have, learn to do all you need with it and you can use a butter knife if in need

M

 

[British Red]

Truthfully that looks like the knife is being a awkwardness and he's holding it out of the way rather than using it.

And, how is a guard of use when choking up ?

Each to their own; I don't know many who actually prefer a knife with a guard; use what you have, learn to do all you need with it and you can use a butter knife if in need

M

He was holding it out of the way - but it was the best shot I had of him using a mora with a guard.

I wrap my little finger under the guard when choked up - it stops any chance of my fingers sliding down the blade when its all bloody.

 

[Toddy]

You've lost me how do you need to choke up when covered in blood ?
None of my butchery knives have guards; indeed the little Aitor skinner I used earlier in the week for ducks doesn't even have scales.

M

 

[British Red]

Same reason you do at any other time - for fine precise stuff - around the anus of small game etc. I prefer a smaller knife altogether - but that assumes I have one. The bloody was just an example though - it could be wet, or whatever. Any form of slippery. Its a helpul aid to a good grip - just as a lanyard is when used properly.

 

[Toddy]

Ah, that's an each to their own again I think

I'm a tidy butcher but I admit I hate glaur on my hands. I even pluck birds while wearing latex gloves.....let alone dealing with hides.

I do use my knives wet and muddy though, and truthfully never have needed a guard; indeed the guard gets hooked up and entangled on the water plants and roots and it's an annoyance in grasses. I was absolutely delighted the first time I had a sheath knife (did you know that some thought that the guard was to stop the knife being shoved down too far and through the sheath ? ) without that sticky out bit on it

cheers,
M

 

[British Red]

As you say - each to their own. I remember the first time someone here saw an unsheathed knife hanging from my wrist lanyard they about freaked. But I was taught not to put a knife on the ground and I'm not going to put a bloody or dirty knife back in a leather sheath every time I need both hands, so just letting it hang off the lanyard makes sense to me.