I happened to see a recording of Geldolfs Africa tonight. The Hadza chaps he was with had the roughest knife Ive seen in a long while , looked about 9/12 inches .they where making arrows with it but most interestingly they used the handle for the hearth for fire making !
Why?
- Thread starter wentworth
- Start date
Bushcraft is such a broad endeavor that I think you could find a use for just about any knife style out there for a particular task. And you can make a big knife do small knife tasks and a small knife do big knife tasks, when you have to. Generally, I try to carry the knife that will work for me for what I have planned ahead. I find a good saw and axe essential for winter camping. I like machetes for saplings. I like thin-bladed flat or hollow ground knives for the camp kitchen and butchering. I like a good woodlore/mora style knife for woodcraft. There is no perfect knife for everything. When push comes to shove, you do what you got to do with the tools you have. I generally don't carry a big chopper on my hip because they are just too heavy to lug around all day when you are afield with gun and ammo. I have to admit, though, leuku's like the Stromeng 9" is a lot of knife for not a lot of weight and I enjoy carrying it. But if I have a lot of sapling work to do, I'm still gonna grab the machete or parang and leave the "big knife" at home. And I will always have a small belt knife on my hip, one way or the other and a folder in the pocket. It won't be a woodlore when I'm hunting small game and it won't be a hunter-style knife when I'm backpacking. It always depends on the plan ahead for me. You can use a knife like an adjustable wrench but a good mechanic rarely uses his adjustable wrench, usually preferring to pick one fitted perfectly to the task when he has his tool box handy. 
i've got a knivsmed stromeng 9" and it's my favorite knive for carving spoons despite it's size it is a very useable knife.
When running courses in Sweden or visits to the mountains in Norway the Sami knife (mines the 9" version) is a remarkable tool and perfect for those enviroments.
Next year on the Oz course while I think a sami knifwe would be ore than up to the task I will likely carry a golok.
In the uk I carry my BFK and a tomahawk and a folding saw because these are most pertinant to a temperate zone.
In other words knives like hats or underwear have evolved for different enviroments and a wise bushcraft uses the correct tool for the job! That said as I have pointed out in the past the best tool is the one you have on you at the time -- so learn to be a master of all rather than precious about one! In many culters the native peoples make their own knives from whats available and while I am sure they all have a design in mind I am equally sure they make the best they can with what they have and then learn to use it to its maximum.
They dont cover lack of knowledge with kit they cover lack of kit with ability and knowledge!
Next year on the Oz course while I think a sami knifwe would be ore than up to the task I will likely carry a golok.
In the uk I carry my BFK and a tomahawk and a folding saw because these are most pertinant to a temperate zone.
In other words knives like hats or underwear have evolved for different enviroments and a wise bushcraft uses the correct tool for the job! That said as I have pointed out in the past the best tool is the one you have on you at the time -- so learn to be a master of all rather than precious about one! In many culters the native peoples make their own knives from whats available and while I am sure they all have a design in mind I am equally sure they make the best they can with what they have and then learn to use it to its maximum.
They dont cover lack of knowledge with kit they cover lack of kit with ability and knowledge!
I like large knives and they can be very versatile as demostrated by many native peoples from around the world that live by gathering, hunting and fishing as their daily existence. I think one of the problems with big knives is they tend to be too thick and heavy because they are modelled after bowie knives and produced for collectors or occasional users. A long knife with a fairly thin blade is much lighter to carry, cuts better and much easier to manipulate for delicate tasks and have some chopping power due to its length. Most native people form what I have seen on TV use long thin knives for everything from cutting wood to eating with.
Hi all,
thanks for all the responses. I can see that there are times when a big thin blade such as some have mentioned would be very useful. But not for me. I live in Blue Mountains National Park, where minimal impact camping is essential, thus a huge blade would be less at home. Thus for the more environmentally friendly tasks such as spoon carving and featherstick making etc, a smaller blade suits me well.
My original question was about the usefulness of a 9 inch blade (bowie) AND a hatchet AND a slipjoint. It seemed to me that the hatchet made the large knife superfluous- just more weight to carry. BTW, I am talking about for overnighters, which were mentioned in the forums I encountered.
thanks for all the responses. I can see that there are times when a big thin blade such as some have mentioned would be very useful. But not for me. I live in Blue Mountains National Park, where minimal impact camping is essential, thus a huge blade would be less at home. Thus for the more environmentally friendly tasks such as spoon carving and featherstick making etc, a smaller blade suits me well.
My original question was about the usefulness of a 9 inch blade (bowie) AND a hatchet AND a slipjoint. It seemed to me that the hatchet made the large knife superfluous- just more weight to carry. BTW, I am talking about for overnighters, which were mentioned in the forums I encountered.
Viking said:There too, it´s spreading....
But what a good thing to spread eh mate - a little scandinavian wisedom!
Oh the wood arrived btw - cheers - pm me with news on the other stuff!!
wentworth said:
I don't believe that your question has been answered - so I'll give it a try.
I don't see much use for a large knife AND hatchet for most people in low impact camping. You'd either carry a well set up hatchet or suitable knife - or choose to carry neither. Obviously if you're using a tent and stove, there's normally little that a chopping blade is useful for. If you switch the Opinel for an equally light Mora, then you can use that with a baton to cut any wood you want to make spoons from. Or you might find a light folding saw to be more useful in initial cutting/shaping wood.
Some of us live in areas of pretty extreme conditions, though, and that's where the focus on chopping tools comes from. Around here, the times when a fire is most needed are the times when it is toughest to find any dry wood. So I'd feel foolish going for a walk without something like a tiny hatchet or small golok along. You, on the other hand might feel foolish in your conditions for carrying even the extra 10oz weight.
wentworth said:
I think so... And I think it's because you're coming at it from a bushcraft standpoint, as are we all, not a survival one.
If your ship got wrecked and you could have one blade with you... what would you have? something you could hack with, carve with and prepare food with or one that you couldn't hack with but would carve really well and prepare food reasonably well with?
If I could have one knife to be used to SURVIVE in any environment, it'd be a chuffing big one. something I could cut a tree down with and then cut a yak in half and even at worst, defend myself with.
But, I'm a bushcrafter, so I'll stick with my GB SFA / Folding saw / Gene Ingram or BFK (when I get my sticky mitts on it). I'm not out to survive, i'm out to thrive and hopefully never get in to a true survival stuation.
One blade to survive with? I'd be hard pressed to choose between my smallish Leku (just under 6") and my Staffie bill hook but probably I'd go with the billhook. Not a massive blade by any standard, a couple of inches shorter than a bit of A4 paper, but plenty of power for any task with the added finess of the back blade. For general bushcrafting I think either one of those 2 plus a puukko would cover prety much anything in temerate european or simila climes. Like a machete is the ideal tool for jungle, the bill hook and leku are the perfect tooks for their home environments.
David
David
my experiences mirror stuart's on this one.
in the end, it doesn't matter wether your knife is big or small, or what shape it is. it does help if it's sharp. a persons skill level is not defined by their knife. but by the end result of their work.
cheers, and.
"...in the end, it doesn't matter wether your knife is big or small, or what shape it is. it does help if it's sharp. a persons skill level is not defined by their knife. but by the end result of their work."...
I have seen a Doctor skin a giraffe with a handfull of straight scalpel blades...
I have seen a Doctor skin a giraffe with a handfull of straight scalpel blades...
zackerty said:
Zack I skinned a deer with the little blade on a original leatherman and thats what 2 and a bit inches long - size doesnt matter when skinning - indeed we should use our knife as little as possible to do this anyway!
Well...
Why would you carry a hatchet ?
I carry a big blade both for survival and bushcraft teaching, mainly because it can chop and split wood for the fire. Many woods are dry inside and wet outside. They burn better once split. A big knife will also do any task I throw at it, from destroying an old half-rotten pine stump to get to it's fatwood core to making traps or dicing wild carrots to prying wood apart, etc.
I carry a Swamp Rat Camp Tramp. I chose this blade not for the company's political opinions (I'm not a survivalist, I'm more like the left-wing earth mother type, man...) , but because it's the right tool for my needs, period.
That big blade has less raw chopping power than a hatchet, but it's more versatile. I see it as a de-escalation from the hatchet, not just a "bigger knife".
Along with that, I always carry a smaller fixed blade, often a F1 or a Mora of some sort.
Cheers,
David
Why would you carry a hatchet ?
I carry a big blade both for survival and bushcraft teaching, mainly because it can chop and split wood for the fire. Many woods are dry inside and wet outside. They burn better once split. A big knife will also do any task I throw at it, from destroying an old half-rotten pine stump to get to it's fatwood core to making traps or dicing wild carrots to prying wood apart, etc.
I carry a Swamp Rat Camp Tramp. I chose this blade not for the company's political opinions (I'm not a survivalist, I'm more like the left-wing earth mother type, man...
) , but because it's the right tool for my needs, period. That big blade has less raw chopping power than a hatchet, but it's more versatile. I see it as a de-escalation from the hatchet, not just a "bigger knife".
Along with that, I always carry a smaller fixed blade, often a F1 or a Mora of some sort.
Cheers,
David
Having just found this forum and registered, I wonder if it is a good idea to make my first post on this particular thread since my opinions far outweigh my experiences. But with that warning, here goes.
Most and practically all of my experiences are in the Applachian and Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. I even lived for a time in a log house and there are a surprising number of log houses within thirty miles of the White House. But that is another topic.
You need an ax to build a log house. A large knife won't do but for most everything else, it will. In fact, I'll even go out on a limb and suggest that in some cases, a large knife is even better than an ax or hatchet, at least if you include machetes and such like. But I am speaking of what you would call homesteading and general backwoods living and for that matter, even suburban living in Virginia. There are a lot of cutting chores that a large knife does perfectly well at that an ax is downright clumsy at, such as clearing brush and cutting a path. After all, it is a sub-tropical climate where I live and things grow like crazy in the summer. Yet I have not been that satisified with a hardware store machete of the Collins variety. I have an issue Golok that was inexplicably cut down by about three inches but still remains a superior tool, and it is just a tool, on account of its thicker and therefore stiffer blade.
I somehow manage otherwise when I am in the woods with a large folding Buck knife or alternatively a small fixed blade knife of one sort or another.
There are two other related issues that I also want to mention. One is cost.
A lot of large Bowie-type knives are unreasonably expensive, at least for me. I don't believe they work any better and you may be forced to pay too much attention to them to protect your investment.
Another thing was suggested by another respondent here already and that is putting effort into avoiding the need in the first place, at least for more expensive knives. All the same, that may be easier said than done!
Most and practically all of my experiences are in the Applachian and Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. I even lived for a time in a log house and there are a surprising number of log houses within thirty miles of the White House. But that is another topic.
You need an ax to build a log house. A large knife won't do but for most everything else, it will. In fact, I'll even go out on a limb and suggest that in some cases, a large knife is even better than an ax or hatchet, at least if you include machetes and such like. But I am speaking of what you would call homesteading and general backwoods living and for that matter, even suburban living in Virginia. There are a lot of cutting chores that a large knife does perfectly well at that an ax is downright clumsy at, such as clearing brush and cutting a path. After all, it is a sub-tropical climate where I live and things grow like crazy in the summer. Yet I have not been that satisified with a hardware store machete of the Collins variety. I have an issue Golok that was inexplicably cut down by about three inches but still remains a superior tool, and it is just a tool, on account of its thicker and therefore stiffer blade.
I somehow manage otherwise when I am in the woods with a large folding Buck knife or alternatively a small fixed blade knife of one sort or another.
There are two other related issues that I also want to mention. One is cost.
A lot of large Bowie-type knives are unreasonably expensive, at least for me. I don't believe they work any better and you may be forced to pay too much attention to them to protect your investment.
Another thing was suggested by another respondent here already and that is putting effort into avoiding the need in the first place, at least for more expensive knives. All the same, that may be easier said than done!
Firstly welcome blue train.
A lot of what you say is true and I think the choice of the tool in use is dictated by the enviroment where you live/are using it and the purpose for which you intend on using it for. It also has a lot to do with social climate and the skill with which a person uses a tool, we have people here who are HUGE fans of billhooks, but it must be said that the main person for billhook use on here is a skilled user of this tool and as an artisan he should be respected in its use
A lot of what you say is true and I think the choice of the tool in use is dictated by the enviroment where you live/are using it and the purpose for which you intend on using it for. It also has a lot to do with social climate and the skill with which a person uses a tool, we have people here who are HUGE fans of billhooks, but it must be said that the main person for billhook use on here is a skilled user of this tool and as an artisan he should be respected in its use
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