"Bushcraft" knife?

[Everything Mac]

I am curious to know how many people use a so called "Bushcraft" knife.

By than I mean a knife which is marketed as being for bushcraft. such as the woodlore (or that style) or the mora bushcraft series.

For me a knife is a knife where ever I use it.

Cheers

 

[CaptainBeaky]

I use... a knife

Is it a bushcraft knife if I use it for bushcraft?
If I use it in the kitchen, or in the garden, does it then become a kitchen knife or a gardening knife? It's still the same knife.

It's just a label, or shorthand for "a knife suitable for bushcraft", which covers a multitude of sins, IMO. Could possibly be interpreted as, "the knife you have with you in the woods"...

Too much semantic analysis - time for a brew and a sandwich, which I shall make using my lunchtime-sandwich-making knife (UKPK), followed by an apple, cut up with my fruit-cutting knife(UKPK). Although I have to sharpen this pencil first, using my pencil-sharpening knife (guess!)

 

[Shewie]

I've got two bushcraft style knives, a couple of neckers and one or two folders.

I'm a sucker for a good looking knife which is why I have more than one

 

[John Fenna]

My main users are all made by me - 1 is hand forged and a Wharncliffe style, 2 is made from a cut down SRK, 3 is a rehandled rat-tail tanged Mora, 4 is a damascus almost woodlore clone ...I do not think that the name "Bushcraft" was used in any sales literature...
Some of my less often used blades may have had the word used in the sales pitch ...

 

[FGYT]

all depends yes knives can be used outside their perscribed area but i would expect a bushcraft blade to be able to cut veg and meat as well as the fire wood to cook it and even carve most of the implements to cook and eat it etc

I wouldnt expect a kitchen knive to last long battoning wood or be very good at carving but will beat the bush-craft blade in the veg and meat prep


i carved this years turkey and ham with my camp nessy which i could do with my 30cm global chefs knife but it would be ruined in the woods

stanley make a knife it to is good at some things and unsuitable for others

the words bush-craft Knife usually means its a compromise so its ok for a lot of tasks but not the best at any of them

but most seem to have a passing heratage to a kitchen blade just beefed up

Woodlore = 3/4 scale is the same as a lot of veg knives
Nessmuk = butchers knife
Goucho knife = Chefs knife

ATB

Duncan

 

[ex-member Raikey]

i use a Rat3 as my "bushcraft" knife,...

it could be described as a tactical/military style knife,

its a flat ground 3 inch blade,

but suits me as a bushy jobby, for food prep and bits of woodworking,...

 

[Neumo]

I have about 6 knives now (it's amazing how you pick them up) none of which were sold as bushcraft. I have a couple of neckers, a rehandled carving knife, a mora carving knife, a Sweedish small camp knife & my main user, a Dave Budd handforged camp type knife. I have given up battoning for the time being, since I broke my Mora at the Moot; do all that with the GB Wildlife Hatchet.

 

[durulz]

Yes, I know what you mean about what makes it a 'bushcraft' knife.
As you rightly say, a knife is a knife. And we all probably use them for the same tasks, more or less.
I suppose a better way to think about it is not defining it as a 'bushcraft knife' for how it is used, but defining it as a 'bushcraft knife' due to its style. That probably makes it easier to get your head around it. Well, it does for me - when I think of a 'bushcraft knife' I think of something that looks like a woodlore rather than how it will actually be used.

 

[JonathanD]

I know mines a bushcraft knife cos it says it on the blade and it's what I use for bushcraft

 

[brancho]

Heres mine

latest knife 1 by alfred.branch, on Flickr

 

[tim_n]

I'm sure I didn't notice this on anyones comments so I expect to be shot down...

To me a bushcraft knife is one thick enough to take beating with a log, stone or ax head without much risk of breaking. I wouldn't use a kitchen knife or a penknife for this... I'm talking of splitting and carving wood etc.

 

[John Fenna]

I'm sure I didn't notice this on anyones comments so I expect to be shot down...

To me a bushcraft knife is one thick enough to take beating with a log, stone or ax head without much risk of breaking. I wouldn't use a kitchen knife or a penknife for this... I'm talking of splitting and carving wood etc.

Not shooting you down but I would draw the line at beating a knife with a rock or axe head...it is liable to do some damage to even the toughest knife - nowt wrong with a bit of batoning though!
If life is so hard you need to baton a knife with anything but a stick then I would use the knife to carve a couple of wooden wedges and belt those in with the rock or ax

 

[JonathanD]

I'm sure I didn't notice this on anyones comments so I expect to be shot down...

To me a bushcraft knife is one thick enough to take beating with a log, stone or ax head without much risk of breaking. I wouldn't use a kitchen knife or a penknife for this... I'm talking of splitting and carving wood etc.

Sounds good to me (apart from the beating with a stone and axe). Outdoors knife is another term for it. A robust knife designed for a multitude of outdoor tasks.

 

[Hoodoo]

I am curious to know how many people use a so called "Bushcraft" knife.

By than I mean a knife which is marketed as being for bushcraft. such as the woodlore (or that style) or the mora bushcraft series.

For me a knife is a knife where ever I use it.

Cheers

All knives are the same then?

 

[Everything Mac]

Outdoors knife is another term for it. A robust knife designed for a multitude of outdoor tasks.

Sounds about right, though I often wonder if people think that it must be a bushcraft knife to cope with what we throw at it. - marketing hype I suppose.

I'm happy enough with my nessmuk style sharp n shiny

 

[stekker]

I use a Mora and a Woody clone.

Theo

 

[Everything Mac]

All knives are the same then?

well they certainly have one thing in common.

What differentiates a "bushcraft" knife from a nessmuk style knife I've got in my pack?

it is sharp, robust, I can beat it about, carve pretty well, skin game and surprisingly enough cut things. - but it isn't a "bushcraft" knife though.


this is probably all just semantics really.
Andy

 

[JonathanD]

well they certainly have one thing in common.

What differentiates a "bushcraft" knife from a nessmuk style knife I've got in my pack?

it is sharp, robust, I can beat it about, carve pretty well, skin game and surprisingly enough cut things. - but it isn't a "bushcraft" knife though.


this is probably all just semantics really.
Andy

I would have called the Nessy a bushcraft knife. It was designed by a bushman for use in the bush. Although in those days he would have been a woodsman in the woods. It is all just semantics and because bushcraft is the popular term nowadays, they get called that.

 

[Everything Mac]

I suppose your are right Jonathan.

Never the less - I am still curious to see who uses a knife marketed as a bushcraft knife. - not to start a fight or to be an ar$e with it all. - Just curious.

 

[JonathanD]

I suppose your are right Jonathan.

Never the less - I am still curious to see who uses a knife marketed as a bushcraft knife. - not to start a fight or to be an ar$e with it all. - Just curious.

I do. I use a Mora Bushcraft Forest, my own "bushcrafter" and used the Woodlore, Tamarack and Alan Wood Bushcrafter for a good ten years. And it was the bushcraft moniker that made me buy the Woodlore back in the Nineties. When I bought it, you could only do so if you had attended the courses and they were offered for sale at the end. So yeah, they got me good and proper.