Can our ancestors and forefathers help us determine what makes the best bushcraft knife? [Free buyers guide]
Can we learn what makes the best bushcraft knife from the tools our ancestors used? For most of the history of mankind, a sharpened bone or shard of chert or flint has served as a cutting edge, with prehistoric records dating the use of stone tools back at least 3.3 Million years.
The knife found with the 5300 year old iceman Otzi, whilst made from stone, is entirely recognisable as knife, with all of the key features we would expect to see today, including a blade with an edge, a handle and even a sheath. I am sure Otzi considered this knife the best bushcraft knife to meet his needs.
Whilst these materials seem irrelevant to us in our search for the best bushcraft knife, most people would acknowledge that our ancient ancestors were the masters of living off the land by utilising the natural materials around them. Ultimately these skills are what we aim to practice and/or rediscover under the titles of bushcraft and survival. Our ancient ancestors accomplished everything we need to accomplish with bone and stone as their only tools. Food for thought if not directly informative in our modern day choices. Does the best bushcraft knife really need all the bells and whistles?
Beyond stone and bone, what influence did our ancestors have on the best bushcraft knife?
With the discovery of Copper and Bronze, mankind was able to create cutting tools that didn’t have the limiting disadvantages of stone.
Reproduction Bronze Age dagger. Image curtesy of www.omegaartworks.com
It wasn’t until the discovery of iron and the development of a process to turn it into steel, that this relatively soft material was transformed through hardening and tempering, converting it into materials we would recognise today as knife steels.
Roman iron and bronze knife. Image cures of catawiki.com
One of the downsides of these advances in materials technology is that we now have an overwhelming array of steel types to choose from that our distant ancestors could only dream of! Certainly, the choice can be quite confusing for the beginner. More can be learnt about different knife-making steels here:
What influence did our immediate forefathers have on the best bushcraft knife?
Looking back at the golden age of camping and woodcraft and to influential individuals like Nessmuk, Kephart, Jaeger and Whelen, these people lived outdoors in ways that we can only aspire to these days.
What can this collective knowledge and outdoor experience tell us about the Best Bushcraft knife? All of them agreed that one knife was not sufficient to meet all the needs of the outdoorsman.
For your convenience I have supplied links to the books written by these gentlemen below. Each of these books is packed full of really useful knowledge and are highly recommended.
Interestingly, these legends of the golden age recommended a three tool rule where:
A sharp Jack or Clasp knife was kept in the pocket for detailed cutting tasks, usually with more than one blade.
A sturdy fixed blade knife was kept available at the belt and;
A hatchet or small axe complemented the knives to do the heavier work least suited to a knife.
This combination of tools covered most eventualities that the woodsman was likely to encounter outside of a fixed camp.
Perhaps the best bushcraft knife is more than one knife? A smaller one for intricate tasks and larger heavier duty one for when something more robust is needed?
This is my personal approach that I have developed over the years testing many different combinations. The combination I am currently using is pictured below.
So what did each of these legends have to say about the best bushcraft knife?
George Washington Sears ‘ Nessmuk’ 1821 - 1890
Picture curtesy of vickgoodwin.wordpress.com
“A word as to knife or knives. These are of prime necessity, and should be of the best both as to shape and temper.
The one shown in the cut is thin in the blade, and handy for skinning, cutting meat, or eating with. The strong double-bladed pocket knife is the best model I have yet found, and, in connection with the sheath knife, is all sufficient for camp use.”
A custom-made bushcraft knife in the Nessmuk style. This knife features a Scandi grind rather than the flat grind of the original, making it more suited to woodcrafting rather than the skinning knife it was originally designed to be. I like the shape, size and feel of this knife but it is rather heavy compared to its contemporaries. I suspect Nessmuk would prefer his lightweight version.
Horace Kephart. 1862 - 1931
Picture curtesy of oldetownecutlery.com
“A camper has use for a common-sense sheath-knife, sometimes for dressing big game, but oftener for such homely work as cutting sticks, slicing bacon, and frying ‘spuds’. For such purposes a rather thin, broad pointed blade is required, and it need not be over four or five inches long.”
The Ka-Bar Becker interpretation of the Kephart ‘blacksmith’ knife is very close to the original, the only major difference being the flat grind vs the convex grind of the original. until recently, I have used one of these knives as my personal knife, since they first became available, and have found it to be of excellent practical use for everyday bushcraft tasks, especially those centred around food preparation. One word of caution though, the shallow taper formed by the flat grind and relatively thin blade is not particularly suited to battening through larger sections of wood and I did get this knife stuck in a round of green European Ash about 100mm (4 inches) in diameter. Improvised wooden wedges came in very handy here to release the knife!
Townsend Whelen ‘Townie’ 1877 - 1961
Picture curtesy of everydaymarksman.co
“While the trappers clasp knife will do everything necessary for the outdoors sportsman, many of us, particularly if we hunt big game, find it handy to carry a sheath knife.
It should be designed chiefly for skinning and butchering animals. At the same time, it should be good for all reasonable outdoor purposes. One can be invaluable for a lot of different jobs: blazing, cutting browse, repairing leather goods, and making fuzz sticks for fire starting”
The knife shown is an inexpensive ‘Old Hickory’ brand butchers knife of the style favoured by Whelen albeit in a modified form. To me, these knives represent the adventurous spirit and ‘make do’ attitude of many of the people who opened up the new frontiers. These knives are a kick-back to a time when there wasn’t a dedicated knife for the purpose and people just ‘got on with it’, using whatever they had to hand - namely modified kitchen knives. Whilst arguably not ideally suited to some of the commonly accepted modern day bushcraft activities, I feel these knives still have a valid and interesting role to play especially if your version of bushcraft is at all reenactment based.
Ellsworth Jaeger. 1897 - 1962
“And so, to all outdoors folks, the knife is the most important item of equipment. In fact, a small light sheath knife is indispensable. It is always handy and is easy to clean and dry after messy work - cleaning fish, skinning game, cutting up meat, peeling potatoes and a hundred other jobs.”
As a youth, I had one of these Sheffield pattern sheath knives favoured by Jaeger as a fishing knife. The composite leather and antler handle with its iconic colourful laminations induces a feeling of nostalgia to this day. Whilst considered by many to be more in the ‘hunting’ style than what is commonly thought of as a bushcraft knife in the modern sense, these knives are more than capable of holding their own in this arena. A fact that many boy scouts can attest to.
Summing up the influence our ancestors and forefathers had on the best bushcraft knife.
We often get seduced by the latest fashionable item marketed by someone we look up to. If we learn anything from out ancient ancestors it should be that a lot can be done with a blade of simple but robust design.
Even the legends of the golden era of camping and woodcraft favoured simple designs that were functional for their intended purpose.
The emphasis on the uses these knives were put to, tended towards the processing of game animals and kitchen tasks rather than the woodcraft tasks associated with modern bushcraft practices. It is interesting to note that not one of the original knives recommended and in use in this era had the now common ‘Scandi’ grind, this despite an estimated 2.1 million Scandinavian immigrants to the US between 1820 and 1920 - more than enough to influence the views of the writers of the time.
This journal entry, a part of the Beginners Guide to Knife Making series, is aimed at absolute beginners to knife steels. It introduces the basic principles in simple and easy to understand language so that the beginner knife maker can understand some of the industry terminology and make informed choices.