HOW TO CHOOSE A QUALITY BUSHCRAFT KNIFE
Whether you are a weekend wilderness warrior or a professional outdoor enthusiast, a good quality bushcraft knife is your most essential tool when camping, hiking, backpacking or working in the wilderness. Combined with basic knowledge of outdoor survival skills, a good bushcraft knife can be a true multi-tasking survival tool that can help you create shelter, make fire, process water and prepare food. Choosing a top quality knife that you can depend on is key. Here are the five most important factors you should consider:
- Steel Quality
A bushcraft knife typically has a fixed blade that is 3-5 inches in length with a back edge or spine that is sharpened flat so it can be used to strike a ferrocerium rod or as a scrapper that will enable you to prepare tinder in order to start a fire. A good quality knife must have a good quality steel that is hard, holds its edge and is wear and corrosion resistant. Carbon steel is okay but the new stainless steels – sometimes called super or highend steels, premium or ultra premium – are the best. In my opinion, the finest of the ultra premium steels is the CPM S90V. No knife steel known to knife makers is more abrasion or wear resistant. With a high carbon and vanadium content, this martensitic stainless steel is guaranteed to hold an edge longer. - Heat Treating Process
Most high quality steels need to be heat treated to a hardness of around 60 RC in order to hold an edge longer. Cheaply made knives which generally use lower quality steels that are not heat treated correctly, tend to be softer. Softer steels won’t hold a sharp edge for very long and will need to be sharpened more often. In the long run, you will be paying more for maintenance costs for a less expensive knife than if you would have purchased a high quality knife made with good steel that has been properly heat treated. - Blade Geometry
Roughly defined, the term blade geometry refers to the grind of the blade. Having the correct blade geometry is key to determining the quality of a bushcraft knife. I have found that the best bushcraft knives are fixed blades that feature a drop point and full tang with the heel of the tang exposed. This will give the knife handle, blade and tip extra strength. The blade should have a partial grind with one side featuring a Scandinavian (Scandi) grind and the other side featuring a primary and secondary bevel. If it’s a left-handed knife, the Scandi grind will be on the carving side. This unique blade geometry requires only one side of the secondary bevel to be sharpened. It also enables you to carve, butcher or cut with more precision and accuracy. - Handle
Choose a knife that does not have a choil or ricasso – the indented and thickened sections of the blade located by the handle. Absence of these sections makes the user’s biometric grip on the knife more comfortable because the grip is closer to the cutting edge therefore the user does not have to torque their wrist as much when cutting or whittling. This also makes the knife easier to cut with and safer to use. Handles with holes allow for a non-slip grip and reduces the weight of the tool which lessens body fatigue. - Sharpening
Having your bushcraft knife professionally sharpened is always a good idea. Expertly sharpened knives create a correct angle which makes the bushcraft knife easy to maintain in the field. A competent professional sharpener will create a glass smooth edge as opposed to a toothy edge. The finer the burr on the cutting edge of your blade, the longer the edge will last.
Remember, the best survival knife is the one that is on you when you need it the most.
