bushcraft knife |

by Woodsbum

About 11 months ago I was completely floored and blown away by an email that I received from Cody at Adventure Sworn. Somehow I was lucky enough to have won a custom knife from they in a give away from BushcraftUSA. The knife was built to see hard use and be tougher than hobnail boots. So far it has lived up to its purpose.

Let me first give the specifications of this incredible knife.
Model: Mountaineer
Steel: O1 high carbon tool steel, 59 RC hardness
Blade Thickness: 9/64
Grind: Scandi
Overall Length: Roughly 9 inches
Cutting Edge Length: 4-1/4 inches
Handle: Brown canvas micarta, red/cinnamon red liners, brass corby bolts & tubing
Handle Thickness: 4/5
Sheath: Adventure red

Adventure Sworn Mountaineer

Once I got this knife, I immediately started playing with it and using it per its intended use. As beautiful as this knife was, I felt that it was an all out crime to not use the hell out of it. Here it is on its first outing. I was out stalking deer and took a break to harvest some moss to dry out for kindling. At this point I was not too sure if I wanted to actually scuff up the knife. Well after the first fire I made that whole uncertainty disappeared. Not only did it process fire making materials like no other knife I had ever touched to that point, but it felt perfect in my hand. It was an absolute wonder to work with.

Adventure Sworn on its first trip out

I also took it with me during my deer hunt. The next picture is me in my ground blind freezing while I wait for a deer to cross the trail in front of me. Unfortunately, no deer did cross. Playing with my knife was fun, however. It worked quite well for cleaning grouse and rabbit though.

Adventure Sworn out hunting

Fast forward through 11 months of hard use…….. This is what the knife looks like now.

Adventure Sworn Now

As you can see, it has definitely been used quite a bit. I clean it every time I get back from the woods and do an oil soak on the blade each time it gets wet. Unfortunately in the area where I live rust and moss grow on everything. It is very wet and creates a tremendous hardship on people trying to keep their equipment looking pretty. Even with how much I have used and beat this knife up, I have only had to put in on a strop a few times. This knife holds an edge like no other I have ever been around.

When I speak about “using” a knife, I must remind you what that entails. Of course it is used to cut meats and for camp chores. It also does my fire processing. This means that it makes feather/fuzz sticks, batons through wood, whittles spoons and cups, processes game, occasional pry bar, and any other number of required tasks that crop up in the field. I can attest that this knife will take it and ask for more.

If you have ever considered spending money on a custom or high quality bushcraft knife, do it. These knifes are really lifetime tools if you take care of them, even with the hard use. This bad boy will eventually be passed down and will become an heirloom item.

Once I get my GoPro purchased in the next few months, I will post some videos of this guy at work. Until then I will answer any questions I can, but my main point is that spending $400-$500 on a lifetime use item really is not that much different than spending the same on a rifle or pistol. This is really one of the highest quality tools you could ever purchase.

Thanks again to Cody and Adventure Sworn for this incredible tool. I know it will have to go back to their shop sometime next year for a spa treatment, but I am worried as to how I will get along without it while they do their thing……

by Woodsbum

How long are people going to argue about the viability of using a knife for fire preparation? It makes NO sense to me why this is still an argument……..

Let me being with the back story before my rant:
I was down in Texas for the better part of last week. My plane landed a little after 1800 (6 pm) and I got home around 1900 (7 pm). The son, the daughter and the daughter’s boyfriend were outside. A fire in our fire pit was in the works. Like usual, my son was out there with his Primitive Edge bushcraft knife batoning and feathersticking away. Some jerk had stopped to give him hell about using his knife in such a “disrespectful” manner. This guy then felt the need to start in on me about how ill taught my son was and how I should have put him in the Boy Scouts so that expert outdoorsmen such as himself could have taught my son correctly……….

Again, I ask why people argue about the use of knives in fire preparation. When you go online and do a search for using a knife to baton wood, you will get tons of results where anyone that batons is called names. These same people will quickly turn around and use the same knife they won’t baton with for making a feather or fuzz stick, however. This makes no sense. If you can use one knife for cutting and stripping wood, why can’t you use it to make smaller strips of wood by batoning? Better yet is when they pound the wood onto the ground or a rock with the knife being used as a splitting maul. When the wood splits, they quite effectively slam their knife into the rock. Again-again, I wonder why that is a fine use of a knife when careful batoning is not.

For those of you who do not know what batoning is, please let me explain. Instead of using an axe to split wood, a knife is used and another piece of wood is used to hammer the far end of the knife so that the blade travels down the length to split it. This is most commonly used in split wood fires to make very small pieces of wood for kindling. Once the small pieces are done, you use the same knife to make feather/fuzz sticks.

Many of these self proclaimed “experts” in outdoors “survival” have a tendency to use military survival training as the basis for everything that they know about living in the bush. They will buy those mylar emergency blankets and expect that to keep them warm if a situation crops up where they get stranded. They will also carry some Rambo knife that is not even full tang and think that this fighting knife is a survival knife. What really needs to happen is that they need to understand that “survival” and “bushcraft” are two completely different things. If you can thrive in the woods, you don’t need to “survive” in the woods. You can carry less and be comfortable for the wild will provide.

Maybe they need to research this guy:

Mors Kochanski

The picture is of Mors Kochanski. If you don’t know who that is and are spouting off about batoning a knife, you have serious issues……..

Here are some links to an interview with Mors.

As you can see from the interview, he is considered the modern “Grandfather of Bushcraft.”

Why do I mention him? He teaches and preaches the importance of being able to baton with your knife. It is one of the many lessons that he harps on as a basic skill for outdoorsmen.

If you are not as well versed in bushcraft and believe people like Dave Canterbury more, even he batons his knife.

If you don’t believe them, then how about this?

The reality is quite simple. People use tools to complete tasks. A good bushcraft knife is simply a tool. Just make up your mind as to which tool you like best. Whether you use a knife, hatchet, machete, cleaver, axe, or any other tool you choose, the final result is really the only true way to evaluate the effectiveness or value of the tool. In the case of a skilled woodsman using any of the previously mentioned tools, they are all effective.

The perfect meld of backwoods, backyard, and back in the day

Tag Archives: bushcraft knife

Adventure Sworn Mountaineer

Batoning – “You did WHAT with your knife?!?”