WOODCARVING & ACCESSORIES

How To Choose A Good Bushcraft Knife

This is a great quide to purchasing a good quality bushcraft knife that may be a great tool and last a long while.

The knife should be 100% reliable. It should be really strong. The specification of the knife should be such that the knife should work in different parts of the world and be made from stable materials.

It should be possible for you to simply attain a very keen edge on the knife. You ought to be able to attain this with a little sharpening stone in the field as well as having the skills to get a really fine edge on bench stones (oil stones or water stones) back on the workbench.

The knife should be able to keep a good edge in the field for a lengthy period. This is essentially down to the standard of the steel and its hardness. But you do not need a knife that is made in steel that is too hard, otherwise it's going to be fragile.

The knife should cut any reasonably small diameter green wood (the kind of resource you'd use for in typical bushcraft for making pot-hangers, tarp pegs, for example.) like a hot knife cuts butter.

It should be comparatively easy for you to employ the knife to make superb feathersticks for fire lighting. This is conditional on the sharpness of the blade and the angle of the bevel of the knife.

If you carry a Swedish Fire steel or "Fire flash" it is desirable that you can also use your knife to form sparks with this fire flash sparking tool. The back of the knife or the top side of the bevel at the front of the knife should be right-angled enough for you to form sparks in this manner. But the knife also must be the right sort of steel. O-1 tool steel works well as do other high-carbon steels.

The knife should have enough weight behind it and an appropriate handle shape for light chopping.

Although a general use knife not being a specialist carving tool, your selected knife should be usable enough for practical carving tasks like making spoons and other camp utensils.

The knife should be of the right shape and have a sharp enough edge to be useful for the butchery of small game and filleting fish, as well as the skinning and butchery of larger animals.

The grip or handle of the knife should be comfy in the hand to be used for extended periods of time. There should be no areas of the knife handle that cause grazes, sores, blisters or damaged skin.

Importantly the knife should ideally have a robust sheath that has a positive closure to securely hold the knife in the sheath at all times. It should really also have a strong belt loop or other way of attaching the sheath to your person. You must never loose your knife. Your knife is your life!

Paul Kirtley owns and runs a bushcraft school. He's devoted to nature, outback and remote travel. This is something that comes across extremely clearly on his bushcraft courses.