Bushcraft Knife Construction

Knife Construction 

The way a knife is constructed plays a big part in how well it will preform with different tasks/uses.  When choosing a good Outdoor's Knife, it is important to understand some basic concepts in knife construction. 

Knife Grind

There are a number of ways to grind the knife blade.  The grind will impact the blade's durability, ease of sharpening and smoothness of use.

Hollow Grind

• Easy to sharpen as metal is thin at edge of blade

• Great for slicing meat 

• Used on razor blades for shaving facial hair

• Thinner metal it less resistant to stresses of processing wood

• Metal may wrinkle if knife is used to split/chop wood

Flat Grind

• Straight taper grind with beveled edge

• Much stronger than Hollow Grind

• Great for processing wood

• More precise cuts for woodworking than Convex

Convex Grind

• Blade curves to edge

• Strongest blade of 3

• Allows for smooth carving and shaving

• Better can splitting wood

• Difficult and expensive to manufacture convex knife blades

• Challenging to sharpen - but can be learned 

Of the these three, Flat grinds are the best choice for Bushcraft work.  The Hollow Grid is weaker.  The Convex Grind is often cost prohibitive. 

Flat Grind Subgroups

There are a few different types of Flat Grind Blades.  The main ones are the Flat, Scandi and Sabre (important to know for sharpening). 

Flat Grind

• Straight taper grind with beveled edge

• Much stronger than Hollow Grind

• Great for processing wood

Scandi Grind aka Scandi Grind Zero

• Straight taper grind that goes all the way to edge

• Requires sharpening of entire grind when sharpening 

• Excellent for micro fine detail work

Sabre Grind aka True Scandi Grind

• Scandi Grind with micro beveled edge

• Edge is a little stronger than Scandi Grind Zero

• Easier to sharpen edge than a Scandi Grind Zero

• Commonly used in Scandi Knives such as Morakniv 

Of these the Scandi and Sabre grinds are generally preferred for Bushcraft work.

Point

There are many types of blade designs and different points.  The main two styles used on Outdoor Knives are Clip Points and Drop Points

Clip Point

• Very sharp and controllable point

• Good for piercing (designed for stabbing)

• Classic Hunting Look

• Point is weak (not good for Bushcraft use)

Drop Point

• Point is very strong

• Controllable point

• Better for carving

• Better for skinning

• Less likely to clip intestines when gutting game

• Doesn't pierce as easily 

Of these two, the Drop Point is generally preferred for Bushcraft work.  It is more durable and allows more control when carving.

Blade Size

Length

A blade length of 3.5 to 5 inches is ideal for Bushcraft.  Longer blades are more cumbersome to handle, especially for fine detail work.  Shorter blade are not able to do some basic wood processing tasks. 

Thickness

Blade width also matters.  Thinner blades slice better and thicker blades can take more abuse. 

Small Utility Knife

• Great for finer tasks like food prep and carving

• Thin for a bushcrafting knife

  • Can still be used for most bushcraft tasks

  • Care needed when battoning and battoning of overly dense wood will damage blade

• 2.0mm (~3/32") thick blade 

  • Morakniv Companion and Basic 511

    • The Companion is likely world's most popular bushcraft/survival knife

    • Affordable and light

    • Great for finer tasks

    • Works fine but thicker is generally preferred for most bushcraft tasks

    • Partial tang knives are not designed for heavy duty use

  • Marttiini Kaamosjätkä 

    • Popular/affordable Finnish puukko knife

    • Tang is not designed for batonning 

• 2.54mm thick blade 

  • Marttiini MFT Fixed Blade G10

    • Economy full tang knife

    • Hollow grind, hunting style knife

      • Hollow grind helps with finer tasks, but makes blade already thinner blade weaker for battoning

      • Hollow grind allows for easy sharpening for food processing

Medium Camp Knife

• Balance between finer tasks like food prep and carving and bushcrafting tasks like battoning

  • Around 3-4mm thick blade

  • Maximum size for a kitchen knife

  • About the minimum size for a durable bushcrafting knife

  • Considered Heavy Duty in Europe

• Considered "heavy duty" in Europe but "thin" in the US

• Small and medium sized bushcraft knives are preferred in Europe

  • More practical for smaller tasks

  • Larger tasks are reserved for an axe

  • European bushcraft knives are NOT designed to kill people

• 3.2mm (1/8") thick blade

  • ESEE-3 and ESSE-4

    • 0.125″ (3.18mm) thick blade

    • Thinner blade for the ESEE line of knives

  • Morakniv Companion HD, Bushcraft and Garberg

    • 3.2mm (0.126")

    • Thicker, heavier duty lines of Morakniv knives

• 3.5mm thick blade

  • Marttiini Tundra Bushcraft 

    • Made in Finland

    • Full tang knife is considered "Heavy Duty"in Europe

• 4.2mm thick blade

  • Terävä Jääkäripuukko

    • Traditional Finnish puukko blade

    • Designed for general use

Heavy Duty Camp Knife

• Better designed for bushcrafting tasks like battoning 

• Some use these for prying, hacking and chopping

  • For chopping, the thicker blade is good for longevity as well as mass

• Not great for finer tasks like carving or food processing

• North America has traditionally preferred larger knives

  • Makes more sense as a frontier tool needed for heavy duty use, as a trading item and as a backup weapon for your single shot rifle

• These are Overkill of Scouting use and honestly for most outdoorsman

• 3/16" (4.78mm) thick blade

  • Fallkniven F1

    • 4.5mm thick blade

    • Popular High-End Bushcraft Knife

  • ESEE-6

    • 0.188″ (3/16"/4.78mm) thick blade

    • In US is considered the "industry standard" for a bushcrafting knife 

• 1/4" (6.35mm) thick blade

  • Generally considered excessive and unnecessary

  • Many Americans like the robustness of a blade this thick

  • Busse Anorexic Fusion Battle Mistress

    • 0.210" (5.33mm) thick blade

    • About as excessive as you can get in a knife

  • ESEE-5

    • 0.25″ (6.35mm) thick blade

    • Designed by military SERE instructors as a hard-use downed pilot’s survival knife

    • Good for stabbing through aircraft skin

  • KA-BAR Becker BK2 Campanion

    • 0.25" (6.35mm)  thick blade

    • Marketed for prying apart joints, skinning game and chopping onions 

    • Popular heavy duty camping knife

• 5/16" (7.94mm) thick blade

  • Knives are often oversized and not really practical

  • Might be used an alternative to using a small axe

  • Tops Operator 7

    • Styled to look like an American fighting knife

    • Huge knife

  • Cold Steel Trail Master

    • Ridiculously large knife

Spine

The Spine is the backside (dull side) of the blade.  Believe it or note, this has an important use in Bushcrafting.

Rounded Spine

• Feels smooth to fingers

• Nice to push against when carving 

Sharp Spine

• Spine machined to 90°

• "Sharp" edge used to scrap fuzz off of tinder or strike a ferrorod

Saw Spine

• Saw used for cutting wood or aircraft sheet metal

• This weakens blade

• Saw may or not be functional 

• Not a feature of most modern functional knives

Of these, a "Sharp" Spine is preferred for Bushcrafting.  Some knifes come this way.  Other knives may be modified and sharpened to have a "Sharp" Spine. 

Tang

All knives have a little metal that extends into the handle.  A Full Tang is where the blade extends all the way through the handle.  A Full Tang will take a LOT more abuse than a partial tang knife will.  A Full Tang blade is preferred for Bushcraft use. 

Steel

The two basic types of steel are Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel.  Both have their perks and both require maintenance.

Carbon Steel

• Holds edge better

• Will rust if not maintained

  • Particularly true in Hot and Wet environments

  • Use in Pacific Northwest and on Canoe trips requires special care

  • Requires more care to keep clean and dry

• Quality knife will allow you to use Flint and Steel method with spine of knife

Stainless Steel

• Difficult to maintain razor edge

  • "Softer" metal dulls easier and quicker

  • Takes longer to resharpen

  • Requires more sharpening

• Does not rust

  • Advantage in Jungle and Canoe trips

For Scouts, Stainless Steel is less problematic as they often take poor care of equipment.  For more experienced scouts, the carbon steel has a better edge and rust is generally just cosmetic and easily removed with vinegar. 

Quality

Some knives are just made better than others.  You often get what you pay for, but make sure you are paying for quality and not aesthetics.  

Because a Knife is the most important survival tool a Scout can have in the Wilderness, we recommend against getting a low quality tool.  Consider the manufacture's reputation and do your research.  Also know that some reputable manufactures sell both high and low quality products. 

You don't need the highest quality knife money can buy.  You can easily spend over $200 on a really nice knife, but won't get a lot more utility out of it compared to a good quality $50 knife. 

A Morakniv Companion is an excellent knife and can be purchased for less than $20.  This is a great knife for Scouting and most outdoors/survival use. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are plenty of knives sold on Amazon in the $50 range that aren't suitable for outdoors use.  They may look good on the web, but may be made of less desirable metals, are poorly finished, are poorly designed or are just overall junk.  It is much better to get with a reputable manufacture when selecting your most important outdoors tool.