When Mike Stewart told me that he had decided to make a modern incarnation of the Historic Searles Bowie, downsized into a hunter, I expected a very interesting knife.

He didn’t disappoint me. The Bark River Searles Hunter is a very cool knife.

Here are the specifics:

Overall Length: 9.5 Inches
Blade Length: 5 Inches
Blade Steel: 1080-C @ 57rc
Blade Thickness: .200 Inch
Weight: 7.675 Ounces

If you look closely you can see some of where Searles design originated. The grind goes “Through the Guard” much like we see on Scandis, it’s also not full height, like the Scandi and obviously a stick tang.

Scandi knives have been around for a long time in a society where “a man without a knife is a man without a life.” A weak design would have been supplanted long before Searles made his first Bowie.

The high handle, almost centered on the spine is different; or is it?

Scagel comes to mind with his handles inline with the spine, when you look at a Scagel beside a Searles the commonality becomes very obvious.

While Scagels are now treasures because of their rarity and history as the first “American Custom Knife.” we need to remember that Bo Randall wasn’t drawn to Scagel because of the good looks or collectability of the knives but because the knife he saw being used to scrape paint from a boat worked and felt so good.

Randall’s early knives were styled after Scagels. The Searles isn’t weird, it’s the root knife of many of the most popular and successful knives of today.

The high handle is very effective, look at the Grohmann Number 1, designed by D.H. Russell “After field testing with the help of hunters & trappers across the far north…” It wasn’t by accident that the handle is in line with the spine, it’s an effective design.

Now I just need to figure out why.

The Searles Hunter is styled after the Famous Searles Bowie but it’s more than just a scaled down replica, If you look closely you’ll see some subtle differences, especially in the point. Most of the original Searles Bowies were upswept with a false grind, terrific for a fighting knife.

By straightening the spine the Searles Hunter is a lot more functional as a general use knife.

Which brings us to an interesting point, what is a Hunting Knife?

Hunting Knife. One of those terms that defies description, I’m not even sure any of us would know one when we saw it.

When you come to the realization that knives all have one thing in common, all are tools intended to cut stuff, definitions of specific types become blurred.

A Bushcraft Knife may well be intended to primarily do woodworking but it will also be called upon for food prep.

Fighting knives are 90% tool and 10% weapon, the tool tasks are limited only by the imagination of the user and the design constraints of the knife. This is a very good argument against fighting knives made of materials such as titanium and such that will not take and hold a good edge.

Skinning knives are generally made with a very fine edge as the primary intent is to slice and peel skin. Still, Skinners are often used and generally excel at food prep.

The harsh reality is that in most cases words in front of “knife” are really more part of marketing than a pure description of the knifes intended use or design.

I asked that question on the forum and several people seem to concur with my definition of a “Hunting Knife.”

When a hunter is getting dressed to go out, he slips a Hunting Knife on his belt or into his pocket. The Hunting Knife is what he uses to cut the seal on the new box of ammo, to open the package of hand warmers, to cut the plastic tie holding his new gloves together and maybe even slice off a piece of chaw from the plug.

When he gets to his blind the hunter might find a new branch that’s sprouted into the middle of his shooting lane, the Hunting Knife is what he uses to get rid of it.

And finally, when the hunter gets his game, he’ll use the Hunting Knife field dress it.

Back at camp, the hunting knife will become a kitchen knife used for food prep, a Bushcrafter if the cook needs a pot hanger or someone needs a peg in the wall of the cabin to hang their coat.

When you put it in that perspective, a Hunting Knife is really a general purpose Outer’s tool so I think we can define a “Hunting Knife” as a Hunter’s EDC for the field.

Often the biggest challenge in testing a knife is coming up with something to do that tests the knife in the role for which it is intended. All knives “cut stuff” and it’s imperative that the reviewer keep in mind that the story is about the knife or you aren’t reviewing knives, you’re writing about your experiences.

THE TEST

A hunting knife review is really a simple matter of using the knife in general since that’s what a hunting knife is about. So I put the Bark River Searles Hunter to work; it rode on my belt for a two weeks and I used it like my everyday knife with the exception of having a camera handy.

The first thing my Searles Hunter did was a natural, something I do everyday and ironically right along the “Hunting Knife” list of abilities, cutting leather.

I cut leather almost every day, we receive entire sides of leather and need to cut them down to manageable sizes to make sheaths.

Any knife can slice leather, many leather workers use a utility knife to slice hides. A sharp edge will go straight through opening the cut like butter smooth and almost without resistance; exactly like the Searles.

Another, more telling test is skiving, that is splitting the leathers thickness to taper the end of a piece for a smooth transition where two pieces come together.

I good knife for skiving must be very sharp but more important the steel must have the integrity to maintain the edge. Skiving is hard on an edge because the cut puts sideways pressure on one side of the edge while slicing through the layers.

I know when I mess up sharpening one of my leather knives because the edge falls over when skiving, when it’s right I can use the knife all day and never touch the hone.

The Searles Hunter blade is much thicker than any of my leather knives which would become apparent immediately in leather work were the edge geometry not to be dead on the money. It’s dead nut right on the money as this big hunter skived leather like a dream and did as well at the end of the day as it did in the morning.

There probably aren’t many critters most of us will ever hunt that have hides as tough to cut as oak tanned leather so I’m pretty well satisfied that the Searles will have no problem with skins in the field.

Next on the list comes food prep, again the hunting knife is the Hunter’s EDC in the woods so it’s going to be called upon to do whatever cutting chores come up.

I like to eat, I like to eat well even more than I like eating.

For many hunters, if the meal doesn’t come out of a foil pouch, contain 500% of the required daily allowance of dirt and cinders and is hot, it’s a lock for a Michelin Star.

Well, I’m not Gordon Ramsey but then again he’s not Sharpshooter and I can more than hold my own in the camp kitchen.

I made up a typical, out hunting with folks who like to eat, meal using the Searles as my kitchen knife.

The Searles Hunter is a lot too thick to be considered a kitchen knife, the high handle is surprisingly comfortable on the cutting board and the guard did get in the way until I adjusted to it being there. The knife was still quite sharp after cutting a bunch of leather, sharp enough that were I in camp the hone would stay in my pack.

Cutting up an onion I a great way of seeing how sharp a knife really is. The reason we cry when cutting onions is because of the oils that spray when a edge squishes the cells on the onion rather than cutting them. The Searles Hunter was so effective cutting the onion that I didn’t even feel a sense of remorse let alone shed a tear.

Crushing garlic and then dicing some up as well was again simple for the Searles Hunter, the more I used this knife in the kitchen the more I came to like the way it feels in hand. The balance is just behind the first finger which makes the knife feel nimble and live in hand.

The handle shape is also a surprise. I’m the one who always tells people that the human hand is infinitely variable and that dimensions of handles is rather unimportant. Still this handle looked unusual enough to me that I was concerned about it.

I shouldn’t have been and actually had I thought about it I would have recognized yet another possible Scandi influence on this knife, of course this could also be a matter of there simply being only so many ways of making a knife.

The cylindrical handle shape is much akin to the typical Mora handle and just as comfortable, with the center in line with the spine of the knife and the guard, my hand seemed to fearlessly choke up until just my little finger remained behind the guard while feeling balanced and secure. This knife has a natural flexibility of hold that I haven’t seen in a long time.

The roots of the Bark River Searles Hunter are in “A knife like Bowie’s” intended to be a weapon, it’s not difficult to see why the handle design was selected, orienting the edge is natural and instinctive with the guard serving as a tactile indicator. This is important for a fighting knife and darn handy for a working tool.

Slicing meat holds import both in the kitchen and in the field for a hunter. Carving a roast or freeing some backstraps is the same thing slicing meat.

The Pork Tenderloin was no match for the convex edge as I trimmed it a bit and sliced it into nice thick ”chops.”

Apples just naturally go with pork so I thick sliced a couple of them as well. The Searles Hunter blade is quite thick, so it’s not likely to be mistaken for a fine Chef’s Knife. Slicing the apple made it quite apparent once the thickness of the blade reached the point where it simply wedged the apple apart.

But this isn’t about a kitchen knife and if it were my turn in the kitchen cranking out a meal for the rest of camp, the Searles Hunter would be up to the task.

The marinade entails caramelizing the onions and garlic in cayenne butter with some fresh ground pepper and Soy Sauce. Half of the apple is tossed in just before the it comes off the stove and is left until it just loses it’s crispness.

The “Chops” set in the marinade for a couple of hours with the rest of the apple so I have two different textures of apple.

When dinner time came, I heated up my favorite old Griswold Cast Iron Skillet, splashed in a bit of oilve oil and seared the chops on both sides before cooking them up for a bit. About half way through the marinade all went into the skillet for the final touch.

A nice piece of meat, some marinade/sauce with chunks of cooked onion and apple….

The Searles Hunter had one more task in the kitchen….

So this knife can hunt, and it functions well in the kitchen ( man that was a great meal…) leaving one more area to test; heavy work.

I’m not ashamed to say that when I first saw this knife I was a bit concerned, it looked fragile. The cylindrical handle pinching down at the junction between it and the blade, the design doesn’t scream out “I AM MEGAKNIFE!!!! TAKE ME TO THE GARAGE AND BEAT ME.”

That’s OK because I don’t need MEGAKNIFE to feel safe in the wilds and an elegant knife that works is a pleasure to use and something to be proud of on the belt. WE know that Good knives don’t need to be ugly to work well and this one has proven to be no exception.

A hunting knife in camp can be called upon to do just about anything and riding on a hunters hip if he gets lost can need to suddenly become a “Bushcraft Knife.”

The plan was to do this part in the woods or at least at my test site but slogging through the mud in the rain proves nothing other than that I don’t have the sense to come in out of the rain. I’ve been cold and wet several times in my life this test will be just as good with me staying dry while doing the tests inside.

Point first batoning to take down a tree? Not going to happen, common sense does come to bear at some point.

Somehow over the past few years an important aspect of technique has fallen by the wayside. Batoning is an important technique primarily because knives with blades under 7 or 8 inches long really don’t chop well. There’s not enough energy behind a shorter hence lighter blade regardless the design

In addition to mass, longer blades have more swinging energy to hit harder so they chop more efficiently.

The Searles Hunter doesn’t have a seven inch blade so chopping isn’t a viable option leaving batoning as the method of choice.

Shortening the sapling was a simple matter of cross grain batoning, cutting a notch in much the same manner as one would an axe.

First driving the blade in on an angle

Then driving it on on the opposite angle

And continuing until the mission is accomplished.

The guard isn’t difficult to work around thanks to the blade length and shape at the belly all you need to do is lift the handle slightly.

How about someone on the trip forgetting tent stakes or you just come up short one or two.

The Searles Hunter is up to the task…

Baton away chunks to make a point at one end

and then create a notch if you want to be fancy

No problem at all….

To wrap it up I split some kindling…

and made up a quick fuzz stick just to see if the edge is still there.

As you can see, the Bark River Searles Hunter is a truly a hunting knife, very capable and tough.

The 1080C Steel proved to be a great choice, with the right balance of hardness vs toughness. It’s quite close to the steels Dan Searles would have had to work with to add the the historical connection and took an a terrific patina.

It’s nice to have a knife with strong historical roots and the ability to handle whatever job you happen upon, add in very handsome and you have a real winner. I think it’s going to ride along with me for me while longer, I really like this knife.

Click for full size image

By Kevin Estella

Instructor Wilderness Learning Center

4″

It is the average size of a belt knife in most woodsman’s trios of tools. This of course comes from no scientific research or statistical analysis. This observation comes from years of working in the outdoors and witnessing what works and what doesn’t, what is popular and what isn’t and what is necessary and what is purely complimentary. I have long asserted a 4″ belt knife is all I need in the woods. Now a slightly shorter blade has peaked my interest, the Bark River Knife and Tool Liten’ Bror. Would it hold up to my challenges? Can it perform all the tasks a 4″ blade could? Was it too short to be useful? All these questions would be answered in a real test of field worthiness, a winter camping trip in the Northern Woods of New York.

To start off, here are the Liten Bror Stats.

Steel: CPM 3V @ 58rc
Overall Length: 8.125″ (206.4mm)
Blade Length: 3.775″ (95.88mm)
Blade Thickness: .156″ (3.96mm)
Weight: 5.125 ounces (145.3 grams)
Handle Material: Black Linen Micarta

As a standard, I will relate my experiences to a familiar knife, the Bark River Knife and Tool Fox River. The Fox River was chosen by Marty Simon for the official Wilderness Learning Center Knife years ago for its strength, edge retention, comfort in the hand and overall usefulness in size.

Click for full size image

While the Liten Bror isn’t A2, it is the popular crucible steel CPM 3V made famous by other makers marketing “high speed” blades and wild designs. The Liten Bror looks like an average blade of spearpoint design. It does have a different shape than the Fox River (Spear vs. Drop Point) leading to many arguments about which is better. The handle is also very different but the length is approximately the same. Both knives carry lifetime warranties that follow the blade not the original user and both are excellent woodsman’s blades. I can compare the two all day but this review is about the new so less focus will be placed on my old trusty companion WLC Fox River School Knife.

When the blade first arrived from BRKT, I was impressed with the size. Originally marketed as a scaled down Aurora blade, the Liten Bror is no small fry. It is a sizeable blade. The modified Scandinavian edge was razor sharp of course and the handles were nicely finished. The sheath is one of the standard Sharpshooter Sheath Systems sheaths with firesteel loop. I played with the knife daily leading up to the trip putting it to simple tests before the backwoods challenge. I used it in the kitchen, opened mail and did all the sorts of “tests” some people are satisfied with. I don’t think a woods knife should be tested at home. The weekend was finally here and I took it to the woods.

During the course of the weekend winter camping trip, I used the Liten Bror for many reality based tests. I prepped fuzz sticks to get my box stove going. I split countless rounds of hardwoods including seasoned maple, beech and hickory. In fact, all the wood burned in my box stove for the weekend was processed by the Liten Bror. After all the battoning. The knife showed little wear. The only flaw, towards the tip a slight bur was noticeable. Perhaps I sent the blade through a section of tree retaining dirt or debris as this has caused blade damage for me in the past before. The 3V held out fine! Despite cold weather, the blade acted fine. Also to be noted, the 3V steel demonstrated remarkable rust resistance.

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Temperatures fluctuated from cold to warmer and cold again. Condensation, snow and sweat left little signs on the blade. Even after stirring different liquids like coffee, vitamin C supplements and other beverages of varying ph levels, the blade looked as good as the day it came out of the box. Despite the sub 4″ blade, it handled larger rounds of wood fine and despite the recommendation not to do this, I decided to test tip strength by twisting apart the rounds and prying them into two. Again, no damage noticeable.

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Unlike popular Blade magazines, I do want to make one suggestion or piece of constructive criticism. I understand the interest to make a “mini-Aurora” blade. I like the way this knife handled and can say it would make an excellent choice for someone looking for a smaller blade. However, with the added length of less than a half inch to the blade, I would have no trouble replacing my trusty Fox River. After using many 4″ blades, it is hard to break the habits. It is also hard to untrain or learn another knife of a different length. When snap cutting, I missed a couple times with this blade because I cut small branches with a blade that wasn’t there. If you believe the Aurora is too big and the Liten Bror is just a bit small, well Goldy Locks would say the next blade found somewhere in the middle would be just right! I’m with her on this one. BRKT, please make a 4″ bladed version of this!

Click for full size image

I’ll continue to use the Liten Bror and I see it fitting in well with my other blades. It is light, capable and reliable under many conditions. Should you prefer slightly shorter blades, this one might be for you. The shorter blade will challenge you to do more with less and may make you rethink your blade needs. It held up to all I could throw at it and passed my tests. I don’t think it will fail at any of yours.
Kevin J. Estela

Point First Batoning….

For use with a small knife.  Bark River Bravo Necker

Batoning down a tree with a larger knife.  Blackjack Model 125

Nessmuk said “The more you carry in your head, the less you need carry on your back.”

There is great wisdom in that teaching, especially if you resist the urge to expand upon it. Many people have reinterpreted it to mean that the smartest outer therefor carries nothing.

That’s not what he said nor is it a wise choice.

In our sister publication, Forest and Stream Magazine, I shared the short story To Build A Fire by Jack London. In the story we share the frustration and fear of needing fire to preserve life. The man in the story carried much less than he needed, perhaps thinking he could outwit nature.

I’ve also been in circumstances a few times where building a fire was far more than a convenience, it was a necessity. Hypothermia and frostbite are unforgiving demons that await the outer who isn’t prepared.

That article and a those experiences lead me to suggesting that Derrick at Knives Ship Free.com develop an emergency fire making kit.

The KSF Fire Kit is the result of these discussions. The kit is shipped in an OtterBox 1000, a waterproof box that is quite small and handy. The box is common, what’s inside isn’t.

The Fire Kit contains items that WILL start a fire in the most adverse of conditions.

There are sufficient materials to start several fires in the kit, and bluntly some that aren’t supplied will work just fine in normal conditions. The KSF Fire Kit is what you want to have when you need to build the fire that may save your life.

Under stress, it’s natural to lose a good bit of the skills you have under ideal conditions, you’re cold, wet, a bit scared and frustrated. As much as we would like to think otherwise, it happens to the best of us.

The KSF Fire Kit is CHEATING. That’s fine because there are no rules when it gets right down to surviving a dangerous situation, the only goal is coming out alive and they don’t award points for style.

I did a lot of testing of the components of the Fire Kit while we developed them so I know they work. What I hadn’t done prior to yesterday was test the kit in bad conditions.

The bright yellow OtterBox sat patiently in the Holt (a great way to carry an OtterBox) bolted to my Golok Sheath. This was the intended way to carry a Fire Kit, attached to your everyday woods gear, ready to be used when the time comes.

Fire Kit in Holt; Ready To Go

Yesterday we got as close as we’ve been in weeks, a steady rain with 20 to 25 MPH winds. In the woods, this is the weather that quickly soaks your clothes and with a bit of a temperature drop and those winds you start shedding core temperature in a hurry. Hypothermia weather if the thermometer was about 30 degrees cooler.

This is the perfect time to see if the Fire Kit would work as well as we expected.

Before starting, I built in a handicap. The OPEN Fire Kit went into a bucket of water which was then emptied on my pile of tinder, kindling and fuel. I wanted EVERYTHING to be very wet, even the ground where I was to build the fire.

Fire Kit Contents

The fire kit will get a fire started for you, but you still need to collect kindling of increasing sizes and fuel to sustain the fire you start. I collected a small amount as I had no real need for a large warming fire and as I have said many times, the difference between a small fire and a big one is the amount of fuel you supply.

A three inch diameter bundle of dead grasses and stalks would suffice as well as a small pile of twigs and sticks in sizes from stalks to thumb diameter to get the fire going. I stopped at one inch diameter fuel knowing that if I can get that burning, the rest is just a matter of adding more fuel as needed.

Some REALLY WET fuel.

In the wilds, the only place you find to start the fire may well be soaking wet as well and wet ground will put out a fledgling fire as certain as a bucket of water.

That’s why the Fire Kit contains a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. I shaped it into a “Sled” which will hold the fire when I first start it. The wet ground will have no effect and the aluminum will take quite a while to burn through; by that time the fire will be strong enough to sustain itself on the wet ground.

Shaping it into a sled was easy, I used the inside cover of the OtterBox as a mold and formed the sled with my fingers. If I was in a hurry I would have been a lot less neat about it and simply rolled the sides in to stiffen the piece of foil so I can move it once lit.

The next step is to maul one of the flat round “Tinder Disks.” Tearing/twisting and splitting the pad to expose the softer looser inner material that will easily catch a spark. The “Tinder Disk” works much like petroleum jelly soaked cotton but is much neater and easier to carry. Once a spark hits the fluffed area it steadily begins to create a larger flame.

Mauled Tinder Disk

Wind is an issue as well. The Fire Kit contains business card sized “Fire Cards,” which are obviously impregnated with a waxy substance to make them waterproof and serve as another source of lasting fire to dry the natural materials. Fire Cards are also printed with thumbnail instructions for use of the Fire Kit components in case you forget under the stress of an emergency.

Folding the Fire Card in half allowed me to make it into a small wind break, perfect to protect the fragile initial flames as they form on the Tinder Disk.

Fire Card Windbreak

The Firesteel supplied with the Fire Kit isn’t the steel we’re most accustomed to. Derrick decided instead to go with the new Misch Metal rod that creates a hotter more intense spark. It does take a bit of practice to master the slightly different feel but once you “get it” you’ll understand why it was chosen.

SPARKS!!!

The piece of hacksaw blade is a good choice as well, the teeth bite into the rod quite well. I tried using a knife blade on the wet rod and had a difficult time because the water acts as a lubricant making generating sparks more difficult.

Once I got my Misch Metal stroke right, it only took two tries before a spark settled into the waiting Tinder Disk and began to develop into a flame.

First Licks of Flame...

With the Tinder Disk and Fire Card burning, I now need to add in a Fuel Bar. The Fuel Bar will provide a longer lasting flame as it’s more dense. I fold the bar lengthwise to expose the edges to the flame and lean it on the Fire Card to assure air space to fan the flames.

This picture demonstrates how well the Fire Card protects the fledgling flame from the wind, notice how it’s being blown horizontal just above the card.

Huff and Puff all you want, you ain't blowin my fire out!

My kindling is still soaking wet and has been exposed to the continued rain while I built the fire this far along. The best I could do to dry it was to give the bundle a violent shake to remove as much water as I could before carefully laying it across the fire.

Wet Kindling

It didn’t take me long to realize that the kindling was a lot more wet than I thought. In order to burn soaking wet kindling, the fire needs to boil off the water which is absorbing heat from the burning fuel bar.

Kindle Sticks are impregnated sisal rope. To properly use a Kindle Stick, you can unwind the stick into three smaller sticks which can be added to the fire. Sisal burns hotter and is very difficult to blow out, making Kindle Sticks an ideal “Booster” for such situations.

Kindle Stick Booster

I added another Fuel Bar and a Kindle Stick to get my natural kindling bundle burning and added in the larger sticks and such, keeping in mind that they too would need time to dry before igniting.

In the end, my attempt at making a fire in a steady rain with soaking wet fuel and Fire Kit components was successful. There were a few moments where I was concerned that I would fail, but by using the components provided and paying attention to what I was doing it did work out.

Gettin' There

Success smells like smoke.

I’ve made thousands of fires over the years and am quite confident that I can make fire whenever I need. Adding the KSF Fire Kit to my gear gives me that added level of capability. Sometimes what you carry in your head is better when you have the right thing on your back to help apply the knowledge.

If the guy in the story would have had a KSF Fire Kit, he may well have survived, then again we would lose a great short story.

As soon as I have restocked my Fire Kit it’s going to become a permanent addition to my gear as well as another for my truck.

Join Our Discussion about this product on Forest and Stream Forums

Purchase a Fire Kit at Knivesshipfree.com

BRK Smoke Jumper

I got this knife a couple weeks back but I’m just now getting around to the review. I wanted to actually use this knife over the course of several different outings realize the full potential. I was not really swayed to buy just on the first sight of this knife. I liked it, but I just wasn’t sure one way or another. I really think that you actually have to have one in your hand to see what a great knife it really is. This may be one of the true “One knife does it all” blades that I’ve had pass through my hands.

The blade is made out of 3/16” thick, 50-100B, a good tough carbon steel that takes an amazing edge. Blade length is 6” overall with a 5 3/8” cutting edge. There’s a nice false grind on the top of the knife that makes for a very sharp tip that’s still strong enough for good penetration. The knife has a double quillion guard and a very nicely contoured handle that completely wraps and hides the tang. Fit, finish, and sharpness were all fantastic right out of the box. A really nice leather sheath that fits the knife perfectly is supplied by Sharpshooter Sheaths. This knife comes ready for action.

I noticed immediately out of the box how light and fast this knife feels in the hand. It seems that it’s almost weight forward and yet perfectly balanced at the same time. The blade feels like it just can’t wait to cut something. In spite of its surprisingly light weight, the knife somehow ensures you that it’s built like a tank and will take anything you throw at it. The handle is very comfortable to hold in a variety of grips.

Here’s some in hand shots.

Here’s some size comparison shots.

With my Fox River:

With my fox river and Cold Steel (KSF Bowie Size)

The first thing I did was take the knife to the woodpile out back and do some botonning. Not really out of necessity but more out of curiosity and the fact that I had a new knife to play with. The knife batons really well through pretty good size pieces. It made short work of this pile which we used for a fire that night. The false edge didn’t really hinder the process at all that I could tell. I beat on this knife really hard to get through some of the wood. I don’t know what kinds of wood I have mixed in here but some of it is pretty hard. The knife and the edge had no ill effects at all. I didn’t even strop it before I headed out to the forest and streamside.

For being somewhat light, the smoke jumper bites pretty deep with a good swing into this green aspen.

The knife saw additional use over the weekend as we staked out and planted our garden. It makes such short work of stakes that it’s hardly worth dwelling on.

Now to the hills. Here’s a few shots as I start up the trail.

Here’s my destination.

I stopped along the stream about halfway to my destination. A good place to test the knife. This knife is a “survival” type knife in addition to being a fighting knife. I don’t have the proper avenues to test for the latter so I’ll stick to the survival stuff. I took the knife stream side for some simulated survival type chores. The first thing I noticed was a huge fatwood stump that had been cut by the Forest Circus Service. This would supply some nice tinder for and kindling for a fire. The stump had some unique thin ridges on the edge so it was easy to use the baton and Smoke Jumper to split off some strips.

The knife really slices thin curls quite well. This size is about all the smaller you really have to go with a firesteel and good technique. The spine is plenty sharp to get good sparks from the firesteel.

The knife works really well to aid in all stages of the firemaking.

I then decided to begin construction of a lean-to type shelter. I used alder from the stream side to cut poles for the framework. I cut some extra for the firepit also. The smoke jumper’s weight forward aspect that I mentioned earlier makes it really easy to snap cut clean through pretty good size saplings. I’d say that you could pretty easily go through ¾” to 1” saplings in one swipe.

You can see that this knife would be a real asset to have in camp to make shelter, fire, prepare food and even be a back up weapon to your sidearm. I ran out of time but I plan to go back and finish the shelter and stay a night or two there.

Some real-life smoke jumper territory. In 2000, the smoke jumpers jumped in here to battle the blazes that raged all summer due to a mild winter and an unusually hot dry summer.

I carried this knife quite a bit in the past week or two. It carries very comfortably. You’ll hardly even realize it’s on your belt until you need it. I personally, always like to carry my knife on my right side even while carrying a pistol. The knife rides very well even behind a gun. If I’m going to be doing a lot of walking, like hiking or backpacking, I like to tuck the sheath inside my back pocket. This keeps the sheath very still and out of the way. This is one of the most comfortable ways to carry, in my opinion. It still leaves room for my gun.

I will really enjoy carrying this knife on my long day or overnight hikes into rugged country.

The knife was also handy stream side. I always find small saplings or branches obstructing the trail to a fishing hole or in the way of my cast. The smoke jumper is enough blade to take on these tasks without being big and heavy like a machete. It also is just a handy blade to have around for the random things that always pop up while fishing.

Briars and branches in the way:

That’s better.

I also thought the blade made for a good fish cleaning blade. Although, not a fillet knife by any means, the knife works perfectly for cleaning fish on the lake or trail. The fastest, easiest way to clean a fish, especially trout, is to cut off the heads and slit the belly to remove the entrails. The smoke jumper made this task a breeze.

The smoke jumper is a perfect knife to throw in the pack to supplement a smaller knife such as the little creek.

I did think of a way to test the penetration of the smoke jumper with it’s sharp point. The method may not be exactly “scientific” and I realize there are many variables out of my control but that’s not really the point. I took a watermelon out in the back yard. I then took the smoke jumper and my fox river out there too. I think these knives are very similar in weight as my fox river is quite a bit heavier than a regular fox river due to thicker and longer scales, liners, bolts and pins. I think it comes very close to the weight of the smoke jumper. I laid the watermelon on the ground then with a good pair of thick shoes on, I held each knife straight out at shoulder level above the watermelon. These two knives have similar weights but very different tips and geometries. I held each knife by the end of the handle and then dropped them into the melon. I dropped each knife three times. All three times the Smoke Jumper penetrated about twice as far as the fox river. The fox river averaged about 1 ¼” of penetration while the smoke jumper got 2 ½” to 3” per drop. I think this just shows the piercing ability of the smoke jumper.

The smoke jumper would make a fine addition to any sidearm.

After it was all said and done, I used the smoke jumper to slice up some meat and vegetables for dinner. I have yet to strop this knife and it still slices like brand new. A compliment to the heat treat and edge holding of 50-100B.

In summary, I think the smoke jumper has many more applications than just survival or combat. It is a knife well suited to almost any cutting task. The light weight makes it suitable for backpacking and hiking. It fills the bill as a camp knife. It will work for survival or combat. Even fisherman can realize the benefits. It’s just a great all around, do everything knife. So if you don’t have one, get one before they’re gone. Dale at http://the-knife-connecti on.com/bar… has several still in stock with a variety of handles with single or double guards. Don’t miss out on this one!

Being a Knife Knut can be very much akin to being a student of history, especially if you are a bit inquisitive and observant.

Unless you’re willing to become a minion of the KOTM (Knife Of The Month) school, you realize that as one of man’s oldest tools, Knife Design Technology really reached it’s pinnacle a long time ago. KTOM is actually a rehash of something done before or perhaps the combination of a few prior designs or you end up falling into the trap Bob Loveless described in his comment about making weird stuff instead of knives.

I’ve been around Bark River Knives for a long time and remember a when a lot of the, now, most coveted knives first came out. One knife I remember quite well was the Forester. Essentially the root shape was from the Gladius but with one sharp edge. The Forester was “cool” but the reception matched the temperature and it has become a sleeper in the collectible Bark River lineup.

I got into the woods for a bit with the latest incarnation of the blade that was the Forester, the CLAX, this past weekend and now I understand.

To really understand the CLAX we need to visit some history. The Gladius was the Roman Short Sword, what most people don’t know is that there were several different versions of the Gladius through the years of the Roman Empire.

Among the many things the Romans were expert at, adopting weapon systems to suit specific needs in combat was one of the most valuable. They also weren’t shy about taking technology where they found it and adopting it to their own. In the case of swords, the Romans took technology from the Greeks, Celts and even the Spanish and used to to develop their Gladius Weapon System.

The Cavalry and Chariots needed longer swords while the Infantry used shorted versions, much like modern soldiers carrying M16s and M4s depending on the circumstances.

The Spatha was the longer sword used by the Cavalry while the Maintz Gladius was developed and used by Infantry against heavily armored opponents. The CLAX is rooted more in this sword along with it’s Celtic variations,

Another interesting bit of history is that the Romans were also expert “Combat Engineers” and while they carried some specialized tools it was often the Shorter Gladius that was used to chop and split for erecting shelters and such.

The CLAX became the second knife to visit the new Sharpshooter Field Lab.

It’s from the “Combat Engineer” perspective that I’m going to evaluate the CLAX. I’ll leave it to someone else to dress up in tunic and galea.

I plan to use the CLAX to assist in building a shelter, essentially the basic frame of a lean to type shelter leaving the remaining work to some other knife in the future.

First step was selecting a location, obviously I didn’t want anything too far from the rest of the lab since the work area is already clear and I have some of the necessities already handy. that was the point of setting up the test lab and a bit of discipline now will make life much easier later on.

I need a clear space large enough under the shelter to comfortably lay down with room for a fire to generate heat and room to work around the shelter to modify it in later reviews.

I’ll need to do a bit of clearing but there’s level ground a bit higher than the surroundings and space. I avoided “TREES” as the effort to chop one down was a bit more than I wanted to tackle.

Saplings like this are easy to take down and provide poles for construction.

Saplings are easy to take down. You can play Lumberjack and hum the song as you work if you have a lot of time to burn or you can use this little trick.

Bend the sapling down as far as you can

This puts strain on the wood fibers along the outside of the curve…

A quick swipe with the CLAX and the sapling is now a pole as the edge easily slices right through the wood much like cutting a string with tension against it.

I took down about ten little saplings very quickly clearing out a clear path and my new space.

Something I realized while chopping was the differences between the CLAX and the Forester. There are two very obvious differences; the Clax is truly double edged making it much more true to the Maintz Gladius and second is the change in the handle.

The CLAX handle is shaped much more like what we see to be a common handle on the Gladius which is flat in cross section and still hand filling. It feels strange by “modern” standards because it’s not contoured with a palm swell and finger grooves but it is a testament to something I have maintained for a long time that the hand is extremely versatile and will adapt to many shapes and sizes.

When using the CLAX as it’s intended the shape and configuration of the handle makes perfect sense. Smooth rather than rough because it’s supposed to slip a bit in the hand when chopping and the smooth shape makes that comfortable. A rough or ribbed handle creates pressure in spots which eventually become irritated (hot spots) forcing you to grab on harder which creates more pressure.

The relatively flat cross section appears to be wrong, especially sitting at home evaluating the knife in the recliner. I guess it’s a good thing the Romans didn’t have recliners because as soon as I swung the CLAX to chop, I realized that it naturally guides the edge to where you want to hit. There is surprisingly no twisting with this chopper and even more amazing it seems dead accurate.

Accurate with a chopping tool is different than accurate with most other things. When chopping, the goal is to have the cutting edge hit the work at a slight angle to clear the chunk of wood you chopped free.

The glancing blow is what makes chopping tools dangerous, axes, kukris, machette or golok, all of them are just fine when they hit the work square and get frightening when they glance off. Several times with the CLAX in mid swing I sensed that I was not “on target” and expected a glancing blow which would send the edge careening off to work to hit whatever else was in it’s path. Interestingly NONE of those swings resulted in a glancing blow meaning that the CLAX was a lot more accurate than I thought.

The CLAX is a bit surprising when you first chop with it, the “Sweet Spot” isn’t where you would think, instead of being on the “fat” part of the edge, it’s slightly behind the swell.

When you chop with it, you get immediate feedback when you hit the spot, you feel a very satisfying solid hit as the blade digs deeply into the target.

Accuracy when chopping is more important with smaller tools than larger ones as the smaller tool requires you to be closer to the work and the arc of the chopping motion is less likely to have an obstruction to catch an errant blade should you glance off or miss.

I did a bit of more traditional chopping as well in the process of constructing the shelter.

Last time in the woods I made a bridle joint which would work here but that’s a lot of work someone would have to do when something simpler would be as effective and much faster.

One benefit to having access to lots of poles and such is being able to pick and choose what pieces you want to use. For the front of the lean to, I decided to use a couple of forked branches to support the cross beam.

I found a couple of very nice candidates in the pile of brush I cleared and cleaned up the tops to give me my forks. I also messed up by forgetting a very important part of the job…. measure twice and cut once so laying in the burn pile is a very nice fork that’s about a foot shorter than the pair I used.

The nice thing about working with wood is that regardless what happens you’re making something, in this case rather than structural members I made firewood.

The Uprights for my lean-to were to be driven into the ground, so the CLAX went to work pointing the ends.

I’ve come to expect the CLAX to be a superb chopper and it didn’t disappoint me on this task, quickly paring away the wood like butter.

The problem with a forked stick is that it doesn’t commonly have the square top to drive on unless you’re lucky enough to find one. Even then, driving on the top of the stick tends to mushroom it out.

Driving into the fork is a great way to break off or split the fork rendering the stick useless.

Another great trick is to take advantage of the forked end by placing a stiff cross piece into the fork and pushing/twisting with both hands to push it into the ground. To do that, I needed a split log.

Normally we would want to baton our knife through the log to split it. Problem is, the CLAX is double edged so the baton would likely take as much of a beating as the log we’re trying to split.

The more you carry in your head, the less you carry on your back AND the easier difficult challenges become. I can’t baton on the back of the blade, but remember… the Gladius was a thrusting weapon and I doubt that a Roman Soldier would be without shelter for lack of a split log.

How about this?

Baton the point of the CLAX into the log…

All the way until it’s through the log. This starts to split the log as the blade wedges it apart. The sharpened edges and stout point go through the log effortlessly.

Using the wedges left from the last visit to the Field Lab finishing up the split is simple.

Simply driving them on either side of the blade splitting the log in two.

One section of the split log serves perfectly as the cross handle to set the forked upright…

Chopping a couple more poles finished up the day. A seven footer for the cross piece and a pair of five footers for the angle pieces back for the roof.

At this point I’m not certain how I want to proceed. I can either collect more saplings and branches to make a debris shelter, of do a bit more “engineering” and set it up for a tarp roof. Regardless, the CLAX did a fine job in the field.

Like the Roman Soldier who carried it’s ancestor, the CLAX doesn’t finesse anything, it’s a Brute that does whatever job you assign to it. It’s not for fine whittling or carving, it’s a chopper with great lineage.

The Gladius, the Cled, the Welsh Machinegunner’s Knife, the Fairbairn Smatchet make for a pretty impressive blood line. Were they simply fierce weapons I doubt the design would have been so widely copied, add in the dimension of utility as a field tool and you have a classic.

I’m glad I got the chance to look at this knife again, if I didn’t, I would have missed working with one of the great knife designs of all time.

This review was Originally Posted on the Bark River Forum at Knifeforums.com

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