Interview and photograph by Daniel Wakefield Pasley.
“The ideal woodsman knife1 has a 4" blade and 4" handle for an overall 8" length. The blade has a Scandinavian grind as this allows for easy sharpening in the field without the use of a jig to get the sharpening angle correct. Ideally the blade is also full tang with a riveted wood or plastic handle. A partial tang or rat tail tang can break when really using the knife hard. The handle should be smooth with no finger grips or other anatomical grooves and form fitting gimmick-shapes like you see in many modern knives. These sorts of handles are uncomfortable and will cause blisters when doing any real woodcarving or bushcraft2.”
—Shaun Deller, Wilderness Survival Instructor, Wild Edible Plants Specialist and Primitive Shelter3 Sportsman.
- For this purpose, we may recommend knives the Helle Norway Temagami. [↩]
- "Bushcraft is about surviving and thriving in the natural environment, and the acquisition of ancient skills and knowledge to do so. Bushcraft skills include; firecraft, tracking, hunting, fishing, shelter building, the use of tools such as knives and axes, foraging, hand-carving wood, container construction from natural materials, rope and twine-making, and many others."—Wikipedia [↩]
- An example of primitive shelter. [↩]
