Saturday, April 5, 2014

                                       The Sacred knife



    Use the right tool for the job! How often have you heard or read that statement? I see it pretty frequently on message boards and youtube. There’s other gems too like, “don’t  ever baton your knife” or “ a knife is for cutting and that’s it” and “That‘s knife abuse!” (like it‘s a child or something). Lots of ‘em and I hear them over and over and over again.

     I don’t understand it. I could possibly understand it if we were living in something like the early 1900’s maybe but I can’t figure out why so many people insist on sticking  to such a narrow view of knives in today’s world. We have a glut of steels today that will take a beating and come back for more, we have precise heat treat methods and metallurgy that makes a knife even more useful than ever before for many different tasks. We have makers who understand how to make a knife both tough and efficient in cutting. Today, right here and now (and for some time), we have knives being made that are THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB.

     Almost whatever job you need a knife to do (keeping it’s realistic properties in mind. It won’t fly you to the moon no matter how good the heat treat) a knife can be built to do it. Cutting, batoning, prying, chopping etc. All doable and many knives will have more than one of those abilities built into it. (some properties exclude one another of course. Like a needle sharp piercing tip isn't going to be a good prying knife. More on that in a later blog post.)

     I don’t say that because someone I love and trust told me, I say it because I build knives like that nearly everyday. And I’m not alone, many makers do and there are even some very fine knife manufacturers that make knives to do many jobs including “hard use”.

    We all love our granddads and those who taught us about the woods when we were young, I get that. But I’m gonna say something that I hope you know isn't meant to be disrespectful to anyone, especially my elders. Here goes: Sometimes, grandpa didn't  know what the heck he was talking about. There I said it. And it’s true. Just like sometimes I don’t know what I’m talking about and sometimes you don’t know what you’re talking about. It happens.  We’re human and imperfect.

     Many grandpas, from what I've read countless times on forums, it seems have told their young grand sons to “never abuse your knife”. I’d say that’s good advice. But what is abuse? Is it abuse to baton with a knife that’s made to do it? I doubt grandpa was that closed minded. So how come we are? How come there’s such a large contingent of knife people out there who get near fighting mad when they see someone baton a knife?

   Maybe it’s because they've seen one to many young whippersnappers take his brand new knife and try to bust it through an 8” knotty piece of red elm. Which usually takes said whippersnapper five or more minutes to do and after the deed is finally done he proclaims it a good knife. I've seen those videos too and I agree, it’s less than a good advertisement for the practice of batoning with a knife. But does that mean it’s knife abuse in and of itself? Of course not. It just means the whippersnapper doesn't know anything about wood selection or he’s intentionally trying to push his knife. So what? Why does anyone care enough to get mad about it? It’s ridiculous.

    It’s like we can’t just be middle of the road on anything these days, we have to stick to one extreme or the other. Or we have to find some little nit picky thing to argue about. Why is that? Why does the grandpa knife guy get red in the face and start throwing insults when he sees the whippersnapper beating on his knife? Does it affect the grandpa knife guy in any way? Nope. It makes no sense.

    I’m getting off track. Back to the point. Knives today can be made for very hard use, not be overly thick, be excellent slicers and still keep on going. It’s a fact. Undeniably so. If you don’t believe me just check out my youtube channel. Turley knives on youtube

    So that leaves us with knives that aren't made for hard use. There’s a lot of them, even in today’s day and time. Lots of factory knives just won’t hold up to prying and batoning. Why? Because they aren't made for it. It’s not because they can’t be made for it, it’s because they are not made for it. They are made for other reasons and tasks. Some of those reasons and tasks include, to look cool, for skinning and gutting, for meat cutting, for kitchen work etc. All of which are viable reasons in my opinion.

  If you’re using one of those knives to beat through some twisted Osage orange then I’d agree with the grandpa knife guy, you’re abusing your knife and it’s probably gonna break. (But I wouldn't get red in the face mad and call you an idiot). But that doesn't mean that ALL KNIVES are to be laid on a pillow and only unsheathed to cut some cordage in camp.

    Many of these knives can still be used to baton if you use your head. I've used a hollow handle Ka-bar , built before ww2, to baton with. I've even used a pocket knife to baton with and neither broke. How come? Wood selection. Straight grained, knot free wood generally splits if you look at it mean. Check out some of the videos by my buddy Mr. Black at Operational Extras sometime to see what I’m talking about. He’s a master wood selector.

     In bushcraft/woodcraft we often proclaim the need to have multi use items. A piece of aluminum foil for a signal device and to mold into a container to boil water. A psk tin to hold your items, boil water in and to signal with when you shine up the lid.
We do that with nearly everything….except knives. Why do we stop short and refuse to use our knives for multiple tasks?

    I honestly don’t know what makes people tick and why the grandpa guys react the way they do. I’ll venture a guess, keep in mind it’s just a guess and worth pretty much nothing. But it’s still something worth trying to figure out.

   I think they get so personally hurt by it because they feel attacked or that grandpa is being questioned. Let me ‘splain, Lucy.

   We all (probably most of us anyway) love our grandpas and those who took the time to share knife skills and the woods with us. So when grandpas rules (whether real or perceived) get ignored or attacked then it’s the equivalent of attacking grandpa in some people’s minds. They freak out because Grandpa was a good man (and of course a “bushcrafter before he ever heard the term“) and it’s seen as an attack on him. (It’s either that or they’re judgmental jerks who think it’s their way or the highway and I prefer to think that‘s not the case. )

 It’s not an attack on grandpa. It’s got nothing to do with your view or my view being attacked in most cases. It’s just a person doing what they enjoy with their own knives. I don’t see any rational reason to get mad at a guy for doing what we all want to do, having fun using his knives. I bet grandpa would smile at that.

  A couple of videos if you're skeptical.
Here's the Hollow handle Ka-bar I mentioned:

Here's a pocket knife split wood fire
Here's some knife true knife abuse



See you next time if you're still reading.
God bless, Iz
Romans 10:9

4 comments:

  1. Good read. I think one of the things that influenced my grandparents on both sides was that they were poor. You used whatever tool you had that would be most likely to accomplish the task and survive it, because buying a new one wasn't always an option, and there was no Amazon to deliver it to your door in two days. Technology moves much faster than people's opinions, and in some cases that new technology scares people when it challenges what they were taught. Then they get angry and berate people who aren't doing things the way they were taught to do them. Getting angry at people on the internet is a waste of energy. Me? If I get angry, I just go to the woods and baton some firewood.

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    1. That's some real good insight, Creaky. Sounds feasible to me for sure.
      I agree, arguing on the internet is a waste of time. I think it's some people's past time. lol.
      Thanks for the comment, my friend.
      Iz

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