Toms thoughts on Knives

THERE are many schools of thought on the types of knives/ Axes/hatchets/ and Tomahawks to use in the outdoors. Some people like expensive blades, some are frugal and don’t want to spend too much on a knife. I tend to be on the frugal side. My personal favorite knives are any type of Swiss Army Knife, that has a scissors and a saw. And my faithful old Green River knife, “Old Butch” .
I picked up “OB” In a junk shop in Moab ,Utah for $6.00 back in 1989 and have been carrying it ever since. A lot of folks like the Mora knives from Sweden, I dont really care for them due to the fact the handles and blades tend to break under normal use, and especially in the cold.

I have been all over the world and spent time with many native peoples and have seen knives made from old saw blades , punched out of an old army mess kit, or made from bearings and leaf springs from old trucks.  I have studied knife making and blacksmithing in Thailand, Nepal and The Philippines and have seen many skilled knife and tool makers, But a lot of these craftsmen are not skilled in the use of the blades they make – some are, but not all.

My conclusion is that its not the tool or knife, or how much it costs, or the maker, but your familiarity and skill with it . That takes practice.

For a while now I have been considering a replacement for my veteran Green River Knife “Ol’ Butch”. I ambled my way over to Trapper Jon’s Knife Shop in Sierra Vista, Arizona to visit Jon for a while and take a look at all the knives he has on offer in his shop.

I was a little shocked and amazed at all of the “Survival Knives” that there are out there in the world. There were numerous Xb15/commandosurvival/navySEAL/bushcraft knives in Jon’s shop but all of this techno new age gear tends to get on my nerves a bit. I seem to always gravitate to the older style knives like the “Old Hickory”, Case and of course the knives by Green River Forge.

The prices for the majority of these techno blades was to say the least – shocking to this old drifter. There is no way I would pay $300.00 for a knife. I have been using my GRK  since 1989, I bought it in a shop in Moab, Utah for $6.00, this knife has been my constant companion for all of my wilderness adventures and numerous trips around the world. I borrowed the name for my knife from Big Foot Wallace the famous Texas Ranger and Scout from the early days of Texas history. Mr. Wallace had some colorful names for his animals and equipment.

Back when I was working as a wilderness guide/instructor it seemed to me that all wilderness instructors to include those at the Boulder Outdoor survival School (B.O.S.S.) used the Green River knife. And, if I remember correctly Cody AKA “the aboriginal” wore one also. Now, I greatly admire and respect Mors Kochanski as a teacher, writer and wilderness Bum but, I credit (or blame) Mors for introducing the Mora knife to the American survival community.  Mors showed up at the B.O.S.S. Sponsored Rabbit stick rendezvous in Rexburg, Idaho back in 1990 with a Mora slung around his neck. The next thing you know all of the B.O.S.S. Guys and gals were wearing one also. The Mora is a good knife for certain applications but cannot compete with a GRK.

While working as the Lead Survival and Impact Instructor at a Wilderness therapy program in Utah, I had to luck to spend a lot of time in the field, either with the youth or in my off duty time with some like-minded staff. On one such outing with the youth we were crossing the desert to a place call “Bloody Hands Gap” (due to the red painted hand prints under an overhang in the gap between the rocks), I found a dead horse and skinned out a good sized chunk of hide and took some sinews from the tendons. The hide I scraped and dried into raw hide then soaked it and sewed it around “Ol’ Butch” to make the sheath. Once it had dried the hide made a custom fit on the handle and blade. I have been using this same sheath almost as long as I have had the knife. I keep a saddle makers needle stuck into the stitching on the back of the sheath for making emergency repairs on my gear – that is if I’m not in Agave country.

I wear my knife slung around my neck and inside my shirt depending on if I’m hiking or riding a horse or mule. The wearing of a neck knife is not a recent idea invented by the internet GURUs, it has been around for centuries and was the primary way of wearing a knife for most native Americans. I used a leather strap at first but those soon rot from sweat etc. I now use a narrow piece of webbing held in place with 2 short pieces of para cord (550 to you sticklers). The webbing was found in the desert south of the Chiricahua mountains of Arizona in an illegal alien lay up site, the 550, I got from the dumpster on the army base.

The handle of my old knife appears to be Walnut wood, Back in those days, as in today, I have been using the handle as a socket for my Bow and Drill fire sets. I usually carry 2 or 3 tinder bundles, and a spindle or two with me in my pack, if need be, ill make a board and bow. String can be made from a number of sources.

I have read that people frown on using the handle for a B&D socket because it ruins the handle…haha, I have been doing it for 23 years now and it is still serviceable and will take me down the trail a bit further, I’m sure!

People who make statements like that are most likely the arm chair outdoors men who only play at survival or wilderness subjects and follow the video survival “Gurus” I have been seeing lately.
I do very little in the way of maintenance on this old knife other than oiling the blade with what ever I can find to oil it with. Recently in Thailand, I used the fat from some cooked chicken skin to grease up both the sheath and the blade.

I have used the back of the blade as a striker for making flint and steel fires and use either old pieces of charcoal from a cold fire pit or some horse hoof fungus to catch the spark. The stones I just keep an eye out for as I hike, my favorite stone to use though is petrified wood but the Utah flint is excellent stuff as is the Mississippi river chert.

To sharpen my knife I usually use the river stone method taught to my by my Aeta Negrito friend in the Philippines, it works well and makes carrying a stone unnecessary, you simply pick up one in the creek bottom. While in Thailand I watched my lady friend sharpen my jungle knife on a large chunk of coral in the front yard of her house, apparently her family has been using this stone to sharpen all manner of edged tools for several generations.

I’ll be taking two knives on my next trek, a Swiss army knife and “Ol’ Butch”. I like to keep it simple and uncomplicated. From what I have read and seen it looks like folks now a days are really into survival but seem to be more gear oriented then skill oriented. To me that is sad – The more you know in your head the less you need to carry on your back. It is my hope that at least a few of the more hardy and independent thinking true adventurers out there will “cut” the gear umbilical cord which tethers them to society, grab their favorite knife and hit the trail.

In closing, Ill paraphrase Dick Summers, Mountain man in the book “The Way West” by A.B. Guthrie – “I can travel from hell to breakfast with nothing but a rifle and a good horse, and get there by suppertime without the horse” .

Substitute the rifle for a knife and the horse for your own feet and hit the trail, practice skills, live the wilderness life and be the first you!

When I’m out and about in the woods, mountains or deserts of the world I usually carry only 4 knives;

My old Green River Butcher knife,Any type of Swiss Army Knife with a Saw and two cutting Blades,Old timer Whittling Knife, for making spoons or what ever I may need,Case “Hobo” with detachable Spoon and Fork.

These knives have served me well and I find it unnecessary to carry more. My personal knife collection is pretty small,  maybe 20 or so but they are all the same type. I go for function and not flash, opting for what works instead of what looks good. I’d never pay big bucks for a blade, too me that is silly and a waste of your money. I do appreciate the beauty of the custom made knives though.
Occasionally I’ll have to get a jungle knife or machete depending on where I am in the world. There is no real difference between those two blades except location and local lingo.

Also, I never carry a sharpening stone or steel in the field. I witnesses numerous Filipino and Thai Jungle guides sharpening knives with just a river stone, I paid attention to them and can now sharpen my own blades fairly well with the “jungle river stone method”

A word on hatchets , Axes and Tomahawks;
When in the Maine northwoods, I always have an axe, generally a 2 pound Snow and Neally . Also have some tomahawks and hatchets around for small jobs.  My good friend “Trailhawk” in the Philippines carries a cool looking little hawk made by a local blacksmith in Cebu.
Once in Thailand, mountain blacksmithing mentor Saijung Kaipo made me a tomahawk looking hatchet in less that 2 hours, complete with handle. Saijung reference was a drawing I made in the sand. The end result was a sturdy “Hawk” that was light and easy to use.

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