12 Bush Knife Features to Look Out For

Posted  Tuesday 6/8/2021  6:18 pm  2523 words

In this blog post, I’m going to make the case for a particular product manufactured by mora knife of Sweden. It’s the Mora Garberg bush knife.

After a few hours of research, I’ve concluded that this is the knife that meets all of the requirements and criteria for a good, reliable, solid, all-purpose bush knife.

So apart from giving you solid information without any BS or fluff, I hope to convince you that the Mora Garberg bush knife is the right choice for you. And as always, follow the links in this article to purchase the products that I recommend. That way, you’ll be able to support this blog, without incurring any extra cost to yourself.

Do You Hear The Call of the Wild?

Do you feel the draw of the bush country, its ruggedness, and its beckoning promise of adventure?

Does the outdoor wilderness becon you with its promise of peace, tranquility, exhilaration and renewal?

Do you want to outfit yourself with the best possible kit or gear, while avoiding all the BS gadgetry and cheap, mass-produced crap that seems to flood the market?

Have you been searching for a universally practical bush knife to serve as the foundation for your survival kit, and perhaps the primary tool for your bushcraft adventures?

Do folding knives disappoint you by their inability to stand up to punishment, where the hinge between blade and handle is a serious weak point and liability?

Do thin bladed toy knives leave you in disbelief?

Are you struggling to decide on a knife to invest in, knowing that you want something affordable, and sensible, yet practically indestructible, that will last you a lifetime?

Are you overwhelmed with all the choice for bush knives and survival knives on the market?

Or perhaps you found the knife you want, but the price and lead-time make it unobtainable?

Then this blog post and its recommendations may be perfect for you.

First off, I’m relatively new to the marketplace for survival and bushcraft knives. The only belt knives or sheath knives that I’ve owned were for scuba diving and fish filleting. On one hand, these tools were a combination of a pry bar, a chisel point and a cable cutter, just what you need as a scuba diver with a limited supply of breathing air. On the other hand, my filleting knives were bendy and razor sharp with thin blades to make fast work of countless northern pike, walleyes and yellow perch.  Perhaps the sheath knife I’ve used most extensively is a Fiskars filleting knife with a thin and springy blade that holds a keen edge, perfect for cleaning freshwater catch from northern lakes. Beyond that, most of my bushcraft tools are axes and hatchets. I think I must own a dozen axes, hatchets and bow saws. I’ve used all of these — over the decades really — for maintaining a woodlot I owned in the old-growth oak forest of the Big Woods of Minnesota.  Prior to that I practiced bushcraft in the boreal forest and aspen parkland of Alberta. I’ve also got an extensive collection of chisels and gouges for wood working and boat building. 

In other words, I’ve got a solid background in bushcraft, knives and the related cutting tools — in general — but I’ve only just recently stepped into the market for a good quality sensible bushcraft knife.

Again, at the moment, I don’t have my own bushcraft knife but I’ve done a reasonable amount of research into the topic. I’ve concluded that for me the perfect bushcraft knife is the Mora Garberg and I’ll explain my reasons for this choice below.

Also, I am fully committed to updating this post once I finally get my very own Mora Garberg.  I fully intend to complement this post with follow-up posts with further insights into using a bushcraft knife in the forests of Northern California and in my backyard in San Francisco where I currently live.

My Primary source of insight into bushcraft and the key features and properties of a sensible bushcraft knife come from Mors Kochanski, primarily out of his classic book, Bushcraft. Note that Mors has written an entire chapter on knife craft (Chapter 3.)

Later in this post, I’ll provide a summary of the 12 most important features of a bushcraft knife, but keep in mind that this is largely based on what I’ve learned from Chapter 3 on knife craft in Mors Kochanski’s book.

Also note that Bear Grylls the devotes a brief chapter to the topic of knives for survival in his book, How to Stay Alive.

Dave Canterbury (Bushcraft 101) devotes a 17 page section to his discussion of a sensible bushcraft knife. 

I’d also like to point out that a particular Norwegian chap on YouTube, by the name of Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen, has previously reviewed the Mora Garberg bushcraft knife, giving it a wholehearted thumbs up. Moreover, he reviews three other knives (for a total of three knives by Mora and one knife made by an independent craftsman in Bjorn’s native country of Norway).

Do take the time to check out the books I’ve mentioned above if you don’t already have copies.  I recommend all three books (Kochanski, Grylls, Canterbury) in addition to a book by Les Stroud entitled Survive! 

Now let’s review the benefits of owning your own bushcraft knife.

First of all it’ll boost your sense of self-reliance and give you a real advantage in preparedness if you carry a sensible and rugged bush knife out into the wilderness with you. After all, it’s an essential tool for both survival and bushcraft.. Moreover, it’s a good all-around handyman knife. And being rugged, simple, functional and dependable, it will likely serve you for the rest of your life. An ideal bushcraft knife will be easy to maintain and easy to sharpen, and never be a pain in the ass.  Instead, it will always give you a sense of aesthetic satisfaction — because of its heft, and because it’s a thing of utilitarian beauty with an excellent look and feel.

So Let’s get into the nitty-gritty details of what practical features to look for in a bushcraft knife. 

For me, there are 12 essential features to look out for:

1. First of all, a proper Bushcraft knife should have a reasonably sized blade of about 4 inches long (10 cm).
2. Secondly, the blade should be fashioned from a suitable carbon steel alloy, for example tool steel alloy. Barring that, it should be crafted from a specialized stainless steel, in particular, the blade steel formulated by Fiskars of Finland.  There are two reasons for this, 1) to provide a tough rugged indestructible blade that can still hold a keen edge, and 2) to have the non cutting-edge serve as the steel striker for a ferrocerium fire starter rod.
3. The third feature to look for is a relatively thick, robust blade — at least one eighth of an inch thick (3 mm). This is to give the blade, and the knife itself, the toughness and ruggedness, even the indestructibility, that you will need in a survival situation from a bushcraft knife. And remember that Mors Kochanski characterized a bushcraft knife as a “pry bar with a cutting edge.”
4. The fourth feature for a sensible bushcraft knife is for it to have a fixed blade.  In other words, you are looking for a sheath-knife not a folding pocket knife. The simple reason for this is that the hinge on a folding knife is a weak point and pretty much disqualifies the knife from the rigors of service for use as a bushcraft knife — where the knife will be pounded on to gouge out holes, and also hit with a batton or a stout stick to split wood. In other words, there’s so much mechanical twisting action, bending action, straining action and Impact action — all of the mechanical stresses that a folding knife could never withstand — that make up the everyday life of a sensible bushcraft knife.  It needs to be a fixed blade and not under any circumstances a folding blade.
5. The fifth feature is the so-called scandi grind, also known as the Scandinavian grind, which is essentially a flat bevel on both sides of the blade starting about midpoint as shown in the diagram. The advantage of the scandi grinder Scandinavian grind us that it’s easy to sharpen. You simply lay the blade on the Whetstone until the full flat surface of the scandi grind makes contact and then you stroke the blade in a cutting motion across the the Whetstone, and then repeat on the opposite side — so there is no guesswork or precise angle judgement or mechanical play with respect the Whetstone. It’s  a simple matter of putting the blade flat on its bevel and then holding the blade in that position as you sharpen it.
6. Feature 6 — I should point out that a sensible bushcraft knife has a single cutting edge on one side only. The first reason for this is strength — to preserve the full thickness of the stock metal along the edge opposite the cutting for as long as possible.
7. Feature 7 – the second reason for a single cutting edge is to apply at 90 degree grind on to the non cutting edge which can be scraped against a ferrocerium rod to throw sparks onto tinder.
8. Feature number 8 to look for — is for the cutting edge to have a continuous smooth arc or curve from handle or tang to tip.  It turns out that a continuous arc is most practical for wood carving and bushcraft, in general, and is easiest to sharpen.
9. Feature 9– A bushcraft knife should have a full tang. This means that the stock metal for the blade should extend the full length of the handle.  Some would say the stock metal of the blade should extend the full width of the handle as well. I’m guessing that for purists,  “full tang” means both the full width and the full length of the handle.  But bushcrafters in cold Northern climates might argue that you only want the full length so that you can insulate your fingers from contact with the metal of the blade material cuz you can imagine that in- 50 C weather the blade acts as a kind of a cryogenic heat sink.  So let’s specify here that you want a full tang extending the full length of the handle but not necessarily the full width, especially in Arctic or Antarctic climates. You want a mechanical span right through the handle to the pommel of the blade.
10. Feature 10, the pommel should be rigid and solid enough to take a real pain pounding. The pommel should be a solid chunk of metal that can be used as a hammer or take a pounding if you want to drive the blade into wood for cutting a notch or poking hole. I would add that there should be an eye hole in the pommel for a lanyard (see Feature 11). 
11. Feature 11 — The pommel should also have an eye or through=hole so that you can thread a lanyard or ribbon of high visibility surveyor’s tape through it.  This is yet another feature already recommended by Mors Kochanski.  He describes a scenario where the lanyard/ribbon feature is absolutely essential — working in deep snow. If you drop your knife in deep snow, without a lanyard or ribbon, you might lose your bush knife until the next spring. You can imagine that the knife would slice into the snow on its own weight and be lost.  But if you have a line or a brightly colored ribbon threaded through the pommel, well then that makes the knife a helluva lot easier to find. I would add that if you’re wading through heavy surf and you drop your knife in the slop, then you already know that something brightly colored would make it a helluva lot easier to retrieve. Same goes for working in a swiftly running stream. An eye hole is just a sensible thing to add as a feature at very little extra design cost, so look for a hole through a solid pommel at the end of a full length tang so that you can attach a lanyard or a brightly colored ribbon.
12. Feature 12, and the final, mandatory feature that I would say applies to a sensible bushcraft knife is that it should have a handle with an oval cross section so that you minimize fatigue in your gripping hand as you use your bushcraft knife for extended periods, whether you’re slicing, notching, cutting, boring or otherwise scraping, to put together shelter for the night or assembling a fish trap or what have you. You don’t want to develop blisters from gripping the corners of a handle with a rectangular cross-section.  You want something that fits nicely into the palm of your hand comfortably and securely for the hard work that it’s intended to do.

So I hope you enjoyed my description of the 12 essential and mandatory features to look out for in your purchase of a good quality and sensible bushcraft knife. Now there are a few more ancillary features that we could discuss in a future blog post but let’s leave it at 12 for now. These features should prepare you for  going out and buying something that can serve you for many years to come.

In summary, what I would recommend you do now is buy the Mara Garberg bushcraft knife. It’s a heavy duty, robust, thick bladed, full tang bushcraft knife that satisfies all the criteria that I’ve discussed above and it’s something that is reasonably priced at something like $80 to $90.  It is a production knife so it doesn’t come with a premium price tag of a custom knife.  But it’s made with the premium materials and workmanship that Mora Kniv is known for.

Now to conclude this article I have another request– if anything about this post resonates with you, then say “Hello” in the comments section below so that we can exchange contact information and perhaps have a discussion about what I’ve talked about. Or if anything that I’ve claimed here strikes you as patently false or misleading, then yes, you’re absolutely right that I would want to know about it, so please tell me in the comments section, and I will either correct or update the content in this post accordingly. Of course, I always have the last say since it’s my blog post. 

You can support this blog — if you enjoyed the content — by using the affiliate links to products that I have mentioned. They will direct you to vendor pages on Amazon.  If you purchase anything while on Amazon, I will receive a small percentage as a sales commission for my efforts here, without you incurring any extra cost.