Old ForgeBushcrafter Knife

Decent purchase if you are looking for another good lite task or food prep knife at the camp site not not really built for Bush craft as the name implies. Blade is thin not sturdy. scales are very basic like those found on Old Hickory knives. Gave it to my son as a stocking stuffer to use around the campsite for cooking and cutting cordage and other small tasks that dont require puttin a lot of pressure on the blade or that will result in your hand slippingoff the handle since there are no finger choils or gurads.

The Old Forge Bushcrafter knife is not by any means a field ready knife. The knife I received had a poorly ground edge, as well as a cock-eyed attachment where the tang attaches to the handle. The edge was dull, requiring more force to be used in getting the knife to cut. Any experienced knife user knows that a dull knife is a dangerous knife. The only safe knife is one that has a proper grind and is very cut, ready to use for its intended purpose.The spine of this knife does not have a sharp 90 degree edge to it. Those who practice bushcraft know the importance of a sharp spine on a knife. This is used for scraping hard edges on carvings, making them smooth to the touch. The sharp spine allows the user to scrape sparks from a ferro rod for fire lighting. The sharp spine also allows one to scrape fine dust from birch bark or cedar bark to be used for catching a spark from a ferro rod or fire steel. The coating on the Old Forge product also acts as a detriment to the knife in not allowing the knife to complete its intended task of cutting. Any coating on a blade slows the blade from slicing.The attachment point where the handle is pinned to the handle was poorly executed. As shown in the attached picture, the tang protrudes from the handle. This is due to one of three things: 1. The holes drilled into the tang were done so out of line; 2. The holes in the handle were done out of line or, 3. The tang was not properly secured to the handle while the holes were drilled in the handle. This can cause discomfort in the hand while holding the knife to use. The cock-eyed position of the tang also forces the user to hold the knife in an awkward angle to the work piece. Over time, this could cause injury to the user's hand or wrist area. This, in my opinion, is an unsafe and unwanted characteristic of a bushcraft knife.In the end, the Old Forge Bushcraft 'knife' that I received is not a field ready knife. However, with some work, one could modify this item to be a real and useful knife. By stripping the unneeded coating from the knife, flattening the spine to have a 90 degree angle and properly grinding the edge to uniform sharpness, this item could become a real working knife. In my opinion, Frost Mora knifes are an excellent and economical choice for a field ready bushcraft knife.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004TNWD40/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004TNWD40&linkCode=as2&tag=infohutt-20&linkId=0d98e433f504cf72e5dfce7f8dbeca8e"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=B004TNWD40&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=infohutt-20" ></a><img src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=infohutt-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B004TNWD40" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" >

With this knife in hand, it is not full tang. The tang is exposed on the top of the handle only and only reaches just past the half way mark. The steel used it 420HC. The sheath is more then adequate for a knife of this design. I would not call this a bushcraft knife. This is more a really cheap table knife on steroids. Maybe a good mushroom knife? Certainly not a fire making tool. Honestly I have no idea where this knife would excel. It is a light duty knife with a sheath, so you can carry it with you when you are out and about, and that is why I think it would make a decent mushroom knife. I wouldn't use it for anything that would be more strenuous outdoors and expect it to survive.Be careful where you store this knife. I wasn't and my dog chowed down on the wood handle.