Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Bark River Knives

Any good?

I've got a few.

they have a very wide selection of styles.

They have some great designs and their fit and finish is pretty good for what they are. However, I never got bit by the full convex bug and a lot of their blades are too thick. A lot of guys like them though, to each their own.

I'm looking at the Woodland Special. Do you think that it is a good value for $150 or not?

For a factory built knife they're pretty darn good. I had a Highland Special and a Little Creek, and I liked both of em' very much. I bought em' many years ago though and the prices of BRK have risen considerably since then. Their prices nowadays are nearly right up there with some of the custom makers.

Personally, I think the steel is soft. You are much better off buying a nice custom knife from Vince or another maker on Blade Forum than the Bark River.

260Remguy;
Top of the morning to you sir, hopefully this still Sunday finds you well.

With the understanding that I've only got a single Bark River in my current "user" knife rotation - a Mikro Canadian - I've done a fair bit of reading on them as well as used the Mikro quite a bit.

Overall I'd say I agree with the folks who've opined that the blades tend to be thicker than some of us find useful and their edge geometry is typically a love/hate thing too.

Another poster said the steel is soft and again the Mikro is only a single example, but it is softer than say a Paul Bos heat treated S30V Buck blade would be.

Since I'm still on the quest for the "perfect" knife steel and shape, I'm leaning more and more towards something almost as thin as a traditional paring knife, but slightly harder/tougher.

The current bushcraft craze has - to my way of thinking anyway - been giving us thicker blades than I'd find useful for skinning or boning out large game carcasses.

Hopefully that was useful information for you or someone out there this morning. Good luck with your knife quest and on your upcoming hunts this fall too.

Dwayne

That's how I feel too.

Thanks for the input.

Since I can buy some of Harvey King's knives for less than the close-out prices on the Bark Rivers at www.knivesshipfree.com, I will probably do that.

They offer their knives in a variety of steels. A2 is a tool steel which is softer than say S30V but tougher and easier to sharpen, so it depends on what you want to do with the knife. They also offer knives in Elmax steel, which is supposed to be a very good steel. I like the convex edges but can't do a decent job of sharpening free hand to maintain them. However Bark River will sharpen them nicely if you send them in or they can be sharpened using a worksharp or other type of belt sharpener. In my experience the workmanship is decent but a little inconsistent and not what you'd expect from one of the proven custom makers. They offer a lot of different options for the handle material but some of the options aren't particularly durable. Also the sheath's are decent but not as nice as I've gotten on customs. On the plus side you won't have to wait like you do for a custom.

yup,

when i bought mine 10 years agao they were ~ $100 knives.

now days, better off with customs for the price.

The knife that I was looking at is the Woodland Special in S35VN for under $150.

in my ever so humble personal opinion, Mike Stewart makes the best production knives out there.
They get spendy though, and you can find a well made custom knife for around the same amount.

I have a Little Creek that I bought used on another board. It's a great little knife.
I love it but like others have said, some models get pretty close to the price of customs.
They're just as good as "some" customs though with dang near as many options.
I'd buy another if the right knife/deal came along.

I've owned several over the years and still own a handful. Including a couple of my favourite knives, the Bravo1 3V and the Ultralight Bushcrafter 3V.

Anymore, for the price and quality control of BR these days, I'd go with a quality custom maker. The BR grinds and quality are so inconsistent and they have pushed into custom territory with their prices, so...

I have what is left of an Adirondack Guide that I cut down and rescaled for use in leather work, it has a very hard piece of carbon steel in it.

I purchased another for a mate of mine and am quite pleased with the expenditure.

This is exactly how I feel.

I have one, a Loveless style in CPM3v. I like it a lot, it holds an edge very well. Still my favorite is a BHK Woodsman Pro in O1. It's thick but I use my knives like tools. They have stains, and get sharpened as needed.

I've had a stupid itch for something similar to the Woodsman Pro, and am bouncing between it, the Bark River Bravo 1 in 3V, and the Survive GSO 4.1 in 3V. The Blind Horse guys split up, and one of them formed Battle Horse, but the Woodsman Pro is still in the lineup.

My son just got a Large Workhorse from Battle Horse Knives.
Dan Coppins has begun Battle Horse Knives.

Battle Horse Knives:
www.battlehorseknives.com
740-995-9009
infobattlehorseknives.com