Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Let's see the Bark Rivers

Deputy,

In case you cannot find a dealer close by here are some general descritpions of the Bark Rivers you are looking at.

Fist of all- none of them are big knives. Look over the size specs carefully. Most folks are sort of shocked at how small many of the Bark River knives actually are. About the only large dimension on them is the blde thickness-usually over 3/16" to .25" at the spine.

The Game series like the Highlands, Fox Rivers etc have a flat sided handle that is tapered from front to rear. The corners are rounded but it is not a hand fitting style handle like the Bravo and gunny knives which have palm swells and end flares on the side.

For a better viaual of the knives, I HGHLY recoomend you check out "Virtuovice"'s reviews on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3UVYskvb9g&feature=related

He is a Japanese Surgeon/MD who is actually a part time proffesional Sika deer hunter on the North Island of Japan near Sapporo. He always has about 50 fixed blades in his collection and ha propably hunted with and reviewd over 100 knives in the last 3 years.

He dresses out about 60 head of Sitka deer each season and really anylises and compares the knives in use. He susually does his Feild tests at the beginning of each video and the last part is a "table top" review where he shows in detail the knife from all angles.

He reviews are useful from the hunter's standpoint since they are brutally honest yet respectful of the maker's work. He does not sell advertising or knives. He has no business ties to any knife companies. He's just a very experienced hunter who loves good knives.

It's a GREAT way for anyone in the US to get a good look at a Bark River and other knives before buying one. He is a real fan of Bark River and BlackJack products BUT he also tells it like it is. The new Bravo 1 sheath he got was not to great and he made an entire vidieo SHOWING the problems.

He is one of the real assests to the knife communnity on You Tube. Reid Heikken at Sharpshooter Systems can't stand him because every time Reid makes a crappy sheath design(and it DOES happen sometimes) that little Japanese doctor is on it like "white on rice"..LOl But over all, he has a lot of respect or what the folks at BRK&T produce.

Spend some time looking through his video libraray and you should find all the Bark Rivers you are looking at buying. ;)I have owned most those knives and I still find his reviews very enlightening.

One other thing- he recently killed a MONSTER Sitka stag that he stalked in the mountains on Snowshoes. In 7 years it is his biggest stag and for Sitka- it is a monster-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Tb-LeZIFk&feature=related

I've been planning to go to the factory in Escanaba. I've talked to the owner on the phone and found out some pretty cool stuff. 3 times a year, they close their factory and invite the public to come in and learn how to make knives. His workers pair up and take everyone from concept to finished knife. I told him I was having some trouble heat treating A-2. Sharpening my blades, I was getting a ribbon paying out from the edge rather than breaking off and forming a burr. He gave me some pointers and invited me out to the factory. The next "grind in" is at the end of February and it's followed by another in July. That might be the one for me. I was thoroughly impressed that they do that.

A cool thing to note. They buy their A-2 already heat treated and tempered. Then they grind it. I wondered if it could take the temper out of the blade. He said you make one pass, one dip in the bucket, and one pass... On and on. He said start to finish, not counting glue drying, they make a finished knife in 20 minutes. They've definitely got it down.

Jim62,

Those videos are pretty interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Tb-LeZIFk&feature=related

Talk about a thorough review, I don't remember too many knife reviews that include an X-Ray! :-)

Pretty long but easy enough to skip around a bit.

Thanks for the link..................dj

Bark River does none of their heat treating in house.They never have. As a matter of fact,they do very little of the cutting of the blades either.

The blades are cut by Lazer or Water Jet by an outside contractor. Sometimes the rough grind angle is cut as well. Then they are heat teated, surface ground, and THEN they show up at Bark River.

They generally like to install and haft the handles next.The very last thing they do is grind the final blade bevel, polish and sharpen the knife.

Grinding after heat treat is called "Grinding Hard". Not too many large production factories do it because of tool wear. Really if you are skilled enough to do it, you are running a coarse belt at 7,000 BFPM+ . Heat buildup is the least of your worries. If you just dip it as it warms up, you are fine.

Belt wear is the big issue especially on some of the tougher steels like CMP-3V etc. When it's hard, that stuff eats belts..

The other thing is safety. I believe Mike has his slack belt grinders set up to grind AWAY from the user. That's because even without final sharpening, once you have the Convex blade grind fully formed(even on a 36 grit belt), you then have a sharp blade that can easily kill or maim if it goes flying off the belt. Not for novices.

The reason why you may be having trouble with A2 is it is an air hardening steel that requires pretty precise temp controls to get the tempering right. It's not as forgiving as 0-1 or even 1095. Which is the reason Mike Stewart leaves Bark River's heat treat to shops that do industrial grade heat treat..

That is very interesting. On knife forums you hear about Mike's special heat treat etc. and know I know he does none do it! :-)

I bought my A2 from the same guy that sells him his. That's how I got in touch with him in the first place. I told him I was heating the steel to 1850 degrees and tempering at 400. He said I might as well just sit it on the dash of my truck. I had to go to 1900 and 500 degrees. This I did. No problem. He also told me they have taught small children, like 8 years old, to make perfectly functional knives. Humbling! He told me I should pack my blades in dry ice as well. After the first tempering. Like the vikings burying their blades in the permafrost for a year to harden them. I never did any cryo. I got a lot of information.

Well,in his defense, just because he does not do it in house, does not prevent him from dictating the way he wants it done

Also, if you actually read his posts he freely admits that he leaves the heat treatment up to skill professionals.

It's the fanboys on that site (the ones that call him that call "Maestro" etc) who get a little carried away telling their stories in the knife forums "treehouse" LOL.

Really, Mike is pretty forthcoming about how he builds his knives. Everything I posted came straight from conversations I have had with him over the last 7 or 8 years.

One new wrinkle they have added is pre- CNC milling handle slabs on some complex contoured handle fixed blades like the Bravos etc as well as the screw on slabs like the neck knives.

jim,

Thanks for the link to the reviews. It looks like I have some more studying to do. The more I read and learn about knives and knife making, the more I realize I don't know.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge.

I do like the Canadian special and own mini

jim62;
Thank you for the link to virtuovice's latest video, that is a fair stag indeed.

I stumbled across his youtube knife reviews some time ago and like you appreciated his candor.

As well I always enjoy seeing how our fellow hunters around the world like to hunt and his videos are quite interesting for me.

Thanks again and all the best to you in 2012.

Regards,
Dwayne

BC30cal..

Guys like "Virtouvice" represent the best part of Youtube.

He is an intelligent, hard working guy half way across the world in Japan who likes the same things we do and is a very dedicated hunter..

He appreciates American made knives very much, and makes an effort to speak English on all his vids even though it is pretty much the only time his speaks the language. It's hard not to like the guy.

He comes across as a decent nice person you'd want to go hunting with sometime..

I know don't you wish you could have him over for a deer hunt and let him choose from one of your real rifles that American's are allowed to own! ..................... DJ

Well DJ.. After 10 years of proving they responsible with shot guns ,Japanese hunter can apply for a rifle permit. Wakku says he's going to get a .308 in another twp years.

You should search thorough his vids. Some VERY interesting shooting going on in them. He has made some spectacular kills with his .410 and his mentor hunting partner is a crack shot with his 12 Winchester 1300 pump slug gun.

Some down moments though are when he is hunting with some rifle owners from southern Japan. They took a lot of long shots and missed damn near everyone of them.

Also Wakku himself has lost a few deer. I have noticed he does not allow for wind drift when taking long shots with those slow .410 loads he uses .Almost always when he muffs a long range shot, the bullet has hit too far back and always on the downwind side. It will be interesting to see how he progresses as a marksman on he owns a rifle.

Less talk more pics

And your pics are???



:-) .................dj

Bravo-1 CPM-154V Cocobolo




...........................dj

Sorry no Bark Rivers in my possession yet, so I live vicariously through the rest of you.

Bravo-2




.....................dj

Bravo Necker:





Vicarious enough? :-)

Hope you like the pics.........................dj

fantastic videos by the japanese hunter, actually i thought his english was real good. he's made a wiser choice to go with 3v alloy instead of s35 0r even s30. english catra tests last year rated the 3v about 30% more edge indurance than s30 .the 3v has a charpy index 3 times greater than a2 making it one of the most chip resistance alloys out there. some users have said that 3v seems to rust but my ferhman & lil canadian both in 3v have little patina after 2 years.cranky72