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
[email protected]

I've had a Canadian Special in D2 for a few years now and it's been servicable for skinning a few deer and a hog. Good general camp knife. I've been able to keep a pretty decent edge on it with a leather strop.

That said, I'm anxiously awaiting a later-this-year delivery of a Gene Ingram B&T that will most likely supplant the BRKT as my go to belt knife for hunting.

After spending some time on the BHK website, I've found several models I like.

I'm done blowing money for this month, but I'm going to have a BHK coming in the near future.

there has been several blind horse knives for sell cheap on bladeforums lately

Thanks for the heads up.

Wow, you weren't kidding!

I'm keeping a page open there now.

How are the Blind/Battle Horse knives that are on sale?

Looking at the Maverick Colt and the Brumby Lite.

Buy a custom

I have several custom knives from Ingram, King, Murr, Winston, etc.

What I am actually looking for are knives to give as awards for the kids who score 100% in each of the three Hunter Education classes that I teach annually. If a kid scores 100%, his/her name goes into a hat and two names are picked. I'm looking for good knives priced at $150+/-, as I need six and don't want to spend more than $1K on this.

If they are truly for kids I might be willing to help.

I'm not Safariman, so yes, they are incentives, a means by which to encourage the kids to learn the material and reward those who excel.

Thank you for your offer of help, but I'm not seeking contributions, just advice.

Oh I know you aren't safariman and I wouldn't offer if you were

Dale

Lots of knife makers on this site make knives for the price your requesting.
Dale
Dale
Mike
Rocky
Vince
These are just the one's I can speak. I'm sure they're are many others

That's a pretty impressive offer from Dale Howe. A custom knife made by an excellent maker for the same money you'd spend on a basic Bark River knife. What a deal...! And kudos to Dale for the offer. And kudos to you too for wanting to do something special for those kids.

I appreciate the offer, but I want to buy six of the same model of knife. If you give one kid a different reward, you're likely to get negative feedback from the parents who think that their kid got screwed. I used to give one $300 Cabela's gift certificate per class, but got negative feedback from parents who thought that their kids should have had their names picked randomly. The kids are usually fine, the parents sometimes not so much.

I think that I'm going to buy nine of the Battle Horse Brumby Lite knives, that way I can give away three knives per class, rather than two, and it is pretty unlikely that any of the kids will see another Brumby Lite when they're at deer camp.

I was suggesting I'd make you 6 of the same model, but good luck with 'em. I'm sure the kids will enjoy them.

You could let first draw have choice. I think there would be a lot more appreciation for a Dale Howe kmife than a factory knife. IMO

That is very generous of you!

The kids are likely be fine with whatever they get. OTOH, some of the kids' parents will look for any reason to be slighted.

And most of the parents wouldn't know the difference anyway I'm sure.

A friend of mine talked me out of a pretty nice 223AI (mcmillan pacnor seekins rings etc) with a compact nxs scope on it. He showed the rifle to some guys at work and they thought for the money he could have bought a brand new rifle and got a Leupold or Nikon scope too!

Pretty sure those fellas would say you could buy 3 buck knives for 150....haha

Very cool thread and good on you fellas for the teaching and offers.

I am not surprised by the generosity of Campfire Members. The Knifemakers that frequent this forum represent the best of the best. Again, Kudo's to Dale for stepping up. All of the maker's mentioned by Rick produce outstanding knives at reasonable prices. BTW, all of them have waiting lists as well. When a Maker puts his name on a one of a kind item that he produced from bare metal that says a bunch to me. In closing, Thank You for unselfishly mentoring the generation that will be responsible for carring the torch of outdoorsmanship into the future.

FWIW Knives Ship Free has a bunch of bark River knives on closeout.

http://www.knivesshipfree.com/bark-river-closeouts/

If you are not dead set on fixed blades give Great Eastern Cutlery a look.

Nice USA made folders

Thanks, the decision has been made.