Knife Skills

O

Old Painless

Joined
Apr 10, 2006
Messages
174
Hey Everyone,
If someone is very skilled in the various uses of a knife (uses that are wilderness and survival related) what sort of tasks and skills has this person practiced and learned well?
To put it another way, if there was a survival training class entitled "Knife Skills," what sort of things would the class cover?
Also, can we be specific? For example, if you would list batoning as a skill, what about batoning? What would you need to develop through practice? What makes someone good at it and another poor at it? Hope that makes sense :|
Thanks all!
 
Fair question.

I suppose it depends on what you could assume in terms of base skills - things like cutting away from oneself, looking where you're cutting, etc.

Assuming a base level of competency, I think that a wilderness knife skills class might include (in no particular order):

  • sharpening - at home and in the field,
  • care and maintenance (especially re: carbon steel and rust issues),
  • fire prep - fuzz sticks, fire board and bow drill, striking a fire steel with the spine
  • batoning
  • chopping effectively
  • cutting down a sappling with a small knife
  • different models (shapes, grinds) and their uses

Depending on the interests of the instructor and students, a class might also cover cleaning fish, birds, and small game, and whittling.

All the best,

- Mike
 
IMO there is one real use for a knife (talking small knife, so not chopping) in bushcraft/survival and that is carving. I think the best demonstration for this is the ability to make fuzz sticks that can be lit with a fire steel. This shows the highest level of fine control that I know of.

The other skill is sharpening, can't do much with a blunt knife.

Also being able to skin an animal leaving no flesh on the hide shows good dexterity.

To me good axe use is more interesting.

Lastly, being able to accomplish this safely is what ties it all together.
 
The best thing you can do is to use your knife often. Knife skill is a combination of making the cuts that make the stuff you need. It doesn't make much sense to make the right cuts for a device or tool that doesn't work because you muffed the design.

Knife skills that come in handy...

Prep of fire making materials and friction fire
Gutting, skinning, and butchering game
Working hides and leather
Preparing fibers from natural materials for cordage making
Carving and whittling useful objects
Creating trap parts

All of these categories are actually survival skills that knife skills enable. Keep in mind that nobody wants to make traps, what they really want is to make dinner. Knife skills start the process by making the trap and knife skills end the process by butchering the game, but in between is a whole lot of other skill and experience as a trapper that you can really only learn by doing.

Knife use in cordage making is fairly simple, you wind up using the knife to strip bark or harvest stalks, separate the useful parts containing fibers from the useless parts that get in the way, scraping fibers clean, cutting and trimming. Knife skills start the process by creating the materials and finish the process by trimming and cutting to length, but in between is a whole lot of skill in identifying plants and knowing what part you want, how to prepare it, how to twist and splice cordage etc. Even then you only have a "value added" raw material that enables you to make traps, shelters, nets, fishing lines etc.

Wilderness skills are very interconnected but the lubrication of the whole machine is knife/blade skills. Mac

ETA - One of my goals when I make a video is to show knives and blades in context actually being used for the tasks that make a difference. I figure if I'm demonstrating a useful skill that the knife work will be self evident. You can learn a lot of knife skills from books, I learn more from watching people that know what they're doing (always a matter of degrees). I learn the very most from actually doing and for that there is no substitute.

Carving a Net Needle
Dogbane Cordage
 
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