Medieval Bushcraft - Knifecraft

Knives in Bushcraft

In my modern bushcraft adventures, a good knife has always been an important tool. Typically, I’ve carried two knives, one large knife that could do heavier work of chopping and splitting wood, and a smaller knife used for carving, cleaning game, and other work requiring more control. Over the years, I’ve collected many different knife styles and found several that fit this need, but when I began to explore medieval options, I realized I did not have a knife based upon any medieval style blades.

One of the first things I wanted to remedy in my kit was to find a medieval style knife that could do the chores associated with knifecraft in the bush. When I initially began to search, I came across many daggers for sale, such as rondel daggers, bullock daggers, and other dual edged blades. While this style of blade is great for fighting, they are not really suitable to the chores often associated with bushcraft and I highly doubt they were often used for such tasks.

In Mors Kochanski’s book, Northern Bush Craft, he identifies the basics of what he deems a suitable bushcraft knife:

The general-purpose bush knife should have a blade as long as the width of the palm, although blades half or twice this length are within acceptable limits. A blade five centimeters long would be an excellent survival knife except for being too small to fall and limb trees of wrist-thickness. A blade 10 to 15 centimeters long will do intricate work like carving a netting needle, yet be large enough to present a good target for a baton when cutting down small trees. A blade 20 centimeters long is a superior tool for heavy work, but awkward to use for fine work.

Mors Kochanski "Knives I've Used Throughout my Life"

Another famous bushcraft guru, Horace Kephart had similar requirements for the blades he carried into the woods:

Kephart was a master of living on his own with minimal equipment, far from civilization, and passing on his knowledge by writing about what worked in the wilderness, what did not and how to use the most basic tools and shelter to survive and thrive.

His primary tools along the trail and in temporary camps were a fixed-blade knife, a small tomahawk (or hatchet, as we call it today) with a 12-ounce head and a foot-long handle, and a jackknife in his pocket with one blade at least three inches long. The fixed-blade belt knife handled most larger cutting needs, from wood to cooking. The hatchet was portable enough to carry in a pack. It was big enough to process wood for shelter and fire. The jackknife, with its smaller blades, took care of smaller cutting chores and whittling. Far from base camp, those tools sufficed to keep him comfortable and happy during his outings.

Kephart’s opinion of knives led to him developing his own blade shape and handle design suited for bushcraft work and is today one of the leading styles favored by many bushcrafters around the world.

Knives in History

Using my experience and those of other bushcrafters as a gauge, I began looking for historical style knives that suited this need and would likely have been chosen for their utility by many people in medieval times. I soon found a great article which utilized many historical resources explaining the “Evolution Of Scandinavian Long Knives” (title of the article). In the article it examined the utility of the Norse Seax or long knife design and how it changed over the years.

Chronological arrangement and development of seaxes in the period of 500-700. Schmitt 2005: Abb. 10.

While the seax was primarily a weapon, it is easy to see how this blade style influenced other knife designs of Scandinavian origin, including the leuku which is a traditional knife of the Sami culture of Lapland. The leuku, also called “stuorra niibi” which means big knife, fit the bill for the larger bushcraft blade I was looking for. The leuku usually has a wide blade about 8 or 9 inches long usually of carbon steel which holds up better in the cold climate. The handle is generally birch with a wide flat pommel at the end that gives added force when struck with the free hand. It also helps in taking the leuku out of the sheath with gloves or mittens on. Often paired with the leuku knife is the puukko knife. The puukko is another Sami/Finnish knife, and the name lends itself to the Finnish word “puukotta,” which means “to stab/knife.” The prefix, “puu” means “wood” in Finnish. The design of the puukko is attributed to the indigenous Sami people, who created several knives to use for day to day tasks; the puukko was the smaller option, used to skin fish or animals. Although historical records vary, the puukko dates back about 1000 years. Both men and women carried (and carry) puukkos, although the sizes change depending on the person, as the puukko handle is meant to fit the hand size of the user. These two blades paired together make a great combination of tools for bushcraft, enabling one to chop wood for fire and shelter, process kindling, skin game animals, carve traps and any other needs that a blade might be used for.

This made my decision fairly easy, so I began search for a leuko and a puukko to add to my kit. As I searched I came across a pair from Finnish knife maker Iisakki Järvenpää Osakeyhtiö dubbed the double leuko. It consists of the Poromiehen Leuku and the Jätkänvuolu knives in a double sheath. They both have a carbon steel blade, which require oiling after use, but stays sharp and is easy to keep sharp. The total length of the Double Leuku is 37cm. The bigger knife, Leuku, has 18cm blade. The smalle, Jätkänvuolu, has 10cm blade. Purchased from Ragweed Forge at a great price, the knives were soon in hand. Fit and finish is good, and the overall design is fantastic, maintaining an age old style that has existed for over 1,000 years.

While I just received these knives this week and haven’t been able to fully test them, I expect them to do the job. I will be putting them through their paces in the coming months and documenting the trials and uses on future posts. For those interested, there are many makers of these style knives, including Helle, Mora, Stromeng, the aforementioned Iisakki Järvenpää Osakeyhtiö and many more. Price point varies from inexpensive to the uber expensive. Styles are fairly consistent, but steel materials, handle materials and sheaths will vary.

Tasks of Knifecraft

Any green tree can be cut down with a knife if it can be bent. A wrist-thick tree can be bent with one hand while the other is occupied in cutting it. Peeling a stick is a basic technique that leads to skillful wood shaving useful for starting fires. Peeled sticks also dry out quickly and become lighter and tougher than unpeeled ones. Heavy knots and branches should be trimmed off beforehand, perhaps with the assistance of a baton. A knife can be used to fashion the bow in a bow drill, or when building choke bars in snaring and in the construction of folk toys. A good knife can also provide the cutting edge for a form of shear to cut short pieces of sticks for a variety of applications (like building a shelter) or for trimming wands and spokes in basketry.

It is imperative to keep the blade extremely sharp, which can be done with traditional whetstones, or use of other abrasives or leather strops. As always, caution should be exercised in the use of sharp objects and I personally recommend carrying a first aid kit (I carry a modern one with my historical kit) and seek medical attention as soon as possible should injury occur.

Sources:

1. Wade Cox, Stephen. "About Ray Mears". Ray Mears Bushcraft. Ray Mears Bushcraft. Retrieved 22 January 2017.

2. ^ "Info". Springfields Bushcraft.

3. ^ An on-line edition of 'The 10 Bushcraft Books' by Richard Graves

4. ^ Kochanski's webpage "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-12-23. Retrieved 2012-11-07.

5. ^ "Mors Kochanski Interview, Equip 2 Endure Podcast". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-08-06.

6. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6Swa8Pwy-0KN2Q5N2I0NTQtZjE1OS00ZTRiLWIxNDAtMzkxMzU0ODYwMmRk/view

7. http://www.survivorlibrary.com/library/the-ten-bushcraft-books.pdf

8. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6GE42-kvADvMjAwNmY0OTctNDA4ZS00ZjI2LWE0MjgtZjhiMTc5NzU1ODFi/view

9. https://sagy.vikingove.cz/evolution-of-scandinavian-long-knives/

10. https://www.realworldsurvivor.com/2018/06/12/horace-kephart/

11. Schmitt, Georg (2005). Die Alamannen im Zollernalbkreis. Inauguraldissertation, Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.