The Best Knife? (Part 3)

Well, it’s back to the old grind!  Seriously, the style of the grind on your survival knife is one of the most important aspects to consider.  Some grinds are for beauty and style, some are made for woodworking and some are simply stronger than others.  The grind affects the way that a knife slices, shaves, cuts and batons through wood.

The prettiest grind is probably the hollow grind.  This is formed using a round wheel on the knife grinder and thus the grind itself is hollow or concave.  The strongest grind is the convex grind which is opposite of the hollow grind in that the grind curves out rather than in.  This is also one of the best grinds for splitting or batoning through wood.  The most useful grind for wood working and general bush crafting is the Scandinavian grind or the Scandi grind for short.  This is a flat grind using usually only the bottom third portion of the knife steel and is also the easiest to sharpen because you simply lay the knife on the stone following the flat of the grind.  A chisel grind sharpens only one side of the knife steel.  A sabre grind is similar to the Scandi grind except the grind starts in the middle of the knife steel.  There are many different kinds of grinds as you can tell as well as some combinations of the above mentioned ones. But, for survival, we will consider only the ones most generally used by those who are considered experts.  However, use whatever knife suits you, fits well in your hand, that you can afford, that you have used and practiced with etc.  A knife is a personal choice that only you can make, but I would urge all of my readers to consider what the experts use and follow their advice.  Most would say that the Scandi grind is the best knife grind for overall use in a survival situation.  But again, your mileage may vary on that issue.

I prefer to use a larger knife, (that I designed and made), with a convex grind as it is the strongest, for my main knife which handles the major chopping and cutting tasks for survival and a smaller Scandi grind knife such as the inexpensive Mora brand (10-12 dollars) for the finer tasks of cutting, carving and kitchen work in the woods.  If I could take only one knife (Why would you only take one knife?) It would be my larger convex ground blade with a blade length of 5 and 1/4 inches.  It can handle most small chores as well as the big ones, it is just not as efficient at carving and making notches or shaving fuzz sticks to make a fire lay, but it can do those tasks acceptably.  Generally, I like to have at least four knives when woodcrafting or bushcrafting.  My multi-tool with it’s knife blade (rarely used), my pocket knife (as a back up blade), my Mora knife (used often and placed on a cord and hung as a neck knife, accessible yet out of the way), and of course, my large benderknifeworks (BKW) knife on my belt.

Speaking of the grind, life can sometimes get boring and in those boring times, Satan can really take advantage of us.  The old saying is that “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop”. So even when life is dull and you’re back to the old familiar grind of things, keep your mind busy with prayer and thinking on things that are good and helpful to yourself and others.  Meditate on the Scripture you read that morning or a sermon that spoke to you.  And, don’t let the grind of life get to you!  Much of life is routine, punctuated with intervals of stress, excitement, pain and hardship.  So learn to appreciate the normal times.  It might not be as exciting, but normal is good!

James B.

PS. You can check out my website where you can set up training for many of these skills at www.waypointsurvival.com and look at and order my custom knives at www.benderknifeworks.com.