10 Bushcraft Knife Skills in 10 Minutes

the bushcraft knife arguably the most important tool in the backpack some are cheap some are expensive but all of them serve a purpose a typical bushcraft knife has a scandinavian grind with a full tang which means the steel runs the whole length of the knife all the way to the back of the handle now we call them bushcraft knives but really they can be used for pretty much any task in the woods as can other knives with different grinds and profiles in this video i'm going to show you a number of different skills you can do with the bushcraft knife some you may have seen before others not so much either way cheers for tuning in and i hope you get something from this video for many of the bushcraft shelters that i build i always try to peel the bark off logs to help prevent bugs from eating away at them and to prolong the life of the timber framework for this i would normally use a tool called a draw knife or a bark peeler this tool has a very specific use which is to peel bark off trees or to taper the ends of pieces of wood to make wooden pegs or chair legs for furniture making however when you're in the woods you might not have this type of tool with you instead you can make your own draw knife by gently tapping the point of your bushcraft knife into the end of a small stick you can then use one hand to grip your knife and the other hand to grip the stick and you now have a makeshift draw knife which you can use to peel the bark off locks the back of the blade of a bushcraft knife will typically have a 90 degree spine to it this gives the edge a right angle which can be used for a number of tasks one of which is to strip the outer layer of tree roots for this i grip the knife upside down and place a root between the solid surface and the back of the knife then i apply some downward pressure onto the tree root and pull it towards me as i pull the root the spine of the knife strips the outer layer clean off this gives the root more flexibility when using as cordage you can also further split the root down using the point of the knife to make it more pliable when tying knots another reason why a bushcraft knife has a 90 degree spine is so that it can be used to strike sparks from a ferrocerium rod when used to light a fire here is a typical ferro rod this particular one comes with a small flat piece of metal which can be used to strike sparks from the rod not all fire steels come with these now you could use the actual blade of your knife to do this and it would work well but you will end up dulling the blade and reducing its cutting ability what you could do instead is rotate the knife upside down and use the 90 degree spine of the blade to strike sparks from the ferro rod this way you can still protect the blade from damage another tip when using a ferro rod and knife to start a fire is if you are too aggressive with the knife you can end up knocking your tinder material everywhere and in wet conditions this can affect your ability to light a fire if you keep the hand that holds the knife in a locked position you can then just pull the ferro rod back to produce sparks this way there is no forward movement with your knife which reduces the chances of you knocking your tinder everywhere the flint and steel is a very traditional fire lighting method when done correctly it is an extremely satisfying way of lighting a fire you hold the steel striker in one hand and the flint in the other and hit the two together producing sparks which can then be used to light some tinder material and get a fire going if you look closely the steel striker actually has a very similar edge profile to the spine of a bushcraft knife both around four to five millimeters thick and with that acute 90 degree angle if you don't happen to have a steel striker on you you can use the back of your knife to create sparks from the flint you have to be extremely careful how you hold the knife as the blade is facing towards your hand i always ensure that i have a really firm grip on the blade and in similar fashion to the steel striker i bring the back of the knife down hard onto the sharp edges of the flint to produce sparks if i slow this footage down you should be able to see sparks coming off the back of the knife it's important to note that the sparks are not pieces of flint but actually pieces of hot metal from the back of your knife so for that reason and of course the reason of safety i recommend not attempting this technique and using another easier method to light a fire i'm just showing you what can be done despite only having a thin cutting edge in comparison to an axe you can still split fairly large sticks with your knife just place the blade across the middle of the stick and batten down on the back of the blade to drive it into the wood once the knife blade is through the log keep batting down towards the tip of the blade and eventually you will split it it's a fairly safe method of splitting a log and you can actually split logs down to very fine kindling for fire lighting in wet climates lighting a fire can be tricky and finding dry wood can be very hard a good way of getting decent firewood is to split open logs to expose the dry inner pieces of wood you can then use your knife to shave off thin pieces of the dry inner wood these are called feather sticks and if you make the shaving fine enough they could ignite from the spark of a ferro rod however there is another way of making feather sticks if you put the point of your knife into a log you can then pull the piece of wood towards you to make thin curls this method means that you use very little energy and you can be much more precise with how thin or thick you want the curls to be this next skill can be done with pretty much any knife i use this skill fairly regularly with my pocket knife to make holes in pieces of wood i put the point of the blade onto a piece of wood and gently rotate the knife in a half circle each time i rotate the blade i am taking away more material eventually you can rotate the knife enough that it actually bores a hole straight through the wood in this particular project i used the knife to make some holes in a round piece of wood and then i put some points on three sticks and inserted them into the round wood to make a stool one of the most common uses for a bushcraft knife is to make notches in sticks here i make a simple pot hanger i start out by gently batting the knife into the stick at diagonals making an x shape i then carve away the material up towards the stop cuts that i made making sure i do the same each side eventually the shape of the notch starts to look like the beak of a bird this is often called a beak notch the other end of the stick is just a fork shape and now i can hang this fork on a horizontal stick over a campfire and then the beak notch i just made can be used to hang the handle of a kettle over the fire the bevel of this particular knife is ideal for making deep slicing cuts in some cases you can cut small trees or saplings where you would normally use a saw i only tend to do this technique on very thin saplings or thin branches on trees for it to work it needs to be on a green tree and not a dead one bend the sapling and put some downward pressure on it then make a slice cut at 45 degrees to the branch you do need to apply a fair amount of force into this cut but by bending the sapling it helps to split the cut more sometimes you can get a clean cut through the sapling first go other times it might split in two and then you need to do the same technique to the other half to make it cut another handy skill for this type of knife is cleaving a branch in half lengthwise with a branch this long you can't batten down on it to split it so if you make an initial split in the end of the branch using your knife all you then need to do is twist your wrist to open the cup more and split the wood further down each time it splits move the knife further down the branch and twist your wrist again and there you have it 10 quick bushcraft knife skills that you can do when out in the woods one very important point before we end the video be careful when using any knife or sharp tool make sure that you have a well stocked first aid kit and do not attempt any of these skills if you are new to using knives in the woods i wanted to show you some of the knife skills that i use on a regular basis when practicing bushcraft and outdoor skills i recommend getting yourself onto a bushcraft course that focuses on knife skills and safety there are some excellent courses and instructors out there who can teach you the safe ways to use a knife in the woods thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next one [Music] [Music] you

Channel: TA Outdoors

Views: 2,296,589

Keywords: 10 bushcraft knife skills in 10 minutes, bushcraft, bushcraft skills, bushcraft knife, ta outdoors, survival, survival tips, survival skills, wilderness survival tips, wilderness, how to survive, 10 bushcraft skills, 10 wilderness survival tips, 10 wilderness survival skills, bushcraft camp, bushcraft shelter, camping, camping tips, wild camping, off grid, cabin, woods, forest

Id: 37d2J40rw7I

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 01 2021