Two buddies and I had a 41-mile horse-packing flyfishing trip into the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area planned last week. For a trip like this you want everything planned out to the T. For the trip, I got each of us a Smith’s 4-inch Bushcraft Knife. We’d need a straight-blade knife with a stout blade to perform our heavy camp jobs. If you pick the wrong gear on a trip like this, you’re sunk. We’d be 4 hours from the nearest town at the trailhead, and then we planned on being another 8 hours in on horses. If gear doesn’t work or breaks, you’re sunk.
Smith’s 4-inch Bushcraft Knife
I planned on using my knife for cutting cords, shaving kindling, cutting up steak at dinner, and doing any work on our packs or saddles, so I needed a stout blade. The Smith’s 4-inch Bushcraft Knife has a stout 4-inch stainless steel blade, so it fits my requirements and is able to perform all of the jobs that I put it to.
For the tasks that we’d be doing, a 4-inch blade was plenty big. In fact, none of the knives that I use and carry have a blade over four ½-inches other than my boning knives. So, the blade length was fine with me.
For what I’d was using it for I was glad that it had a stainless-steel blade. Since we were going to be way back in the backcountry for a week, if we encountered wet nasty conditions we wouldn’t have to worry about whether the blade was going to get rusty or not.
I love the handle. It has a soft grip feel to it, and due to its shape, I feel like I have a firm grip on it when using it. It has a slight finger groove on the front and back which further enhances your grip. So it offers a good, firm grip. If it had some thumb grooves on the first 1-inch of the spine, it would have even further enhanced your grip. I’d like to see thumb grooves on it, but it is fine without them. So, in a nutshell, I love the feel of the handle, and it offers a firm grip.
The sheath is a hard plastic sheath and comes in hunters’ orange, which is nice for when you’re outdoors and misplace or lose items. I like how tight the knife fits into the sheath, and it sets down deep in the sheath. It doesn’t actually snap into the sheath and yet it fits in tight as if it did.
But the sheath is the only drawback of the whole setup. Here’s why. Instead of a slot that your belt slips through, it clips over your belt. When hustling around our base camp, saddling up horses and loading packs, my knife fell off my belt. I’m going to suggest to Smith’s that they revamp the clip on the sheath and make it solid. That’d be a bad deal if you lost your knife. But other than this one deficiency, I love the knife, and it makes a great camp knife.
The MSRP on the Smith’s 4-inch Bushcraft Knife is $12.99, and as is usual, we will close with the company specs.
Smith’s 4.0″ EdgeSport Bushcraft hunting knife is essential for a variety of outdoor adventures such as hunting, fishing, hiking, or camping. It features a razor-sharp 3Cr13 series stainless steel blade that is durable and reliable for a variety of uses. It features a non-slip TPE soft grip ergonomic handle for a sturdy and comfortable grip and it also comes with a breathable protective sheath that will protect you and the knife in your pack or on your belt.
About Tom Claycomb
1) Is it full tang?
2) Why no pictures showing the shape of the blade?
Have a Good Day
Cheap steel doesn’t hold an edge and thin blades tend to bend.
The only reason I took the time to look at this article was to see the knife blade. No pictures showing the whole knife? Bad job with this article. It like reviewing a car and only showing the wheels.
At least this one will be easy to sharpen, unlike D2.
HLB