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My New Bushcraft Knife
Feb 4, 2024
A new knife for fall. I am excited to show you my new custom blade from River Bottom Blades. No hardcore testing, just a quick look and a few of my thoughts. Enjoy! Please visit these links below: Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/influencer20170928757?listId=G2KB0QXOLW6D ORDER Patches and Stickers! https://www.etsy.com/shop/thepreparedwanderer FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1835005976546722 INSTAGRAM: prepared_wanderer Blog https://wanderingoutdoors.com #preparedwanderer #bushcraft #survival -~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
View Video Transcript
0:00
I found this awesome little opening in the middle of the woods
0:08
It looks like when I come in here I'd go through all that stuff and it's thick and I follow
0:13
the game trail in. But it opens up to a nice little spot back here
0:19
It's not too bad. Kind of secluded. No one can see me from the road
0:33
Little buggy back here. So I got a new knife this week and I was posting some pictures of it on Instagram and of course
0:46
the first thing that was asked was like, are you going to do a review on it on your YouTube channel
0:51
And I was like, okay, yeah, I can do that. This is the quandary that I'm under with knives and doing knife testing on YouTube
1:01
Unless you plan on destroying that knife, knife testing really doesn't mean much to me
1:08
Because knives are so personal. There's such a personal thing. I mean, how a knife feels in your hand
1:15
Everybody has different size hands. Everybody has different parameters that they want to use a knife for
1:24
So anyway, let me show you what I got here and we'll talk about this a little bit more
1:32
So here's the blade. This is a Riverbottom Blades M1. O1 steel, Scandi grind, 1-1-1, brown micarta, natural brown micarta, with red G10 liners
1:53
Riverbottom Blades is US made. It's a one man knife shop out of Indiana
1:59
The owner, Jamie, is a guy that I've known for a while and I consider him a friend that
2:07
I don't get to see very much, but he's always someone that I like talking to and he's helped
2:14
me out on a few things and I like to support his business. So when my name came up on his list, I was like, yeah, I'm ready
2:21
I want to have you make a custom knife for me. Because one thing that Jamie does really well is his finishes are just nuts
2:33
They're supreme. His work is so clean, so beautiful, it's very elegant and he's definitely a craftsman
2:42
His process, he does everything, as far as I know, he does everything from start to finish
2:47
He does the heat treat, the cutting the blanks, everything as far as I know
2:54
It's a true custom knife and his work is phenomenal. So there it is
3:01
If I review this, what am I going to review? Well, I know it cuts
3:07
It's an extremely sharp Scandi grind. His edge is impeccable. Very clean
3:16
I think the thing that I would probably talk about most is really just how the knife feels for me and that's what's important
3:22
I think that's probably one of the most important things you can do when you're buying a custom knife is finding a knife that fits your hand and fits it well
3:29
So a lot of times I find knives have too thick of a handle
3:35
It's a problem that I had with the Lagom Bush Knife from L.T. Wright and Lester River Bushcraft
3:44
Beautiful knife. Craftsmanship is excellent for a semi-custom knife, but the handle is just way too fat
3:54
for me. I found it uncomfortable. A lot of other knives are like that too
3:59
They're just a big block or a big blob of handle. If you can see this on this handle, there's a taper to it and it tapers down ever so slightly
4:13
What that does is it doesn't put any pressure or any friction on the back part of my hand
4:19
on the heel of my hand. All my grip on this knife is up front
4:25
It's around where that finger guard comes up. That's where my grip is at
4:30
That is where the control is for this knife. It's not back here. So to have this taper back slightly I think is really important
4:38
That's why I chose this model, this M1, because I really like the handle design
4:42
I wanted to try it because it's something different. It's something that I have not seen before
4:48
A lot of Bushcraft knives have that Coke bottle figure to them, which is great
4:54
I love the Coke bottle. That's probably my second favorite handle for a knife is the Coke bottle design
5:00
But this design that Jamie has, that he's come up with, I think is really cool
5:05
I love how he's got this offset lanyard hole. It goes up towards the top
5:11
It's not dead center in the middle. It fits my hand very well
5:19
Very comfortable to hold and to mess with. Now as far as cutting capabilities and what this thing can do, we can certainly do some
5:27
tests today, but I'm not going to beat the snot out of this thing because it's a nice
5:34
tool and I don't want to ruin it. I don't think I would with a one tool steel
5:40
I know this thing is not going to break or fall apart. I know the edge is not going to chip, but I'm certainly not going to be driving this
5:46
thing into the dirt or into concrete blocks or anything insane like that
5:52
I'll save those tests for other guys who want to test cheaper knives, but this thing is
5:59
a work of art and I want to hang on to it for a very long time
6:03
This is my new bushcraft knife and hopefully we'll see a lot of this more this winter when
6:10
I'm filming, doing more tasks with it, more feather sticks and fire prep and stuff like that
7:40
So for chores around camp, you know you're going to be doing tent stakes maybe
7:51
You're going to be making, carving out notches to hang a pot on to do a pot hook
8:10
Definitely a lot more testing and use of this I need to do, but like I said, I'm not
8:29
going to destroy this thing for the sake of video. There's no reason for it
8:34
It's a fine tool and it's going to last me a lifetime if I take care of it and I'm really
8:40
looking forward to using it more. So today is just kind of an introduction. I wanted you guys to meet my new baby
8:46
I think I'm going to call her Pumpkin. It's the beginning of fall
8:51
It's got that kind of nice warm orange glow to it. Fall is my favorite time of year, so Pumpkin and I are going to be out quite a bit this
9:01
year and we'll do some more feather sticks and carving and stuff like that and camp tasks
9:08
with this thing and take it on some trips and yeah, she'll be around so you can look
9:14
forward to that. All right guys, if you're interested in learning more about his knives, there's only one place
9:26
that I know of where you can actually go and learn more about Riverbottom Blade knives
9:30
and that's on Bushcraft USA forum. They have a vendor section and his forum is down there under Riverbottom Blade
9:41
So if you're more interested in learning more about the different models that he has and
9:50
getting on his wait list, that is the only way I think you can contact him
9:54
I don't believe he has a website of any kind and this is not his primary job so he does
10:01
not do a ton of knives. So you could be on a wait list for a little bit but I found once my name came up the process
10:10
moved very quickly and his prices are very reasonable. You know, this knife here is under $300 as is with sheath
10:23
Now here's the bonus with this knife that you will not find with other knives
10:31
Jamie currently makes all his own sheaths and his design of sheath is pretty awesome
10:39
It's a little dirty. Nice dangler style, deep pocket
10:49
That's why I got that paracord on there so I can index that a little bit easier and get
10:53
that out a little bit easier. The dangler on this thing is removable
10:58
So you undo that Chicago type screw and that whole thing comes off
11:04
And you can even, I believe, you can actually remove this hardware too because that has
11:08
a screw to it so that unscrews and this whole piece of hardware can come off
11:12
And the other nice thing is a lot of danglers don't have this
11:16
I don't have to take my belt off to put this knife on my belt, which I love
11:21
It's like the number one pet peeve of mine with knives and dangler sheaths
11:26
It's like put the frickin' snaps on these things so I can get this thing on and off
11:30
I don't want to have to be undressing in the parking lot before I go on a hike to get this
11:36
knife on my belt. So the ability to quickly add it to my belt, take it on and off as I need to is phenomenal
11:48
And just the quality of his leather work is really nice too. I know he doesn't enjoy it, making leather
11:54
It's not his favorite part of the process, but he does a darn nice job
11:58
So I got to give him that. His craftsmanship is top notch
12:03
So all right guys, Pumpkin and I are going to get out of here
12:07
We're going to hit the woods. Even though it's the first, second day of fall, it's going to hit in the 90s today
12:16
So I am ready for real fall weather. I want to get out more and do some cooking in the woods and playing around
12:24
But right now it's just too hot to be out for any huge amount of time
12:28
So I come out in the morning time and shoot my video and get home. So all right guys, thanks for watching
12:33
As always, please like, subscribe, share and we'll see you next time on the Prepared Wanderer