Description
Five inches of blade, five inches of handle, and a steel bolster sitting between them. Even proportions like these are rare because they are harder to get right than they look.
| Overall length | 10 inches |
| Blade length | 5 inches |
| Handle length | 5 inches |
| Steel | 1095 + 15N20 Damascus |
| Hardness | 58–60 HRC, oil tempered |
| Handle | Rose Wood Bone Handle | Steel Bolster |
| Included | Hand-stitched leather sheath |
In the field: hunting and general outdoor cutting. A five-inch blade is long enough to open up and quarter a deer without running out of edge, and short enough to keep the tip under control when you are working by feel inside a body cavity. It also handles camp jobs — cutting cord, prepping food, shaving a fire stick — without feeling like the wrong tool.
Rose wood and bone together
Two natural materials on one handle means two rates of change. The bone is dense and stable and stays close to the color you receive it in, though it takes on a faint warm cast over the years. The rose wood is the part that moves. It darkens noticeably in the first year, especially where your palm sits, and the grain becomes more pronounced as the surface oils in. Neither material likes being soaked or left in a hot vehicle. What they give you in exchange is grip that improves as it wears and a knife that stops looking new and starts looking used, which on a hunting knife is the right direction.
What the bolster is doing
The steel bolster is not decoration. It adds mass at the balance point, which shifts the knife back toward your hand and takes the tip-heavy feel out of a five-inch blade. It also caps the front of the handle scales, so blood and water have a harder time getting into the joint between the handle and the tang. That joint is where handles on natural-material knives usually fail. Dry that seam specifically when you clean the knife.
Oiling a knife with an organic handle
The blade and the handle want different things, and this is the part most owners get wrong. The steel wants a light mineral oil or a dry corrosion inhibitor, applied thin and wiped almost off. The rose wood wants an occasional feed — a small amount of oil worked in with a cloth, twice a year, no more. Do not flood the handle, and do not use a film-forming furniture polish, which will sit on top and go tacky. Never store the knife in the leather sheath for months at a time; the tannins hold moisture against both steel and wood. Our guide to knife oils covers which products suit which job.
Questions before ordering
Will mine match the photographs? Closely, but not identically. Bone and rose wood are natural, so color and grain vary from piece to piece.
Is it heavy? We do not publish a weight for this model. Judge it from the dimensions and the materials listed above.
What if I want an all-natural handle? The stag-handled Black Bird hunting knife is the option without a wood component. The Damascus hunting knife guide compares handle materials properly.
Model: BMK-701
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.