Scandinavian knives

Scandinavian knives are usually simple blades with wooden handles, and a simple leather sheath. They are knives that are meant to to be used and last a long time.

This is a small selection of my favorite scandinavian knives.
From the left: The first three are Strømeng sami knives 5, 7 and 9 inch. (i.m.o. - the best and most versatile knives you'll ever find.) The second two are traditional norwegian knifes made from some local knife smiths. Then comes my two most used belt-knives. Helle Nying and Brusletto Bamsen. The plastic one is from Mora - I have a lot of those. They are very cheap and of great quality.

Camelbak Eddy .75l HOD

This is my second Camelbak bottle. I've tried several other brands of similar type of sport bottle. I've chosen the .75l because it's the most convenient size for me. The .50l is too small and the 1l is too bulky. I did like the drinking valve better on the Camelbak Better Bottle more. It was easier to open it when it was plastic instead of rubber, but now it won't break. Many of the other brands spills water when its turned upside down - the Eddy dosen't.

Gerber Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife w/ fine edge

The Gerber Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife (from here on after reffered to as "Gerber BG") is one of the bestselling knives in the world. Why? I decided to review how my Gerber BG would perform in different scenarios you would encounter when bushcrafting. I'm not a knife expert, but I know what one should expect from a good knife.

At first glance the Gerber BG is a very cool knife. It has a hint of tactical look like military knives without any tactical color. The blade i quite wide and heavy and has a coating to prevent corrosion. The handle is rubber with a large metal pommel at the end. It also comes with an emergency whistle attached to the handle.  The sheath is really big, but it has a few extra features than just holding the knife. It has a sharpener, a small survival guide, and a fire steel.

Gerber BG as a fishing knife.

I brought the knife to a fishing trip to see if it could replace my regular fishing knife. It took a while before I caught my first fish of the day. The thick and heavy blade is perfect for killing the fish with a whack in the head The thickness of the blade makes gutting and cleaning the fish a bit harder than usual, but not impossible.

Bushcrafting with Gerber BG

Chopping: Used the knife on some big branches for fire wood. The heavy blade was a great help when chopping.

Whittling: It wasn't easy. Got a feeling that there where something wrong with the handle when using it at that particular angle. The edge on the blade isn't optimal for whittling. I prefer a scandi grind when using it for that. 

Gerber BG as a hunting knife.

Haven't tried it on any huntet animals, but to get the feel on how it would perform I used it to prepare some beef for barbequing. I can see how the rounded edge at the tip would be good for skinning and gutting - but that's just guessing.

The extra features on Gerber BG

The survival guide: it covers a few basic survival skills that could come in handy in a such situation.

The sheath is big and bulky, and not very comfortable to wear on your belt. I've attached a small carabiner to it, so it will hang on to my belt more comfortable. I've also wrapped a few feet of extra paracord around the sheath.

The whistle is really loud, but not very solid. It took my three year old son under one minut to break it. I recomend moving it from the handle of the knife to the handle of the fire steel. Then it won't come it the way of the pommel. I used the pummel to break some sea shells so my son could fish crabs from the pier. The knife performed well at the task, but so would a rock have done.

The sharpner is too coarse to make a good fine edge, but with no alternatives anything will do. This knife looses its edge quikly so having a sharpner close becomes quite usefull.

My conclution:

It's really cool looking, but just an ok allrounder. It's not perfect for anything I used it for. It's a lot of money to pay for just an ok knife, but if you're a fan of mr. Grylls - as I am... then why not? ;)