Bushcraft Knives: The Field Master

Description

This is a handmade knife that myself and Lee from LB Custom Knives have designed and made.

MCQBushcraft:

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Video Transcription

hi there guys it's Mike from mcq bushcraft here and welcome to another video I've been asked a lot of questions recently about a knife I've been using in some of my more recent videos and it's this knife I've got on me just here this is a fairly new addition to my equipment although I have been using it for the past four months and to say I'm impressed with it is really an understatement it's been a bit of fantastic addition to the kit I've really enjoyed using it and this is a knife that I designed in collaboration with a UK knife maker called Li from LB custom knives and I was very lucky to be able to produce it with Lee Lee is a very highly regarded knife maker over here in the British Isles and he does a lot of work over in the in the States as well producing bespoke handmade knives and he produces really quite outstanding leather work as well if you've ever seen his leather work it's um it really is on another level that some it's quite impressive to say the least but this knifes got a bit of a back story behind it this is this is really just a prototype and I've been testing it for the past four months but Lee contacted me the other day and he told me that something was on its way into the post for me and I had a good idea of what it was and although I've really enjoyed using this prototype I mean I've really taken it to hell and back I've given it a beating and it's a it's been like nothing I've ever really seen before in terms of performance on edge retention the steel it's been a beautiful knife and it will be continued to be used but I was very excited and I've got the the final design here and here it is and this is a knife called the field master an absolutely beautiful knife I couldn't be more happy with it it's a stunning piece of handmade craftsmanship by Lee and the performance of it is is again there to match so a beautiful field knife that I'm really going to look forward

adding to my kit and using in the future and really capable of dealing with conditions in any environment I'll go into the specifications a little bit later I'll tell you a bit about the backstory I was able to talk to Lee and I told him a bit about what I wanted in a knife and he said well I'm happy to make something with your design something with you or if you want to design a knife I'm happy to run through it with you and you can come down and work with me and we'll we'll produce something which I was really happy with because he's a quite a busy man and his work is very sought-after I'm so I was quite fortunate really but I gave Lee a call I went to visit him and we spent quite a bit of time working on the knife on more than one occasion detailing it out of drawings and then building it out of wood making like prototypes and testing the comfort of them looking at the shape and geometry and we eventually after quite a bit of time came to produce this which is the prototype field master knife which he produced for me it's steel as well Dhar WL 34 which is a very high performance stainless steel when it turned up I was quite happy with it really and and thought this is Tania time to give it some real real beating in the field and the first time I took it out was I had a two-week course in the torrential rain no matter how long you spend out in the rain it always finds a way in even if you have the vast waterproofs in the world it will eventually get in and it will get on your tools because if you've got to use your tools in the rain they get wet you're working with wet wood you're taking it out the sheath you're holding wood with wet hands or gloves it gets damp it goes back in the sheath and if you're using a carbon steel blade and leather it's a real nightmare to have to maintain it because you really need to keep on top of it or else it will rust and you obviously can't keep it in the sheath at night or after the sheath we'll all see hold the water being leather and you'll rust the sheath as well rust the knife as well so for me to use this in that kind of environment which is kind of typical environment that I'm in most of the year was a breath of

sher really to begin with because our WL 34 is very corrosion resistant one thing I really wanted to test on it was the edge retention and the strength of the blade and the steel I was familiar with the heat tree it's had a full heat treat to 59 RC and it's had a full cryogenic treatment to it and really that it's been in cryogenic treatment in liquid nitrogen as well so it's really there to give give it superior edge retention really refine the molecules in the steel to give it some very very good edge retention which I wanted to test that so I spent an hour almost each morning before the course began because it's kind of my job really to get up get the fire going make sure everything's running for the course and to process would I put my axe down and just took this knife and there is some deadfall Evoque that have been down for some time really seasoned and although the outer was damp the inside was just this twisted hardcore evoke if you have a familiar with oak and you got into the woods no matter how old it is the cause of the oak limbs are always rock-hard it takes a long time to rot which is why it's such good firewood but um I took the knife and I just battened the hell out of it for an hour each morning going through knots deliberately aiming for knots whacking it against knots battening the knots and forcing the knife to move through the twists of the grain just really giving it a hard time in wet weather as well and um I was expecting obviously to have to strop it and address the edge but after two weeks of doing that every morning for an hour the edge was still shaving sharp so the heat tree was absolutely astounding and the performance of the steel was brilliant as well I mean with softer Steel's I wouldn't really dare do that and I did things with this knife that I wouldn't normally do with knives that I have in my kit but that's because I really wanted to take it to the edge and back in terms of its performance one thing I've done with it quite a bit is used it on game we've prepared large and small game deer like muntjac and Rome also rabbits and pheasants and pigeons I've taken out and prepared all sorts of game like that and even deliberately buttons the knife through bone which is something I really don't like doing especially something I would never do with a Scandinavian grind because they're quite fragile you'll ruin your wrench doing things like that again you handled it perfectly no rolls or anything at all just batten straight through the bone without a scratch and that was something that I was really really impressed with and for me it's designed to be used across a whole range of disciplines so it has to do a bit of everything really which is why we came up with the name the field master and four months down the line the maintenance I've done on it is I've just dropped it once and that's not because it all it really needed was to be strop once I would have dropped it more than that but I really wanted to just not do too much with it and just see how it performed and see all its longevity of the edge walls and it's still shaving sharp which to me is a testament to the steel but also to Lee's heat treatment because um he's done a an absolutely astounding job even just on this prototype here that was for me to test I'm and it's been a pleasure to use it really has to be on the coastline which I took it away with me to do some fishing on the case line and I was camping out down there caught some smooth hangs like a pipe of shark just open the fish up with ease you know really nice to use on flying fish and skinning and paring game and preparing food and chopping mushrooms and going out and foraging and just slicing food it's just a it's been really nice and it really has spoken for itself in its use for me which I'm um which I'm really happy with obviously not having to worry about salt water I left it in a bucket of salt water for two days and then didn't have a spot of rust on it so you know

a good a good steel for corrosion resistance the actual final design has a few changes nothing really too substantial but the basics of it are its RW l 34 again so that's a very high-end performance stainless steel it's been hardened to 59 RC has full cryo treatment to give it superior edge retention which really needs to be done with this kind of steel we've got a stain wash finish on the top of the spine and on the rear portion of the blade where it meets the scales and a brushed finish on the actual blade which is really just for aesthetics because it looks much nicer and it aged is a little bit better like that it's a full flat grind with a secondary bevel the actual thickness of the steel is three point six millimeters it does taper down because of the nature of the full flat grind but the majority of the blade three point six millimeters has jimping along the top and the jimping is really mild jimping so not pronounced very large knobs on the top like you kind of see on some knives but this jimping is more like a bit of a file just help you do some scraping as well on a farad although the 90 degrees fine does a good job of that as well but the jimping really locks your thumb against the blade and if you try and slide your thumb up and down it just literally locks it in position so it's very very functional I really like the jumping on this one the scales are linen micarta black on brain and they're removable as well

you also have a lanyard hole but overall it's a very nice knife and you do have a small toy there as well so you can actually sharp them all of the but I'm blown away with it really beautiful knife and very functional very functional in the field which is for me is is the main thing and obviously it comes with a Kydex sheath as well got this Kydex sheath here which is compatible the tack lock so you can see on the prototype it's got a tech lock on it I've got another tack lock coming for this final one because I would like to keep the tech lock on them both really because the prototype can still be used by the people that I'm with one thing I'll probably be asked is my cure bushcrafter why not Scandinavian grind why did you design a knife for that Scandinavian grind I spaced on perceived as someone in the bushcraft world doing bushcraft and teaching it and stuff and them so therefore you know the knife of choice for me should be a Scandinavian grind I've you Scandi grind zone quite a few and I do use them and I really enjoy using them it's a really nice grind performs beautifully on wood but really for me bushcraft is a sort of modern word now brought over here and it's kind of a lot of commercial status held with it and the Scandi grind that's kind of like a celebrity status in under the word bushcraft and I think a lot of the time you can go on bushcraft courses and you can speak to other people if you do bushcraft skills and that's in your say so then what knife should I buy and they'll go amaura you need to see the Scandi grind and they really tell you why they'll just tell you that's what you need and then that information just kind of carries on through repetition without kind of too much understanding behind it for me bushcraft skills are about all wilderness living skills things like whittling wood and carving a part of it and construction and crafts and there's also preparation of food hunting trapping fishing preparing game filling fish making various things and preparing animal hides slicing and preparing food out in the field and foraging and slicing things up and doing all manner of things like that you know bushcraft is encompasses lots and lots of different skills and amongst all those core things like food and game and fishing and whittling that there are a myriad of other subjects as well like various plant materials and fibers you can just go on and on and on and the more you kind of get into all of that sort of stuff that the more the tools you carry have to be versatile so the Scandinavian grind is a very fragile grind really that the reality of it is it's a very fragile grind really nice on wood and it excels at carving that's why you see a lot of carving knives with a scandi grind on them if you get quite a thin Scandi grind you know they can be quite versatile as well but you do suffer other compromises with that but if you've ever tried preparing game with them working with bone flaying a fish and filling a fish they're particularly clumsy and generally quite fragile and prone to dulling when using them for those kind of things especially if you come into contact with very hard things like bone either by mistake or deliberately because of the nature of the grind it's quite fragile there may be people out there that argue you know a knife should never roll and it shouldn't chip and your knives will it's a piece of steel with a really fine edge on it if you put it against something hard it will roll and if you don't address the role the role eventually move back and forth and it can chip and I've owned some real high-end knives from top knife makers with top of the game heat treats they still roll if you if you don't use them right or if you do something will make a mistake with them put them on something really hard and the Scandi grind is just unfortunately very fragile and you know if you skin an animal and you hear the bone it's you know you're going to roll it and done and that's really it and for me this grind is just ultimately stronger the full flat is really for me a field grind you see it a lot on a lot of field knives that are designed to do a range of different things because of the nature of the grind it's got very tough edge retention but it's also quite thin in its profile slices very well it's very good for skinning brilliant for opening up fish and filling fish and it does very very well well with wood as well you know you can get some really shallow angles on it and make feathers that are so thin you can see through them and it's a it's a really good grind for doing a variety of different things and it's parable with harder steels and more high-tech steels like this particular one here so that's the reason I didn't design a knife for the Scandinavian grind if I did it would be any different to anything that's already out there and it wouldn't be any different to anything that I've used before or own and the thing is is I'm I'm kind of moving away from those sorts of knives because I'm quite tired of looking after them if I'm quite honest for me whacking sparks off the back of a carbon steel knife has never really been something I've done too often I've done it a few times and it's never been something I've done because of needed to but I carry an axe that's made of carbon steel anyway and I could just bash that or maybe off of a saw blade or some other piece of steel equipment that I carry but if you just work with wood then there's no reason why you would want anything else the Scandinavian grind this is quite superior in that respect and just much nicer to work with I've got some nice carving knives with a scandi grind on and they're really thin you can just almost just rotate circles of wood out with them they're so fine you know it's really quite impressive and it's something that other grinders would find pretty difficult but one thing I asked of Lee was would he produce more of these if anyone else wanted them because it's a great knife I thought other people could benefit from it and he was a bit reluctant at first but he has agreed to and he's not going to be producing them as like a regular production what like his other knives it's more of something you'll trickle out every now and then when he has time - based on our agreement I hosted all the admin stuff on my website when they're available I'll update the stock on the website and obviously notify people that it's available and he's not taking orders for it it's just first-come first-serve to make it fair for everyone because he ends up taking orders he just he doesn't enjoy that kind of thing and gets backlogged in it and it stops him getting on with the other things he wants to get on with so this life will be available for other people if they want it and you will find it on my website and you'll see a link below in the description they're being made as this videos produced and when they're ready I'll update the stock on the website and whoever wants one can obviously own one I mean the price it's not cheap at all but if you're into custom knife builds out there you'll realize that with the price of the materials to build this and the fact that it's completely handmade by Lee you know no jigs no water jetting no parts arriving pre-made he does it all by hand and you'll appreciate that it is a piece of art functional piece of art made by one of the top you knife makers in the UK from materials that pretty much make up the third of the cost of the knife you know steel alone is costs a fortune really to build this it's a very very expensive steel rwr 34 but that's what makes it special and you know that's why really I wanted it to be what it was so it's 300 pounds for the knife it's very expensive but originally it was made for me I you know I didn't sort of go on a commercial venture to build a knife and become a millionaire because there is no financial gain in it for me it's a knife that I'm happy I've got and it's suited for me but if anyone else there's similar things to me and wants a knife like this then it is available for you out there and you'll find them on my website so well I hope you've enjoyed this video and I hope it's answered the question of this knife appearing in many videos and a lot of you have asked me and I've had a lot of messages about it so hopefully this has put that to rest and you'll be seeing this one on my belt in future videos so thanks again for watching and please see the links below do you follow me on Instagram as well I'll put those links in the description he's regularly updating things on Instagram and you'll get an idea of when these things will be ready by his Instagram feeds because he does daily feeds on how his productions are going and thank you for watching and I hope you enjoy future videos and I'll see you very soon in another one so take care guys and thank you again