Bark River Knfe: Aurora
By Clay Churchill
My new woodsbumming knife is the Bark River Aurora in Black Canvas with hollow pins. It is a very stout knife with a 4 1/2" inch blade. It is ideal for woodcraft with it heavy blade and centered tip for drilling. It also sliced like a chef’s knife in the kitchen cutting up veggies and meat.
It is a large handled knife that feels great in the hand due to the contours and palm swell that it has. I recently had Sharpshooter do up a kydex sheath, as I think the leather sheaths look to long. Don't get me wrong they are of very high quality and have a nice firesteel loop on them. For this knife the kydex suits me better, but I need to get a firesteel loop for it.
I did get some practice batoning with it and it performed very well. I also tried chopping with it and it was ok, but a little short for that. I found that I could baton it cross grain and get much deeper cuts. I am sure this will hold up to just about anything I can ask of it. When I needed to use it as a scraper for my fire steel, it put out an explosion of sparks that I would expect from any of Mike's knives. This will be a great companion in the woods and a will complement my other outdoor tools very nicely. I will pair this with my new PSK around my neck for a truly great team.
I know that a lot of planning and testing went into this knife and it really shows.
