Bark River Knives: Custom Skinner Review
By: Reid Hyken
In the gallery for this knife Mike stated:
“The "Classic Custom Skinner" ranks right up there as one of the very nicest knives I have ever made. “
I disagree, this is THE nicest knife he's ever made and for all the right reasons.
The Specs are right:
- Overall Length: 10 Inches
- Blade Length: 5 Inches
- Blade steel: 52-100 @ 58rc
- Blade Thickness: .160 Inch
- Weight:6.5 Ounces
The weight and balance even moreso, the thinner than customary from Bark River blade makes the knife surprisingly light and neutral feeling in the hand. Neutral isn't a bad thing, it simply means that the knife just feels natural giving the impression that it's going to go wherever you want it to automatically, like an extension of your hand.
The “Vintage Stack” lends a retro look to the knife that matches the classical blade shape perfectly.
The first time I saw a vintage stack was on my Wade and Butcher Boone:
Wade and Butcher wasn't the only manufacturer to use it, a few Marble's knives had it as well making them unbelievably collectable. Regardless, it looks great, lending style to the tool.
This is very refreshing to me in this age of “Black Guns” and “Tactical” knives where style is gained by making things look “TOUGH”.
This knife doesn't look “TOUGH” it has a functional beauty much like an old rust blued Winchester Model 70 or Pre-War Single Action Army.
I couldn't resist the temptation and snapped this pic of the test knife in a Jacquie Stewart Sheridan Style carved sheath.
This creates a striking, almost artistic contrast against the backdrop of the woods. In years past, outdoorsmen were commonly referred to as “Outers”, a term that should be resurrected. This is a package an experienced Outer would be proud to wear in the field.
The Bark River 2009 Custom Skinner is a lot more than just a skinner. Everything has to have a name of some sort and the blade shape defines this knife as a “Skinner.”
The root knife is actually a trade knife that was transported by the barrelful out west. The knife looked much like the sheep skinner we're all acquainted with.
As time went on and the European Knife makers discovered the American market as a lucrative one, they began making their own interpretations of that knife.
Around the turn of the 20th century Webster Marble invented the modern “Hunting Knife” incorporating the stick tang to the his interpretation of the commonly seen blade designs.
Add a dash of Scagel for style some time for the mix to meld together and you end up with something looking like this:
Which the knifemakers in Solingen titled:
Original Buffalo Skinner.
Hence the name for the style of knife.
While the name implies skinning out game, this knife looks to me to be a lot more than just a one trick pony. We know that the right steel, geometry and heat treat will result in a knife that can stand up to cutting a lot more than just skin.
I see a knife that can be carried whenever out in the woods, like the hunters of old who went into the wilds, set up camp and lived off the land for a week or so while they hunted.
Meat for the pot came from the surroundings and camp comforts were a matter of inventing and building the necessary gadget. The hunter's knife had to be light, comfortable and above all sharp.
At one time, I envisioned a knife just like this as my “one knife” to slip on my belt any time I ventured into the woods. It was to be the knife to do it all, from cutting anything and everything to being spectacular in appearance. A dichotomy between beauty and functionality.
I never did manage to find that knife but I'm possibly seeing one in the 2009 Custom Skinner.
The important question; is this a shallow Hollywood Starlet beauty or the deep and abiding girl next door type with the ability hold up her end of whatever comes along and passes “the door test.” every time.
There's only one way to find out, let's see what happens when she gets a bit of mud on her shoes.
I took the Bark River 2009 Custom Skinner the the Sharpshooter test lab behind the shop.
This is going to be a dual purpose Field Report; first to test out the Custom Skinner and second to do a bit of teaching.
We've been hearing about knives with chipped out edges from “light chopping.”
I think Mike cringes almost as much as I do whenever we hear that. Invariably, the light chopping is to remove branches or limbs from trees.
It seems a logical way of removing the small sticks, they're thin and easily removed. A Golok or machete slices through stuff that's larger with no problem or damage. We use big knives to chop through much larger pieces without a problem so it makes sense to do it that way.
Here's the problem: The edge of a knife, whatever kind of knife is the most fragile part of the blade. It's the thinnest part so there's less support there than anywhere else.
What happens when we're chopping?
When chopping big stuff like logs and such, we're hitting the wood with a lot of energy straight on.
The force of impact is trying to drive the edge back toward the spine.
The edge is splitting the wood fibers as it contacts them.
As the edge penetrates the wood, it is surrounded by the wood which is absorbing energy and breaking away.
Eventually the sides of the edge are wedging against the wood and the friction is dissipating the energy.
That's how it works with all chopping tools.
When you are “Light Chopping” you are putting far different stresses on the edge.
First, you have lost the energy absorption from wedging into the wood and now have harmonics like a tuning fork vibrating the edge with each hit. The wood contacting the blade dampens those vibrations like your finger on a guitar string.
Second, you are putting side stresses on the edge, the force of impact isn't driving the edge back toward the spine; it's now hitting the less supported edge to the side.
If you wanted to knock chips out of the edge, that's exactly how you would hit it, from the side where there is no support.
Every blade we've looked at with chips from the blade from light chopping exhibit the same pattern. Look closely and you'll see how the metal deformed to one side or the other around the chip.
Good knives can chop, but frankly, if you're thinking of a knife with less than 7+ inches of blade as a chopper, you are going to be sorely disappointed.
As I demonstrate at Grind-Ins and such, the idea is to let the tool do the work.
A knife is held by the thumb and forefinger during the backswing and most of the foreswing.
Your elbow and wrist lift the knife on the backswing and your hand is relaxed.
The swing is actually you guiding the knife toward your work as you straighten your elbow:
Your wrist straightens just before the knife hits the target and your hand closes around the handle.
This accelerates the blade in a smaller arc to increase the power of the swing.
This is all dependent upon the weight of the blade to build speed and energy for the chop. You aren't using arm strength.
When you have a short knife, that doesn't work and you're using all arm strength to chop. Short Blades are not for chopping.
Hence the Baton. The knife stays still and the baton is swung with the same motion allowing gravity and physics to do the work.
SO... how do you remove limbs and branches.
With your knife and baton.
On large branches you place your knife in the crotch;
Then you baton it straight into the joint;
Being careful to maintain proper technique by keeping the handle level with or above the work, you'll notice that my hand is actually open, just maintaining pressure on the handle as the baton drives the edge into the wood.
It didn't take many hits to be deep into the joint. A combination of the proper geometry, sharp edge and stout baton makes it seem easy. Not too bad for a “skinner”.
Just a couple more hits and the branch is on the ground.
No “light chopping” just skilful use of tools.
It's not a trip to the test lab without building something.
Today I decided to stick with the old school hunting camp concept and make a “grate.”
The concept is simple. We got a rabbit or nice big fish for dinner and have decided that slow roasting tastes better than on a spit or in a stew.
So I'm going to build a quick wooden grate to hold the meat near the fire to cook.
The grate is simple. A long straight stick, about finger thick will function as the outside and handle.
You can heat sticks over the fire to make the wood more flexible and then bend it like you would copper tubing, Several smaller bends make up the large bend that creates the grate so take your time bending in several spots using your knee as a break.
When the end crosses the other, make a notch for the crossing.
Don't worry too much about the notch locking things together, we have a trick to make it solid.
The Custom Skinner had no problem notching the wood. 52-100 is a very good steel, from Bark River 52-100 becomes an awesome steel. Sneaking up on the blade toward the point felt very natural, the gentle curve on the spine made alignment of the edge perfect without much fidgeting.
Here's the trick, by laying both lengthwise sticks on top of the frame and the cross sticks on top of them and under the frame
We the notch we made is locked together creating a basic grate.
I didn't have a filleted fish or rabbit so we'll use a piece of scrap leather to simulate the meat.
A couple of diagonal sticks to hold it in place and the grate is finished.
A wooden grate won't last long directly over the fire like a barbecue grill, but that's not the idea here.
The grate holds the meat flat and exposed to the heat from the fire. Held vertical, a distance away we slow cook the meat one side at a time.
By building a simple stand to hold the grate upright we're all set. The butt end sits in/on the ground with a rock to counterbalance the grate.
The support to hold it vertical needs to be stout and it's bearing most of the weight and it needs to allow me to flip the grate so I can cook both sides.
A thumb thick fork will do the job once it's trimmed to size. A bit of cross grain batoning is in order here....
The Custom Skinner once again handled the task effortlessly. Set the edge where I want to cut and a firm whack from the baton.....
Like a hot knife through butter.
It was too warm out to build a fire and frankly, no matter how long I cook it, leather tastes like leather. Here's the grate setup with some sticks to represent the fire.
All told, the the Bark River 2009 Custom Skinner is no starlet, it's a Super Star that will serve will on the belt of anyone who ventures into the outdoors. It certainly proved itself to me to be capable of filling that “one knife” role. The looks and function are as good as it gets in both categories.
As a parting thought, we've seen the 2009 Custom Skinner as a workhorse cutting through wood but the name does say skinner and we haven't seen it cut flesh.
Venison sausage and pepperjack cheese were thinly sliced with the edge after the workout....
I guess now I can put the final stamp of approval on the Custom Skinner.
I've tested a lot of knives over the years, most of them are very good tools. This one is somehow different, sort of like that girl next door that brings a smile to your face whenever you think of her.
The Bark River 2009 Custom Skinner is a true classic. There aren't that many of these knives available and I don't think there's a clinker in the batch. I'm going to jump on one, I don't want to let these get by without adding one to the collection.