Bark River Knives: Manitou
By Michiel Vanhoudt
Blade:
The blade is made of 52-100 carbon steel and is full convex ground. When I first took it out of the box, the knife had some rust on it. Customs opened it and didn’t oiled the blade before the shipped it to me. A bit of metal polish cleaned it up.
The blade was razor-sharp and hairs just flew of my arms. After cutting some fruit, potatoes, beef, pork ribs and vegetables the knife was still able to shave, but patina had formed all over the blade. This one is definitely less stain resistant than my Aurora.
After 2 days I discovered that the first 5 mm of the point weren’t sharpened at all. The “edge” was about 1 mm thick at that place. I sharpened it with wet and dry, but it took me quite a while before I was satisfied with the result.
After cutting some very ripe tomatoes I can only concur with previous statements: THIS EDGE IS “GRIPPY”! No matter how high you polish it, it’s still grippy.
Handle:
Mine is Bocote with the pommel style handle. Very comfortable in any grip I tried. The guard is something this knife just has to have. It just wouldn’t look right without it. It’s not in the way when cutting because of the pretty long blade.
Sheath:
This is the best sheath I’ve had with a Bark River knife. The sheath rides low on my belt, but the knife handle stick out pretty far. It doesn’t poke my ribs when I sit down. What’s there not to like?
Conclusion:
This one is great. It’s my first pommel style knife and I like it! My next one will be stacked leather. If you want a slicer and cutter, this one will not disappoint you! I haven’t tried battoning, but I have no doubt it will withstand light battoning. I wouldn’t want to split knots with it because of the thin edge, but it would do it without doubt!