FIELD NOTES / 04
FIELD NOTES / 04
IF STORY WERE TANGIBLE
By Andri Elko
I love a beautiful knife. A Damascus blade. A burnished leather-stacked handle. Stabilized mammoth scales. Brass rivets and bolsters. Japanese chef knives. Finnish outdoor knives. A pocketknife bearing the marks of hard-earned wear.
There’s also just something extra special in a knife that’s been passed through generations. It feels heavy with story and experience when you hold it, almost like an artifact.
I won’t even start in on blade shapes and grinds and cultural influences. This world of ours has cultivated a kaleidoscope of beautiful attributes, components, mechanisms, materials, advancements and histories regarding cutting tools. I am not a blade expert by any means, but I do appreciate the crafting that goes into a well-made blade. Some are functional art, and others are simply functional. And if story were tangible, manual tools — like knives — become storytellers.
Flintknapped arrowheads come to mind. Or a grandparent’s rusted and aged (and probably initial-engraved) handsaw. Sometimes you find things at garage sales, thrift stores and pawn shops that just look like they once belonged to someone who held onto things a little longer than we tend to these days. It paints a picture in your mind of someone who had one good set of tools, who used that same set of tools for decades, if not longer. The kind of person who wears a knife on their leather belt, so routine that it’s almost a part of them — like wearing glasses or a wedding ring. They probably kept a toothpick in a shirt pocket too, like all the good ol’ cowboys do.
Our generation might not have that so much. We’re part of a consumer generation that’s fueled by built-in obsolescence and the shiny lure of newer and better.
I’m trying to harken back more, whittle down the excess, save what has both inherent simplicity and endurance, when I can. It’s not easy, but shucks, it sure seems like it should be.
So I try to buy and/or save based on materials that get better with time — which is almost always something that is only a few steps away from its origin e.g. leather, fur, wood, stone, clay, glass, metals and natural fibers. These materials feel more connected and real in some way, unlike plastics and other synthetics. But they also usually require more care — maybe that’s part of why we hold onto them longer.
There can be beauty in synthetic materials too. I‘ve seen that beauty revealed when discarded synthetic materials get repurposed into something new. I saw this in South African markets, where colorful plastic-sheathed telephone wire had been woven into extraordinary basketry. The world is full of this creative repurposing. It’s almost like a modern-day morphing of hunting, gathering, and harvesting.
Most recently, I saw this in beautiful bags called kalzngaq that a pastor friend used as an example of new-life in a sermon that he gave. These woven bags are gorgeous. Their Cup’ig makers walk the beach gathering strands of fishing-rope debris along the shores of Mekoryuk. They then weave them, one salvaged strand by one salvaged strand.
The result is an object of use — a utility bag. But it’s also so much more than that. It’s art, it’s love and care; it’s resourcefulness, resilience, and redemption. It’s beautiful. And it is tangible story that can be crafted, held and shared — and maybe even passed down.
All romanticism aside, and in getting back to cutting-tools — it’s hard to beat an efficient and affordable work horse. For our family, this is the RADA Stubby Butcher.
Here are some of its specs from the RADA website:
Blade length: 5 3/8"
Overall Length: 9 7/8"
Blade Steel: Surgical-Quality, T420 High-Carbon Stainless Steel
Handle material: Comes in options of Aluminum or Black Resin
Production: USA
Bonus: Comes with RADA’s Lifetime Guarantee
This knife is a do-all knife. I can fillet salmon with it, skin a beaver with it, chop veggies with it and slice my steak dinner with it. And, just as importantly — I can put an edge on it quickly with RADA’s awesome Quick Edge Knife Sharpener.
We use this knife for everything! Seriously.
I was packing my RADA knife and sharpener before heading up the river the other day, and it got me to thinking two things:
I was thinking how I wish RADA made a sheath for this knife.
I was thinking of ways to give this family-favorite a little extra love.
I can’t do anything about my first thought, except continue to find and make sheaths. I’ve made them from cardboard and tape when I needed something fast. Currently, I use a repurposed Rapala sheath that works very nicely. I’d like to make my own custom leather sheath someday, but haven’t gotten to that project yet.
For my second thought, I went into the shop.
From there, I grabbed a spool of marine fishing twine that is usually used for mending herring nets. This nylon cord is minimal, yet hardcore. It can handle a beating. Also, the ends can be melted with a lighter to avoid fray.
My hope is that this twine will offer some grip to my RADA Stubby Butcher handle. The added plus is that it also offers a subtle wink and tip-of-the-hat to our hometown fishing culture. I only wish I could have found the cool sea-green colored twine that we used to have on hand — I love that color.
This twine that I’m using today is just basic white. Well, maybe off-white now, because it’s old and tinted with time, dust and maybe a little garage grime. I suspect paracord would work well too, it’s a common knife handle material. I just don’t have any on-hand at the moment. Leather cord would be awesome, but again, none on-hand. So, old fishing twine it is!
I tried a few different whippings and wraps, but the best one I‘ve come to settle on is the wrapping method used for serving on a bowstring. This technique came out the best in terms of being the most uniform, tightest and comfortable to grip. It actually feels really delightful in my hand; the parallel wraps have a clean and cohesive texture. Aesthetically, it has hints of minimalist Japanese knife design elements.
This bow-serving method was also the easiest and safest to perform in comparison to the others that I tried on this fixed blade handle. It will also be quick and easy to replace when/if needed.
As for sharpening.
I tested the RADA Quick Edge Knife Sharpener on one knife’s edge. Then I tested the sharpener previously mentioned in Field Notes 03 on another knife’s edge.
The result: RADA put on a sharper (and quicker) edge.
So, I did another test using the RADA sharpener on my broadheads. It won that round too. It was easy to sharpen on the arrow. The edges were subtly sharper than the ones sharpened on a stone with oil. It’s hard to beat a better edge result that can be achieved quickly without the need for oil or a cloth or an angle-jig to do it.
(Keep in mind these are not single-bevel broadheads, these are double-bevels.)
The most satisfying part is that it looks like I‘ve finally found THE sharpener, THE ONE that feels perfect for (almost) every situation. The one I was still looking for last week back in Field Notes 03. And the crazy part is, I’ve been using this sharpener on knives for years, YEARS! And only now did I try it on broadheads.
I guess sometimes our common sense gets swayed and obscured by thoughts of “this tool is for this and that tool is for that.” But some tools, it appears, are good for both this and that. And that’s what we find with the RADA sharpener.
Maybe there’s something to be said in using what’s around and readily available. Maybe there’s something to be said in following the examples quietly set forth by people living closer to a less-cluttered past. I’ve come to see that there’s beauty in simplicity. There’s value in repurposing and multi-purposing. And there’s something to be admired in doing more with less.
