by Pat Covert
There are great things to be said for state-of-the-art exotic steels and synthetic handles—but for some knife users only the classic, down-to-earth feel of stag and a time proven basic steel will do, thank you! Long before there was a formal Bushcraft movement (see our article on the genre elsewhere in this issue) there were knives like the Silver Stag Sharp Forest Elk Stick featured here.
Silver Stag Knives of Blaine, Washington, specializes in such cockle-warming earthiness. As the name implies, antler stag handle knives are their focus and they do them in a staggering number of models. The Sharp Forest Elk Stick is 8.5 inches in overall length with a 3.6-inch blade, the perfect size for a dutiful, hidden tang hunting knife for processing game and performing many field chores. The blade is D2 high carbon steel, a favorite among hardcore users who want a relatively corrosion resistant blade. D2 has a high chromium content easier to sharpen than modern exotics. The blade has a narrow saber grind, deeper than your typical Bushcraft Scandi grind and hollow ground for added slice-ability for skinning. Each knife will vary in appearance due to the difference in bark and figuring from one antler to the next, so every one is unique. Then there’s the unmistakably earthy feel of antler in the hand that simply can’t be duplicated by any other handle material. A nickel-silver guard protects your digits.
The Sharp Forest Elk Stick comes accompanied by a nicely handmade, tooled leather sheath designed for standard vertical belt carry, plus there’s an additional cross-mounted loop for horizontal belt attachment. The price for such luxury is the icing on the cake. At a suggested retail of $121 the Sharp Forest Elk Stick may just be the best value in a traditional fixed-blade out there!
You can read the whole article here
