Sharpest Tools in the Shed: A Review of Camillus Knives

We’ve talked about all the different types of cutting tools and how to properly care for them. Today we are doing a review, but we’re shaking things up a bit. Today’s view will be done in video form! Click here and here to watch. I will be talking about a brand of cutting tools that is one of my personal favorites; Camillus knives. I will be talking about six pieces of Camillus equipment today.

First we will be talking about the Camillus Trench, a Swiss Army Knife like tool which I spent about $15 on at Walmart.com. Its attachments include a 3” knife blade, a can opener which is oddly enough not sharp at all, a bottle opener which doubles as a Phillips head screwdriver, and an awl which is eyeless. I do not like the eyeless awl because you can’t use it to sew with. It also has a metal strap on the back which you can put a piece of wood through and create a spear. It has a metal scaled handle which is good for keeping a grip. In field testing, I know right away that this knife will not strike a ferro rod because the knife is not locked into place. You could actually cut your hand trying to strike the rod so I would not recommend it. When woodworking, this knife debarks the wood very well. It is not so good for taking off large chunks of material at a time, but it could get the job done. It was also able to form some nice curls in the wood. Testing out some of the attachments on this tool, I tried the can opener which was pretty easy to work with despite the fact that it is not sharp. It took me about one full minute to open a can of food. Next I tried out the awl. It took it a bit longer and a bit more work than I would have liked to get it to make a hole in the leather. It did get the job done though.

Next is the Camillus Seize which I paid $30 for at Walmart. It is a folding pocket knife with a 3” blade and thumb studs for single handed open. Unfolded the knife is 8” overall. It also includes a pocket clip and a lanyard hole. There is also a locking mechanism in place when the knife is completely unfolded and has to be undone before folding it back off. Finally, the handle is a nylon scaled grip. The Seize unlike the Trench locks its blade into place and has no trouble when striking a ferro rod and getting sparks. A very good carving knife for taking off big chunks of material and debarking. This knife was able to make tighter curls than the Trench as well.

Moving on to the Camillus Drop Point, the knife that got me into Camillus, which I found at Walmart for $10. This knife has a 4” blade and a rubber handle which makes for an excellent grip. Part of the spine is 90 degrees while part of it is beveled. This knife like the Seize, has a lanyard hole. You can also purchase this knife in black if the brown color is not for you. The Drop Point can cast spark with no problem whatsoever when striking a ferro rod. For woodworking purposes this knife took off large chunks of materials and debarked well, but due to its size it had difficulty making tighter curls. The Drop Point when used to baton a piece of wood about 1” in diameter did very well and there were no issues to report.

Here we have the Camillus Sin, $32 on Amazon.com. It is a tomahawk that
is 16” tall with a 4” blade. You will also notice the spiked edge. The handle is 18.5’ of 550 paracord wrapped. The circle behind the blade could be used for seize up, fleshing, or possibly even a draw knife. Find a place to strike the ferro rod on the Sin was a bit challenging, but when I found a place to strike it there were sparks made almost effortlessly. I did not try to do any fine woodworking tasks with the Sin for hopefully obvious reasons. When it came to processing larger pieces of wood, I simply used the tomahawk to chop unlike the knives which I used to baton the wood. With about a minute of work the Sin was able to separate a larger piece of wood about 4” in diameter.

For $30 at Walmart you could pick yourself up a Camillus Carnivore, a machete. The blade is 12” long which is good for a measuring tool. About 9-10” of it is a saw blade and above it is the gut hook. At the top it is chiseled and then flat which makes for an excellent digging tool. There is a plastic grip handle with a lanyard hole. The Carnivore is good for large woodworking tasks, but not good for fine details. With your purchase you will find a smaller knife, good for finer woodworking skills with notches on the blade for making it into a spear. There are two hexbolt wrenches, the smaller is 7mm while the larger is 9mm. When trying to strike the ferro rod I tested both the machete and the smaller knife. I struck against the bottom of the knife blade and the bottom of the machete below the teeth and got sparks off of both blades. I did not try to do fine woodworking with the machete, however I did give the smaller knife a go. It debarked well and struggled to take off larger chunks of material. It couldn’t really form a curl well, but I am will to give the benefit of the doubt that it is just out of the box and may need a profile touch up. Now, the gut hook on the Carnivore should be sharp enough to cut paracord if I needed it to. Unfortunately the gut hook on this product was not sharp enough to do that and barely broke the mantle on the cord. I chose to process larger pieces of wood with both the saw blade and the machete blade of the Carnivore. The saw itself did pretty well and worked perhaps even quicker than the Sin, however the effort was straining on my hand. When using the machete blade to chop it was much more inefficient than the Sin and would take longer to completely separate the wood.

Last but not least we have the Camillus Bushcraft, which my wonderful wife got me for $68 onAmazon.com. It has a 4” coated blade with the hump of a butcher knife. It is a full 90 degrees and full tang as well. The handle is canvas with a lanyard hole and makes for a very good grip. It stows away in a leather sheath with holes drilled all the way through it which you can use to tie the knife into it. The Bushcraft got sparks off the ferro rod, but I wasn’t too concerned with that due to the design of the knife. This knife performed the fine wood working tasks effortlessly. It took off large chunks of material, debarked, and formed tight curls with ease. For a larger wood working task I used the Bushcraft to baton a piece of would about 1” in diameter and had no problems with it whatsoever.

To wrap this up, I think we all can agree that these tools are all unique and have their own individual talents when it comes to certain tasks. I’m sure you’re wondering which one I would recommend taking with you, and as I’ve told you before, the tools you take with you are going to depend on what tasks you are trying to accomplish out in the bush. If you are looking to process large pieces of wood while you’re out, the Camillus Sin may be a good choice for you. The same if your pack has some canned goods stored away for you to eat. The Trench will be your friend come dinner time. As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. If video is more your thing, then check out my YouTube channel Backpack Bushcraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

The Daily Grind: Maintaining Your Equipment in the Field

Over the past few weeks we have talked about various cutting tools you would take into the field such as knives, axes, and saws. But let’s be honest here, these tools are going to do absolutely nothing for you if you do not care for and maintain them. With proper maintenance, these tools could last you for years and you will find that they even perform better, but without it, you will be out a considerable amount of energy trying to work with them and money having to replace your tools because they have fallen apart or are now completely worn down. So as you can imagine, this week we will be talking about proper maintenance for your cutting tools while outdoors so you can get the most out of what they have to offer.

The biggest problem with taking maintenance tools into the bush, is the amount of weight and space they can take up in your back. While I’m sure your Japanese water stones are the best when it comes to sharpening your blade, it can be highly impractical to take it with you, along with a belt sander or various other things that you may use to sharpen your knives. However, some items are sold to be taken into the field to help you keep that edge.

The first thing that I want to introduce you to is a two-stage portable knife sharpener. This will resemble a square with two open slices into the top side and the bottom side. One side will contain sharpening stones and be called the “coarse” side. This will be used to take off large amounts of material as you begin to treat your blade.  The other side will have one labeled “fine” which will have ceramic rods in it. Now I am going to be honest with you, I am not the best knife sharpener and when I was young, I always believed that you had to start with coarse side and move to the fine side. However, now, I have been told that you should only use the coarse side for fixed blade knives and that the fine side is for something different. So when you begin to use this product you want to slowly draw the blade across the stones. You will end up having to apply pressure and you will more than likely pull it at an angle than straight across. It make take a few swipes to get it sharp enough. This will be good to sharpen most pocket knives.

Fixed blade knives such as my old hickory butcher knife, to ensure that I get the entire cutting surface, I want to use a different set up. The sharpener that I use for it only has the coarse stones, and, has a guard for your fingers so that you are able to draw the knife across the whole thing without worrying about cutting yourself. It may take you a few swipes to get your blades as sharp as you want. Be patient and check your knives frequently by using the paper test.

 

Now as I said earlier, you can’t take your giant Japanese water stones, however, you can find some smaller versions that can be used to hone your blade while in the field. A good rule of thumb while using them, you want to maintain a good 20 degree angle. To do this, take the corner of a piece of paper, fold it in half making it 45 degrees, then fold it in half again making it 22.5 degrees.

Sometimes you’ll even find tools that do them all. I picked up this device at a gun store on a discount. It has three sides to sharpen your knife on, and a 20 degree guide, along with a fishing hook sharpener. This could be an all in one device that you take just for your maintenance. That’ll just about do it for knives. Now let’s move on to your axe.

When working on my axe in the field, I like to have a bastard file with me. You can pick these up at Walmart in the tool aisle. The reason I always like to pack my file with me is to treat a nick that can be very common when using an axe, or just to touch up the face if I had made a previous mistake. Remember that files only cut one way so once you figure out how that file cuts, you only want to use it in that direction. Unlike with the others that give you a rudimentary guide, you really just have to eyeball this one. What has always helped me has been to look down the edge and you will be able to see the thickness of the metal that is still left.

Once I have removed a good deal of material, I like to follow up with a Lansky Duel Grit Sharpener Puck. It is $7 on Amazon.com. Take my advice, only use water when using stones like this. If you use oil, you’ll have to bring oil in the field. However, if you use water, it’s easier to come by and gives you pretty much the same result in my opinion. I submerge my puck in water until the bubbles stop coming up. Then I find the coarse side and in a circular motion rub it on the edge of my axe blade. The goal is to take off a enough material to bring my edge back.

Lastly I like to follow up all of this with a diamond rod. This really could be the only device that you may need for your maintenance out in the field as it gives you something to hone your blade. The one I have has a flat face, a round face, and a pointed end. This allows me to make sure that I can run the length of my blade no matter what I’m working on.

That will have to do it for this blog. If you are looking to purchase any of these items to take with you I suggest getting, a file, a diamond rod, and a 2 stage knife sharpener. This will give you a great start. If you have an axe I highly recommend getting a puck too. Next week will be the final week in this series of cutting tools. Thank you guys so much for tuning in each week to read my words. However, the next blog will be a little different. Not only will you get the blog, but I am also going to put up the first episode of backpack Bushcraft on YouTube. Both the blog and the video will be a knife review, so you don’t want to miss out.

As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Also check out my YouTube Channel: Backpack Bushcraft for video updates and corresponding tutorials. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.