Knives of Alaska

At the time of writing there was a heavy snow falling and white drifts 6ft high in frosty Essex – OK not quite Arctic weather but a good backdrop to take a look at some fine knives and tools from Knives of Alaska, via Moonraker Accessories in the UK who kindly sent them in for our perusal.

Knives of Alaska is run by Charles Allen, who is also a registered Alaskan hunting outfitter and big-game guide, so all the company’s knives are field tested and proven before they are added to the roster of products.

Bush Camp Combo Suregrip

First up is this neat two-piece set with a largish bush/camp utility style knife – as the name suggests – paired up with one of the neatest little caping knife that I’ve ever seen.

The Bush Camp Knife is 10.5” long overall, and has a full-tang construction with a 6” drop-point blade.  The steel is 0.14” thick D2 tool steel which makes for a powerful high impact blade that should hold an excellent edge, yet be fairly easy to touch up or re-sharpen.  There’s a deep choil at the base of the ricasso and a shallow choil above it on the spine, allowing you to choke up your grip for finer work.

The handle scales are substantial in size and made from black rubberized ‘Suregrip’ – a material that is supposed to be naturally ‘grippy’ and in this case is enhanced with ‘dotted’ chequering. There are four finger indents on the underside of the handle, the one nearest the blade acting as a half-guard, so as you can imagine, once you have a grip on this knife it would be virtually impossible for it to slip. A wide brass lanyard ferrule finishes the build.

This is a well designed heavy duty utility knife and should be up to any bushwork; camp duties, field dressing, cooking, and even medium chopping use.

It’s companion knife is the Cub Bear Caping Knife, which is designed for fine work removing the skin around the eyes, ears, and nose of a trophy. In this capacity this tool would not often be needed by most UK hunters, as whole trophy skins are not often taken, and when they are the caping is usually carried out by professionals. In fact Knives of Alaska state “…known among hunters the world over as the premier caping knife with its scalpel like point that has proven itself time and time again with professional hunters and taxidermists”. I think that’s a pretty fair assessment. However, the Cub Bear Caping Knife makes an ideal bird, trout and bunny knife for UK hunters/outdoorsmen, and would also be perfect for skinning all those awkward places on larger animals that the Bush Camp Knife might struggle to reach.

The blade on the Cub Bear is 440C stainless steel with a satin finish. The blade is approx. 3.26” long with an upswept 2.5” edge and a shallow angled spine coming down to a very fine point. Deep choils top and bottom allow you to choke up your grip right up to the cutting edge if required for extremely intricate work. Once again construction is full tang with a chequered Suregrip handle and lanyard ferrule.
So as you can see, this two knife combination virtually covers all bases – just throw in a small saw or hatchet or machete, and you are self-sufficient for cutting tools.

The two knives are supplied in a double leather sheath with the smaller Cub Bear sitting in front of the Bush Camp Knife. This set retails for £147.95, which in my opinion is good money for an American made knife set (not so many other ‘big name’ knives are made in the USA nowadays).

Alpha Wolf D2/Cub Bear Combo

The Alpha Wolf is a medium sized hunting knife with a drop-point blade and full-tang construction. Like all the D2 blades featured here, it is double drawn and cryogenically treated for maximum edge holding ability, and the hand sharpened convex edge reduces drag when skinning and butchering. There is a shallow choil at the base of the ricasso and a straight 1.1” jimped section of spine above.

The black synthetic handle scales have three finger indents but no chequering or guard, yet is still easy to grip – as the handle material’s ‘Suregrip’ name suggests.

This knife sits well in the hand and would probably be of more all-round use to the UK based hunter (as opposed to bushcraft enthusiast or international hunter) than the larger Bush Camp knife featured above.

The Cub Bear companion knife is identical in build and material to the one described above except that it has the plain Suregrip handle – no chequering – to match the Alpha Wolf handle.

Once again these two knives come with a high quality, vegetable-tanned, oiled leather combination sheath, but this time they are accompanied by a sharpening steel which slots neatly into a pocket at the back of the sheath. This sharpener has a titanium diboride coating, which is effective but will wear over time, but the underlying steel will always be there for getting a quick edge.

The Alpha Wolf / Cub Bear combination is priced at £149.95

Magnum Ulu

Finally we have the Magnum Ulu, an unusual but versatile tool which is used by the Eskimo peoples (or Inuit or Inupiat or Native Alaskans if you prefer) as a skinning and scraping knife as well as very effective slicing, chopping and dicing tool. I’ve seen native made versions of Ulus being used for everything from preparing fish to flensing seal blubber – they are a truly remarkable tool.

The Knives of Alaska Magnum Ulu has a crescent shaped blade with a centrally located Suregrip T-bar shaped handle, and is used with a stroking, rocking or chopping action depending on the task being undertaken. The blade is made of hand ground D2 steel and spans 3.4” across, making it small and compact enough to be carried easily in the field – it comes in a custom leather belt sheath - although personally I believe that in the UK it will find more use in the kitchen. This is not to say that it is not a versatile field tool, it’s just that it takes some practice to get the best use out of it – whereas Eskimos and other Alaskans probably have a lifetime of experience! Price of the Magnum Ulu tool is £47.95

Guaranteed

All these knives are warranted against breakage in normal use for as long as you own them, and they all come with instructions on cleaning, sharpening and general care.

In my opinion they all offer excellent quality and value for money, and although some people might prefer synthetic sheaths to the traditional leather ones supplied here, I think they suit these knives just fine - just clean your knife before and after use.