Bushcraft, Carving and Whittling with the Casstrom Woodsman Knife

If the sword is the soul of the samurai then the knife is the soul of the bushcrafter...

The Casstrom Woodsman Knife, is a quality Swedish knife (made, I believe, in Spain) designed by the UK’s Roger Harrington of Bison Bushcraft. 

Description  of Casstrom Woodsman Knife designed by Roger Harrington

The knife has a blade of three and a half inches (eighty eight millimetres), and five thirty seconds (four millimetres) thick and has an attractive drop point. The steel used is bohler k720 also known  as  02 carbon steel. The scales are “d” shaped made from bog oak (ancient oak preserved in a bog for thousands of years) with black liners, and the handle has an almost imperceptible swell and a very slight dip near the pommel, blink and you would miss it. The sheath is made from thick but rather dry looking leather which I treated to give it some lustre. The sheath fits nicely on a belt and overall the knife and sheath is compact and unobtrusive.

Carving, slashing, chopping and batoning with the Casstrom Woodsman.

On arrival the knife was super sharp and cut through a variety of hard and soft woods with ease, like cutting butter in fact. It did lose its edge after carving hard wood, and did get a ding or two on the blade (a rolling-in rather than a chip) from chopping bamboo and batoning a very hard piece of ash - as one would expect - but the scandi grind was easy to hone and strop back to ultra sharpness. The blade feels short, fat and stubby, and at first I felt this was would be to the detriment of its usability but in fact the shorter dimensions made wood carving very controlled and I felt super-confident with this knife. It feels like a "safe" knife and I haven't cut myself with this knife - unlike my Helle Viking which neccesitated a trip to hospital!

The Woodsman comes with a leather thong through the lanyard hole which comes into its own when pulling the knife from the sheath and for extending the grip slightly whilst slashing, for example I used then when tackling some dense bamboo where I didn't want to lacerate my knuckles - another inch on the blade length would have helped in this scenario. This knife also batons with ease with no worries of that thick stubby blade snapping. In the woods, due to its shorter size this knife sits very discreetly on my belt, and I found it to be a practical all-rounder, batoning wood for a small fire, showering a plethora of sparks from the ferro rod, and cutting a baked bean tin into an impromptu stove. No problems.

I personally think that the main tool for a bushcrafter is his or her knowledge and therefore the knife actually only comes out of the sheath rarely, if at all (the same with the axe), its a tool not a toy. And I think that best describes the Woodsman: an unfussy utility tool.

Puting the Casstrom Woodsman to the test: Carving an Eagle

So the test for this knife was to see if it (and me) were good enough to carve an Eagle (my philosophy is that wood carving and whittling are transferable skills to bushcraft cutting skills, plus I have a artistic sensability!). So I found an old piece of sapele and got to work.

The knife made short work of the rough eagle design. Although I noticed the bog oak scales were not as hard wearing as I had hoped and various chips and dings appear as I got stuck into the carving. The blade itself kept its edge well.

Cutting through the hard wood was like carving butter. Contrary to what you might expect the scandi grind and thickness made the knife carve surprisingly very well, roughing out the shape of the eagle with ease, and, scraping, smoothing and so on. This knife excels at all rough carving  duties although is a little too thick to be used for detail work, but that is to be expected.

Well... see for yourself from the photo on the left. I was impressed at the Woodsman's carving ability and the overall confidence I had in the knife when holding it: I didn't cut myself once. The knife just sits very well in the hand and feels nicely balanced.

Is the Casstrom Woodsman Knife any good?

This really is a good knife for general duties, a perfect all-rounder, and sits discretely on ones belt. It is a tool for a job not a show piece, ...it is just a solid companion. However you will need to keep it oiled as it will rust.

Price point was good at just under £100.00, although has stiff competition. But it all depends on what you are looking for. If you have been dreaming of commissioning a custom-made knife by Roger Harrington but cannot afford it then the Woodsman is the next best thing, and I am reliably informed  that in use one would not tell the difference between 01 and 02 steel unless you did an A-B test.

The only negatives that I can see, and the only reasons that I would upgrade this knife is that it is a bit short for a conventional bushcraft knife and the short blade seems to attract damage to the handle nearest the blade making me think that brass bolsters would have been a good feature. I have also found that the dimensions of the handle are not quite right for my hand and I tend to get a cramp after carving or whittling. (UPDATE 2020: I recently adapted the handle to make it more comfortable, however I still think the blade is too short!).  Also, and even less importantly, aesthetically the Woodsman is a little bit dull, however the knife also comes in curly birch if you want a more showy knife. Having said all that Casstrom have two other knives which may suit better if you want a longer blade, or a different wood for the handle; the No.10 Forest Knife which has one of the world's most comfortable handle designs, and the Lars Falt Knife - which I have yet to have experience with.

Conclusion
This is a work horse knife, rather than a looker. A good, solid, well-made quality knife, the grind is symmetrical and the sheath well made- what more could you ask for? It's just a tool for a job  and is perhaps not the most inspiring bushcraft knife around. Having said that I can trust it implicitly and I if I need to take one knife into the woods for some bushcraft I would take this knife as it is very dependable, it's tough, you can strike a ferro rod on it, it's not going to snap, and you are unlikely to cut yourself with it. It is a safe option as a knife.

In summary: a compact, safe, carbon steel woodsman's knife. Handle not as comfortable as it could be, could have benefited from brass bolsters.