I recently presented a session on the role of primitive skills in the classroom at the 2009 COEO conference held in Parham, ON.  The session was full, with many people standing and I ran out of course packs to provide to the members attending.  I decided that the best remedy would be to share this talk with all present via the website to simplify things.  Also, I think that the opening portion of the talk is really applicable to anyone with an interest in primitive living skills so I would like to share this with all my readers.  Please feel free to use this information as needed, it was written with the intent to encourage the use and learning of primitive technologies in the interest of furthering the goals of outdoor education.

Fire, Food and Human Progress: Using Primitive Skills to Explore Ancestry, Connections within Nature and Nature Deficits Facing Youth

In a gross sense, humans are not much different than other animals in the way that we perceive our world, in fact the closest living relatives of humans are gorillas and chimpanzees. Humans are probably most closely related to the Common Chimpanzee and the Bonobo (another type of chimpanzee found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo). Comparitive differences in human and chimpanzee DNA ranges between 95% and 99%. It has been estimated that the human lineage diverged from that of chimpanzees about five million years ago, and from that of gorillas about eight million years ago.

Homo sapiens appeared about 200,000 years ago. By about 50,000 years ago, we had become a little more modern and developed things such as language, music and rudimentary art. The out of Africa migration is estimated to have occurred about 70,000 years ago. Modern humans spread to all continents, replacing earlier hominids in Eurasia and Oceania by 40,000 years ago and the Americas at least 14,500 years ago (although this is hotly contested and many groups feel this number could be doubled). They displaced Neanderthal man and other species through more successful reproduction and competition for resources.

Until approximately 10,000 years ago, most humans lived as hunter-gatherers. They generally lived in small nomadic groups known as band societies. The advent of agriculture prompted the Neolithic Revolution, when access to food surplus led to the formation of permanent human settlements, the domestication of animals and the use of metal tools.

What I’m saying is that essentially, depending on how you look at it, we are a 10000 to 30000 year old model struggling to come to grips in many ways with a technological age that is barely 200 years new. At least when looking at the advent of the information age, particularly the the invention of the analytical engine (considered the first computer) by Charles Babage in 1837.

Modern humans (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) have a long line of ancestors standing behind them, separated for the most part by small details contained in our fore brains. These details are what allow us the use of abstract thought and what enabled us to develop tools, art, poetry, manners and all the niceties that brought our species to the forefront of evolution. However, we didn’t really leave our ancestors behind either.

Our mid-brain could also be described as our primitive brain. Within our mid-brain is contained the primal instincts of our being, our ancestors if you will. What keeps these instincts in check is the reasoning skills of our fore brain. Several studies have shown (and most of us here have had similar experiences) that when humans are put under great amounts of stress coupled with accelerated heart rates that our behavioural and physical responses to outside stimuli are vastly different than what they would under calmer conditions. A great example of this is the “deer caught in the headlights” effect.

This is called a sympathetic nervous system response. It’s out mid-brain waking up and taking over to provide primal instinctual responses meant to keep us alive. This is the legacy that our ancestors have given us, a proverbial “ghost in the machine”. Other triggers have been identified, and most are dependent on the same two things: stress level and heart rate. Fear or anxiety are only two limited triggers, it has been speculated that there may be almost one hundred, but one thing is certain, an affinity to nature and natural surroundings in is one of them.

The term “Biophilia” or a love of all things natural was first used by Erich Fromm to describe a psychological orientation of being attracted to all that is alive and vital. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book titled Biophilia. He suggests that biophilia describes “the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.” He proposed the possibility that the deep affiliations humans have with nature are rooted in our biology.

So, if nature is rooted in our biology, can we reach the “ghost in the machine”? The American Medical Association has done several studies that have linked disorders such as ADD ADHD and childhood depression to the “exposure of children at a young age to flash media, in particular television and video games. Yet these same studies found that when these overstimulated children were placed in an outdoor, free-play or semi structured play environment, they began to display little if any of their previous symptoms. Does the environment and the hypothesis of Biophilia warrant that this is the answer? It’s not a for sure by any means, but it does beg the question, can nature and the stimulation of the “ghost in the machine” mid-brain processes that make up our ancestry help us to feel better as individuals and if so, how can we easily integrate them into activites that are fun and exciting?
One of the ways we can attempt to do this is by integrating aspects of primitive living skills in order to appeal to our base instincts as humans. We are essentially all hunter-gatherers at heart. By rekindling the knowledge of how our ancestors lived, thrived and died we can begin to develop a better understaning of our own place in this world and how we fit into the natural order of things.

For access to the full course modules and materials please click here

Happy Tracking!

~ B

Blade Length: 5"
Thickness: 3/16"
Finish: Black Phosphate
Carry System: Cordura Nylon Sheath
Handle Material: Linen Micarta
Overall Length: 10.75 inches

For those of you that have taken an EasternOPS course, many have probably seen that I carry and use this knife like its going out of style.  In fact, over the years, it’s been the one knife that I own that I haven’t been able to totally destroy!

The Ontario RAT-5 Knife features a 5″ drop point blade made of 1095 carbon steel, 3/16″ thick. The blade has a non reflective black phosphate coat that is nearly impossible to destroy and a texture notched thumb rest for secure grip. The RAT-5 knife has full tang construction with canvas Micarta scales, skull crusher pommel and a lanyard hole. A lined Cordura sheath with pocket is included with this Ontario knife. The Ontario RAT-5 Knife has an overall length of 10.75″.

Randall’s Adventure and Training (RAT) is the official designer of the RAT 5. They are a professional survival training, expedition guiding, and outdoor gear research team based in Latin America. RAT is a legal U.S. representative of the Peruvian Air Force School of jungle survival and is currently seeing use by military forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and many non-publicized conflicts around the globe.  In short, many lives depend on this knife, and with good reason.  It’s as tough as they come.

When I received this knife it was shaving sharp right out of the box.  In my hands it felt naturally alive, more an extension of my hand than a tool.  The sheath is MOLLE compatible, making it easily adjustable for carry in a variety of positions.  An accessory pocket is large enough to carry a multi-tool, small survival kit or any number of small objects (a great feature).  The design of the knife is a flat grind with a wide bevel making it a breeze to sharpen, especially on homemade/improvised whetstones.  The skull crusher pommel doubles nicely as a light hammer or a narrow pry bar.  The finger choil makes small work a breeze and also doubles as a striking surface for ferro fires.  All in all, a great design.

On to the test.

I put the RAT 5 through 3 simple standard tests.  1)  Fell a 3″ ash sapling for a bow stave 2) Baton firewood 3) Make a quickie survival bow so I could hunt my dinner.  All tests were performed in one day and the mean temperature was – 5 Celsius.

1)  The tree came down in a hurry, no chopping needed.  Using the Kochanski method for sapling removal (sharp angle cut with progressive lean on the tree) the tree came down in little more than a minute!  Beautiful, I couldn’t have asked for more.  I attributed this more to practice than the knife however and decided to try it as chopper to be fair.  By moving towards the curved rear portion of the handle I was able to create deep chops into the tree.  The knife is lighter than most and most of its weight is in the handle making it a rather ineffective chopper.  Add a lanyard and this changes dramatically though.  Best bet, practice the Kochanski method and forget the chopping altogether.

2)  Since I’ve owned this knife (4+ years now) I’ve probably batonned almost a cord of firewood with it.  The knife performs exceptionally for its size.  I’ve cut everything from pine to ironwood and so far have experienced no failures or short comings.  The one exception is that the full grind/wide bevel does make it easier for the blade to become wedged.  This has happened more often than I would like but by using a wedge in its place, it’s easily fixed.

3)  The quickie survival bow came together really easy.  By shorting the handle, large stock is removed quickly and efficiently.  Only during the small stock removal process do some of the RAT 5’s “short” comings become apparent.  The 5″ blade when used as a draw knife takes some getting used to.   I usually just force the end through a softer piece of wood to use as a handle.  Those with larger hands would be well advised to practice this technique before attempting it in the field to avoid some grief in the form of lacerated palms.  Once mastered however, fine stock removal becomes easy.

My final verdict

Ok, I’ll admit, I may be a little biased when it comes to the RAT 5.  It’s one of my standard carries (there are others too and I’ll be reviewing them soon) and I have a lot of experience using it in the field.  There’s a reason for that though and that’s because it really is one tough knife.  It’s not for everyone.  The 1095 carbon steel is softer than some other “wonder” steels on the market (it’s rather “old school”) and requires more maintenance since it can rust quite easily.  This is a trade off for being very easily maintained in the field using fine grained stone to sharpen it and for being more forgiving under strain.  The black phosphorus coating is bullet proof; in fact I haven’t been able to wear it out at all!  It’s lighter than other knives of similar design making it more fun to carry but not as effective as chopping tool; the wide bevel makes up for this in the hands of an experienced user.  It’s a good purchase all around as it provides the user with a robust knife capable of handling a range of tasks.  Over 50000 troops can’t be wrong!

Happy Tracking!

~ B

When it comes to lost person behaviour, statistics are our best reference next to actual SAR experience.  The importance of understanding the mechanics and reasoning behind decision making while under stress cannot be overstated, especially when practicing survival techniques that are meant to be performed in these self same situations.  Learning to recognise and manage stress is imperative to individual and group survival; understanding and managing the effects of fear, panic, boredom, pain, and your body’s response to outside stimuli will help you to remain focused on the bigger picture and will allow you to remain calm when things get beyond your control.

Lost victims all follow a similar pattern of behaviour, generally moving through five stages before succumbing to total mental and physical failure.

1) Panic, the victim will run madly through the bush under impulse  disregarding personal safety and clothing; they will not admit that they are lost.

2) Panic gives way to aimless wandering and circling.  Victims may revisit the same space but fail to recognise it.

3) Paranoia begins to set in, the victim sees signs and messages in their surroundings.  Dread and real fear begin to develop, the victim may begin to see natural items such as logs and stumps become animals in periphery.  Birds and animals could be percieved as supernatural beings.

4) The victim begins to hallucinate, paranoia becomes extreme.  Victims in this state have been known to second guess even the most basic of stimuli such as compass direction, wind direction and location of known landmarks/familiar areas.  At this stage victims have been known to run/hide from search and rescue personnel.

5) Total mental breakdown.  The victim will walk in a random directions, falling and then stumbling on in a trance state.  Eventually they are reduced to crawling so long as will to survive persists.  Death is inevitable if not found soon.

Staving off panic and remaining calm during a survival situation is the most important skill that any outdoor person can learn.  This alone can result in a substantially higher chance of survival, but how is it possible?

The first thing that victims should do is STOP! Remaining in one place rather than wandering/trying to find your way out dramatically increases the chances of surviving and being found.  I cannot emphasize this enough!

Another good method of remaining calm and focused is to modify our actions to suit the type of behaviour we wish to maintain.  This translates into performing actions that remove ourselves from the immediacy of the situation, in effect pulling ourselves in a useful new direction by performing simple tasks and actions.  This can be such simple tasks as finding water, building tools, building a shelter, or collecting wood and building a fire.  The added benefit is that these actions will make the victim more comfortable and keep them safe, allowing them to increase their chances of overall survival.

For more information on lost person behaviour and behavioural statistics regarding lost persons in Canada, see the SARBC website.

Happy Tracking!

~ B

In an age where children are usually more competent than adults at using computers and video equipment, this book is breath of fresh air desperately needed.  Thomas Elpel has written a book about botany that is not only accessible for both children and adults but that is wonderfully written and engaging, allowing a child’s imagination to take hold as they become immersed in a world full of fantasy.  The book is illustrated by Gloria Brown who has done an unbelievable job of bringing the story of Shanleya to life with her vivid and colourful drawings.  Elpel, a primitive skills instructor and naturalist living in Pony, Montana wrote the book to combat the modern trend of seeing nature as mere wallpaper.  He claims that it is meant to be subversive, challenging his readers to “stop and investigate the wallpaper”  so that “no longer will you be able to ignore flowers as mere splashes of colour on the walls, but rather the chance meeting of an old friend”.

Shanleya’s Quest is the story of a young girl named Shanleya who travels in her canoe to the “Tree Islands” to learn the plant traditions of her people.  The book begins with the telling of a beautiful creation story which tells of how life in Shanleya’s world began and how the relationship between the various inhabitants developed.  It then introduces the reader to Shanleya, a young girl who, paddling in her canoe is undergoing a rite of passage.  As she progresses throughout the story, she meets guardians who challenge her learning about plant identification, instilling wisdom as she solves each puzzle.

This book is a one of a kind resource for educators or parents wishing to teach young people about plant recognition.  It covers both Monocotyledon and Dicotyledon classes and 8 families in a non-threatening, easy to read format meant for children 9-99.  Learning beginner plant ID does not get ANY easier than with this book.  To top it all off, Elpel has developed teacher resources to accompany the book in the form of a flash card game and online modules.  Once students have exhausted these resources, Elpel has even designed a follow up book entitled “Botany in a Day”, an expansive handbook that will provide students of any age a well rounded and thorough knowledge of North American plant species and their uses.  This is by far the best learning resource on this topic that I have discovered and I fully recommend it to anyone with an interest in learning or expanding their knowledge levels about native plant species in Canada or the United States.

For more information about this or  Thomas J. Elpel’s other books please got to: www.hopspress.com

For more information about online plant identification resources please go to: www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com

Shanleya’s Quest by Thomas J. Elpel can be purchased in Canada at Indigo or Amazon.ca or from your local bookstore.  Use ISBN 1-892784-16-5

Happy Tracking and Safe Trails!

~ B

By Brian Stengele c/o Eastern Ontario Primitive School

This piece was originally submitted as an article for the Sustainable Living Symposium held in Belleville Ontario each year as a general interest piece to help families come up with ideas to bring their children closer to nature and generate awareness of the importance of outdoor education.

For more information about the symposium please go to  http://www.quintesustainability.ca/index.php

In an age of television, video games, internet chat, IPods and fast food, more and more children and adults have become desensitized to their natural environment.  In his book Last Child in the Woods, noted journalist and author Richard Louv coined this phenomenon “Nature Deficit Disorder”.  As technology and society have developed, mankind has become interwoven so tightly with the need to be electronically connected that we have lost sight of the roots of our origin. Each of us is the descendent of a hunter gatherer society, a group that was meant to forage and survive in nature. Our brains are hardwired to our surroundings and as we detach ourselves from nature, catastrophe is the eventual result. Studies conducted by the American Medical association have shown definitive links to mental disorders such as ADD, ADHD, Depression and the loss of creativity in adulthood as we pull ourselves away from nature. Nature has become the bogeyman of the 21^st century, with families afraid to allow their children to play outside for fear of abduction or who have joined planned communities where unstructured outside play is outright forbidden. With the chances of foul play involving children in Canada being less than that of being struck by lightning, we must allow our children to experience childhood the way we did, unstructured and full of creativity to allow them to grow into well rounded adults.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Play hide and seek in a natural play area (such as a wooded area, park or other)
2. Enroll your child in an outdoor program such as Scouting, Summer camps, Girl guides or Day camps
3. Let them get dirty! Dirt is a part of nature and they should not be afraid of it!
4. Build a bird house, a tree house; replace part of your lawn with native plant species etc. Whatever it is, bring flora and fauna into your life and teach them about it!
5. Collect lightning bugs at dusk and release them at dawn, start a leaf collection, get an aquarium or terrarium. Collect caterpillars or crayfish together. Let your child’s interest dictate the direction of the project!

Happy Tracking!

~ B

Blade Length: 6″
O/A Length: 10 3/4″
Cutting Edge: 6″
Thickness: 3/16″
Blade Color: Black Teflon Coating
Handle: Checkered Kraton Rubber
Steel: AUS 8A Stainless Steel
Sheath: Secure-Ex

Cold Steel designer Lynn C. Thompson describes the SRK as “a versatile knife able to withstand the most extreme abuse” so,  in the spirit of Eastern OPS I decided to put that claim to the test.  This design was made specifically for SAR and survival (hence SRK – Search and Rescue Knife) personnel and has been touted by Cold Steel to be the biggest knife for the buck.  I must admit, I had my doubts, mostly because I knew that Cold Steel used to produce this knife in their legendary Carbon V and recently switched to the more common and much less well received AUS 8A stainless and had been receiving terrible reviews ever since.  I’d like to say I was pleasantly surprised but I’d be lying in this case.  I have a love hate relationship with Cold Steel, some of their products (like the Cold Steel Bushman) are great, others fall a bit short of what you would expect for your money.  The SRK is unfortunately one of them.

When I received the knife it was shaving sharp right out of the box, which was nice, but for a knife priced at one hundred bucks, it should be expected.  It feels solid in the hand, well balanced; the secure-ex sheath is adjustable for carry height (a handy feature), but the inability to carry anything else makes the sheath much less functional (since it is plastic you cannot attach an accessory pocket).  The design itself oddly resembles (actually, it looks  almost like an EXACT copy) of the wildly popular, if lesser known Fallniven A1, which in my opinion is one of the best survival knives ever designed.  This is part of my beef with Cold Steel and Lynn Thompson.  They have an almost uncanny ability of manufacturing knives and tools that strangely resemble higher quality if lesser known designs by other companies.

Anyway, back to the review.

To test the SRK I put it through 3 simple tests.  1)  Fell a 3″ ash sapling for a bowstave 2) Baton firewood 3) Make a quickie survial bow so I could hunt my dinner.  All tests were performed in one day and the mean temperature was -16 Celsius.

1) The knife is a decent chopping blade for its design.  Like the A1, the blade is slightly waisted towards the tip giving it a good belly and adding a bit more weight to the stroke.  By sliding my hand towards the butt end of the handle to get more leverage I was able to create deep chops and to fell the tree in a reasonable amount of time.  However, the AUS 8A steel showed its colours early on.  After the tree came down I tried a shave test and it was a no go, in fact the blade showed obvious wear with the teflon coating rubbing away fron the edge.  Also, from the moderate chopping force over the twenty minutes or so used to fell and limb the small sapling, the handle had become noticably loose.  Not a good start.

2) Since the handle had developed a noticable wiggle, I surmised it may be due to the ambiant temperature.  I’m not a big fan of Kraton, I’ve had it fail a number of times over the last few years and this was no exception.  I chose a 5″ piece of frozen pine to baton first, thinking that I would pick the easy, softer wood rather than chance fate.  Sure enough, on the third baton strike the knife suffered a critical failure with the Kraton rubber giving way at the seam.  So much for test #2!

3)  After rehandling the knife (using an interwoven square knot pattern of paracord) I began my bowmaking task.  The knife did fairly well, easily carving throught the green ash due to the ample belly of the blade design.  Finer work was made simple by reversing the blade as a draw knife and I was able to easily shave and shape.  Again, the AUS 8A steel showed wear, if not retouched between uses this blade will not take the pounding that its predecessor in Carbon V did.  A shame since those blades were so popular in survival circles.

My final verdict

While in times past the SRK was a great survial knife, it would appear that its new incarnation in AUS 8A is a poor followup.  For a light duty knife used around the campfire or cabin it will probably serve you fairly well, it’s still a very functional knife, well balanced and easy to carry.  If you want to stake your life on it though, beware, it won’t stand up to any real abuse.  In the last 10 years, I’ve only had a handful of knives suffer a complete handle failure batoning softwood, and this is the only one that cost me more than 15 bucks.  If you have handled this knife in your local knife shop and love the feel and weight but want a knife that will take a high amount of abuse, spend the extra 80 dollars and buy the Fallkniven A1.  It’s better built and better tested, so tested in fact that its carried by elite forced in the many parts of the world.  If you’re still skeptical, check out the abuse tests that the A1 and the SRK were put through on knifetests.com.  If that won’t convince you, nothing will!

Happy Tracking

~ B

I credit Keith Badger for this wonderful exercise that he recently published in the Bulletin of The Society of Primitive Technology.  I’ve used a similar exercise with both adult and children’s groups over the years but it seems he beat me to the copyright.  This is another in a series of articles that I plan to post that are meant for outdoor educators who are looking for interesting and new ways to help children and adults get excited and interested in everything that nature has to offer.  While extraordinarily simple, it is also extremely powerful and potentially life changing for some students.  I have had students deeply affected by the relationship that they develop with their “home away from home”.  It is easily able to be tied into ANY age appropriate curriculum which is why I think that every teacher should at least consider using or adapting it.  I will add one caution however:  This exercise requires that the student spend time alone in an outdoor setting.  If using this exercise with young children be sure to insure that parents are aware of the nature of the exercise or if conducted in a conservation area type setting have enough staff on hand to keep a 5:1 ratio that are able to circulate between students to keep them safe.

This exercise is aptly called “My Secret Place”

Ask each student to find a place in nature, away from distraction, that they feel comfortable.  This area need not be natural wilderness; parks, backyards, ball fields, anywhere outdoors that contains elements of nature can be used.  Once they have found their “secret place”  that must give it a name.  They must then spend time getting to know their place as intimately as possible.  Tell them to create a book about it, ask them to identify and record the names of trees, plants and animals that they discover.  To press leaves and flowers that they find, or sketch them.  Ask them to follow animal tracks and uncover food and water sources, places where they seek shelter, learn their patterns and behaviours.  Name the animals as if they were pets.  Record the effects of weather and the seasons.  Record the effects of lunar cycles.

Tell your students to write down their own thoughts and feelings as they spend time in their secret place.  Ask them to write about the relationship that they develop with their chosen place and how it affects their life when they are away from it.

This exercise was based on the book “The Education of Little Tree” by Forest Carter.  Have your students read the book and develop a response to what similarities and what differences they discover between their own experience and that of the main character.  This can be done in a discussion or in the form of a formal report.  The possibilities of other curriculum ties are endless with math, sciences, geography, social sciences and language arts all becoming involved.

As usual, I ask that if you decide to use this in your programming to please post comments and outcomes in the comments section.

Happy Tracking

~ B

This is a topic that seems to come up a lot.  Attached is a list of items that I recommend that my students carry with them when out in the field.  In addition to the listed items I would also like to add that a tracking stick is also a very useful and versatile item, it was not included in this list simply because this list was meant only to include items that could fit easily into a small hip or courier bag.

Some suggested items to put in your tracking bag:

• A ruler
• A small tape measure
• Tweezers
• Magnifying glass
• Notebook and pencil
• Scotch tape
• Flashlight
• Popsicle sticks
• Plastic sandwich bag
• String
• Film canisters
• Compass
• Map
• Field guides
• First aid supplies
• A pocket knife
• A whistle and an orange garbage bag
• Trail marking tape
• Digital camera (to record tracks and compare them later)

Remember!

The best tracker is a prepared tracker, carry your bag with you in the wilderness at all times!

Happy Tracking!

~ B

I was recently told by a local educator friend of mine that he was stymied about how to convince his class that they could learn an enormity of things simply by following animal tracks.  In fact, one student even said “What’s the point?  Where they live and what they do doesn’t have anything to do with us, besides nature is boring”.  This seems to be an increasing opinion among a lot of youth.  They have been drummed into believing that the environment is important to humans, but not our connection to it.  In a response to this I began developing a group of exercises meant to bring youth closer to nature through hands on learning.  This tracking exercise was originally written for Scouts Canada but is also suitable for classroom use.  It can easily be tied into a variety of curriculum models for youth ages 11-14 or older.  I encourage any who do decide to use this exercise to communicate their feedback using the comments section of this blog.

Tracking Exercise

To be done in Teams of Three – Senior Scouts to pair up with 2 junior members

1.     Draw a map of the camp – try to make it as detailed as possible!  Pay attention to places within the camp that are used by local wildlife.  Write down on your map where you see things like food, shelter; water or any paths and trails or track ways that animals might use.  Also write down any signs of animals or their presence on your map

2.     Choose an animal from the guidebook that you think would live in the area.  Using the information in the guide, write down as much detail as you can about your animal, pay special attention to its track pattern, the way that it walks and other things like weight, height and how far its steps are apart.

Any detail you think is important, write it down.

3.     Using your map, try to find places where you might find your animal.  Look for signs and tracks to prove that your animal was there.  Using your tracking kit, gather any evidence you might find (look for things like tufts of fur, scat, antler or skin sheddings etc).  If you find tracks, using the guidebook, try to identify them.  Take pictures of any tracks you find, if there are many, use the Popsicle sticks and string in your kit (or ask us for some) and create a track line.  Take a picture of the track line

4.     Make a presentation about your animal with your group at our next meeting

Happy Tracking!

~ B

Blade Length: 7 1/2″
O/A Length: 13 1/4″
Cutting Edge: 7″
Thickness: 1/4″
Blade Color: Black Traction Coating
Handle: Black Linen Micarta
Steel: 1095 High Carbon Alloy RC-58
Sheath: Combat Ballistic Nylon

Designed by Ron Hood of Hoods Woods, this is one tough knife.  Right out of the box it was shaving sharp and field ready.  Included in the box was the TOPS lifetime guarantee, personally signed by the owner Mike Fuller with accompanying serial and lot number.  All TOPS knives are handmade to order and this one was no different.

I set to work right away putting it to the test to see how it performs in a variety of tasks.  Normally I prefer a smaller knife for regular use, since in the Canadian wilderness an axe is used for the heavy work.  Ron Hood describes this knife as a “field functional tool” worthy of all terrains, one that has been tested from the African jungles to the Alaskan frontier so I decided to set the axe aside and see if the claims were true.

I started off with reasonably simple tasks around camp, making fuzz sticks, batoning firewood and making a survival bow.  I should emphasize that this is a BIG knife!  At over 13 inches in length and close to a pound and a half in weight I immediately began to realize that it has its share of ups and downs.

The fuzz sticks were a measure of frustration.  The blade is 1/4″ in thickness and the grind is fairly oblique compared to other, thinner or smaller blades.  Rather than curl and feather the wood the way it was supposed to, the blade skipped off the fuzz stick about 90% of the time.  After a while I just gave up and used a smaller knife that I always carry with me.  So much for test #1.

Test #2 was the batoning of 6″ – 8″ pine logs that had been bucked up for firewood the previous year.  Here the Anaconda came into its own.  The heavy blade went through the logs like butter, in some cases even splitting the wood without the need of a batoning stick!  I decided to try it on harder wood, so I grabbed some ash wood logs and again, with little effort the Anaconda split them in no time.  After cutting my firewood for the weekend I was also happy to see that it still maintained shaving sharpness and had no damage to the traction coating, a testament to the great heat treat that TOPS puts on all their knives.

On to Test #3.  Using a green maple sapling, I started slowly carving away.  In the beginning, shaping was simple, the Anaconda is a superb chopper.  Getting to the fine work, the thick blade became a problem again making smaller work a bit tougher than usual.  Reversing the blade and using it as a draw knife made things much easier, but for a quickie bow it just didn’t take stock off quickly enough for my tastes, the grind makes it very difficult to get the angles right.  This would be pretty useful for the fine tillering of a more permanent bow type however.

My final verdict:

As a heavy chopping blade the Anaconda is in a class all on its own.  This knife will take one heck of a beating!   If used for finer work however, it takes a lot of getting used to, and some practice keeping it under control.  I worry that for some, choosing this knife as a primary survival tool may do them more harm than good, especially when under the stress of a real survival situation.  It’s a big handed knife, the weight and size, while good for heavy tasks also make it cumbersome for people of smaller stature to carry on the hip. That all said, if you can’t carry an axe or hatchet and you like a bigger knife this is a great choice for a compromise!   I put this knife through 3 days of heavy use batoning hard wood, cutting down saplings and making all my camp accoutrements and it still held a shave sharp edge by day three, no knife I’ve ever owned can make that claim.  My hats off to TOPS for making a near indestructible tool that even with its drawbacks is worth considering as a primary knife.