My Bark River Knife review

[Chesapeake173]

So my wife had heard me mention BRK several times. She was kind enough to offer to let me pick one out for myself for Christmas! After looking at all the models I settled on the Mini Aurora. For reference my most expensive knife to this point was a Benchmade steep country.

The knife arrived today and here’s my first impression.
1. The knife and sheath were separate in the box. After putting the knife in the sheath it’s clear these two were never mated. The snap strap is too short and will not snap.

2. The sheath is meh. Nice leather, but not super fancy. I honestly don’t care at all as long as it’s functional .

3. The knife is nice. I like the shape and size of the blade and it feels nice in my hand. However, I’m disappointed in how sharp it arrived. It won’t shave hair. Not sure if that’s expecting too much, but assumed a $240 knife would arrive at least as sharp as my Moras and Benchmade did.

I’ve emailed customer service and we’ll see how it goes. I live 5 miles from there factory so I’m hoping to be able to have some face time to get this sorted out.

Not looking to bash them as I want to support an American made local business. I’ll chalk the sheath up to whatever (2020) but man I just am disappointed in how sharp the knife wasn’t on arrival. Am I expecting too much?

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[manitou1]

I have a lot of knives, including customs. My favorite is my Bark River Drop Point Hunter of S3v. Holds an unbelievable edge. The knife is well made, came scalpel sharp (not a deal breaker as I always sharpen to shave sharp anyway), and had a heck of a nice sheath. I work up 5-7 big game animals a year and my B.R. only needs a couple strokes on a ceramic steel to keep it shaving.
It and one of my self made 0-1 knives are my go to for breaking down animals for the pack out.

 

[scfreeman66]

I would be disappointed if that were my $240...
The knife should be SHARP. The sheath should fit like a glove. No excuses.

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[eaglemountainman]

I have 5 Bark Rivers. The knives are excellent. All have arrived shaving sharp, hold an edge extremely well and touch back up easily.
The sheaths, on the other hand, are just mediocre. The leather quality is good, but the design and execution are lacking. On all of mine, the belt loop is a separate piece of material that is stitched to the body of the sheath. I had this loop tear and pull away through the stitching on a Canadian Special during deer season this year. I believe they call this sheath their bushcrafter. All sheathes on my knives are pressure fit pouch type. None will retain the knife when turned upside down.

 

[Lawnboi]

Bark river roulette. Next time check out LT wright

Most of the brkt I still own took some work.

 

[Shraggs]

I own 100 hundred bark rivers. Blades and handles are all hand ground. Two reasons it’s not sharp, apprentice on the belt. More common in the super steels line you bought is the right side is not fully ground to sharp.

The blanks are full thickness after heat treat. Then an acute edge is ground from thick edge to be. Then using belt sander the sides of the knife is convexed (metal removed) based on curvature of belt tension till it blends with rough sharp before. On many super steels I’ve noticed the right edge falls short of blending to sharp. I hypothesis that if right handed this is harder to control then the left side in my own experience in these super hard super steels


I don’t care cause I love to sharpen, and a nice new sharp knife is going to get dull cleaning your kills or whatever. Even super steels.

I struggled initially sharpening convex years ago, mike the owner and jimmy the son spent 4 hours with me teaching how to touch up to reprofile a damaged edge.

I have a belt sander, but the best way for me is using a brown ceramic stick making repeated passes on the right edge lowering my hold each time to create curving to that side. Use force. Brown ceramic will cut pretty good, white more finishing. Once I have a burr, I lightly flip and knock down the burr. Then wet dry sand paper starting course on leather backing (not a mouse pad) and working up in grit to 2000. Then repeat on leather strop first black, then white. Holding lower than edge is important after ceramic step.

probably more then you needed and you already know about sharpening...

 

[Chesapeake173]

I own 100 hundred bark rivers. Blades and handles are all hand ground. Two reasons it’s not sharp, apprentice on the belt. More common in the super steels line you bought is the right side is not fully ground to sharp.

The blanks are full thickness after heat treat. Then an acute edge is ground from thick edge to be. Then using belt sander the sides of the knife is convexed (metal removed) based on curvature of belt tension till it blends with rough sharp before. On many super steels I’ve noticed the right edge falls short of blending to sharp. I hypothesis that if right handed this is harder to control then the left side in my own experience in these super hard super steels


I don’t care cause I love to sharpen, and a nice new sharp knife is going to get dull cleaning your kills or whatever. Even super steels.

I struggled initially sharpening convex years ago, mike the owner and jimmy the son spent 4 hours with me teaching how to touch up to reprofile a damaged edge.

I have a belt sander, but the best way for me is using a brown ceramic stick making repeated passes on the right edge lowering my hold each time to create curving to that side. Use force. Brown ceramic will cut pretty good, white more finishing. Once I have a burr, I lightly flip and knock down the burr. Then wet dry sand paper starting course on leather backing (not a mouse pad) and working up in grit to 2000. Then repeat on leather strop first black, then white. Holding lower than edge is important after ceramic step.

probably more then you needed and you already know about sharpening...

Appreciate the input, always good to learn new things. It’s interesting that you discuss the sharpening style with these. I was able to put a pretty good edge on this with just the strop from my Work Sharp guided system.

Totally off topic, but is the work sharp guided system good for this style of knife? I’m not a “knife guy” so to speak but I’m looking forward to using this one.

Sheath update: since I can’t stand for things to not be right, I wet the leather a bit and pulled and stretched the strap to get it to snap. I’m hoping that it will form enough that I’ll be able to use it going forward. Time will tell.


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[Shraggs]

Yes it is! Great system if not familiar with techniques I outlined. Be careful not to let weight if knife push too deep on belt, making the convex too rounded. Just make contact and be slow and careful on tip as not to round it off, very slight handle lifting.

I like the horizontal attachment better for that reason but that puts more demand in technique.

 

[Chesapeake173]

Yes it is! Great system if not familiar with techniques I outlined. Be careful not to let weight if knife push too deep on belt, making the convex too rounded. Just make contact and be slow and careful on tip as not to round it off, very slight handle lifting.

I like the horizontal attachment better for that reason but that puts more demand in technique.

Ok thanks. It’s not the belt system. I had that but felt like it ate the steel too fast.

The one I have is a system of diamond grit plates and a guide to help hold the proper angle.

Basically finer grit stones with angles to help dummies like me get it right !


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[Shraggs]

It’s good too. I do recommend getting a leather strop and compound to finish edge after thst tool. If you’re close to bark river, ask to see how to do it. Certainly a great skill to use rest of life.

 

[Chesapeake173]

Thanks! I’ll definitely ask about that. From what I had heard they weren’t big on walk ins at the shop. I’ll definitely ask. I really do like the look and feel of this knife. Stinks it showed up one day after deer season ended !


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[bigdave39355]

I’ve got a few.
even one of the bark River fallkniven f1’s.

moved away from BRK because of the price.

$240 can get you into custom knife ground., sometimes for a lot less.

not big on thick blades either....

Gimme hollow ground 3/32” or 1/8” and taper the tang.

 

[schwaf]

I personally love that sheath. The snap not fitting is by design, and a lot of guys have trouble with it initially. Just wet the strap a little and pull hard. It's meant to stretch so it has a super tight fit, and not loosen up over time.