There certainly are worse knife choices a person could make than a SBT, Rod makes a decent knife, and if you have the time and the cash to be able to afford one they are a pretty good investment especially if you are a collector or player on the knife market.
I'm a simple knife user, I have my biases about certain types of knives, I like old school slip joint pocket knives with bone or stag scales, when it comes to fixed blade woods bumming type knives there are quite a few excellent brands and models across the price spectrum that are good quality blades, I'm not into tactical/military/survival or Rambo type knives, not that they don't have their place, they do, just not in my stable.
One knife bias that I do have that doesn't win me a lot of friends is my dislike for Mora Knives, don't bother to ask me why, the list is short and I'll admit that it's pretty petty, I grew up using Mora sportsman's knives in the '60's and '70's, loved 'em, great steel, comfortable birch handles, and very good leather sheaths, as I started working for wages and could afford more expensive knives I lost track or Mora's offerings, when I got into bush craft most knife talk usually had a statement suggesting that you can't go wrong with a Mora, so I had me a look, I was shocked, composite steel, all machine made, cheap pallet wood barrel handles or molded plastic, gone were the well made leather sheaths replaced with ugly cheap plastic sheaths, anyhow, don't ask.
Back to the Skookum Bush Tool, I don't dislike them, they are good quality well made knives, but they hold no magic, IMHO there are many other knives on the market that are on an equal par with the SBT, Gossman, Beck, and Adventure Sworn come to mind in the same or a little lower price range, Bark River, Falkkniven, and a few other mid priced offerings make the cut as well, on the economy market Condor puts out a couple of user friendly woods knives with blade designs similar to the SBT.
My personal favorite Bush Tool design knife is from a maker named Joe Honeycut, no longer in the business, he made and marketed the Black Feather brand, his version featured excellent steel, great fit and finish, and also came with an optional steel pommel plate, my Black Feather Bush Tool is a one off custom featuring Ironwood scales, steel pommel plate, thin red line spacers and custom mosaic pins, what I like about the Black Feather version over Rod's version is that the knife is ever slightly more robust then the Skookum, the handle is just a bit more comfortable, and the other thing I like about the Black Feather knife is the Tip of the blade is not as tapered as the Skookum and is less prone to brakeage which has been a recurring issue with the Skookum Bush Tool, other than those small differences, both are equally great knives that will not disappoint their owners.
Looking forward to your field review, and welcome back Mike.
