Bushcraft Knife, Hand Forged Rasp Steel Nessmuk with Rosewood Handle

A nessmuk is the wide bellied camp knife that does more work than its size suggests. The long curve slices, skins and handles the cooking at camp. The upswept tip keeps the point out of the way as you cut. This one was drawn from an old farrier rasp, so the file teeth are still readable across the flats and along the spine. It has a dark forge finish with a bright polished edge, a rosewood handle on a full tang, and a hand stitched brown leather sheath.

Specification

The blade

This blade started life as a horseshoeing file. Farrier rasps are high carbon tool steel, and a worn out rasp is still good steel, so it was heated, drawn out and forged into the wide leaf shape you see here. The old teeth were left where they fell rather than ground away. High carbon steel takes a keen edge and comes back fast on a stone. It will also patina, and it will rust if it is put away wet. Keep it dry and oiled and the forge finish darkens the way an old tool does.

The handle

Rosewood is dense and heavy for a wood, and it polishes to a deep red brown with darker streaks running through it. It fills the palm, which a nessmuk wants, since the handle has to carry a wide blade and the weight sits behind your hand as you cut down into something. Two steel pins run through the tang. Wood is a natural material, so the color and figure change from board to board and no two handles come out the same.

Who it suits

The pattern is named after George Washington Sears, who wrote under the pen name Nessmuk in the 1880s and carried a wide bellied knife of this shape. Buy it if you want one blade for most camp work.

• Bushcrafters and campers who want one general purpose blade
• Hunters who like a wide belly for skinning
• Anyone drawn to reforged tool steel with its history showing
• Someone shopping for a gift for an outdoorsman

What comes in the box

• The rasp steel nessmuk
• A hand stitched brown leather sheath
• A care card
• A free laser engraving quote on request

Every piece is different

Every knife here is forged, ground and finished by hand, so no two are alike. Each rasp brings its own tooth pattern, and the forge finish and the rosewood grain will vary from the photographs. Yours will be its own piece.

Looking after it

Wash it by hand and dry it right away. Never the dishwasher and never left soaking, since dishwasher damage voids the warranty. This is high carbon steel, so dry it properly and put a light coat of oil on the blade before it goes away. Let wet leather dry away from heat. Sharpen on a whetstone at roughly 20 degrees per side, then strop. No pull through sharpeners. More in our knife care and sharpening page.

Put a name on it

Laser engraving is 20 dollars per blade and you add it on this page. Around 30 characters fits on a blade, and a longer message sits better on the sheath. We send a proof image before the laser runs, and it adds 3 to 5 business days. Clean line art engraves cleanly, photographs do not. See the engraving page.

Questions buyers ask

What is the nessmuk shape good for? The wide belly gives a long cutting curve, so one blade slices, skins and cooks at camp.

Why are the file teeth still on the blade? Because it was a farrier rasp before it was a knife. Grinding them off would erase where the steel came from.

Does the rosewood need any care? Not much. Keep it out of long soaks, and a rub of oil now and then keeps the grain dark.

Will this steel rust? Yes if you let it sit wet. Wipe it dry after use and keep a light film of oil on it.

Is it full tang? Yes. Steel runs unbroken from tip to butt, with the rosewood pinned to either side.

How long until it ships and can I return it? Most US orders arrive in 5 to 7 business days with USPS, free over 99 dollars. Returns run 30 days, unused and unsharpened, in the original packaging.

For a plainer shape, the high carbon hunting knife with a rosewood handle shares the wood and the carbon steel, and the Damascus skinning knife with a bone handle is the one for skinning. More sits in hunting knives, this one lives in bushcraft and survival, and the wood carries on in rosewood handle knives.