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Description
The MUK is a modern version of the Nessmuk style of knife blade. It excels at slicing and skinning chores. While an excellent slicer, the MUK also handles other outdoor tasks encountered while hunting, hiking and camping. The blade edge starts curving at the ricasso area so there is more "belly" than on the Blind Horse Knives Western Drover knife. This heavy duty knife features O1 tool steel, a squared spine for firesteel use and a large lanyard hole. The handle is large and shaped very nicely for comfort during times of extended use. The handle scales are attached with large fisheye bolts and two ton epoxy for a lifetime of trouble-free use.
Includes a heavy duty leather dangler sheath.
Some Nessmuk History:
George Washington Sears ('Nessmuk')
(1821-1890)
George Washington Sears, under the pen name of "Nessmuk," wrote many letters to Forest and Steam magazine in the 1880s. These popularized canoeing, the Adirondack lakes, self-guided canoe camping tours, the open, ultra-light single canoe, and what we today call environmentalism. It was a happy union of technology and art, nature and life.
Before Sears, canoeing was mostly after the model of "Rob Roy" McGregor, in decked canoes, sometimes sailed, or in heavy guide canoes. In later years, the familiar canoe of today developed from the birch-bark model, but covered in canvas. After 1945, the aluminum canoe sold in the millions. In an alternate path, the old decked canoe reappeared in the form of the modern kayak, usually plastic now.
Sears also wrote a general book on camping, Woodcraft, 1884, which has generally remained in print since then. A book of poems, Forest Runes, appeared in 1887. It has not been republished, and copies are scarce.
Sears was born in Oxford Plains, Mass., Dec. 2, 1821, the oldest of 10 children. A young Narragansett Indian named Nessmuk ("wood drake" befriended him and taught him hunting, fishing, and camping. Later he took that as his pen name, and also as the name of a couple of his canoes. In his youth he was a commercial fisherman and sailor, but fell ill, probably from tuberculosis. He wrote that he taught school in Ohio, "bullwhacked" across the plains, mined silver in Colorado, edited a newspaper in Missouri, was a cowboy in Texas, a "webfoot" in Oregon, and camped and hunted in the then wilderness of Michigan. His family moved in 1848 to Wellsboro, Penn., his home for the rest of his life.
At the age of 59, a little more than 5 feet tall, weighing less than 105 pounds, and weak with acute pulmonary tuberculosis, Sears decided to see if the Adirondack lakes and forests could improve his health. William Henry Harrison ("Adirondack" Murray, pastor of Park Street Church, Boston, had published a book in 1869, Adventures in the Wilderness, which praised the North Woods as a health resort for consumption sufferers. (Later, Saranac was to become the site of one of the most famous American sanitoria for tuberculosis care.).
Since Sears was so small and weak, he could not carry the usual heavy guide canoe over the carries between the lakes of the Fulton Chain. His experiences hiring a guide showed that was most suitable for rich people. Thus he investigated ultralight canoes. He persuaded J. Henry Rushton of Canton, N.Y. (a small town northwest of the Adirondacks, near the St. Lawrence River) to build him a single canoe he could carry. It was delivered by railroad car and horse cart to the lake.
Forest and Stream magazine had been founded in New York City by Charles Hallock in 1873. It and Nessmuk had a mutual admiration society and both gained wide readership. The magazine was folded into Field and Stream in 1930.
Sears died in Wellsboro, Penn., May 1, 1890. He received many honors, including having a mountain in northern Pennsylvania named after him.
The Nessmuk Knife
Nessmuk understood the importance of cutlery. His tools consisted of a custom light axe, a quality two-blade folding pocketknife and a fixed blade knife he designed which has come to be known as the "Nessmuk".
Nessmuk's views towards knives are arch-typical of the classic outdoorsmen; he preferred thin knives, keen edges and a useable length. Nessmuk, like other classic outdoorsmen, recognized that a hatchet or small axe was the tool of choice for chopping, and wrote with disfavor of large, thick "Bowie" knives. Instead, a smaller knife designed for cutting efficiency was highly favored.