SS4 vs Skookum Bush Tool

Well last week i got a Skookum Bush Tool to replace my beloved and very very capable SS4.

Why you ask? Mostly because I like to buy new knives and I had the opportunity to get a Skookum without having to wait 2 years like everyone else.
Also because for all the great things about the SS4 it is ugly and mine is particularly ugly. It has a big gap between the handle and blade ,no coating and a 80 grit satin finish with big scratches and a very thin edge, It also has an ugly but very good Leatherface kydex sheath. I wanted something with the capability of the SS4 but looks and style to match.

No I don't want to sell my SS4 now ,sorry <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The contenders ,

The ScrapYard SS4
steel- infi
weight-148 grams ,with sheath-39 ,together 187 grams
total length 9 inches
blade length 4 1/8th inches
blade width 1 and 1/8th inches
blade thickness 4mm(I will find it in 1/100ths soon)
Type of edge -modded, thin zero edge coating removed
Handle material Res-C "mudder" handle ,a proprietary and excellent type of rubber

The Skookum Bush Tool by Rod Garcia designed by BushCraft author Mors Kochanski
Steel A2
Weight 182 and 1/2 grams, sheath 88 grams together 270 grams
Total length 8 and 1/2 inches
Blade length 4 inches
Blade width 3mm
type of edge -Skandi
Handle material -natural canvas micarta



The SS4 has been my bushcraft knife ever since it was released. It was one of the first very good knives I ever owned and I have bought dozens since then trying to find one better. It is not at all pretty and it has a rough 80 grit satin finish and very thin zero edge i have done myself.


The sheath is by Leatherface who kindly donated it. The sheath is a perfect match to the knife. Ugly but it works very very well and is quite light and secure enough for upside down wear but can be removed with a thumb flick.
It has no loop or clip as I usually wear it strapped to a pack with zip ties or just stuffed in a front pocket with a cord tied to the sheath from my belt so I can get it with a simple yank.

The SS4 is fabled INFI steel and before i owned this knife I was totally skeptical about it's claims. I am a true believer now though and I run the edge VERY thin and so far no damage even chopping hard dry wood. Hell after all of todays chopping it did not even need a touch up. INFI is also one of the nicest steels to sharpen and polish.

The handle is excellent as far as ergonomics. I could chop hard wood much better because I could hold on farther back than the SBT and use my wrist.

The SS4 also has Scrapyards famous lifetime unlimited warranty.

It is not all good though. The fit and finish on the SS4 was awful. Their was a gap between the handle and blade I sort of fixed by melting it. The black coating it came with got scarred up when I batoned it through some hard maple so i removed it and the edge need work which is quite common on many Busse kin(Scrapyard ,SwampRat and Busse Combat refer to themselves as Busse Kin) knives.

They are also quite hard to come by although the very similar and under rated Mud puppy in the excellent albeit hard to sharpen CPM 154 is easily found.

Now for the Skookum Bush Tool.


These blades are very similar with the length from point to plunge line being identical. Their profile is very close with the SBT having a bit pointier and more useful point.They are both excellent tool steel and first rate synthetic handles. They even have silly 3 word names.

The Skookum has beautiful fit and finish. No choil whatsoever which i like especially in a small bushcrafter because it gives you more usable edge.
I tiny little bump to let your finger know where the edge starts would be nice but is not a major issue. The blade came with a hair shaving skandi edge.
There is usually an 18 month wait for a Skookum but I got lucky
and had a friend who ordered one and changed his mind. Mine is A2 but they are also available in O1 and now CPM 3V with different colors of handles.

One of the most noteworthy features about the Skookum is the piece of steel welded to the pommel for use as a hammer or place to hit it on. Some Skookums also have 2 or even 3 lanyard holes. Mine has just 1 but it is in the wrong [censored] place<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> It is way to far forward to actually use it for a lanyard. Even the one on the SS4 is to far forward. The one on the HCLE in an earlier photo with the Mora is perfect as far as lanyard hole placement.

The Skookum is quirky and it's included sheath even more so.
It is a nice leather deep pouch style sheath that suits the skandi style of this knife perfectly. It is the sheath on top above the Mora Clipper.


However instead of a belt loop it has a weird little tongue with 2 holes for a cord so it can be worn around the neck. I find it MUCH to heavy
for neck carry so I simply added the cool little green velcro belt loop for attaching army bayonets with a piece of paracord(as seen in outdoor photos)
so I have a belt loop and I can detach the sheath with a hard yank.
Another weird thing is the sheath is soaked in melted beeswax making it very hard but water proof.

I am terrible at fuzz sticks but they both were excellent carvers. It took a little more force for the SBT but it also seemed to have more control.

I took these 2 knives out into the real bush north of Prince Albert Saskatchewan in an area where the fur trade has a very rich history.

After having some fun on the quad and finding a nice quit clearing I found a old dry pine log to really give these 2 blades a work out.


With this test I would see how well these little guys could chop but more importantly i could get a good idea of the edge retention and ergonomics.



The great handle design on the SS4 made all the difference here as these knives are very similar. The welded on pommel dug into my hand while chopping so the SS4was easier to work with. You could choke back on the mudder handle and let your wrist do the work. However chopping is not what these knives were meant to do and for detail work they are both excellent.
Also I never tried hammering with or on the pommel where the Skookum would obviously excell.

THE VERDICT

Performance
If we are talking about how they perform as bushcrafters then I would give the win to the SS4 on the basis of a bit better handle ,lighter weight
and better edge retention. The Skookum needed a tiny bit of a touch up to shave after all the abuse while the SS4 did not.

Fit and finish
No question this goes to the Skookum. It is a custom or semi custom knife with a waiting list and 200$+ price tag. Still I have seen SS4's go for what i paid for the Skookum on the secondary market. The Skookum also comes with a excellent albeit quirky sheath.

Overall
Boy this is really tough. I am leaning towards the Skookum because it is very very close performance wise and has a much nicer fit and finish as well as an included sheath. It did not need any modding to perform either.

However I fear I may be biased because the Skookum is so new and pretty while i have had the SS4 for a long time.

Both of these knives are much much better than 99% of the knives on the market and you can't go wrong with either. For pure performance the SS4 and for the overall package the Skookum fantastic blades. They also are both quite special and give their owners a feeling of having something special.


Unsub

Nice review, Unsub! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for sharing. Do you have a pic of the back of the Skookum sheath? I'm just curious what it looks like. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

No problem ,Jeff I will take a couple decent ones of the sheath today.

One neat thing I like is the scribed line on the sheath right where the handle and blade meet. It is a nice subtle touch.

I also posted this at the wilderness prep on BF and some people felt I could have done more carving with the knives and that the Skookum would have done better.
Well I had done some and they both did about the same but the SS4 does have a verydifferent edge than the one it came with. They were both very good at it.

Very well done review.

Cool, Thanks! I'll look forward to the pics. That kind of sheath is interesting to make but, takes certain level of expertise to do. being tooled and wet formed. I've done a few of a similar style in the past, but none recently.

It is very secure but the beeswax takes some getting used to. It is almosyt as hard as wood.

Yea, it has to be pretty stiff to keep it's shape and hold the knife right. It's amazing what you can do with leather and some wax or paraffin. In Medieval Reenactment we used to make so real hard armor that way. One of my friends wanted to see how bullet proof it was so he shot a 1/4 inch thick piece with a 38, and it didn't penetrate. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> it's almost as good as a bullet proof vest! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Only heavier... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" />

Interesting review. Versus the Fallkniven H1 I have as "EDC", the Skookum B.T. is 2 grams heavier and 0.2 inches longer. The most significant difference is that the H1 is 5mm thick and made of laminated steels, making it less effective for deep cutting and much stiffer. But they have a lot in common too. Both are patterned on the traditional puukko. The H1 has a choil but it is extremely minimal and only added as an aid to sharpening, so you get the same usable cutting edge directly in front of your grip. Neither have a finger guard, though the H1 has the sort of "nub" you mentioned. The Skookum has a welded pommel, the H1 has a protruding tang, both intended for hammering. Though they have dimensional differences, it's obvious that they both came from the same book and are aimed at the same work.

I believe that it might be strongly argued that the puukko and its modern lookalikes are a nearly ideal outdoor knife. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Great post Momaw ,I have some pics it is just taking forever to upload.
I made sure to get some good ones of the sheath ,back and front for Jeff as well.

One thing I love about the Skookum is the point. It is the same style of no drop point as the Taliwhacker and is very useful and looks great.

Here I took a photo to show how the Skookums pommel(and the back side of the sheath for Jeff) can dig into your hand.


Here are some different views of the knives to try and give you an idea about the grips.

This photo edge up shows how thin these edges are,


Here I try to show how the choil affects the grip of the SS4 vs the Skookum.

Skookum grip.


SS4


Here is how I attached the belt loop.
I attached the 550 cord through the holes so that I could just get the velcro part through it both in front of and behind the tongue. The knot is covered by the velcro.


I also really like this type of sheath to hang down and move freely.

These little belt hanger pieces are great I wish I had more.



Let me know Jeff if you want more pics of the sheath? I have 1 better one uploading right now.

Those pics are great Thanks a bunch! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

That Velcro loop does look handy! I'm not really very fond of velcro but in that particular case it looks like a real good addition.

Nice pics, thats a neat little knife too.

Thanks guys ,I posted this on the Wilderness forum at BF as well and it has become really controversial that the SS4 did as well as the very well respected Skookum and even beat it as far as pure performance and edge retention.

I'm not really surprised at the controversy. I lurk over there but rarely post because of the atmosphere that tends to be the norm on BF... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I don't know anything about the Skookum other than your review, but I'm not surprised about how well the SS4 did. It's a great knife and those Mudder handles are hard to beat! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I enjoy that place but some of the guys can get really crazy sometimes.

Thanks for the review and that quad looks like a lot of fun.

Great review. Enjoyed it. Thx.

Thanks guys I love the quad ,it is a real blast.

The Skookum is a pretty cool knife but there is a 2 year waiting list <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />
You can get it in 3v steel now(or in 18 months actually) which may have done better against the INFI in the SS4.

That sheath looks like that crazy plant in the other thread!

Really good post Unsub!! Now you get two of these <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />!!

I take it the issue was with the altering of the blade versus out of the box testing?

Great write up. Luv that SS4 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

great review

Thanks guys ,well the SS4 is now the hands down winner because I have been selling off a lot of my knife collection and the Skookum is going to go but the SS4 is definitely staying. Some of it has to do with the skookum being in like new condition while the SS4 is totally beat up ,has no coating and a very thin zero edge but mostly it is all about function.

The reason I am selling of a big chunck of my knives is I am getting into antique blackpowder guns and the kind of edged weapons that suits them. So it is really saying something about how good the SS4 works, I am keeping a knife with a rubber handle.

Funny you said that unsub, I've got a TC Hawkins in 50 cal and it seems more fitting to carry a bowie knife then a buck when I hunt with it.

I was hpoing you'd get tired of the SS4 and post it on cgn <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />