Visually Striking Functionality
Knives Illustrated|September-October 2017

Dogwood Custom knives are how bushcrafting is supposed to look.

Reuben Bolieu
Visually Striking Functionality

It takes a special kind of maker to make a special kind of knife, and Dan Eastland of Dogwood Custom Knives is one such maker. “If one day a grandfather hands his grandson one of my knives and says, ‘My dad gave me this knife when I was your age,’ then I will consider myself a success.”

This is what Dogwood Custom Knives creator, Dan Eastland, said when asked about what would be his idea of being a success in the knife world.

After spending some time in the field with a few different models from Dogwood Custom Knives, including the Hawkins, Echo-5 and Vulpine, I have concluded that not only do they look great while doing their job, but they really shone when it came to their performance.

Winter Brewing

One of the best seasons to test knives and gear is winter. In my part of the country, winter camping means having a fire burning almost nonstop. Sure, a saw and axe/tomahawk do the heavy lifting, but for me it takes a keen edge to get a fire going. Once the wood is cut and even split a little, the fine whittling to make tinder, or the next step of kindling, is usually done with a fixed blade.

An axe type of tool will only get you down so small, while a reliable fixed blade can make finer, thin tooth picker pencil-thick pieces. This is especially true in forests lacking dry pine needles or thin conifer twigs for kindling. Even more true when winter is brewing, and wood has a layer of moisture blanketing it. Frost, ice, rain, and snow, are but a few ways moisture effects wood in the forest and ultimately—fire.

Hawkins

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Esta historia es de la edición September-October 2017 de Knives Illustrated.

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