Bark River Knives: Bravo 1

Mike Stewart of Bark River Knives was kind enough to sit down with us and talk about their famous Bravo 1.

The Bravo 1 is actually our most popular knife. It was developed with the help of the testing and training unit for Force Recon US Marines.

The unit tested the Gameskeeper. The Bravo 1 is actually the modifications that hey asked for of the Gameskeeper. They were very happy with the Gameskeeper, but wanted to eliminate the choil, build in a self guard, add a ramp, and have the handle have a bit more contour.

So it has the same quick taper point that a gamekeeper has so you can actually pop joints and pry things reasonably for knife use. They don’t choke up on it so there is no choil. But they wanted a deeper self guard.

To use the knife the way they wanted, your thumb is not supposed to go on the ramp. It is supposed to go in front to the ramp. That way you can bear down for notching. This was to locate where to put your thumb to get maximum force on the straight section of the blade for notching.

What it turned out to be is a big bush craft or utility knife. That was the purpose of the Bravo 1. Another variation is the Field Version where we have eliminated the thumb ramp and moved the jimping from the ramp and moved it down on the blade. The two knives are identical except for the ramp and the jimping.

Made in about 85 handle variations.