The Knife That Feels Right

I think we all have a knife that just feels right to us, and it's the one we carry most often. What determines this "feeling"? I think it's a complex combination of our upbringing, the way we use our knives, our aesthetic tastes, our experience with various knives, our physical builds, and the influence of others. I've been trying lots of different styles, carrying them out into the field, using them to whittle, carve, chop, whatever. And I just keep coming back to this knife. It is the one that feels right to me. Now, whenever I go out for some desert experience, this is the one I take. It's the one Tai made during my lesson with him. It's tribal, and I spent the first 18 years of my life with Indian tribes. It's just the right weight: not too heavy, but not too light. At first I thought the socket bush knife was too heavy a design, but I've changed my mind after carrying this one. I can do fine work like making a fuzz stick with this, but the design also makes it an excellent chopper. It's just beyond being too small for a good chopper, which means it's as small and light as possible while still excelling at that task. Growing up, that was the major activity for which we used knives: to chop. Much of carving tasks can be done with skillful chopping (Even Ishi did most of the work of making a bow with a hatchet). We chopped the heads and bones of fishes and animals we needed to kill or clean. We chopped down saplings for bow and arrow use. The one thing this knife will not doing well is intricate carving that requires dishing out, like for a spoon or bowl, but that's fine with me, since it does everything else well. I'll probably make a little crooked knife and try some spoon carving. Anyway, that's my two cents for now on the indispensable knife.