I never would have had the chance to try out this crazy looking knife if it wasn't for someone that watches my videos on YouTube. Big thank you to him! This Arizona Bushman Mini ULU has been interesting to try, but I'm honestly not the intended audience for it. I thought it was called the Julu, though he has the other name on his Esty store so we'll go with that. For EDC stuff, I have not enjoyed using it all. Take that with a grain of salt, since it's meant for more bushcraft/outdoorsy usage anyways. It's pretty reasonably priced, around $25, so if you like the look of it, I say give it a try. I've certainly tried worse blades at that price point. I don't have too much to say, so this will probably be a relatively short post. Since I only used this as an EDC option, I can't speak on how well it does for those food prep/bushcraft tasks. I'll mostly just focus on the design and my experiences overall.
The blade shape alone is what got me interested in this knife. You get a lot of belly and curvature that most EDC knives won't give you. It looks cool, yet it hasn't been practical in my usage. For EDC stuff, it's kind of sucked. It was very weird to try to open a box with it for instance. It didn't perform that well in my other typical EDC tasks. Again, I was expecting that this would be the case. I bet it would do well for food prep or bushcraft stuff. The quality of the knife itself has been pretty good. I've got a few issues with the sheath I'll get to at the end. I don't believe Arizona Bushman actually makes these himself. From the description on his Etsy store, I'm under the impression he just adds the edge and fixes up edges/fit of the sheaths.
The knife is made of 1095 high carbon steel with the blade coming in at 2 3/8" in diameter. That's a great size for a small neck knife like this. It's sharp enough for my needs, but I do wondering how sharpening it would go. It seems like it'd be a pain to me. I honestly did not use this knife that heavily once I figured out it was a pain to cut with. If you only need to cut stuff, you might as well get any other normal knife out there.
The ergos are weird but weren't as bad as I expected. It's pretty much a two-finger knife in the above position with the rest of your fist closing around it. You can also pinch it flat between your pointer and thumb kind of like how you'd throw a frisbee if that makes any sense. I'll be posting my video on it soon if you'd like to get a closer look at the egos. You just have to mess around and see what the most comfortable position is for your usage. You could also lash it to a stick or something if you wanted. There's a lot of versatility in how you actually use it which is nice to see.
The kydex sheath isn't the most snug in the world. I'd worry about the knife falling out over time. I haven't had any problems with it falling out so far, but it is something to be mindful of. Thanks to the lightness and slimness of the knife, it does carry relatively well. I personally hate wearing neck knives though, so it hasn't been something I've enjoyed carrying. It does come with the ballchain lanyard.
I personally don't recommend this knife, yet it is nice to see something different out there. If you can figure out a use for the weird blade shape, it's not a horrible option. I'm not aware of many other knives that have this sort of design. For me, the practicality just isn't there for me personally. I'm definitely not going to miss it when I send it back to the owner. Here's a link to the Etsy listing. Thanks for looking!
The ULU is ancient Inuit tool design, is a more or less a design that hails back to the the age of Chipped stone blades, and bone handles. As the white man came in to the arctic territories, metals were introduced to make a more durable tool.
ReplyDeleteThis design was more or less what we would call a "Skinning" knife today. This knife looks like just the ticket for separating the hide from the carcass, letting one have lots of cutting stroke in a wrist flicking motion, especially in confined spaces.
Of course the the Inuit woman, found it handy as a food preparation tool as one handed version of the Italian Mezzaluna (Italian word for Half Moon) of similar blade shape. The Italian Mezzaluna has two handles and was rocked by the two handles, to cut up herbs and vegetables, the Middle Ages answer to the food processor.
Back to the example, you have I'd say it's a little out of place past the processing of a medium to larger game animals, and short of using as some kind slashing weapon for self-defense, this would be clumsy at best in day to day use and carry in town.
But neat to see a review of a newer version....of a ancient tool that dates to the time of the land bridge that first brought man to the North American Continent.
Thanks for sharing. You can also check Ulu knife for sale 2022
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