Nessmuk

George Washington Sears (1821-1890) was born in Mass., Dec. 2, the oldest of 10 children. In his formative years, a young Indian named Nessmuk (meaning “wood drake”) befriended him, teaching Sears the arts of hunting, fishing, and camping. These simple things would grow to define the man’s life.
It would be years later that he would turn and share with the world the values he had gained from his young friend and his lost ways. Under the pen name of “Nessmuk,” Sears published many letters to Forest and Stream (later to be folded into the popular Field and Stream) magazine in the 1880’s. Nessmuk’s writing were a happy union of technology and art, nature and life. In these he popularized self-guided canoe/camping tours, the Adirondack lakes, and the superior design and the mobility of the ultra-light single canoe he had specially made for him in NY to accommodate for his naturally small and frail person. Sears believed that there were great health benefits to be reaped from the outdoors, and he wasn’t one to be held back by his weakness, he wanted to prove that camping, canoeing and enjoying the outdoors was for everybody and not just the stereotypical rugged types. In course, Sears stepped up his letters and wrote a book, one which has remained in print since, Woodcraft, 1884, shining a written light on his pure and simple mindset.
Nessmuk’s view regarding the concept of a blade were unique but not unorthodox in his age; he preferred thin knives, keen edges and a usable length. Nessmuk, like other classic outdoorsmen, held that a hatchet or small axe was the tool of choice for chopping, writing with disfavor of large, thick “Bowie” knives. Nessmuk favored a smaller knife, designed for cutting efficiency.
George Sears would leave behind a legacy that would call itself Nessmuk, and he would leave behind a knife impression that would influence to this day the industry of knifemaking. There are many varations of a Nessmuk knife on the market… this is simply mine.