Spartan Brings Back Bill Harsey Jr. for a Nessmuk Design

Spartan Blades and Bill Harsey Jr. are releasing their latest knife model tomorrow, a fixed blade called the Spartan-Harsey Nessmuk. The collaborators have created a tactically-inspired take on one of the most famous outdoors knife patterns in the world.

The Nessmuk is named after its creator – or rather, his pen name; outdoorsman George W. Sears wrote for Forest & Stream magazine in the late 19th century, and authored multiple pioneering books on the subject of outdoorsmanship; Sears’s most famous book is called Woodcraft, a text that is still held in high regard more than 100 years after its publication. It was in Woodcraft that Sears included an illustration of his preferred outdoors knife design, which would eventually inherit his sobriquet and be known as the Nessmuk knife.

The classic Nessmuk can be recognized by its quirky blade profile – a shape quite obviously designed for utility rather than beauty, but that finds a beauty of its own through its approach to usefulness. There’s plenty of the original Nessmuk in Harsey’s version. At 5.125 inches it’s right around the length of a standard Nessmuk, but the profile has been straightened out somewhat, without losing its distinct character. All in all Spartan and Harsey produced something that is most certainly ready for outdoors stuff, but that, thanks to the slight streamlining, gains some additional hard use chops on top of that.

You also see Harsey’s tactical influence in the handle, which moves away from the rounded, smooth Nessmuk handle for something burlier, with more ergonomic detailing. The knife is full tang and the striated scales are made from injection molded polymer. There’s a lanyard hole cut into the butt end, and a Kydex sheath is included; Spartan says that it should work with most sheath hardware, so you can choose how you want the Spartan-Harsey Nessmuk situated on your belt or pack.

The Spartan-Harsey Nessmuk is part of Spartan’s Silver Grade line, which means that it is manufactured domestically and falls into the middle price bracket for Spartan’s stuff. The MSRP is $190. It will be available tomorrow, Wednesday March 1st.

Knife in Featured Image: Spartan-Harsey Nessmuk

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