I've come over to the "bark" side myself. I have a mini canadian, which is the most beautiful and functional fixed blade I have seen! I have spent way too much time perusing the bark river section of the interstores and have an edk seax on it's way to me, in blue maple burl! It should work well in the kitchen as well as outdoors, or slicing stuff up when cooking with the neighbors.

I still want a canadian special. At first I thought the blade shape odd but now I see how handy and useful it is. It should be very sturdy for rugged outdoor use. And the convex edge is easy to keep sharp.







Oh I still like my swamp rats but they are not nearly as portable or pretty to look at. I think the lack of coating on the barks makes it slice food better. The little mini seems to just "scare" my vegies to pieces.